Introduction
This paper aims to discuss such phenomenon as work stress and its effects on individuals and organizations. Overall, there are numerous definitions of this disorder; I would like to adopt the explanation provided by World Health Organization; it says that work stress is a negative emotional and physical response which is caused by the fact that a person cannot meet job demands, or thinks that he/she cannot cope with his/her work duties (WHO, as cited in Drenth et al, 1998, p 397).
This condition is normally accompanied by such symptoms as irritability, depression, the feeling of dissatisfaction, depression or even heart diseases (NIOSH, 2010, unpaged).
In some cases, job stress can lead to aggression and violence toward others (co-workers, family members, and even completely unknown people). Managers of leading companies have long realized that this phenomenon is dangerous to both employees and companies, and one of their priorities is to remove the causes of work stress and or at least minimize its aftereffects. These are the most important questions that we need to analyze in this paper.
The causes and effects of work stress
The factors, leading to work stress
In order to eliminate stressful situations in the workplace, one should first examine their underlying causes. At the moment, both scholars and managers concur that it is connected with the personal traits of an employee, and with the managerial policies, established within the company.
One of the reasons why people can suffer from work stress is inadequate level of self-esteem (Resnick, 2004, p 15). For example, a person, who has a low level of self-esteem, usually regards any workplace problem as a sign of his/her inaptitude and inability to live up to the employer’s expectations.
Normally, such people experience extreme feeling of anxiety or depression which may eventually culminate into a nervous breakdown. There is also a reverse side of this coin, and it is high level of self-esteem. As a rule, these individuals believe that the senior management is biased against them and criticizes them unjustly. For them, any managerial criticism is a personal offence.
Excessive perfectionism is another character trait greatly contributes to work stress because a person, who usually sets high standards for himself, is more vulnerable to workplace stress. The thing is that such individuals usually dedicate too much time to some minor details that are not very relevant to their immediate duties, while their overall productivity remains at the same level (Corveleyn et al, 2005, p 116).
Furthermore, when they do not receive credit for their perfectionism, they begin to think that they are undervalued by the managers. When speaking about individual sources of work stress, we should also mention poor relations with family members and friends, health problems, sleep deprivation and so forth. They do not directly trigger aggression, violence or the feeling of anxiety, but they intensify the impact of any stress situation.
However, the cause of work stress should also be sought in the organizational and managerial policies of the organization, itself. These organizational factors are as follows:
- High turnover in the organization that leads to the feeling of job insecurity, which is widespread among people with low level of self-esteem;
- Lack of recognition and reward, in other words, the management does not notice or appreciate the efforts of the employees and their achievements;
- Continuous overtime that leads to fatigue and depression;
- Inability to participate in decision-making; 5) cognitive overload or the necessity to think about different assignments at the same time (Barling et al 2005).
Therefore, this discussion indicates that the management of stressful situation in the workplace requires joint collaboration of management and employers.
The effects of work stress
In the introduction we have already touched upon physical and psychological impacts of work stress, such as excessive irritability, aggression towards co-workers and relatives, the feeling of discontent, insomnia, or heart diseases (NIOSH, 2010, unpaged). It should also be mentioned that such a person normally alienates oneself from his colleagues whom he regards primarily as rivals or even enemies (Barling et al, 2005).
It should be borne in mind that such alienation can last for a very long time, and the actual outburst of anger or aggression very suddenly. Usually, it is provoked by some minor problem that can be quickly dealt with, for instance, malfunctioning of office computer, traffic jam, or some minor reprimand of the senior management. These irritants can a profound effect on the employee, suffering from job stress, though under normal circumstances, they would stir little or no reaction.
It stands to reason that the productivity of these people declines either in terms of quantity or in quality (Barling et al, 2005). One has to bear in mind that their attitude toward workplace duties differs significantly, for instance, some employees try to follow managers’ instructions to the letter; however, they lack any initiative. The thing is that they are too reluctant to take any responsibility due to the fear of losing one’s job.
Very often, the employees try to rush through the work in order to complete each of their assignments as quickly as possible and as a result, the quality of their work deteriorates. The organizations, in which stress situation occur on a regular basis, have to cope with a great variety of challenges. One of them is poor teamwork as the employees, who suffer from this stress, are disinclined to help others or take part in brainstorming.
Another issue, faced by the management of such organizations is poor customer service. The thing is that individuals, suffering from work stress, can be irritated by any complaint of the customer, even a small one. As we have pointed out before, these people are either afraid of taking any responsibility due to the fear of losing one’s job, or they can be negligent to their duties because of continuous overwork.
Both these attitudes are equally harmful for the functioning of customer service. It would not be an exaggeration to say that such companies cannot reach their strategic and short-term objectives. In the majority of cases, their financial and operational performance leaves much to be desired. Again, we have to stress an idea that the solution of this problem requires much effort from both employees and management.
Ways of managing stress in the workplace
At this point, we need to map out strategies of managing workplace; at first we need to describe how the employees should behave in order to avoid mental, emotional and physical strain.
It is of the crucial importance that they maintain positive attitude toward the management and colleagues (Stranks, 2005, p 76). They should not view them as their enemies or someone who deliberately does harm to them; otherwise they will conjure monsters out of thin air. They must understand that a good employer is interested in the retention of experienced workers.
This is the reason why the employees should not be afraid of airing their opinions and complaints to the senior managers. In the majority of cases, a good executive officer is always willing to keep employees satisfied, and he/she will always pay attention to their needs. A person, who feels some sort of strain, should at least talk to the manager and there is great likelihood that his concerns will be addressed. Unfortunately, many people avoid doing it in effort to look independent, self-sufficient, and strong.
Getting enough sleep is also important element of preventing work stress because sleep deprivation results in irritability and attention deficit (Stranks, 2005, p 80). Overall, a person should get at least seven hours of sleep to be productive at the workplace. Apart from that, one should not underestimate the importance of keeping appropriate diet.
These recommendations may appear to be truisms but a great number of people forget about them. In order to become an efficient employee, who can effectively overcome stress situations, a person should always spare a certain amount of time for his/her own needs that are entirely unrelated to the workplace duties.
The thing is that an individual, who does not do that, usually feels as though work were the only purpose of his existence, and this is certainly very depressing. Finally, one should re-evaluate one’s self-esteem and self-efficacy as sometimes people underrate their skills and competencies and think that they are performing poorly.
Still, without active support of the management even the most balanced and even-tempered individual can reach the breaking point. In their turn, the managers need to develop appropriate schedule and set reasonable timelines so that the employees did not have to continuously work overtime.
Secondly, they need to clearly define the duties and responsibilities of the subordinates. As it has been noted before, cognitive overload is one of the leading causes of job stress. A person, who has to think about a great number of things at a time, inevitably feels emotional and mental strain. This is one of things, which managers neglect due to some reason.
The development of new remuneration system is also an important part of work stress management. Senior officers must remember that virtually every employee needs to feel that he/she is being valued by the company, and that his/her successes and contributions do not go unnoticed.
More importantly, it is not always necessary to increase the amount of monetary compensation, paid to the worker. In many cases, non-monetary awards can also be very effective (Mathis & Jackson, 2007). For instance, the managers can present well-performing employees with brand products, provide them with opportunities for career development, or simply praise them, when they do deserve the praise.
Our general recommendation to the managers is to be more attentive to the needs of their behavior of their subordinates because work stress can be avoided or detected even at an early stage. Thus, it is possible for us to argue that sensitivity is one of the qualities the manager should possess in order to minimize work stress.
Conclusion
Job stress that poses so many threats to individuals and organizations originates from the inability or unwillingness of the management and employees to communicate with one another. Certainly, there are other causes of this phenomenon like the structure of the company, economic situation in the country, family, and health problems.
Nonetheless, lack of communication is the major factor: people, who seldom even talk to their colleagues, managers, or subordinates, usually do not think highly of others. Finally, we should say that fear of expressing one’s opinions, concerns and emotions also leads to work stress.
References
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Corveleyn. J. Luyten, P. & Blatt. S. 2005 The theory and treatment of depression: towards a dynamic interactionism model. London: Routledge.
Drenth. P J. Thierry H. & Wolff C. 1998. Handbook of Work and Organizational Psychology: Personnel psychology. NY: Psychology Press.
Mathis. R. & Jackson. J. 2007. Human resource management. NY: Cengage Learning.
National Institute of Occupational Safety. 2010. Work Organization and Stress-Related Disorders. Web.
Resnick B. 2004. Restorative care nursing for older adults: a guide for all care settings. NJ: Springer Publishing Company.
Stranks, J. 2005 Stress at work: management and prevention. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.