Stress can be viewed as something bad, however positive aspects do occur.
Research suggests that some people may find a mild amount of stress has stimulating making them more alert whilst improving their ability to function better. (Rollinson & Broadfield, 2002)
To understand why stress management is gaining greater importance there is a need to understand the view that stress holds within the theorists and society. In the last three decades however we see stress becoming more of a common occurrence in the workplace, this is because of a few main factors which are globalisation, economic and competitive challenges, and external and internal challenges to the workplace. (Rollinson & Broadfield, 2002)
The rationale behind the effects of globalisation on stress management is that for many organisations in a bid to stay competitive during the 1980’s and 1990’s the trends that followed was the reduction in the size of the organisations, which meant the increase in redundancies, wage cuts, and a greater emphasis on technologies which were replacing workers jobs. The result of this meant that for the survivors work life was more stressful, and more physically demanding due to working longer hours. Workers were also finding it difficult to balance the work and family divide occurring in downsized firms, because it is the norm that they take work home. (Jones & Fletcher, 1993)
Economic and competitive challenges have meant that the attitudes of employees are changing, according to statistics (central statistical office, 1996) the population of the UK has uncertainty about the future resulting in avoiding the risk in spending money in order to survive conditions in the future. Employees are also remaining in their jobs in order to avoid unemployment. (Central statistical office, 1996)
Research also suggests that the effects of stress in the workplace can cause low productivity, absenteeism and staff turnover, this was found in a nationwide study of occupational stress (Northwestern National Life, 1991) and reported that 69% out of 600 workers, productivity was low because of high stress levels. With 1 in 3 of those workers admitting that job stress was the highest stressor in their working lives. The study also showed how job stress contributed to absenteeism, 17% reporting missing one or more days off from work because of high stress levels.
However conflicting research suggest that the job may not be the highest contributing factor (Jinhee, Sorhaindo & Garman, 2003) found a relationship between financial stress and workplace absenteeism , for example excessive debt in the UK on average total personal debt equates to £1,088bn during April 2005 with an average household debt of 44,408 including mortgages. (Debt Statistics, 2005) workers are finding it difficult to meet up with the financial demands of life. A model of stress (Jinhee, Sorhaindo & Garman, 2003) showed that there are other contributing factors such as satisfaction with family relations and work-life balance as mentioned previously, it was also found that family problems involving marital conflict and childcare was one the highest stress related factors relating to high absenteeism at work. For example in the UK the cost of absenteeism is huge with 40 million days being lost each year. (BBC News, 2004)
It also important to note that because of high absenteeism the UK has one of the lowest in the EU productivity levels. Also in the UK there is a culture of long hours, within the UK they work the longest compared to the rest of Europe. Statistics are that 1 in 3 fathers work more than 48hours in a week which exceeds the limit set by the European working time directive (IDS, 1993). The greater effects of this socially is that fathers spend less time with their children and this can have a massive effect on the relationship of those in the family causing stress.(work-life balance,2005)
The study has also shown that though employers do carry out risk assessments on physical health and safety, few organisations have sought to know how to deal with psychological aspects of stress which can be damaging to the organisation. (Work-life balance, 2005)
The blocking of goal achievement is one of the many reasons contributing to the greater importance on the management of stress. This occurs because organisations that have gone through decentralisation have now flatter structures, this makes it hard for employees to be rewarded on the basis of promotion. Another example is the glass – ceiling effect experienced by woman who desire to get into professions that are largely dominated by males. The physiological and psychological outcomes of this can lead to frustration and even aggression. However the criticisms of this are that women may lack the necessary skills to break into those professions. (Milton, 2007)
The management of stress is gaining importance greater importance in the workplace due to the following reasons. Firstly well publicised courts have enabled employees to sue for damages; this can destroying the reputation of the employer, because they now can be charge for corporate manslaughter. So most large employers now have a stress management policy in place to alleviate the damage it may cause to the working lives of employees. (Jinhee, Sorhaindo & Garman, 2006) Legislation under the European directive on health and safety at work in which the UK is bound by UK law shows that the government have put legislation in place to prevent and protect employees psychological and social wellbeing at work. In the European framework directive (89/391) employers must ensure the safety and the health of all aspects of work carried out by the employee. (HMSO, 2007) Also the Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974 requires that employers and employees themselves take responsibility for their health and safety. The management of Health and safety at Work regulations, 1999 also requires that employers carry out suitable assessment of health and safety risks which their employees are exposed to while at work. (Hmso, 2007)
Employees have taken steps of their own in reducing stress in the workplace with the implementation of employee assistant programmes – these help employees cope and manage with the stress at work, and is also based on the principle that the individual has to learn how to cope with the stressor. Examples of EAP in the workplace consist of on-site gym facilities, relaxation classes, stress and health education and psychological counselling. In terms of how effective it is research suggests that employees undergoing this program, reported significant improvements in mental heath and absenteeism, however there was little change to levels of organisational commitment and job satisfaction. (Williams, 2003)
In contrast the view that the management of stress is not gaining greater importance in the workplace comes from the following evidence. One of the major criticisms of the approaches towards managing stress is that it deals with the consequences rather tackling the main issues of what causes workplace stress. (Bratton & Gold, 2007) Organisations are usually too concerned with the interest of shareholders, rather than health and safety at work, evidence suggests that the health and safety policies are just blueprints which just look good on paper. (Trade union congress, 1986)
Government intervention has had some huge criticism though with all the family –friendly policies there a major flaws in that the policies tend to favour the worker with a good job or educated employee, who can maybe afford to take off from work. (Personnel today, 2007)
In the past the workers working in the factories suffered horrific injuries some even resulting in deaths, back then the traditional approach to safety was the careless worker model in that most accidents resulted from the employee’s failure to take safety seriously. Until death reports were high that it was then the government started to take initiative (Robens report) (Bratton & Gold, 2007) and there has been a growing interest into Health and Safety at work ever since. In the 21st century a model of shared responsibility can be assumed i.e. with most accidents it involves failure in the area of control and managerial skills.
Employers are now realising that wellbeing of their staff is key to their financial success, for many firms their human assets is one of their major costs and precious commodities and in order to protect those assets we are seeing more investment into health and safety practices and even more into how it effects society as a whole. (Bratton & Gold, 2007)
References
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Rollinson, D., Broadfield, A. (ed.) (2002) organisational behaviour and analysis: An integrated approach. (2nd edn), Globalisation, Pearson education, p705-739
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