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Stress in the Workplace
Term Paper ID:27273
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Essay Subject:
Discusses the effects of stress in the workplace, assesses the means by which companies can reduce workplace stress & discusses some stress reduction techniques.... More...
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8 Pages / 1800 Words
11 sources, 14 Citations,
MLA Format
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Paper Abstract:
Discusses the effects of stress in the workplace, assesses the means by which companies can reduce workplace stress & discusses some stress reduction techniques.
Paper Introduction:
One of the problems encountered in the workplace today is increased levels of stress. Work related stress contributes to a variety of problems both for the individual experiencing stress and for the organization for which he or she works. The problems can range from reduced performance to open violence in the workplace. One of the common methods organizations are using to address, or prevent, problems of this type is to identify stressful situations and develop new methods of dealing with conflict and stress in the workplace. Such efforts are not always effective, though, and the reality is that the requirements of a given job may involve increased stress, in which case only minimal changes can be made in the job structure to address the problem. In any case, companies may need to change the way business is done to reduce stress, and they may also
Text of the Paper:
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Works CitedBrown, Jennifer, Cary Cooper, and Bruce Kirkcaldy. and Julie Indvik. How agroup reacts to conflict depends on specific factors: In short: the group in a state of peace can permit antagonistic members within it to live with one another in an undecided situation because each of them can go his own way and can avoid collisions. Domestic violence alsospills over into the workplace. "The Effects of Hardiness, Police Stress, and Life Street on Police Officers' Illness." Public Personnel Management (January 1991), 18-33. Stress can be induced by any number of job requirements and realities,and a recent study on public personnel management noted the effect ofethics requirements in local government on government workers. Stress isonly one of the causes of such problems, and it can be brought about byenvironmental elements such as excessive noise. Numerous programs have been developed for relieving stress.Individual programs address the stress felt by persons and show them how tocope with the rigors of the workplace. Thisform of rationality tends to become the dominant one, undercuttingsubstantial rationality, or the human insight into how certain means leadto certain ends. "Ethics Induced Stress in the Local Government Workplace." Public Personnel Management (Winter 1993), 523-536.Siegall, Marc and L.L. "Workplace Violence: An Issue of the Nineties." Public Personnel Management (Winter 1994), 515-523.Leiter, Michael P. A state of conflict, however, pulls the members so tightly together and subjects them to such a uniform impulse that they either must completely get along with, or completely repel, one another (Simmel 92-93). Somecompanies are trying to cope with the problem with more employee assistanceprograms, which are becoming more prevalent than ever (Clark 683-698). Police with high levels of police stress tendedto have a high level of absenteeism, while officers deemed nonhardy had ahigh level of absenteeism regardless of their level of stress (Tang andHammontree 18-33). The study was conducted over athree-month period, and evidence was found of spillover relationships fromthe work to home environment, and to a lesser extent, from the homeenvironment to work. A more recent study from England shows much the samedata, with high job stress found to be related to the structure and climateof the occupation (Brown, Cooper, and Kirkcaldy 265-288). The organizational imperative also leads to amoral management,and this means that organizational morality is equated to managerialamorality. Such efforts are not always effective, though,and the reality is that the requirements of a given job may involveincreased stress, in which case only minimal changes can be made in the jobstructure to address the problem. Four Sociological Traditions. Specialists in occupational and environmental medicine have noted thata large number of illnesses and injuries can be attributed to theworkplace, and many of these problems go undiagnosed or improperly treatedbecause most physicians are not versed in this area of medicine. The authorsnote that a critical relationship exists between employee and employer, a"psychological contract." When there is a violation of this contract, or aperceived violation, the employee can incur cumulative psychologicalimpairment and try to hold the employer liable. This requiresemployees to be obedient to the decisions of superiors, to be technicallyrational, to be good stewards of other people's property, and to bepragmatic. Conflict and the Web of Group-Affiliations. Work related stress contributes to a variety of problemsboth for the individual experiencing stress and for the organization forwhich he or she works. He notes that one of the most prominent forms ofrationality infusing organizations is the functional or formal rationalityof bureaucratic organizations: "Here rationality becomes the following ofrules and regulations, going by the book, which is supposed to covercomprehensively the most efficient way to function" (collins 95). "Job Stress." CQ Researcher (August 4, 1995), 683- 698.Scott Deitchman, "Occupational and Environmental Medicine," Journal of the American Medical Association (June 1, 1994), 1691-1692.Collins, Randall. A study of the issueoffers another link between stress at home and stress in the workplace, forthe authors note first that patterns of emotional abuse are usually passeddown from one generation to the next, and such abuse crosses all racial,ethnic, and socio-economic lines. "Occupational and Environmental Medicine." Journal of the American Medical Association (June 1, 1994), 1691-1692.Johnson, Pamela R. One of the common methods organizationsare using to address, or prevent, problems of this type is to identifystressful situations and develop new methods of dealing with conflict andstress in the workplace. "Stress and Organizational Role Conflict." Genetic, Social & General Psychology Monographs (February 1, 1995), 65.Simmel, Georg. Group programs are often institutedin an organization to reduce stress for the entire staff. There can thus come a disjunction between ends and meansthat is disconcerting (Collins 94-95). Some jobs come with stress as part of the job itself, and numerousstudies of stress among police recognizes this fact while trying toascertain when stress becomes too burdensome. Thishas only increased the stress on workers as they see their job securitywithering away. "Work, Home, and In-between: A Longitudinal Study of Spillover." Journal of Applied Behavioral Science (March 1996), 29-47.Manning, Anita. Stress is referred to asone of several psychosocial factors associated with upper-extremitydisorders (Deitchman 1691-1692). Conflict theory is a sociologicaltradition with a long history. The authorfinds that there is a growing body of empirical research on governmentethics pointing to the degree to which concern over ethics is creatingstress in public organizations. How do theorists explain stress? The degree of the problem is noted in an article by Clark which notesthat on the job stress has been given considerable attention as companiestry to do more with fewer employees in order to remain competitive. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.Deitchman, Scott. Some of this research has concentrated onspecific types of business or types of work while at the same timesuggesting that its findings could be extrapolated to other situations,while other research has tried to be more general from the start. It was found that health care workers had a sense ofprofessional efficacy with the most wide-ranging relationships, with linkswithin the work domain, the home domain, and the boundary between the twodomains. One of the problems encountered in the workplace today is increasedlevels of stress. The problems can range from reduced performance toopen violence in the workplace. "How to Cope If Work Is Killing You." USA Today (June 4, 1996), 4D.Menzel, Donald C. Such incidents have involved current and former employees,and husbands of women employees, and the violence has been directed atmanagers, supervisors, co-workers, and spouses. The abused woman inany case will have tensions and conflicts from the home situation whichwill add to stress at work (Johnson and Indvik 515-523). New York: The Free Press, 1955.Tang, Thomas and Monty Hammontree. There has been considerable interest in the problem of stress in theworkplace and in its effects. Cummings. People who have been emotionally abusedin their childhood bring this trauma into the workplace, and adults oftenreport similarities in the dynamics and feelings produced by theirrelationships at work as compared to those they experienced as children.Some of these people see the boss as the parent, and relationships in theworkplace may mirror elements of old family relationships. A study in 1992 surveys 6 police officers from seven suburban police departments, and the study alsoused four time-lagged hierarchical regression analysis to show that highlevels of police stress and life stress had a significant relationship toillness and absenteeism. It is suggestedby this study that ethics induce stress, though not a severe case ofstress. Husbands may track wives down at theoffice and bring outside violence into the workplace. Many stress reduction programs have been developed,and analyzing the nature of the problem is the first step. Georg Simmel points out the effect of centralization in the group andhow conflict develops from this structure, for centralization and conflictare related in the need in centralization to pull together all elements toguarantee their use without loss of energy or time (Simmel 88). In any case, companies may need tochange the way business is done to reduce stress, and they may also need toconcentrate on teaching stress reduction to individuals as well as tryingto reconstruct the workplace itself. The perspective addresses what happens insociety, and the main argument is not merely that society consists ofconflict but that what occurs when conflict is not openly taking place is aprocess of domination: Its vision of social order consists of groups and individuals trying to advance their own interests over others whether or not overt outbreaks take place in this struggle for advantage (Collins 47).Theorists such as Karl Mannheim postulate that organizations are inherentlypower struggles. The results suggest that the relationship between emotionalexhaustion and dysfunctional coping mechanisms occurs within an immediatetime frame, suggesting that a reduction in stress in either area will befelt immediately in the other (Leiter and Durup 29-47). "Occupational Stress Among Senior Police Officers." British Journal of Psychology (February 1, 1996), 265-288.Clark, Charles S. This is true not only in the public service but in privatecompanies, and it points to a problem for employees who are required tofulfill what they may see as amoral directives while upholding both theirown moral and ethical sense and that usually required of an employee(Menzel 523-536). It may be possible to get people in the office to worktogether to reduce stress. and Marie Josette Durup. Stress that manifests itself in the workplace need not begin in theworkplace, and a number of studies have tried to find the relationshipbetween a stressful home environment and the work environment. Leiter andDurup report on a recent longitudinal study of hospital-based health careprofessionals that examined psychological states as a function of demandsand resources in the workplace and at home. The reasonethics induces stress is related to the organizational imperative, which isto do whatever is in the best interests of the organization. If all else fails, it may be necessary tochange jobs (Manning 4D). In extreme cases, workplace stress leads to violence, and workplaceviolence has become a greater problem as incidents have increased in numberand intensity. An organizational solution is best not only forthe employees but for the productivity and effectiveness of theorganization itself. Siegall notesthe degree to which stress may derive from the structure of the workplaceand from social relations within the workplace (Siegall and Cummings 65).For the individual, there may be an answer in changing the way he or she isdoing the job. The effects of stress are seen in increasing workplaceviolence, absenteeism, and claims for workers' compensation. Bothtypes of research yield important and interesting results. The study also suggests that there is a strong relationshipbetween the emphasis placed on organizational values such as excellence andteamwork and lower levels of ethics stress in the workplace. The study population consisted ofemployees of a medium sized city and a large urban county. The authors used a structural equation model focusedon change and included only relationships that enhanced the prediction ofeach measure beyond its inherent consistency across the study interval.The study also considered relationships across the work and home domains inthe context of relationships within each domain, so that spilloverrelationships were always considered in addition to domain-specificrelationships.
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