Organizational Behaviour: Stress Management in the Workplace

Stress Management in the Workplace
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Stress Management in the Workplace
Stress in the workplace is one of the main challenges modern leaders in organizations have to address. Positive and negative changes often evoke emotions in human beings, best described as stress. It is normal for a human being to experience stress, and the outcome of the experiencing can be positive or negative. Prolonged feelings of stress, often referred to as chronic stress, can be harmful and sometimes escalate to health problems. On the contrary, short-term stress or rather acute stress disappear quickly, and the damages in a case where there are negative outcomes are fairly noticeable. From a biological point of view, stress triggers the release of hormones, making the body highly alert, tensed, and experiencing a sudden increase in pulse rate that may escalate to health problems. Stress of any kind can have both physical and psychological outcomes, both of which have health effects on the human body. From an organizational behavior point of view, stress is viewed to have different kinds of triggers and different patterns of reaction.
There is quite a long list of life stressors that are likely to evoke some sort of anxiety in life, including divorce, death of loved ones, job losses, and medical outcomes, among others. Organizational behavior is a discipline responsible for understanding human behavior in an organizational setting, and stress and stress management are some of the human aspects that directly impact an organization (Robbins & Judge, 2019). Therefore, knowledge of the overall concept of stress and stress management becomes a core subject in the field of organizational behavior, and there is a need for managers to have an in-depth understanding of these concepts. Employees are also subject to stress in the workplace, which may inhibit their effectiveness in discharging their duties. This makes it necessary for employees to have a clear understanding of the concept of stress and stress management from an organizational point of view.
Review of Literature
Different scholars have put forward various studies on the concept of stress and its impacts in different contexts. Bhargava and Trivedi (2018) embarked on a study to establish the causes of stress among young people and were inspired by the fact that the youth stage is a critical development period where one is faced with several life changes that may invoke a lot of stress. The study established that the major stress factors among the youth include the myriad of examinations that they have to undertake in the course of their study, interpersonal relation and relationship issues, common life changes including family breakdowns, and career exploration (Bhargava & Trivedi, 2018). The study further suggests that to avert the prevalence of stress among youth and even later in the course of their life, there is a need to have a positive upbringing, especially in the early ages of development, considering their susceptibility to the negative and health impacts of stress.
A study by Reddy and Padmini (2019) was undertaken to expose the stress levels among young adults, the causative factors, and the method used by young adults to manage stress. The primary and secondary data for the study were obtained through an online survey on 84 young adults, predominantly the male population. The result indicated that quite a large population of young adults struggle with work-related stress regardless of their gender. The stress factors among young adults are linked with work and study workloads, grades, family crises, social and health problems, and even social media. The study also indicated that 60 percent of the young adult population who can manage stress leads a healthy and happy life. Some of the most effective stress management recommended by the study for young adults include proper time management, setting realistic goals, and frequently engaging in physical activities that will help foster one’s fitness levels.
Bhui et al. (2016) undertook a study aimed at identifying the causes of stress not only at an individual level but also at an organizational level. The study also sought to identify the various interventions that are useful in managing work-related stress both at an organizational and individual level. The methodology used in the study entailed a quantitative analysis on a population of 51 employees from both the public and private sectors, and a range of data collection techniques including interviews, surveys, questionnaires was used. The sample population was arrived at after following certain inclusion criteria aimed at meeting the diversities often depicted in workplaces, including different genders, professionalism, and age, among other demographic factors. The outcome of the study points towards adverse working conditions and poor management practices as the leading causes of work-related stress. Most managers are accused of having unrealistic demands, failing to support their subordinates, and even failing to show acts of appreciation. With regards to the interventions, organizational practices aimed at improving the overall management practices were identified as the most effective. In addition, personal interventions often applied outside of the work environment are the most applicable in stress management.
Prasad et al. (2015) undertook a study to identify the causes of stress and its impact on employee performance and productivity. The study is based on a highly populated city in India, Hyderabad, where most members of the population have an IT-related job. There have been widespread reports of death due to suicides among the employees. Questionnaires were issued to a sample population of 232 employees of different demographics from the age of 20 to over 40. The outcome of the study indicated that with all the perceived stressors in a workplace, there is a negative or at least medium-level impact on employee performances, with job security appearing as a major stressor among the employees. The stress factors tested against the hypothesis were wide-ranging, including the level of income, budgetary concerns, work overload, professional growth, and job stability (Prasad et al., 2015). The study also found that the working women population bears the most burden and is more likely to experience work-related stress due to their dual role in their families and workplaces. Their productivity is more likely to deteriorate as a result. The researchers recommend an immediate remedy to stress and the arising stress factors at an individual level and also blend the different management strategies to offset the varying nature of stress factors and the magnitude of the impact.
The IT sector is often considered the most stressful profession in the contemporary era, and a ton of studies have been put forward to investigate the causes of stress in the industry. Sahni (2016) undertook a study to assess the stress levels among the key players in the software industry and the major sources of stress and proposed a remedy to stress in the industry. Surveys, observations, and interviews were mainly conducted as the major data sources in the study. In addition, structured questionnaires comprising of 23 questions were drafted and distributed among key industry players in the city of Delhi. The research engaged a population of 362 software employees. A resounding 57 percent of the sample population reported having a high level of stress experienced stress in the course of their work, whereas 38 percent of the population experienced moderate and low levels of stress. Only 5 percent of the population reported positive encounters with stress, as they did not have any signs of stress. According to the study, work-life balance, overloads, job insecurity, and role ambiguity topped the list of the major causes of stress among the software workforce. As a result of the widespread job-related stress, there has been an increase in occupational health hazards among software employees.
The different studies have exposed different causes of stress among people of different demographics and professions. Workplace mistreatment is the other major factor that should feature in a study relating to the widespread stress among the working population. A study by Dhanani and LaPalme (2019) went ahead to demystify the common knowledge that mistreatment in workplaces affected a fairly small population, with their study mainly focusing on the effect of mistreatment on third-party audiences. The empirical study establishes that those close to people subject to mistreatment or witnessed cases of mistreatment in the workplace are equally adversely affected and may exhibit stress symptoms (Dhanani & LaPalme, 2019). Besides, a myriad of studies has established a significantly positive correlation between workplace bullying and stress, among other health outcomes.
Robert (2018) conducted a study to investigate the impact of workplace bullying on performance and job-related stress. The empirical study constituted a sample population of 250 employees working in Banks across Pakistan, and the data collected were analyzed using the modern statistical analysis tool SPSS to give a clear depiction of the outcome to assert or disqualify the hypothesis. Although the researcher failed to depict a clear relationship between performance in a workplace and bullying, there was a clear indication that workplaces bullying has a clear relationship with job stress, with the study suggesting that further negligence on bullying at workplaces can significantly underline personal health and professional life of an employee through high levels of stress. Another study by Conway et al. (2021), through a meta-analytic finding, established a positive correlation between workplace bullying and witnessing bullying in a workplace and a number of mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder and burnouts. The positive association between workplace bullying, mistreatment, and job stress calls for an urgent need to address the various incidences that negatively affect employees’ lives at the workplace and, consequently, their productivity.
Causes of Stress
Individual Level
The wide variety of literature that seek to expose the different aspects of stress related to workplace stress yield quite a number of causative factors to the condition. From an individual point of view, stress can be a result of several personal issues, including family conflicts, divorce, financial difficulties, and life changes such as moving to a new environment, schools, or workplaces. For adolescents and young adults, stress can be a result of battling relationship issues, upcoming examinations, deadlines for assignments and other school-related tasks, and family issues such as parent conflicts, among others (Bhargava & Trivedi, 2018). Battling a lifelong illness also merits a major cause of stress to individuals. Loss of loved ones and any other life-changing event may significantly impact a person’s emotional and physical well-being, exposing them to a significant amount of stress. COVID 19 is a perfect example of a health issue that can inflict a lot of stress on an individual. This is not only through the immense suffering that can lead to death but also due to the fact the preventive measures are rather punitive and stressful.
The extent to which stress factors affect an individual varies from one person to the other, depending on several factors. People’s emotional resilience varies significantly and can impact the extent to which stress factors affect an individual. Also, the perception of a situation or a particular stress factor, as well as the extent to which a person experiences the stress factor, have serious implications on the degree to which the stress is felt. Some people may have significant help from external influences emotionally or financially that may alleviate them from the suffering and further prevent them from being exposed to high-stress levels.
Organizational Level
From an organizational point of view, the causes of work-related stress are also wide-ranging. Stress in an organization can emanate from the mere act of changing or moving to a new working environment and having to make a personal relationship with new people. Some workplaces may appear toxic and even isolating both by choice and design. For example, a career in the security sector often inflicts lots of emotional and physical stress for the individual. Workplace bullying or mistreatment is the other major cause of work-related stress that may escalate to a health issue. Workplace mistreatment can manifest in several different forms, including decimation, verbal attacks, personal attacks, isolations, humiliations, and belittling others (Hershcovis et al., 2020). Failure to have the right work-life balance can cause a major problem to a worker and lead to a significant amount of stress both at an individual level and the workplace.
Pressures from within and without the organization such as meeting deadlines on a project, addressing client needs on time, the manager placing inconsistent and difficult expectations on the employee, and significant deficiency of skills to accomplish a specific task are other key causes of stress in a work environment. Consequently, the mounting pressure on employees from both the external and internal actors may cause one to doubt their job security, further increasing the amount of stress one is subjected to. A breakdown in communication from the management to the subordinates and even among individuals due to interpersonal differences also may lead to intense pressure across the workforce, inflicting significant pressure on the employees. The list of the ...