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Workplace
Stress Management
Introduction
Workplace stress
management is essential for both employees and business organizations. Mental
stress directly impacts employee health and employee health is linked to the
success of the organization. Therefore, stress management interventions and
health promotion and wellness programs in business organizations are highly
supportive for employees to manage stress.
What
is Stress
Stress is the tension
someone feels when there are more demands than their capacity. You may get
such pressure from your work, responsibilities, relationships, and home.
This can be depicted
on a scale, demands on one side of the scale, and the capacity to deliver such
demands on the other side of the scale. Demands are always overweight than the capacity
of a stressed person.
Types
of Stress
The two main types of
stress are Eustress and Distress.
Eustress
can be categorized as good or healthy stress that motivates or energizes someone
to win a competition or reach his achievements.
Example: A Sales Manager
covering his target sales in his area and receives his sales incentive.
Distress
is the negative type of stress or negative type of stress that is always
discussed as stress. There are two main types, Acute and Chronic Stress.
Acute
Stress is the intense stress that indicates when an
event is over. Example: When you report to your work late, you be pulled out by
your boss and you will end up with increased heart rate, sweating and increased
breathing.
Chronic
Stress is comparatively less intense stress which lasts
over a long period of time. The best examples are the consequences of a wrong
relationship or a fault you have committed that affects your goodwill. This may
result in time-to-time headaches, difficulty in sleeping, and mood swings. Such
physical and mental conditions impact mental and physical health and wellbeing in long term.
Optimum
Level of Stress
Too much stress or
too little stress can be harmful for the performance of an employee. Too much
stress causes health and relationship problems and too little stress causes
lack of productivity, lack of performance and boredom. Therefore, finding the
optimum level of stress is very important for a better work and personal life.
As given in the above
figure, area in both sides of the optimal level falls into the two categories,
positive and negative stress. This may result by deviating the optimal level of
stress.
Reasons
for Workplace Stress
Workplace stress is
caused by several reasons found within the organization and also certain
personal reasons. The main reasons for workplace stress can be depicted as
follows.
As given above,
workplace-related reasons such as overloaded work, time management issues, job
role conflicts, and discrimination experienced in the workplace are the main
reasons for workplace-related stress.
If the employee is
unable to prioritize work, overloaded work will make the employee heavily
stressed and productivity will flow down. Employee output dramatically reduces
as a result.
Job role conflicts
and discrimination are two main reasons that matter stress. Management and the
responsible parties of the business organization should be responsible for
communicating job role responsibilities clearly with the subordinates.
Employee burnout is
another workplace-related reason that drives stress. This occurs due to job
dissatisfaction and exhaustion which results in mental, physical, and emotional
exhaustion. This is a deeper level of stress where the employee is difficult to
cope with the stress and takes corrective measures to eliminate such stress.
In addition to the workplace-related
reasons that drive stress, there are certain reasons which are related to the
personal life of the employee as given in the below diagram. Family demands, financial issues, and
relationship conflicts are prominent among them. It is said that ‘one should
have a clean life to go up the ladder in his/her carrier.’ Here, a clean life
refers to the personal life of an employee that has no impact on his/her
carrier. Therefore, the stress generated from personal matters is zero and the
employee has a clear mindset to face the carrier-related challenges and to go
forward in his carrier.
Recent
Developments in Stress Management
The effectiveness of
workplace stress management was researched and published from 2001 to 2008
period. Here, Tetrick and Quick(2011) identify three types of stress management
interventions. They are given as follows.
- Primary Interventions
- Secondary Interventions
- Territory Interventions
Primary
interventions are always proactive and
target on prevention.
Secondary
interventions are targeted at employees or groups
who are at risk. In these interventions, organizations are responsible for
providing knowledge and skills for the employees to cope with stress.
Territory
interventions are applied to employees who are
already in distress and they are assisted to get recovered from the
stress-related symptoms.
As described above,
primary interventions focus on the prevention of stress, Secondary
interventions focus on removing stress-related symptoms and the risk factor
from individuals or groups of employees, and territory interventions focus on
individuals or groups. However,
according to La Montagne et al,2007, the primary interventions followed by the
secondary interventions are the most effective types of interventions in the
management of stress at the organizational level.
In addition to the
above 03 types of interventions, Mindfulness-based
interventions, Recovery interventions, and Multimodal interventions are the recent developments in stress
management interventions.
Mindfulness-based
interventions incorporate mindfulness as a means of
reducing stress-related reactions of employees. Scholars suggest that
mindfulness facilitates employees to reduce stress and respond to stressful
events in an accepting and non-judgmental manner. Shutte,2014 investigated the
effectiveness of meditation intervention which involves wishing all living
beings to be well and happy.
Meditation has become one of the
main means of releasing stress and it is trending in global society
irrespective of religion. Loving-kindness meditation is one of the major
methods of the basics of Buddhism. Most of the time, workplace stress is a
result of jealousy, hatred, and competition. Therefore, loving-kindness
meditation helps to overcome such silly human thoughts and to love and be kind
to any person irrespective of his quality of thoughts.
How
to Promote Employee Wellbeing
Stress Management
Programs and Employee Assistance Programs are the main methods to promote
employee well-being within the organization. Frone,2013 mentions that employee
assistance programs are the major among workplace wellness programs, and such
methods have been used to relieve the stress of employees even throughout
history. Rothstein, 1983 stresses that the introduction of employee assistance
programs promotes employee health and this leads to reduce health care costs
for the business organization. According to Madsen,2003 stresses that employee
wellness programs are designed to enhance employees’ physical, emotional,
social, and spiritual wellness.
In addition to the
above, the following methods can be used to promote employee health and
wellness within the organization.
· Identify
possible drivers of stress within the organization and external to the
organization.
· Create
a peaceful environment and promote positive attitudes among employees within
the workplace.
· Identify
employees who deviate from the recognized norms of the organization and create
arguments and conflicts.
· Organize
employee mental health programs regularly.
· Encourage
mindfulness of employees which helps to minimize defects and errors within the
organization.
· Arrange
fun activities for employees to relieve their mental stress and recharge them.
· Organizations
should recognize employees who bring success to the organization with their
dedication and hard work.
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