ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

Organisational change often leads to stress

Organisational change often leads to stress

Workplace stress has a negative impact on the business as well as on the individual employee. The increase in job stress creates emotional, financial, and safety concerns for employers and managers. The bottom line: workplace stress management and stress reduction make sense.

Stress in the workplace is not a new phenomenon, but it is a greater threat to employee health and well-being than ever before. While technology has made aspects of many jobs easier, it has also added to the anxieties of office life through information overload, heightened pressure for productivity, and a threatening sense of impermanence in the workplace. In 1996, the World Health Organization labelled stress a “worldwide epidemic.” (Scwartz, 2005) Today, workplace stress is estimated to cost American companies more than $300 billion a year in poor performance, absenteeism and health costs.

What is workplace stress?

Stress—the responses our bodies and minds have to the demands placed on them—is a normal part of life and a normal part of any job. Without stress, we wouldn't meet deadlines, strive to hit sales or production targets, or line up new clients. Meeting the demands and challenges of a job is part of what makes work interesting and satisfying, and it's often what allows people to develop new skills and advance in their careers.

In the workplace, we regularly experience stress-causing situations, react to them with heightened tension, and then return to a more relaxed state when the crisis, big or small, is resolved(Scwartz, 2005). However, problems occur when stress is so overwhelming or constant that the tension never abates and we never get to relax. What we think of as “job stress” is what happens when:

•The challenges and demands of work become excessive.

•The pressures of the workplace surpass workers' abilities to handle them.

•Satisfaction becomes frustration and exhaustion.

When stress crosses the line from normal to excessive, it can trigger physical and emotional responses that are harmful to employees and businesses alike. And unfortunately, for many people “stress” has become synonymous with “work.” (Corbitt, 2005)

What causes stress in the workplace?

Some jobs are stressful by definition because they're physically dangerous (such as fire fighting or criminal justice), involve matters of life and death (emergency functions), or are psychologically demanding (social work, teaching). But people who stamp metal or crunch numbers can also be subject to stress on the job.

Workplace stress is usually the result of high demands on the job, real or perceived lack of control concerning those demands, poor day-to-day organization and communication, and an unsupportive work environment(Corbitt, 2005).

The following chart lays out many of the factors that lead to job stress:

Factors that Lead to Job Stress

Types of Job Stressors

Examples

Specific work factors

Excessive workload.

Tedious or meaningless tasks.

Long hours and low pay.

Infrequent rest breaks.

Unreasonable performance demands.

Physical environment

Noise and overcrowding.

Poor air quality.

Ergonomic problems.

Health and safety risks (heavy equipment, toxic chemicals).

Organizational practices

Unclear responsibilities or expectations.

Conflicting job ...