Theoretical Analysis of Work Stress and Its Impact on Employee Health

The essay focuses on the topic of work stress and its potential severe implications on the lives of the workers. It has been witnessed through several incidents across diverse workplaces that the employees sometimes experience even fatal consequences due to excessive work related stress. The case being considered for the essay is based on a company in Japan called Renesas Electronic Corp. An employee had died due to complications arising from excessive work related stress. The severe impact of work related stress on employees and the various ways through which stress can be effectively approached is systematically analyzed through relevant theories and practices.

According to the theory of general adaptation syndrome formulated by Hans Selye a person can be slowly weakened physically through continuous exposure to stress factors. The theory puts forward the fact that constant stress has adverse impact on the life of an individual (Kiely, 2016). It makes the individual develop faster ageing and more susceptible to succumb to various diseases.  In the case study the employees of the Japanese company is greatly affected by stress due to his job role. Thus, it can be said that his health has been greatly affected due to the stress factors that he was exposed to at his workplace. As per the case study, the 34 year old equipment maintenance worker had to face severe stress levels for many months. In accordance with the theory of the GAS model the employee probably went through three distinct stages of work stress. In the first stage the employee’s body was alarmed by the stress factors, thereby developing a fighting mechanism as a means to survive stress (Kiely, 2016). In the second stage the body developed a mechanism for resistance. Thus, factors such as blood pressure, glucose levels and other essential body factors remained high. The vital functional elements like heart rate, blood-pressure, etc, remained high. In the third stage the employee went through irrecoverable damage to his body mechanisms and was exhausted. This ultimately led to his death.

However, it can also be said that other essential factors might have also led to the death of the employee. Given the fact that he was exposed to great levels of stress in the four months prior to his death he had worked per month for more than 80 hours. Moreover, he had worked more than 24 hours of overtime in the weak before his death. Firstly, this can be said to be very unusual level of work stress and generally this kind of heavy work stress is not what regular employees go through. Thus, the GAS model may not be applied to this case as the employee was affected by unusually higher levels of stress. The stress factors that the employee went through might have aggravated previously existing health conditions ultimately leading to his demise due to heart attack (Nelson & Burke, 2018).

Case Study Analysis: Renesas Electronic Corp.

The theory of Conservation of resources deals with the effect of stress on the motivational factors that guide people. As per the case study the family of the employee has to deal with the increased stress of losing the principal earner of the family. The family consists of the worker’s wife and three children. Thus, it is much evident that they will require substantially larger amount of resources in order to sustain themselves (Halbesleben et al., 2014). According to the theory there are three kinds of scenarios in which individuals can face psychological stress. Firstly, at a time when there is an imminent threat of resource loss. Secondly, when resource loss has taken place and thirdly, when there is a loss of acquired resources due to excessive resource utilization. In the given scenario, the family can be affected by the latter two instances (Nelson & Burke, 2018). Firstly, due to the great loss of the principle earner of the family there is an existing loss of resource. Moreover, due to this loss and the law suits that were filed the family can also lose its acquired resources. This will amount to a great deal of psychological stress, not only for the mother of the children but for the entire family (Halbesleben et al., 2014). The theory further stresses on the fact that loss of resource can be of greater harm than the gain of resource in similar proportion. Thus, for the family this loss of resource can potentially cause greater harm that a similar gain in resource would have caused. Moreover, the initial loss of the primary source of income for the family will give way to more losses in the future. In any case the family is bound to face great emotional turmoil due to the death of the employee. It can be said that stress is being passed on to the family of the employee after the death of the employee.

Upon being hired by the REC for becoming the organizational psychologist the various recommended changes have to be made in order to provide a proper framework for organizational stress management (Nelson & Burke, 2018). Priority should be given towards understanding the various reasons that lead to excessive stress levels among the employees. Thus, it is important to systematically provide recommendations in favor of effective stress management.

Firstly, the individual roles of the employees should be made clear to them. Excessive stress often occur due the employees not being able to properly understand their roles and taking up roles outside their skill set. Thus, roles should be clearly assigned to individual employees across the organizational levels (Halbesleben et al., 2014).

Implications of Loss of Resources and Psychological Stress

Secondly, it is much important to provide the right amount of feedback to the employees. This will help the employees to understand their strengths and weaknesses and realizing their growth potential. Positive feedback will also work towards greatly motivating the employees. Motivation reduces stress factors to great extents. The mirror technique can be used in which neutral coordinators can solve inter-group problems at the workplace.

Thirdly, effective assistance have to be provided to management concerning efficient decision making towards empowering the employees. Management has to make decisions that can guide employees better concerning the effective management of their work functions. It is important that the management understands that employees need to be given strong directives in order to be motivated towards completing their work functions. This can contribute towards reducing stress levels among the employees. Effective directives often serve the purpose of giving employees greater freedom to do their assigned duties. Moreover, greater autonomy should be given to employees for deciding how they will manage their duties. Providing greater work flexibility will greatly reduce stress aspects.

Fourthly, it is important to judiciously consider the design of the work. It becomes necessary at times to re-evaluate the tasks that are being assigned to the employees for obvious reasons. The variety of tasks and the requirement of newer skills should be considered by the management of REC. The employees can be given more meaningful tasks. This can include task that can both be easy for the employees to comprehend along with tasks that are challenging and involve the development of newer skills (Lloyd, Bond & Flaxman, 2017). Monotonous tasks can greatly stress out employees as lack of motivation seldom leads to increasing stress levels.

Fifthly, there is a great requirement for an employee assistance program. Through these programs individual psychological needs of the employees can be addressed. Employees have to give long hours to their work (Nelson & Burke, 2018). Thus, they can develop various psychological issues as a result of the same. Personal assistance greatly reduces stress levels and makes the office environment friendlier than before, leading to better stress management.

In conclusion it can be said that the case that was considered provided the fatal consequences of increased stress levels among employees. The various theories have been able to effectively point towards the importance of organizational stress management. The importance rises further as the implications of employee stress often falls on their families that depend on them. Hence, it becomes very much important that stress factors are effectively analyzed and evaluated subsequently for better understanding its implications on the health of an employee. From the case it is quite significantly understood that the implication of severe work related stress on employees can be fatal. It becomes a joint responsibility of organizations and individuals to maintain essential stress management at workplaces.

References

Halbesleben, J. R., Neveu, J. P., Paustian-Underdahl, S. C., & Westman, M. (2014). Getting to the “COR” understanding the role of resources in conservation of resources theory. Journal of Management, 40(5), 1334-1364.

Kiely, J. (2016). A new understanding of stress and the implications of our cultural training paradigm. New Stud Athl, 30(3), 27-35.

Lloyd, J., Bond, F. W., & Flaxman, P. E. (2017). Work-related self-efficacy as a moderator of the impact of a worksite stress management training intervention: Intrinsic work motivation as a higher order condition of effect. Journal of occupational health psychology, 22(1), 115.

Nelson, D. L., & Burke, R. J. (2018). Gender, work stress, and health.