Stress Management

Organizational Behaviour

455.501

What evidence is there to support the view that the incidence of work-related stress increased dramatically in Australian organisations during the 1990s and early 2000s? Should employers be made responsible for dealing with the negative effects of work- related stress on their employees? If so how could they do this?

Prepared for: Nick Foster

Udam Wickremaratne

10571359

Occupational stress is a major news item, which has captured numerous headlines across the industrialized world and rightly so. Stress is reported to cost employers US$120 Billion p.a. in North America and Europe, 200 million lost production days in the US and the European Union spends approximately 4% of GNP on mental health problems (Warr 2002).

Occupational stress should not be viewed as a negative by-product of work-life. A certain level of stress is definitely beneficial to individual and societal growth. This level of stress, referred to by Foster (2005) as Ð''the optimal level of stress' allow employees to cope and overcome obstacles ensuring more productive and efficient output. This said, continuous exposure to work place stressors could have a significant impact on employee well being, both physical and psychological.

Organizations are appreciating the importance of managing stress to the bottom line in terms of improved productivity, through fewer days lost due to accidents, improved moral, team work, enthusiasm, improved reputation, lower incidence of compensation claims etc. The majority of organizational interventions are related to providing external/internal support systems rather than improving internal practices e.g. implementing high performance work systems, which embody empowerment, involvement, and ownership providing employees with a sense of control over their own output.

The approach taken to investigate the claims that there has been a dramatic increase in occupational stress is to provide evidence of the strain on a number of identified stressors such as long working hours, work/family conflict, job uncertainty, and changes in skills requirements.

A clear understanding of the impact of stress on society can be gained from a study of the potential stressors or factors contributing to increased stress. As cited in Foster (2005) research has identified at least 30 types of stressors, each of these has a direct or implied relationship with organizational behaviour and culture.

Increasing focus on cost restructuring since the economic decline of the late1980's and the increasing competitive business environment brought about by globalisation is demanding faster, cheaper and higher quality output. These changes coupled with labour market characteristics such as, increasing number of women in employment, the growing trend towards part time employment and an ageing workforce provide a compelling case for increasing stress in Australia.

The 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey found that 50% of employees surveyed experienced increased stress in their jobs over the previous twelve months, while 59% reported increased effort and 46% an increase in the pace of work. In addition, 43% of employees reported that they had no say in the way in which work is organised or over decisions at work, which affect them (ACTU, Stress at Work - Not What We Bargained For, 1997).

A study conducted by AON Consulting (Stress Ð''major problem for workers' 2005) of 600 Australian workers in 2002 revealed that organizations were doing too little to manage the risk of stress within the work environment. The survey went on to state that 4 out 10 employees left their employers due to their ineffectiveness in dealing with stress. The difficulty in identifying and monitoring the stressors at work could be the primary reason for the slow response from industry in mitigating the risk more effectively

While there is relatively less data on the incidence of occupational stress in Australia, the analysis of WorkCover data over the period of 1994 -2002 presents, an increase in stress related compensation. Based on ACTU data, stress claims in the NSW public sector grew tremendously from 1990 to 1994, accounting for a 400% increase in number claims. (ACTU Stress at Work - Not What We Bargained For, 1997)

In light of this increase, legislative changes were sought to address the spike of stress related claims. These changes had an impact on claims by reducing the number reported with Comcare during the late 1990's however, it has been recently reported that there has been an increase since late 2002 (Michael P, The Sunday Morning Herald, 21st June 2004)

Excessive workloads, near impossible deadlines and the increasing nature for 24/7 availability, employees are required to spend long hours in the office. This growing trend is also supported in the study conducted at the Victorian University of Technology's Centre for Strategic Economic Studies (cited in Foster & Steel 2002), which reported 206% increase in the number of people working 60hrs or more over the period on 1978 to 1995.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2003), reported that approximately 1.7M Australians worked 50 hours or more per week, twice as many as in 1982 with a 30% (The Labour Force 1990; The Labour Force 1999) increase in the number of persons working 40 hours or more between 1990 and 1999.

The report (ABS 2003) further stated that the trend towards longer working hours was Ð''relatively uncommon' among other OECD countries. In Japan, which is known for its long working hours, recorded 690 death by work claims in 2001/02 and recorded 15% increase in the following period 02/03 (Roy O'Neil, Special online briefing, 5 August 2003)

Over the period in question women in employment have been growing steadily. The study of Australian Bureau of Statistics (2005), revealed that over the period 1982 to 2005, female labour participation increased by 11%.

With these changes to family demographics, the issue of balancing career and family is coming to force. Families no longer represent a single working partner and the pull in opposite directions of family and career, have, if not balanced a negative impact on either one or both of demands, resulting in role conflict and increased levels of stress. In 1983, the female partner was in the labour force in 32% of couple families where the age of the youngest dependent child was less than 5 years, by 2003 this proportion