Technology: Stress Remedy or Causation

Technology: Stress Remedy or Causation

John Lewis

University of Phoenix

MGT331

October 10, 2005

Abstract

Is technology the savior of business people or the bane of their existence? Stress in business is as old as business itself. In modern times, a number of technological devices have appeared to make business more efficient and more productive. These devices include computers, cell phones, and Blackberries. Each device helps organized data, maintain communications, and facilitate business functions. In theory, this should reduce stress in the workplace but in reality, these devices have created new or different workplace stress factors. This is a trend in business that is not likely to change.

Technology: Stress Remedy or Causation

Stress in the workplace is nothing new. Previous generations of workers faced 12-hour workdays, six days a week. These people labored often in dangerous conditions without healthcare, they had no workers compensation to fall back on in the event of lay-offs, and competition was just as real then as it is today. Facing intensely dangerous factory conditions many feared for their lives or those of loved-ones (Hymowitz & Silverman, 2001). Today's employees function in workplaces that are not perfect but are far better than those of by-gone times. Yet, today's typical employee has difficulty dealing with stress of the modern workplace. Many of the same stress factors that drove our ancestors into alcoholism can still be seen today; however, some of the remedies to job-related stress have intensified or redirected those stresses. Computers, cell phones, e-mail, voice-mail, blackberries, conference calling, and the like overcome business obstacles but in their wake are new or different types of stress. The question posed here is simply, does technology relieve or promote stress?

There are few if any people in Western Civilization who could imagine throwing out all those irritating devices and returning to a simpler and slower lifestyle. Rather everyone imagines that there is a device coming soon that will help deal with all the clutter and piles of information clamoring for attention. As expectations for performance grow greater and greater, technological solutions are expected and even demanded. This is the source of nearly all workplace technology. There is a need and innovative engineers find a way to meet that need.

Nevertheless, Ben Franklin's admonition, "If a man could have half his wishes, he would double his troubles," has proven true (Grothe, 2004). In the mid-1960s businesses faced enormous mounds of customer data and needed to be able to access this data quickly and multi-purpose this data for various functions, such as billing and advertising. Affordable mini-computers soon arrived and increased business capacity as well as possibilities. Soon these companies demanded their data be accessible nationwide and eventually worldwide. Technology meant to make American businesses more efficient and global soon led to global computer networks and thus global competition. Global competition increased stresses in the business world as cheap Asian labor markets found it easier to enter the world stage.

The recent trend of business to move jobs offshore is a direct result of computer networks and the internet in particular. This may be an oversimplification of a complex global economy but without the internet, Russian and Indian call-centers would not exist. Chinese and Korean factories answering "just-in-time" orders from Wal-Mart would not be possible either (Philipson, 2005). Thus, employees' job-loss fears are at least in part directly related to technology in the workplace.

Turning from technological macro-causations of stress, stresses on individuals from devices can be much closer and more easily identifiable. The cell phone is a modern necessity that has only emerged in the past decade. Originally seen as a status symbol, it is now obnoxiously ubiquitous. The cell phone is another answer to the prayers of business people everywhere gone awry. Before cell phones, a traveling businessperson was completely cut off from the office and the client. This introduced stress for both the employee as well as those who needed to communicate important information to him or her. This interruption of communications slowed business and created missed opportunities. Suddenly inexpensive wireless mobile telephones, known today as cell phones, appear.

Equipped with a cell phone, logically stress levels should plummet and the speed of business accelerate. The latter certainly occurred but not the former. What happened? Answering the need, cell phones connected executives, salespeople, and most employees to each other and the company at all hours of the day, everyday of the week. What people did not anticipate was that this constant connection inhibited people from compartmentalizing work and personal lives. No longer did work stay at the office nor could work be an escape from domestic stress. A study of 1,367 people by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) found that women were twice as likely to be stressed by cell phones, as men were (Hunt, 2005). The reason for this is women tend to be bothered at work by children and other domestic trouble more often than men are.

Cell phones are perhaps the biggest stress making technology but the advent of the Blackberry may soon rival them. The sight of business people standing against a wall squinting into their tiny cell phone looking device, while feverishly punching buttons is an increasingly common one. Since these devices do not make noise or require speech, they are becoming as much a distraction from work as an aid. During