Management Assignment: United States Job Quality & Occupational Stress!
Question
Task:
United States Job Quality and Occupational Stress!
A number of different factors are discussed in the following READINGS including the role of social support, teamwork, good communication, and trustworthy supervisors.
Other “causes of stress” considered in these READINGS include job demands, job insecurity, the characteristics of low-wage jobs, and work/life/family balance.
And the ARTICLE by Anne Marie Slaughter, in your READINGS Module that raises the ISSUE of the “social safety net!”
In your management assignment, please respond to the following questions BASED ON READINGS MODULE:
1) Are there any CONCEPTS in the questionnaire or the “articles” that surprised you?
2) Identify a few KEY CONCEPTS about “work-related stress” in the READINGS and discuss these perspectives in the CONTEXT of your own experiences, for example, what are the key sources of “occupational stress” you’ve encountered during your internship, OTHER JOBS, or the “job” of being a college student?
3) How have your experiences with OCCUPATIONAL STRESS, or the experiences of family or close friends that “shaped your goals” for the kind of work you want to do and the type of organization you want to work in?
Based on the READINGS and THINKING about your own experiences, to what extent can “occupational stress” be avoided or controlled by an individual or through the intervention of “Human Resources?”
Answer
United States Job Quality And Occupational Stress
1) As discussed in this management assignment, the questionnaire constructed for the administration of workplace and occupational stress and its impact on performance management has signified the inclusion of a number of parameters. The parameters were based upon validation of workload, culture and climate of an organization, health and other outcomes, as well as hours of work. Though most of the unions based on such parameters have been accounted for utilization of greater skills, some of the factors seemed quite difficult to judge (Cdc.gov). For instance, considering the factors based on "fairness and trust' ' perceptions amongst different employees might differ at a distinguished level. Additionally, considering the questions related to the affirmations on sleep problems, mental and physical health problems are also highly subjective. Most importantly, considering such factors, separate employees within an organization might get accustomed to separate circumstances (Sujoy 9). Additionally, it can be evident that personal lifestyle and physical differences might also contribute to the current status and physical conditions of employees. These might further vary based on the lifestyle and choice of food consumed by the employees back at their homes.
Factors such as trust and fairness also can be calculated based on the different capabilities of a particular individual. Certain individuals might be more self-centred that might make them communicate less with fellow employees. This might create a sense of subjective notion amongst such individuals regarding a notion of elector avoidance. Occupational stress caused by such factors are most likely to be subjective in nature and thereby can contribute to a biased network of feedback (Cdc.gov). Thus, the inclusion of such questions might create vague answers and might confuse the entire objective of this study to reach out to possible concussions regarding which factors contribute to occupational stress. Other than that, all the relevant parameters included in the questionnaires would be satisfactorily used to produce rationale or justification for the workplace or occupational stress and its roots.
2) Considering my experiences throughout my academic career, occupational stress amplified by external factors remains a silent issue. During my study of "Data Analytics' ' I have successfully studied the factors revolving around the management of human resources as well as "benefit administrators" (Sujoy 10). Most often, during my course of study, I have been made acquainted with practices and circumstantial conditions that might create the scope of occupational stress. Some of the factors have also been discussed within the NIOSH's research regarding lack of opportunistic values and mediums of ' 'management actions' ' that can be brought upon a group of individuals due to their socio-economic background (Cdc.gov). I have further come into acquaintance with irrelevant competition amongst my fellow peers, which has further been affirmed in the study of "A Toxic Work World" by "Anne Marie Slaughter".
The factor of a life-long competition has become clearly evident with the trans fixation of a "narrow down employee culture" (Wenzel and Prince 4). This has further contributed to the accentuation of "exhaustion, anxiety and lack of collaborations" within the workspace. Employees and colleagues driven by motivation help each other based on a collaborative architecture and initiate a sense of togetherness and empathy. On the other hand, considering a highly transactional motivation induced within the employees makes the competition with reinforcement of distinctive identity amongst them and lags in caregiving attitudes.
Other than that, I have also been subjected to a number of situational contexts that have been created for my peers to "reject lock step career paths' ' and question the entire promotional system. Most often, promotions and accolades received by the peers have been criticized rather than getting encouraged. This is one of the main reasons for the creation of an abundantly rig space within an organization (Shani 44). Most of the time, I have also come across severe gender diversity-related problems, whether a specific task was assigned to the male peers due to underestimating a specific gender. Another main cause for work-related stress that I have come across is the variability in leadership objectives and biases in hierarchical management systems. Many times I have come across peers and fellow colleagues to have opted for bribing the management system in gaining superior marks from the top authority (Wenzel and Prince 4). Though such circumstances have failed, yet the ideology behind optimizing such unethical practices remains a salient issue. Other than that, the other factors that contribute to the inefficiency of an organization to comprehend practicality and maintenance of organizational equality have failed due to the exclusion of "cultural integration mechanisms". Most of the organizations today are involved with international and globalized endeavours (Shani 44). This further indicates regarding the incision of a number of multivarious cultures to be inclusive of a particular endeavour. I have personally come across situations wherein team members have been neglected due to their distinguished background (Sujoy 9). Lack of inclusive communication as well as the transformational ability of an organization can thereby cause occupational stress for new members and entrants, deprived of commonality and collaboration.
3) The specific circumstances that have caused occupational stress for me were mainly relevant to unmanaged working pressure within my team (Samma Faiz et al. 877). Considering my initial inclusion into the academic course, I had faced troubles regarding open communication and performance of active listening. Lack of performance management within my team had created overbearing pressures on specific individuals who could not voice their issues. 3) Considering my indirect experiences with organizational stress, I aim to be incorporated in an organizational atmosphere that would enable me to administer my capabilities with respect to the company's collaborative goals.
Initially, I was a spectator to the entire issue; however, with time realized that a change strategy needs to be incorporated within the organizational architecture. I have successively discussed this with my friends and families regarding this and based on their advice, I decided to have a collaborative meeting with my superior hierarchy and resolve the issue of performance measurement (Nytimes.com). Most of the companies in 2021 have faced similar problems wherein the management is re concerned with the maintenance of presentism rather than an evaluation of quantity and quality of work delivered (Shani 43). The psychological stress imposed upon a few members of the organizations owing to the initial lags in overall performance thereby creates a scope of accentuated anxiety and overberence of work pressure. This is where the incision of gender diversity, cultural integrity and use of key performance indicators become highly necessary. Based on such experiences, I would like to be inclusive of a company that would take comprehensive and analytical measures of performance management through regular feedback. Other than that, I would like to be part of a human resource management firm that would help me to include specific theories encircling around the factors of effective human resource practices based on the accentuation of individual capabilities. The inclusion of transformational leadership would be one of the greatest features of such an organization driven by collaborative training to induce empathy and corporate social responsibility (Nytimes.com). Through the integration of data analytics, it would be further possible for the organization to optimize the scope for feedback and transparent performance reviews.
Based on the entirety of this study, it can thereby be concluded that a specific intervention n mechanism would have to be applied based on organizations’ area of functionality and organizational values (Cdc.gov). It would be first important to note that the factors of "stress, health and productivity" are aligned with one another depending on profitable objectives of management actions (Nytimes.com). This is further aligned with the organization's role in objectifying "stress management" with identification of "stress symptoms" and "organizational change management". One of the most crucial drivers of change could be through implications of "Lewin's Change Management Principles". It would further reduce the existence of "excessive workload, conflicting expectations and unmanageable dimensions' ' of occupational functions.
Most importantly application of interventions based on remunerations and regular acknowledgement of the employees' capabilities would also be stably taken into consideration. Apart from that, improved communication standards would suitably account for the creation of optimal and transparent feedback mechanisms in order to align statistics related to lags in performance (Wenzel and Prince 4). Maintenance of competitive demand-driven performance should be aligned with employees’ rights and standards of workplace health and safety. Through specialized in-staff training, organizations and also rate for the scope of outlining reporting rights for the employees in case of any potential harassment and abuse at workplace (Jyotirmayee 48). Other relevant steps that can be taken for establishing an intervention framework are:
• Creating general awareness regarding NIOSH guidelines and standards
• Collection of stress-related data through designing "employee survey" and plotting stress indicators (Cdc.gov)
• Organization of workspace along with availability of optimal recreation and flexible atmosphere
• Reassuring inclusion of all the employees along with establishment of a holistic framework
• Allowing for employees to take long leaves and cumulative leaving functions
• Organization of “kick-off events” to retain enthusiasm and interests of the employees
• Include “stress management training”
• Measurement of “employee perceptions of job conditions, stress, health, and satisfaction” (Cdc.gov)
• Refining intervention strategies based on dynamic nature of organizational endeavors
References
Cdc.gov. “Stress”, 22nd October, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/stress/default.html
Choudhury, Jyotirmayee. "Occupational Stress, Physical Wellness and Productivity Barometer at Workplace." International Journal of Advances in Agriculture Sciences (2019): 46-50.
Geissler, P. Wenzel, And Ruth J. Prince. "‘Toxic worldings’: Introduction to toxic flows." Anthropology Today 36.6 (2020): 3-4.
Nytimes.com. “A Toxic World”, 22nd October, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/opinion/sunday/a-toxic-work-world.html
Nytimes.com. “Stressful Workplaces Shorter Lives”, 22nd October, 2021.
https://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/stressful-workplaces-shorter-lives/
Orgad, Shani. "Choice and Confidence Culture/Toxic Work Culture." Management assignment Heading Home. Columbia University Press, 2019. 27-48.
Rasool, Samma Faiz, et al. "Sustainable work performance: the roles of workplace violence and occupational stress." International journal of environmental research and public health 17.3 (2020): 912.
Samaddar, Sujoy. "Toxic Leadership–Impact on Work Culture." “Leadership & Employee Engagement”: 10
