A Number of Stressors in an Organization - Case Study Example

4 REDUCING STRESS IN AN ORGANIZATION AND EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE PLAN TO COPE WITH WORK STRESS In an environment stressors are generally considered to be objectively verifiable events that occur outside of the individual and stress refers to the individual responses to stressors (Kelloway, 2000). There can be a number of stressors in an organization which affects the performance of managers. Major stressors that are observed among personnel are the time stressors, encounter stressors, situational stressors and anticipatory stressors. Time stressors such as work over load can be avoided by effective time management. The managers can be trained to identify the activities which cause time wastages and to assign priorities. The time management techniques should be adopted to use the time available more efficiently. Encounter stressors such as role and action conflicts can be avoided by better team management and emotional intelligence coaching. The next category of stressors, which are created by situational factors such as the unfavorable working conditions, rapid change in the work environment can be brought down by better communication between the management and the employees and work redesign. Work redesign includes, redefinition of span of control, role definition, refining the job description and enriching the job with more learning opportunities and growth. The next group of stressors which include the employees’ attitudes and past experiences which give rise to unpleasant expectation and fear can be overcome with goal setting and rewards. The strategy to overcome work stress can be divided into action plans and can be implemented. The results can be checked against planned productivity, job satisfaction indices, achievement of goals and analysis of motivation levels of employees. 4.2 BEHAVIORAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS AMONG EMPLOYEES POST 9/11 DISASTER AND THE POLICIES, PROCEDURES TO REDUCE STRESS Various researches have shown that disasters can be a source of stressors. Disasters of the scale of the 9/11 attacks can trigger uncertainty and anxiety. Disasters can create fear for life and threat for basic security. This can create lack of faith in day to day activities and can reduce the motivation of employees. Trauma caused by disaster can create chronic depressions, dissolution of relationships, psychotic reactions which are caused by inability to avoid the stressor. The employees may start to think about their future more with concern. To overcome this kind of trauma of the employees the organization should form peer groups to create opportunity to share the loss and emotions. The organization should formulate certain reactive strategies, to overcome the temporary effects of the trauma. When an organization is formulating the strategy the management should think about the level of stress the employees are undergoing, elimination of stressors in the job, development of more resiliencies among the employees. The strategies formulated are both for the long run and the short run benefits of the employees. The reactive strategies include avoidance of stressful situations, optimizing the workload of employees, providing time allowances, increasing the opportunities to talk about stressful environments. 5.1 THE MAJOR BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION AND REDUCING THE BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION The most important barriers to communication are the semantic barriers such as the symbols with different meanings, badly expressing the message, faulty translations, unqualified assumptions and the use of highly technical language loaded with technical jargons. There can be some psychological barriers also which include, premature evaluation which is caused by premature judgments made without proper analysis, lack of attention when the message is sent across, loss in the transmission of message and poor retention by the audience, undue reliance on the written word and ignoring the value of face to face interactions and distrust of the communicator. The organizational barriers include, policies, rules and regulations of the management, relationships within the organization and the complexity of the structure of the organization. The personal barriers to communication include, attitude of superiors, fear of challenge to authority, red tapism and insistence of proper channel, lack of trust on the subordinates, lack of awareness of the individual and lack of time. The barriers to communication that are very difficult to eliminate are the factors that are inherent to the psychology of the employees. The factors such as the attitude of the workers and the lack of trust on the communicator are very difficult barriers to overcome. The attitude of the workers cannot be changed overnight but can be altered only through long term confidence on the management which holds good for improving the trust on the communicator. 5.2 DEVELOPING LISTENING STYLES AND READING NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION IN AN EFFORT TO IMPROVE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION It is shown from previous researches that nearly 70% of the communication is done through gestures. Hence, it is very important that managers develop their learning skills and understand the nonverbal communication to improve the communication in an organization. To develop the listening skills the managers should first stop talking and put the other person at ease. The mangers should display his interest to know what is going to be communicated. When the communication is being done, the manager should remove any potential distractions such as phones, messages and other conversations. After establishing the right kind of environment, the manager should empathize with the other person by letting the other person know that his/her feelings are recognized. Also to become a good listener the manager should also remember not to respond quickly in a haste but to wait for the person to complete the message. Also the manager should be in control of his emotions. He should not become too emotional but has to go easy on criticism and arguments. Because of there is passionate or personal arguments it will act as a barrier for other personnel to communicate their problems. The manager should observe the reactions of people to take up cues from nonverbal communication. He should be aware of his environment, his people to understand the dynamics of human relationships and to understand the nonverbal communication. 6.1 MEANING OF THE TERM POWER - UNCERTAINTY IN AN ORGANIZATION AND POLITICS To me the term power means the ability to control the environment around me. Power gives the ability to a person to decide and act. If an employee is empowered, he can decide on issues and can proceed without being given directions at every stage of operations. When organizations are becoming leaner, the empowerment of employees becomes very vital. Also worth the emergence of information technology the boundaries of traditional office does not exist. In the situation power does not only denote the authority but also denotes the opportunities embedded in a job. When the organization is facing uncertainty it can create confusion about roles played and the relative importance of the roles played by people. For example, when an organization is going to be taken over by a MNC, there is a high uncertainty about the jobs of people. In such a situation employees tend to use their persona l power and influence to gain information and to favor people. This can trigger office politics. The change in status is definitely advantageous for the organization through delegation. Managers have to understand that to stay at the top of the power curve it is important to convert power effectively into interpersonal influence in ways that avoid abuse of power and to create effective teams by delegating authority to others. 6.2 CHANGE THE IMAGE IN THE COMPANY AS A SERVICE DIVISION AND INCREASE THE POWER To increase the power and influence to gain control of more resources, the Vice president has to first analyze the congruence. The analysis should be first to measure whether the situation is congruent with the position and role. Then the strategy to strengthen the operations of the business and to change the image has to be created. An environmental survey has to be made to identify the opportunities and threats. Next an internal survey has to be made to identify the strengths and weaknesses. The operations that are not congruent with the change requirements have to be identified. The people who are responsible for the operations have to be appraised about the need for change and the scope of change. Communication, expertise in the area, coalitions with the informal leaders in the organization can be some of the strategies to gain power and influence. The Vice President has to confront the individuals / organizations that are employing the rights of others. Observations have to be made and the ways in which people try to manipulate others have to noted. Then the issues have to raised and the seriousness of the concern have to be made clear. 7.1 QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED TO A POTENTIAL PROVIDER OF LEADERSHIP TRAINING First, the questions about the objectives of the program have to be raised. The purpose of the program and the justification of the objectives have to be clarified. Also the content of the program has to be verified. Is the content of the program in line with the desired learning objectives? The competence of the training provider has to be checked. The educational background and the previous exposure of the training provider has to be verified. The references brought by the training provider and the list of companies that have previously tried that program should also be taken into account. Next, the issue will be about the methodology. The way in which the participants will be engaged during the program to achieve the goal have to be analyzed. Does the methodology adopted involve both the left and right brain? Does the methodology suit the requirements of the program and does it suit the nature of the participants? Next, the question will be about the time and place. What is the time required for the successful completion of the program? Is the time suitable for the employees and the organization? Where will the programs be conducted? Finally the question about the cost has the be brought. Can the organization afford the development program? Does the cost of the program and the benefit that will be derived are justified? if the organization has a tight cash flow situation, then the question about the cost of the program will have to be raised first. 7.2 DIFFERENCEs BETWEEN EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING The major difference between employee training and organizational learning is pertaining to the time frame. Employee training is about acquiring new skills and learning new techniques to be updated with the requirements of the job. The rate at which the technology changes is increasing day by day and the need for employee training to increase their value is a must in all organizations. The human capital in an organization gives the competitive edge that is much necessary to survive and grow. For example, Nike Corporation after the allegations about the working conditions in its factories in South east Asia has increased the budgets for training the workers about safety in work place. On the other hand, Nike has learnt the importance of improving the conditions of the workers. It has learnt about the damage such issues can cause for the image of the corporation and corrective actions have been taken. We can infer from the above example that, there are times when the members of the organization should sit together and systematically reflect on strengths and weaknesses, performance accomplishments and failures and future (Schermerhorn, 2005). The past experience serves as the background for future planning. Organizational learning happens when it is awake about what is happening in the external and internal environment. The changes in the environments are reflected in the strategies and goals. Hence, organizational learning is pertaining about the long term strategic success and development. 8.1 TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN DEVELOPING MANAGEABLE SOLUTIONS Many a times in a business organization managers are faced with the challenge to modify the day to day operations to achieve the long term strategic goals and vice versa. This may be due to the gaps between the aspirations and the actions of the firm. The organization may aspire to achieve the mission and vision, but the ground reality faced by the company may create hurdles in the path. In an organization, long term strategic plans are useful to tune up the operations to achieve future objectives. But, it is often hard to follow the preplanned course of actions. This may be due to various reasons and mangers are often at the cross roads. In this scenario, transformational leadership is very useful to find solutions for the team. Transformational leadership helps in the coordination of the team members. It involves, active interaction with the personnel, motivating them, helping the employees to work smarter by actively seeking different interpretations and checking out assumptions, placing individual problems in the larger perspective of the whole organization; avoiding commitment to preconceived solutions; clarifying and summarizing key points during meetings; and keeping the group on task but do not imposing own perspective. This kind of leadership will ultimately make a huge difference in developing manageable solutions. 8.2 LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES OF MILITARY AND CORPORATEWORLD The relevance of advice from the military officer to a corporation manager and Vice Versa cannot be questioned. It is mentioned by countless authors that leadership is about influencing others. The leadership style of the military generals is often misconceived and misrepresented. (Boyce, 2007). In the interview Boyce, mentions that leadership is about getting things done through people and in military the survival of a person is dependent t on others. So bullying style will not yield the desired results. When it comes to the matter of life and death the cooperation of team members is very essential . Effective ways of communication and cooperation between the team members becomes very crucial. Hence, there it is totally relevant for a military general to advice a corporate manager about leadership. In the same way, the relevance of advice from a corporate manager to a military general cannot be doubted. A corporate manager can enlighten the military generals about the interaction with the team members in the process of leadership. Business activity can also resemble war in some context. Hence, the various strategies to keep the members of the team informed, motivated, satisfied can be learnt from the corporate manager by the military general. REFERENCES 1. Boyce, M.L ( 2007) “Leadership in military and civilian life” July, available at http://leaderswedeserve.wordpress.com/2007/07/24/leadership-in-military-and-civilian-life/ 2. Kelloway, EK and Barling J (2000) "What have we learned about developing transformational leaders" in Leadership and Organization Development Journal, Vol 21, No 7, pp355-362.  3. Schermerhorn, J.R (2005) “Management” New York, John Wiley and Sons. Read More