Effective Teamwork and Stress Management - Essay Example

Effective Teamwork and Stress Management This report explores the role that the leaders and managers in an organization are expected to perform in an organization as far as the effective teamwork among the employees and stress management is concerned. This is geared towards the achievement of the goals of the organization. There, in this perspective, there is need to devise effective strategies that will help in realization of effective stress management and teamwork among the members. Stress management Expected Employee stress is a growing concern in many organizations today. This is a lively situation in which people encounter many problems, opportunities and loss of something that love or desire so much. Stress usually comes a response to some of the pressures or demand that are placed in front of them by some other members of the company. Stress can identified through the following signs and symptoms. Absenteeism; this entails escaping the duties and responsibilities in the workplace. There are stress management plan to deal with this issue. There are various objectives that drive this plan. This include the need to tackle the problem, dealing with the emotions of the employees, and making the world a better place to be. It starts with the restructuring of the policies and jobs that are assigned to the employees. Another way of tackling this is by encouraging the employees to take vacations and weekends. Furthermore, it involves the promotion of communication within the organization. This is a very tedious process that many companies have tried to enhance in their structure. This type of plan leads to the changing of the views that employees have concerning their duties in the organization. It is expected that the employees participate in decision making in the company. The unconscious part of the mind is responsible for the 80 percent of the conduct of a person. When a person does not get involved seriously in the management of stress, he or she pushes the problems further deep down into the subconscious brains. Actual In the actual settings, the workers are usually overloaded. There are also deadlines which are not realistic to them. Some of the managers believe that by doing this, they will engage their employees seriously so that they move away from the prevailing state of stress. This is misleading. In another scenario, the employees are relieved some of the workloads. This is a case when the employee is suspected to be under a certain form of stress. However, it does not work to solve stress. There is also ineffective management of the stress by the management. This has made them feel like they lack a sense of direction in the course of executing their duties. Differences There is a great difference in the way stress is managed in the companies today, with regard to the way this should be approached. For instance, they need to incorporate the emotions and values of the employees. Conversely, they are only concentrated with the reduction of the workloads without addressing the exact causes of this stress. In addition, the organizations do not concern themselves with the welfare of the employees. This further causes a lot of stress among the workers. There are many therapies that are applied to manage stress in the traditional setting. There were thought to be very effective to recover that initial state of mind of employees. The common methods that were commonly applied are massage, acupressure and acupuncture. Massage entailed the relaxation of the mind by decreasing the anxiety of the mental ecosystem. Recommendations Stress management is a continuous process that needs that every part of the employee welfare be handled with care as far as the factors that cause stress are eliminated or simply minimized. Dealing with the emotions of the worker entails the steps that lead to peace in the minds of the employees. They need to be taken to vacations instantly without any form of spending on their side. Therefore, the organization need to cater for the expenses while at the vacations. Indeed, this is actual. Whenever a person takes time out, he or she feels that he or she is part of the company. Another method of managing the employee stress is by ensuring and promoting a balance of the work among the employees. They need to be given flex time this entails varying the span of life time that the workers are expected to report to work on daily basis. This will remove the mentality of stress in the early hours that they are expected to wake up and report in the reception desk. In addition, they should be allowed to have time for work at home. Sometimes, employees are stressed with the occurrence of sickness among their members of the family. This usually stresses them so much to a point that they do not have time for carrying out their duties at work. Effective teamwork Expected The effective teamwork entails many elements in an organization. This usually occurs when each member or worker of the company brings his or her efforts to the interest of the business. They are also expected to harmonize these efforts which is focused towards achieving a common goal. These objectives are not attained by just a case of accident. However, this requires that there is hard work portrayed by the workers. Other expectations in the effective teamwork is good leadership. The leaders follow the demands stipulated in their roles and walk the talk as the saying goes. An expected element of effective teamwork is the ability to adapt to the roles and responsibilities. Another feature of effective teamwork is good communication among the colleague workers. Actual In the actual set up, there are most companies that do not embrace effective teamwork. This is caused by many factors within the company set up.in addition, whenever an organization fails to adhere to good communication, there is likely to be a state of poor communication. Many of the members of staff do not consider conveying crucial information to the other members. In another situation, they lack the appropriate methods and channels of communication. This is an assurance that the communication is going to be ineffective. In the retail sector, there are no clear goals defined within the scope of operation. Whenever a work team is created to carry out carious tasks within the retail setting, there is a tendency by the managers to assume that each one of them is well versed with the aims of the company or business enterprise. This makes the team to work in different directions, hindering harmony among their tasks. The job assignments have been distorted in this setting also. In most cases, there is no motivation for the employees to establish the goals. There is no award in case there is outstanding performance. Consequently, the employees feel discouraged. In the actual situation also, there is no involvement of the managers in the execution of the duties of the business enterprise. The capability to enhance teamwork has been threatened also. Lack of accountability is another issue that is noted in the retail sector pertaining teamwork. In this case, there is a great tendency for the members to pull their individual weights. The managers do not remind their subjects of the accountable areas. They also fail to monitor the progress of these junior members. Differences There is a very big gap between the way the managers and the other members of the retails sector manage teamwork and the expected way. This involves the way various issues pertaining team work are handled. For instance, the way they handle their employee expectations is so different from the expected trend. Recommendation There is need to develop a team to manage conflicts within the organization. There is a chance of new opinions arising on how to solve the issue of employee stress from the contribution of each member. There should be put a process that caters for the generation of solutions to the conflicts that come about. There is need for a certain level of trust among these members. They are supposed listen to each other and this leads to the emergence of the trust by nature. Effective communication needs to be enhanced regularly in the company. The first rule which needs to be embraced in the process of organization communication is listening to the views and opinions of the members of that particular entity. The use of email, impromptu and conference calls are the proven means of enhancing quick communication in a move to foster effective teamwork. Pertaining to lack of accountability in the activities of the business, the managers need to take an active role. They are also required to monitor the daily progress of the employees. The standards of the team need to be emphasized by those leaders. References Avey, J. B., Luthans, F., & Jensen, S. M. (2009). Psychological capital: A positive resource for combating employee stress and turnover. Human Resource Management, 48(5), 677-693. doi:10.1002/hrm.20294 DeChurch, L. A., & Mesmer-Magnus, J. R. (2010). The cognitive underpinnings of effective teamwork: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(1), 32-53. doi:10.1037/a0017328 Druskat, V. U., & Pescosolido, A. T. (2002). The Content of Effective Teamwork Mental Models in Self-Managing Teams: Ownership, Learning and Heedful Interrelating. Human Relations, 55(3), 283-314. doi:10.1177/0018726702553001 Michael T. Matteson and John M. Ivancevich: Controlling Work Stress: Effective Human Resource and Management Strategies. (1990). Organization Studies, 11(1), 151-152. doi:10.1177/017084069001100117 Trimpop, R. M. (2005). Effective Teamwork: Practical Lessons from Organizational Research. European Psychologist, 10(1), 79-80. doi:10.1027/1016-9040.10.1.79 Read More