Occupational Health and Safety in Organizations

This article discusses the importance of occupational health and safety in organizations and its impact on employee productivity. It identifies common workplace issues such as stress, heavy workloads, inadequate resources, poor leadership, lack of clarity of roles, transparency, and poor performance management. The article also explores the effects of poor working conditions on health and productivity and provides solutions to these issues.

Running head: LEADERSHIP OF ORGANIZATION
LEADERSHIP OF ORGANIZATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LEADERSHIP OF ORGANIZATION
Organizational stress is a common issue that every organizations employee faces
nowadays due to the increased competition in the market. The management is trying hard to
increase the productivity of the employee by giving them extra pressure (Quick et al. 2013).
Occupational health deals with health and safety aspects in the organizational workplace and
focuses on the prevention of the toxic hazards that are present in the organization. Occupational
health also includes the stress factor that employee deals in the workplace. This may happen due
to the untimely schedule, extra work pressure, tight deadlines etc. A good working environment
leads to optimum use of the labor forces and it increases the productivity of the organization and
gives them a competitive advantage (Alexander 2013).
The unit manager of the organization and the Division head met for reviewing the
services demand to prepare the funding submission for the upcoming financial year. Clients have
increased in numbers and there is a limited opportunity to increase the funding. Managers had to
come up with their case individually and then the management will work out and identify their
priorities. The meeting had been postponed twice and the deadline is coming so the managers
and the group have finally settled to discuss the funding of the next financial year. It is expected
that no one is leaving today in time and the task that will be completed with least breaks.
The session will be long and this may cause many health issues for the employee. For
example, Paula is suffering from diabetes and if she does not get some food in time then it may
affect her health. Lennie is wondering, if he could deliver is ideas before everyone so that he can
leave to collect his children from the childcare. These are some of the issue that the employee of
the organization deals with that will eventually affect the working condition of the organization.

2LEADERSHIP OF ORGANIZATION
Occupational health and safety
The aim of the organization should be the well-being of their employees. If the employee
of the organization faces issues then it will hamper their performance and will cause unnecessary
stress in the organization. Stress leads to deadline failure and this will affect the goodwill of the
company. The aim of the occupation health and safety should be:
 The maintenance and promotion of the mental, social and physical well being of the
employees in the organization (Faragher, Cass and Cooper 2013)
 The prevention of the adverse effects of health due to the working condition
 The protection of the workers who are affected due to the unhealthy working
environment (Hood, Hardy and Simpson 2016)
 Providing high technologies with proper safety standards to avoid any accident in the
organization
Causes of poor working condition:
 Stress: The workplaces nowadays is full of deadlines, demands etc. There are employees
who work through this pressure and there are people who are not able to handle the
pressure and succumb to this pressure (McTernan, Dollard and LaMontagne 2013).
 Heavy workloads: If there is increased workload in the organization, it degrades the
quality of the work and affects the health of the employees (Trivellas, Reklitis and Platis
2013).
 Inadequate resources: Time and material should be available adequately so that they can
perform their task easily without bandy stoppage. Inadequate resources will cause loss in
the working hours and this will lead to failed deadlines (Goetsch and Davis 2014).

3LEADERSHIP OF ORGANIZATION
 Poor leadership: A leader motivates his subordinates, provides confidence and increase
the enthusiasm among the employees. But, if the same leader engage into punitive and
aggressive behavior, it may results to harassment at the work (Ryan and Tipu 2013).
 Lack of clarity of the roles: This occurs when different workers are given different roles
and responsibilities that are not compatible to them. The lack of clarity in the objectives
and the expectations of the workers create a huge tension between the employees and this
resulted in conflicts.
 Transparency: When the employees are not aware of the decision, they tend to make their
own prediction and assumption that can spread rumors. This will ultimately hurt the
image of the organization and will also hamper the trust towards the management.
 Poor performance management: Ineffectively conducted performance appraisal can cause
a lot of problem in the workplace as well as it will affect the performance of the
employee. If an employee with a huge productivity is under rated then it tends to create
inferiority complex among the employee.
Effects of poor working environment on health and productivity:
Poor workplace condition has a negative impact in the health and the production of the
organization. The effects of poor working condition are:
 Decreased productivity: The production of the organization decrease when the working
conditions of the organization are unhealthy. Employees tend to suffer more from
diseases and this leads to loss of working hour.
 Chances of accident: Unhealthy work environment and ineffective equipments increases
the chance of accident in the workplace.

4LEADERSHIP OF ORGANIZATION
 Leads to bad health: Workplace may lead to many health diseases. It may cause severe
brain damages and chronic diseases. The health standard of the organization should
highly focus on providing a safe working environment for their employees.
 Delay in task: If an organization failed to provide adequate resources within time then it
may cause delay in work. This will make it tough for the employees to finish the task in
time and it will ultimately affect the image of the organization (Liu and Heer 2014).
 Low employee retention: In today’s world, the competition is increasing due to the
increase in the organization. If the working environment is unhealthy then the employee
tends to leave the organization and find some better workplace to work in. This resulted
in the organization’s loss as they lose skilled and trained employees from the
organization (Davis 2013).
Ways to solve these issues:
The workplace environment should be the top priority of the organization. To better the
workplace condition the organization can follow these steps:
 Providing realistic deadlines should be the first towards the healthy working
environment. This will reduce the stress from the employee and they will be more
focused in achieving the goals (Kenner and Pressler 2014).
 Prior notice should be given before any organizational policy change and according to
that proper training should be provided, so that the employee does not get uncomfortable
and confused in adjusting the new changes.
 Deadlines that are set initially should not be missed, as it will delay the next target and
this way the organization will continue missing all the deadlines.

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 Proper safety guidelines should be maintained by the organization as well as by the
employees. The equipments should be upgraded time to time so that it reduces the risks
of accidents in the organization (Dabrowski 2015).
 The employees should be well informed about the meetings that the organization will
organize. This will help to finish their personal tasks before the meeting is started.
In this assignment, the employee is facing problem with the timing of the meeting. The
meeting has been postponed many times and the deadline has come. The unit manager has
decided to sum up the meeting without taking many breaks. The session will be too long and the
employees do not have any idea when it will end. Due to this employees are facing many
problems like Paula is worried that she will not get time for having her food, which may affect
her health as she has been suffering from diabetes. This problem can be solved if there is a
proper break for the employee. Lennie have to collect his children from the childcare so he
wants to put his case earlier. These problems happened due to the delay of the meeting. The
issue should not have risen if the meeting was not postponed.
However, these issues can still be solved if the organization allows a break and record all
that have been discussed in the organization. The organization should inform their employees
from next time before organizing such lengthy sessions.

6LEADERSHIP OF ORGANIZATION
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