Managing Workplace Stress and Burnout

This assignment explores the concept of workplace stress and burnout, highlighting its causes, effects, and consequences. It examines various factors that contribute to employee stress, including work intensification, performance pressures, and lack of social support. The assignment also discusses effective strategies for reducing stress and promoting well-being in the workplace, such as good communication, social networking, seeking counseling, and participating in extracurricular activities. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the psychosocial work environment and individual characteristics in managing stress and burnout.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
Employee Performance Enhancement in Workplace
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Part 1
How companies in Singapore can enhance employee performance and well-being in the
workplace.
According to a research conducted by Farndale, and Kelliher, in 2013, the performance of
an employee can be improved by providing them with annual appraisal in the workplace. In their
research, they state that employees feel motivated to work when they are provided the chance of
appraisal. This form of reward induces their commitment to the organization. Their research
evidence shows that when line managers are given appraisal will the guide the employees to
make full use of the provided resources and accomplish the goals for the company as well cab
improve their own position in the company (Farndale & Kelliher, 2013).
It is the responsibility of the human resources department of an organization, to recruit
talented, hard working employees who would be benefit the company by giving better
production. A research paper published in 2004 by Ryan and Tippins, showed the kind of tools
which can be implemented for the selection procedure, the strategy by which the recruitment is
done, how those tools of selection affect the diversity in the workforce and the type of process
that goes in selection of staffs and recruitment procedure (Ryan & Tippins, 2004). The affect of
all this is discussed in terms of perception of the applicants. The selection employee which can
withstand the pressure of the organization and provide good output will have good cognitive
ability, decision making skills, team playing attitude and will not give up at any time. This can be
assessed by using tool and techniques to make the workforce of the company stronger.
Peter Richardson and Keith Denton, in 2005 published a paper discussing the techniques
that can be used to build a stronger workforce, which will provide better production to the

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company. The paper discusses that it is necessary for the higher authorities to select a strong
workforce, develop the team within the workforce, how the team can be taught to compensate
the work pressure when one particular employee is not being able to provide good production
(Richardson & Denton, 2005). The paper advices that training is important to develop
communication and team playing skills of the employee, which will ultimately result in better
production. Employees should always be taught to reach for success and betterment of their
position, which requires hard work. Practicing hard work, time management will ensure the
workflow is not disrupted in time of work overload.
Conflict in the organization can sometimes be good thing. As, pointed out by Dean
Tjosvold, in his paper “The conflict-positive organization: it depends upon us”, in 2007, showed
that proper management of disruption and conflict in the organization can offer positive
outcomes. Conflict that is caused by the act of competition and disambiguation can provide good
outcome for the organization and helps developing cooperative relationships. The conflict shows
the open-mindedness of the employees (Tjosvold, 2007).
Part 2
The collective data provided in the article published in Singapore sure that the singer on
based CFO in contemplating the pressure on the finance professionals will increase in the
coming please. 56% of the Singapore based CFO believe that workload increases pressure. 54%
believe that increase of expectation from the employees causes stress. 40% believe that the
decreased time frame for deadline causes anxiety in the finance staff. 38% of the CFO believes
that the competition in the market is a cause of the stress. The business expectation from
Singapore is very high as it is a leading country which provides excellent business (The top 4

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causes of workplace stress in Singapore, 2017). All of these factors play an important role in
increasing the stress levels in finance employees. It is important to discuss the stress levels of
employees because the overall production output of the company is hampered if the employees
undergo burnouts due to stress (Koukoulaki, 2014). There are various methods which can be
implemented do videos the stress on employees like making adjustment in the organisation
development of policies which include evidence from temporary workers doing excessive
overload (Quick et al., 2013).
Organisational factors affecting stress
 Bias and favouritism between employees with regards to remuneration increases stress
 In flexibility of the organisation policies rules and regulations create discrepancy in the
workforce (Beheshtifar & Omidvar, 2013)
 Communication gap between employees or higher authorities disrupt the floor of
information causing stress (Chesley, 2014).
 Pressure from peers create competition which enhances the stress levels among
employees
 Conflict between employees and authorities regarding the scope of goals create
disambiguity
 The formality and centralised structure of the organisation create pressure on low level
employees.
 Lack of scope for promotion or appraisal demotivates employees and increases stress
levels.

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 The failure of higher authority and managers to include employees for the decision
making process makes it harder for them to understand the company policies and adhere
to the decided guidelines (Payne, Jones & Harris, 2013).
 The over exploitation of employees demotivates them which results from increased stress
responses, ultimately affecting the production for the company.
Individual factors affecting stress among employees
Every employee is expected to provide for their respective family. These individual expectations
create pressure on employees over time. Expectation of the superior or subordinate can also
create stress over prolonged period of time (Cooper & Marshall, 2013). Circumstantially, if the
employee fails to meet those expectations, they feel demotivated and stresses which further
reduces the productivity of the employee. Disambiguity in the workplace creates self-doubt
which is stress in times of heavy workload (Mann, De Ridder & Fujita, 2013). Certain personal
trait also increases stress in an individual employee even more. Individuals who are easily
temperamental, aggressive and rigid find it much difficult to cope with stress and pressure. Other
factors include financial stability, domestic problems and abrupt career change can result in
increased pressure in employees (Hanna & Mona, 2014).
Organizational strategies for managing stress
 The managers and higher authorities should provide employees with the space
communicate so as to minimize the risk of ambiguity and conflict amongst the workforce.
The views of the employees will be changed if the formality and rigidity of the managers
are altered. Managers should make sure that the employees do not misinterpret the cues
provided by them (Chesley, 2014).

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 It is the responsibility of the managers to maintain the incorporation of the lower
employees in the decision making process to minimize the risk of sudden exposure and
disruption of continuity in the workforce (Kasi & Sarma, 2013).
 The organization should set realistic achievable and attractive goal for the employees to
keep their interests heightened in the workforce and provide appraisals to encourage good
service.
 Decentralization should be encouraged to minimize stress.
 Non-discriminated and non-biased remuneration plan to promote equal opportunity
among employees.
 Rotational job should be implemented.
 Safe and fruitful environment promotion.
 Skilled professional should be employed for human resourcing.
 Appreciation for over exceeding expectation and targets should be promoted to keep the
employee motivated.
Individual strategies for managing stress
 Individual employees can maintain organizers to improve their time management which
will help reducing their stress. This will help the employees prioritize the work schedule
and maintain room for emergency task.
 Maintain small breaks in between tasks to relax releases stress.

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 Employees should strive to work hard and achieve goals, but it has to be made sure that
the responsibilities of family are not neglected.
 Individuals need to maintain office decorum even in stressful situation with their peers
and authorities (Mann, De Ridder & Fujita, 2013).
 Stress managing diets and exercise can improve the mental and physical health of the
employees.
 Exercising facilitates blood circulation and provides energy which reduces stress by
keeping the mind engaged.
 Proper eating, getting enough sleep minimizes fatigue and stress management
 Yoga and psychotherapy can be taken to reduce stress and have clear mind.
 Behavior altering therapy may help employees get rid of negative stressful conditions.
 Having a positive and optimistic outlook reduces stress, the impact of positive thoughts
releases endorphins, serotonin and dopamine which keep the happy thoughts active.
 Employees need to maintain self-confidence and self-awareness which helps minimizing
stress (Hanna & Mona, 2014).
 Employees can keep emotional support system which can provide them privacy and they
and confide in them to release stress. This is developed with effective communication and
listening skills (Chesley, 2014).
 Good social network promotes positive thoughts and reduces stress.

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 Reaching out seek counseling can be effective in reducing stress from time to time.
Occupational therapy can help employees understand the importance of their role and feel
less stressed (Hanna & Mona, 2014).
 Employees can focus on personal growth and control their impatience, aggression and
resistance (Mann, De Ridder & Fujita, 2013).
 Employees can participate in extracurricular activities and socialize to release stress.

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References
Beheshtifar, M., & Omidvar, A. R. (2013). Causes to create job burnout in
organizations. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social
Sciences, 3(6), 107.
Chesley, N. (2014). Information and communication technology use, work intensification and
employee strain and distress. Work, employment and society, 28(4), 589-610.
Cooper, C. L., & Marshall, J. (2013). Occupational sources of stress: A review of the literature
relating to coronary heart disease and mental ill health. In From Stress to Wellbeing
Volume 1 (pp. 3-23). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Farndale, E. & Kelliher, C. (2013). Implementing performance appraisal: Exploring the
employee experience. Human Resource Management, 52(6), 879-897.
Hanna, T., & Mona, E. (2014). Psychosocial work environment, stress factors and individual
characteristics among nursing staff in psychiatric in-patient care. International journal of
environmental research and public health, 11(1), 1161-1175.
Kasi, B. K., & Sarma, A. (2013, May). Cassandra: Proactive conflict minimization through
optimized task scheduling. In Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on
Software Engineering (pp. 732-741). IEEE Press.
Koukoulaki, T. (2014). The impact of lean production on musculoskeletal and psychosocial
risks: An examination of sociotechnical trends over 20 years. Applied Ergonomics, 45(2),
198-212.

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Mann, T., De Ridder, D., & Fujita, K. (2013). Self-regulation of health behavior: social
psychological approaches to goal setting and goal striving. Health Psychology, 32(5),
487.
Payne, N., Jones, F., & Harris, P. R. (2013). Employees’ perceptions of the impact of work on
health behaviours. Journal of health psychology, 18(7), 887-899.
Quick, J. C., Wright, T. A., Adkins, J. A., Nelson, D. L., & Quick, J. D. (2013). Preventive stress
management in organizations. American Psychological Association.
Ryan, A. M. & Tippins, N. T. (2004). Attracting and selecting: What psychological research
tells us. Human Resource Management, 43(4), 305-318.
Richardson, P. & Denton, D. K. (2005). How to create a high-performance team.
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The top 4 causes of workplace stress in Singapore. (2017). Singapore Business Review.
Retrieved 14 April 2018, from http://sbr.com.sg/hr-education/news/top-4-causes-
workplace-stress-in-singapore
Tjosvold, D. (2007). The conflict-positive organization: It depends upon us. Journal of
Organizational Behaviour, 29, 19-28.

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