Work Stress Management Essay - Desklib

The essay analyzes the impact of work stress on employees and their families, with a case study of Renesas Electronic Corp. It discusses the theories of general adaptation syndrome and conservation of resources, and provides recommendations for effective stress management.

Running head: WORK STRESS MANAGEMENT ESSAY
WORK STRESS MANAGEMENT ESSAY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1WORK STRESS MANAGEMENT ESSAY
The essay focuses on the topic of work stress and its potential severe implications on the
lives of the workers. It has been witnessed through several incidents across diverse workplaces
that the employees sometimes experience even fatal consequences due to excessive work related
stress. The case being considered for the essay is based on a company in Japan called Renesas
Electronic Corp. An employee had died due to complications arising from excessive work related
stress. The severe impact of work related stress on employees and the various ways through
which stress can be effectively approached is systematically analyzed through relevant theories
and practices.
According to the theory of general adaptation syndrome formulated by Hans Selye a
person can be slowly weakened physically through continuous exposure to stress factors. The
theory puts forward the fact that constant stress has adverse impact on the life of an individual
(Kiely, 2016). It makes the individual develop faster ageing and more susceptible to succumb to
various diseases. In the case study the employees of the Japanese company is greatly affected by
stress due to his job role. Thus, it can be said that his health has been greatly affected due to the
stress factors that he was exposed to at his workplace. As per the case study, the 34 year old
equipment maintenance worker had to face severe stress levels for many months. In accordance
with the theory of the GAS model the employee probably went through three distinct stages of
work stress. In the first stage the employee’s body was alarmed by the stress factors, thereby
developing a fighting mechanism as a means to survive stress (Kiely, 2016). In the second stage
the body developed a mechanism for resistance. Thus, factors such as blood pressure, glucose
levels and other essential body factors remained high. The vital functional elements like heart
rate, blood-pressure, etc, remained high. In the third stage the employee went through

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irrecoverable damage to his body mechanisms and was exhausted. This ultimately led to his
death.
However, it can also be said that other essential factors might have also led to the death
of the employee. Given the fact that he was exposed to great levels of stress in the four months
prior to his death he had worked per month for more than 80 hours. Moreover, he had worked
more than 24 hours of overtime in the weak before his death. Firstly, this can be said to be very
unusual level of work stress and generally this kind of heavy work stress is not what regular
employees go through. Thus, the GAS model may not be applied to this case as the employee
was affected by unusually higher levels of stress. The stress factors that the employee went
through might have aggravated previously existing health conditions ultimately leading to his
demise due to heart attack (Nelson & Burke, 2018).
The theory of Conservation of resources deals with the effect of stress on the
motivational factors that guide people. As per the case study the family of the employee has to
deal with the increased stress of losing the principal earner of the family. The family consists of
the worker’s wife and three children. Thus, it is much evident that they will require substantially
larger amount of resources in order to sustain themselves (Halbesleben et al., 2014). According
to the theory there are three kinds of scenarios in which individuals can face psychological stress.
Firstly, at a time when there is an imminent threat of resource loss. Secondly, when resource loss
has taken place and thirdly, when there is a loss of acquired resources due to excessive resource
utilization. In the given scenario, the family can be affected by the latter two instances (Nelson &
Burke, 2018). Firstly, due to the great loss of the principle earner of the family there is an
existing loss of resource. Moreover, due to this loss and the law suits that were filed the family

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can also lose its acquired resources. This will amount to a great deal of psychological stress, not
only for the mother of the children but for the entire family (Halbesleben et al., 2014). The
theory further stresses on the fact that loss of resource can be of greater harm than the gain of
resource in similar proportion. Thus, for the family this loss of resource can potentially cause
greater harm that a similar gain in resource would have caused. Moreover, the initial loss of the
primary source of income for the family will give way to more losses in the future. In any case
the family is bound to face great emotional turmoil due to the death of the employee. It can be
said that stress is being passed on to the family of the employee after the death of the employee.
Upon being hired by the REC for becoming the organizational psychologist the various
recommended changes have to be made in order to provide a proper framework for
organizational stress management (Nelson & Burke, 2018). Priority should be given towards
understanding the various reasons that lead to excessive stress levels among the employees.
Thus, it is important to systematically provide recommendations in favor of effective stress
management.
Firstly, the individual roles of the employees should be made clear to them. Excessive
stress often occur due the employees not being able to properly understand their roles and taking
up roles outside their skill set. Thus, roles should be clearly assigned to individual employees
across the organizational levels (Halbesleben et al., 2014).
Secondly, it is much important to provide the right amount of feedback to the employees.
This will help the employees to understand their strengths and weaknesses and realizing their
growth potential. Positive feedback will also work towards greatly motivating the employees.

4WORK STRESS MANAGEMENT ESSAY
Motivation reduces stress factors to great extents. The mirror technique can be used in which
neutral coordinators can solve inter-group problems at the workplace.
Thirdly, effective assistance have to be provided to management concerning efficient
decision making towards empowering the employees. Management has to make decisions that
can guide employees better concerning the effective management of their work functions. It is
important that the management understands that employees need to be given strong directives in
order to be motivated towards completing their work functions. This can contribute towards
reducing stress levels among the employees. Effective directives often serve the purpose of
giving employees greater freedom to do their assigned duties. Moreover, greater autonomy
should be given to employees for deciding how they will manage their duties. Providing greater
work flexibility will greatly reduce stress aspects.
Fourthly, it is important to judiciously consider the design of the work. It becomes
necessary at times to re-evaluate the tasks that are being assigned to the employees for obvious
reasons. The variety of tasks and the requirement of newer skills should be considered by the
management of REC. The employees can be given more meaningful tasks. This can include task
that can both be easy for the employees to comprehend along with tasks that are challenging and
involve the development of newer skills (Lloyd, Bond & Flaxman, 2017). Monotonous tasks can
greatly stress out employees as lack of motivation seldom leads to increasing stress levels.
Fifthly, there is a great requirement for an employee assistance program. Through these
programs individual psychological needs of the employees can be addressed. Employees have to
give long hours to their work (Nelson & Burke, 2018). Thus, they can develop various

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psychological issues as a result of the same. Personal assistance greatly reduces stress levels and
makes the office environment friendlier than before, leading to better stress management.
In conclusion it can be said that the case that was considered provided the fatal
consequences of increased stress levels among employees. The various theories have been able
to effectively point towards the importance of organizational stress management. The importance
rises further as the implications of employee stress often falls on their families that depend on
them. Hence, it becomes very much important that stress factors are effectively analyzed and
evaluated subsequently for better understanding its implications on the health of an employee.
From the case it is quite significantly understood that the implication of severe work related
stress on employees can be fatal. It becomes a joint responsibility of organizations and
individuals to maintain essential stress management at workplaces.

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References
Halbesleben, J. R., Neveu, J. P., Paustian-Underdahl, S. C., & Westman, M. (2014). Getting to
the “COR” understanding the role of resources in conservation of resources theory.
Journal of Management, 40(5), 1334-1364.
Kiely, J. (2016). A new understanding of stress and the implications of our cultural training
paradigm. New Stud Athl, 30(3), 27-35.
Lloyd, J., Bond, F. W., & Flaxman, P. E. (2017). Work-related self-efficacy as a moderator of
the impact of a worksite stress management training intervention: Intrinsic work
motivation as a higher order condition of effect. Journal of occupational health
psychology, 22(1), 115.
Nelson, D. L., & Burke, R. J. (2018). Gender, work stress, and health.