Analysis of Employee Stress and Management in MD Pharma, Adelaide

This report examines the issue of employee stress within the hypothetical "MD Pharma" pharmacy in Adelaide, Australia. The report identifies various factors contributing to stress among pharmacy employees, including distractions, high demands, lack of training, and a disconnect with the company. It critiques the owner's dismissive response to employee concerns and emphasizes the importance of addressing stress to prevent employee turnover. The report provides recommendations for both organizational strategies, such as promoting employee participation and job rotation, and individual steps employees can take, such as prioritizing tasks and adopting an optimistic approach. The conclusion underscores the significance of a supportive work environment for achieving organizational objectives and suggests measures to mitigate stress and improve employee retention within the pharmacy.

Student Details
PHARMACY MANAGEMENT

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Stress reasons for MD pharmacy employees.............................................................................3
The response over the statement made by the owner.................................................................5
Employee retention and attraction rate......................................................................................6
Recommendations......................................................................................................................7
Organizational strategies for managing stress level in the employees...................................7
Individual steps should be taken by the employees...............................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Pharmacy practices are found to be stressful because of interference of various factors.
University of California had concluded a study on pharmaceutical employees and found that
around 68% of the employee are found dealing with stress and anxiety issues. (Francer, et.
al., 2014). In this assignment, there will discussion about the factors which are creating
pressure on employees of pharmaceutical company situated at Adelaide. Selected company is
“MD pharma” (hypothetical) situated at Adelaide. Employees of the company are feeling
stress from their work pressure which is the danger sign. On this issue, their owner has
announced that whoever has complained about being stressed has a mental issue. In this
assignment, the answer to this question, whether the owner of the pharmacy is right or not
will be discussed.

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Stress reasons for MD pharmacy employees
Employees of the MD pharmacy are facing the pressure from various factors listed below:
 Distractions:
Employees of the company are facing distractions because of continuously ringing
phones, huge customer interference, background music, out-of-stock drugs, etc.
Furthermore, the University of California has concluded that it takes around 25
minutes for the employees of the pharmacy industry to return to the original task.
Pharmacy management is also noted as the most distracting job in the health care
industry (Mehralin, et. al., 2013).
 High demand and insufficient time:
Employees reported that are being ask to done more work in less time and with fewer
resources. Employees have to re-arrange their priority list again and again (Rybski &
Jochem, 2016). Government of Australia is setting “Pharma Vision 2020”, which
aims to make the country global leader in drug manufacturing.
 Lack of training:
Another major factor for increasing stress level in employees is that they are not
getting adequate training to deal with the real job scenario (Trivellas, Reklitis &
Platis, 2013). Front line employees are only trained in the general roles and
responsibility but after completing the training they deal with real pharmacist’s job
challenges. Training from Pharma employees run for only 3-4 months (in general)
(Scannell & Warrington, 2012).
 Lack of connection with the company:
Pharmacists become disconnected from the company when they become unable to
express the company’s vision and statement (Francer, et. al., 2014). In order to the

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established effective connection between the company and its employees then the
mission and core values of the company should be communicated regularly with the
employees (Avey, et. al., 2012).

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The response over the statement made by the owner
No, I have not agreed with the statement proses by the owner. According to me, instead of
de-motivating the employees, he should listen to the query of the employees. Owner of the
MD pharmacy should assign a Q&A session with its employees. He should also require to
pay attention to those activities which are enhancing the stress among the employees. This is
an important concern because as time passes, the stress started taking shape into the
depression. Thus, it is clear that instead of making a false statement it is the responsibility of
the owner to support their employees.
Pharmacy work is the stressful work and drug specialists who are under extraordinary
pressure are in danger of making more mistakes (Mehralin, et. al., 2013). Drug specialists
need to recognize their very own pressure triggers and envision their reactions to stretch.
Given the generally high occurrence of medicine use among patients/customers and the high
potential for antagonistic results (Rose, et. al., 2013). Prescription related mistakes and
tracking of such errors is a fundamental segment of the performance improvement process in
areas such as pharmacy management. Apart from this, pharmaceutical sector was valued at
$33billion in 2016 and government is expecting an increase in CAGR of 20% in next 4-5
years (Rybski & Jochem, 2016).

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Employee retention and attraction rate
If employees continue to face stress and if the owner continues to make such insane
statements then MD pharmacy has to face high attraction employee rate. In general sense, it
has been noted that when employees start feeling stress then either they left the job or they
demand different process in a company (Scannell & Warrington, 2012). In the MD pharmacy,
employees are facing stress because of the salary structure, peer pressure, less promotional
opportunities, excessive control on the employees, ineffective communication, etc (Trivellas,
Reklitis & Platis, 2013).

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Recommendations
Below recommendations are divided into two parts. The first part will explain how the
organization should make a strategy for managing stress among employees and how an
individual employee can set format for managing their stress levels.
Organizational strategies for managing stress level in the employees
 Encouragement of the employee’s participation in the decision management can help
in reducing stress (Avey, et. al., 2012).
 Promote job rotation and job enrichment.
 Appreciating employees on accomplishing their targets (Rybski & Jochem, 2016).
 Conduct effective orientation and hiring procedure.
 The company needs to change their salary structure in order to motivate employees.
 Employee counselling in the MD Company is also counted as an excellent strategy for
overcoming stress (Trivellas, Reklitis & Platis, 2013). Through counseling,
employees can become aware of their strength, weakness, self-confidence and self-
control at the workplace (Scannell & Warrington, 2012).
Individual steps should be taken by the employees
 Employees should make a to-do-list and should prioritize their work accordingly.
 The employee also needs to understand that the pharmaceutical industry demands
high work due to various factors related to human well-being (Rybski & Jochem,
2016).
 The shortest key to achieve success and managing stress is doing hard work.
 The employee should have an optimistic approach to their work and lifestyle.

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 The employee should use emotional intelligence and should avoid negative
approaches (Rose, et. al., 2013).
Conclusion
It has been concluded that the owner of the MD Company is making false statements.
Unfortunately, these statements are resultant in de-motivating employees. It is extremely
essential that employee should feel comfortable at the workplace because satisfied employees
succour the company in accomplishing the organization’s objectives. Apart from this, it has
been concluded that the employees of MD company are reported being in high stress. This
can resultant in increasing the attraction rate of employees. Suggested measures in this study
are promoting job roles, appreciating employees, re-structuring salary parameters, etc. Apart
from this, individual employees should also need to set a priority task, etc.

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References
Avey, J.B., Luthans, F., Hannah, S.T., Sweetman, D. and Peterson, C. (2012) Impact of
employees' character strengths of wisdom on stress and creative performance. Human
Resource Management Journal, 22(2), pp.165-181.
Francer, J., Izquierdo, J.Z., Music, T., Narsai, K., Nikidis, C., Simmonds, H. and Woods, P.
(2014) Ethical pharmaceutical promotion and communications worldwide: codes and
regulations. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, 9(1), 7-19.
Mehralian, G., Rasekh, H.R., Akhavan, P. and Ghatari, A.R. (2013) Prioritization of
intellectual capital indicators in knowledge-based industries: evidence from pharmaceutical
industry. International Journal of Information Management, 33(1), 209-216.
Rose, R.D., Buckey Jr, J.C., Zbozinek, T.D., Motivala, S.J., Glenn, D.E., Cartreine, J.A. and
Craske, M.G. (2013) A randomized controlled trial of a self-guided, multimedia, stress
management and resilience training program. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 51(2), 106-
112.
Rybski, C. and Jochem, R. (2016) Benefits of a learning factory in the context of lean
management for the pharmaceutical industry. Procedia CIRP, 54 (2), 31-34.
Scannell, J.W., Blanckley, A., Boldon, H. and Warrington, B. (2012) Diagnosing the decline
in pharmaceutical R&D efficiency. Nature reviews Drug discovery, 11(3), 191-198.
Trivellas, P., Reklitis, P. and Platis, C. (2013) The effect of job related stress on employees’
satisfaction: A survey in health care. Procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 73 (1), 718-
726.

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