Impact of Shift Work on Individuals' Loneliness: A Graduating Project

Desklib offers solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

Graduating Project

PROJECT TITLE
To Determine the Impact of Shift Work on
Individuals (Feeling Of Loneliness)
1

Summary/Abstract
Shift work relates with an employment practice that is developed to utilise the time is
effective manner and for providing 24 hours services to customers. The process includes
allocation of the time during which different group of workers practise their work. Shift
work now days is adopted by many of the industries such as military, hospitals, BPO’s,
transportation, restaurants, security and customer cares. The shift working has negative as
well as positive impact on the business and employees especially in the sector of travel and
tourism. The profitability and productivity of the business increases with the contribution of
shift working as more and more productivity is achieved. On the other hand the shift work
affects the health, lifestyle and relationship of the workers by changing shifts and timings.
The research benefits in carrying out the impact of work shift on the lifestyle and health of
the workers in the travel and tourism sector. Various methods are adopted that contributed
in carrying out the success of the research such as qualitative and quantative analysis
methods that benefited with information gathering. Data is collected through surveys,
interviews and literatures reviews in respect to the impact of shift work on the workers in
travel and tourism industry. Based on the analysis and evaluation of the information and
data gathered through different approaches it is concluded that work shift has major impact
on the lifestyle and health of the staff. The improper schedule of work impact the health of
the employees and origin many harmful diseases such as depression, heart problems and
lack of sleep. The work pressure and depression due to irregular work schedule many times
forces the employees to attempt suicides that affect the life. The employees also benefited
with the bonus and increment in salary that increase the standard of living of the employees
and also contributes in improvement in the performance of business.
2

Table of Contents
Summary/Abstract................................................................................................................... 2
List of Tables.............................................................................................................................4
Chapter 1: Introduction............................................................................................................5
1.1: Research Aims and Objectives...................................................................................6
1.2: Research Questions...................................................................................................7
Chapter 2: Literature Review................................................................................................... 9
2.1 Introduction................................................................................................................9
2.2 Literature Review..................................................................................................... 10
Chapter 3: Methodology........................................................................................................ 21
3.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................21
3.2 Quantitative approach..............................................................................................21
3.3 Qualitative approach................................................................................................22
3.4 Action Plan................................................................................................................24
Chapter 4: Result and Analysis...............................................................................................27
4.1 Result........................................................................................................................27
4.2 Research Analysis..................................................................................................... 45
Chapter 5: Conclusions & Recommendations........................................................................52
5.1 Recommendation.....................................................................................................52
5.2 Conclusion................................................................................................................ 55
Chapter 6: Limitations............................................................................................................57
7. References..........................................................................................................................59
Chapter 8: Appendices........................................................................................................... 63
8.1 Appendix 1....................................................................................................................... 63
3

List of Tables
3.1 : Action plan
4

Chapter 1: Introduction
The changing business environment and the competitive landscape along with the changing
expectations of the customers have brought about many changes in the way an organisation
delivers its services. One of the major changes is being available for all 24 hours a day. In the
past, this practice was limited to the services like Healthcare services, transportation, and
various emergency services. However, nowadays this practice has become prevalent in
almost all types of organisations (Prajogo, 2016). Also, the internationalisation of the
organisations has somewhat contributed to this practice. Shift work is one of the practices
that facilitates the 24 hours a day seven days a week availability of the organisational
services to its clients. It’s specifically designed to ensure the availability of organisational
services throughout the day. It involves dividing the day into different shifts and assigning
the workforce to these different shifts thereby categorically ensuring the availability of the
workforce 24 hours a day. The shift work can be defined as the work that takes place
outside the standard work hours. It could involve the work during different shifts such as
night shifts, evening shifts, rotating shifts, and early morning shifts (Prajogo, 2016).
The shift work has become a common practice across many an organisation and industry. It
involves millions of individuals that execute their work according to different shift schedules.
In the US, nearly 15% of the full time workers work on shift schedules whereas in the UK,
people working in the night shift number over three million (Gran, 2018; Sleep Foundation,
2019). The shift schedules are primarily used by the protective services, food and beverages
sector, transportation, healthcare, and service industry. The employees working in different
shifts do so due to a number of reasons such as it could be the nature of the job; it
facilitates better childcare or family arrangements; it’s the only choice; or it’s a preferred
alternative. Shift work has become integral to many an industry and it allows them to
deliver services outside the standard hours. However, there are many problems that the
employees may face while working in a shift schedule.
There is several health risks associated with the shift work. The shift work disorder, a type of
sleep disorder affects nearly 10% of the shift workers; the disorders like insomnia or
excessive sleepiness can be detected in nearly 25% of the shift workers. In addition to these,
there is a risk of heart diseases; obesity, gastrointestinal problems, ulcers, metabolic
5

disorders, cancers, and a myriad of mental and physical health problems are associated with
long term shift work (Scheer et al., 2009; (Delezie and Challet, 2011). It may also impact the
work life balance; marital life; and well-being of the shift workers children.
The project focuses on the impact of the shift work on the shift workers especially in the
development of a sense of loneliness and its further effects on their personal and
professional life. The methodology employed will be research based and will involve the use
of both primary and secondary data source to achieve the objectives of the projects. The
primary data will sourced from people actively working in shifts since a long time across
different sectors. The research will be conducted specifically to understand the shift work,
the mental and physical impacts of the shift work and the causes of the sense of loneliness
while exploring its impact on their work and performance; their personal life; and mental as
well as physical health (Prajogo, 2016).
1.1: Research Aims and Objectives
Project Aim
The aim of a project depicts the purpose of a study and defined concisely and clearly. These
are broad statements that indicate the desired result of the project. It focuses on what
needs to be accomplished and are a reflection of the expectations and aspirations of a
project title. The current project considers the impact of shift work on individuals working in
a variety of organisations across the sectors like transportation, hospitality, emergency
services, etc. The area of focus is the feeling of loneliness that arises out of the lack of social
interactions in the professional as well as personal life. The reasons for this could be
surmised as the uneven timings of the shift work outside the normal and traditional work
hours as well as the frequent changes of the shift schedule that prevents the individuals
form interacting socially or in a friendly manner and restricts interaction with familiar
colleagues. The project aim can be outlined as follows
“To determine the impact of shift work on individuals across different sectors in the context
of the feeling of loneliness”
Project Objectives
6

The objectives are defined/ formulated after the project aims are established. These
objectives are consistent with the research/ project aims and indicate the tasks that need to
be completed to attain the project aims. The objectives focus on the ways that can help in
the achievement of the project aims; are feasible; addresses the immediate consequences
of a project, are precise and sensible; utilise concepts accurately; are in the form of
independent statements that focus on covering the desired intention (Prajogo, 2016). The
research objectives allow the researcher to pursue the project aim by dividing the aim into
achievable objectives that are well defined and researchable. The different objectives
concern different aspects or elements of the project aim and by fulfilling the objective the
project aim is achieved. The current projects has following objectives
 To determine the current scenario in the context of shift working
 To determine the impact of shift working on individuals in the current environment
 To determine whether shift working hinders individuals from forming working
relations at their workplaces.
 To determine the relationship of an individual’s loneliness with the shift working
 To determine ways/ measure that can help minimise the impact of shift working ion
individuals.
 To determine potential measures that can prevent the feeling of loneliness from
arising at the workplace
1.2: Research Questions
A research question is a probe into a specific matter or concern. It constitutes the first step
of a research project and it defines the area that needs to be explored and it forms the basis
of the research hypothesis and the literature review thereby the direction and outline of the
research project. The research questions can be of three types; Casual, Observational-
Relational, and Descriptive (Bell et al., 2018).
Casual Research Questions
The Casual research questions focus on determining the impact of the changes in one
variable on a set of variables or another variable. Both the input and output variable belong
to the same habitat/ area.
7

Observational- Relational or Comparative Research Questions
The Comparative or Observational-Relational research questions analyses the
interrelationship between two or more variables in terms of their effect/ impact oin each
other.
Descriptive Research Questions
The Descriptive research questions are focused on describing the characteristics or
conditions that either exist or are happening. These form the basis of descriptive research
and usually start with “How” or “What”.
The current study has majority of descriptive question with a single causal questions (Bell et
al., 2018). The following are the research questions of the current study
What is the situation of shift working on individuals at present?
What is the relation of working in shifts and individual’s loneliness?
What are the possible measures that can be utilized in order to overcome the
loneliness emotion and feeling at the workplace?
Do shift working refrains people from creating working relations at the workplace?
The first three questions are descriptive research questions while the last research question
of Casual Research Questions.
8

Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
The changing shifts are impacting the human body in a wide range. The human body is not
at all that strong as it should be at a young age. There are different sectors with different
roles and responsibilities to work and hence the shifts are allotted to employees accordingly.
the hospitality industry where the employees are required to take care of their own health
in order to provide better services to customers. King and Lee (2016) stated that the hotel
industry is able to provide the services to customers 24*7 due to the cooperation of
employees. No organization will be able to provide the services to customers 24/7 until
there will not be employees and hence the safety and security of the employees are the
responsibility of the organization (Bettridge and Whiteley, 2016). There are many acts and
legislation for the safety and security of the employees but the employees are also
responsible to take care of their health. They are required to take proper sleep and need to
take meal timely. The changing shifts change the employee’s meal time and sleep time as
well. Many times it happens that the employees forget to take meal after shift and go to
sleep due to the feeling of tiredness that causes the weakness in their body and imbalance
their other activities. They do not feel capable to complete the task on time due to having
disorders of daily routines (Bettridge and Whiteley, 2016). According to Aksoy (2019), the
employees feel helpless and lonely due to the disability of doing things properly. This is very
important to manage all the activities and special food and sleep time for every shift in
order to get better health. There are multiple types of research has been done by many of
the researchers and reviews of many authors are stating that the human body can only work
better when the body will get proper 7 to 9 hours sleep every night. Even if they are
sleeping for 7-9 hours in the day time will definitely not provide the freshness and energy
which a night sleep provides. Valette (2016) stated that the UCSD states a different
definition of sleeping in which they are saying that the 5 hours sleeping is better than 8
hours sleeping and this could also be done but those who work for all day long and having
hectic schedule are required to have at least 7 hours sleep every day. In this research report,
the different cultures of different sectors related to work and its shift timing have been
discussed (Rea, 2018). The major focus has been put on the medical sector, travel and
tourism sector, BPO sectors and few more service sectors. This assignment is completely
9

based on the feelings of individuals working in different shifts and how their changing shifts
are impacting the human body has been discussed. The work performance of employees in
different sectors with their security and the work performance of the employee in the travel
and tourism sector in order to provide safety and security to customers have been analysed.
Dahlgren et al. (2016) Every employee have a right to live for him, to spend the time with
family and friends. The fear, stress, depression, lack of confidence are increasing speedily in
the minds of every employee in the changing shifts as they are the required to complete the
work with changing shifts at any cost (Rea, 2018).
2.2 Literature Review
Nakao et al. (2018) have stated that the work shifts are better in a few aspects. The workers
get better pay for the rotational shifts and this could be also beneficial from the child care
perspective as well. The workers and employees also get extra time for their other works.
Although medical and scientific research is saying that the shift work could be quite
dangerous for an individual. This is really not easy for an individual to adjust all his routine
and to manage the shift work (Noe et al., 2017). This is creating the risk for the human body
and overall impacting in a negative sense. In the US research, it has analyzed that most of
the working shifts are from the evening to midnight which is completely impacting the
health of the human body including his sleeping, eating, and relaxation of mind. They are
bounded to perform their other activities according to their working shift timings and hence
they adjust with the meal time, sleep time, study time and other time (Noe et al., 2017). The
constant changes in shifts cause anxiety and stress in an individual that impact the
productivity and quality of their work. According to Dall' Ora et al. (2016), the night shift
workers face special problems. When an employee work overnight, the sunlight affect their
eye directly and hence the shift workers should wear dark glasses or special glasses in order
to avoid the daylights after completion of his night shifts. The 8 hours’ sleep is also
important for every individual and hence every employee must get the time to reschedule
all his routine according to the changing shifts (Hine, 2016).
Ozcelik and Barsade (2018) stated that the concern that is arising these days is the feeling of
loneliness at the workplace due to changes in shifts constantly. The shift workers and
employees feel stressful and feel helpless as well in shift working due to having different
culture, different people and different ways to perform a task. According to Barnes (2018),
10

the employees do not immediately get the way to perform his individual work and the
workers required to coordinate with all the other members working in that particular shift
to complete the task. This becomes quite awkward for every employee to talk with new
members on the very first meeting and sometimes this also creates the awkward moment
while communicating with other members of the team. This makes the employees feel
alone and helpless at their workplace in constant changing shifts (Hine, 2016).
Kecklund and Axelsson (2016), the human body needs proper sleep every night. The night
workers are the one who fights with their each and every activity that they perform every
day and night. The people working in night shifts deal with many challenges. They work at
night when the world is sleeping and they choose to sleep in the day time when the whole
world is awakened. This is not easy for a person working at night. The family in day time
performs their daily chores that interrupt the sleep of the night shift worker (Hine, 2016).
This is how a human body is getting impacted when a person is not able to take proper
sleep, unable to take food on time and with this situation the person go to work in the night
again. This causes big anxiety in a human body and lack of sleeping causes stress in their
work. Barnes et al. (2016) have said that basically, people choose to go out and have some
hangouts with friends and go for a coffee or tea, spend time with family and friends but the
night shifters lose this opportunity due to having 24 hours’ hectic schedule. Due to not to
have proper night sleep people often feel depressed and insomnia and even if the night
shifters think that they are taking a sleep in day time enough then this would be definitely
wrong. An individual can't get the healthy sleep in day time which is needed to take. The
night sleep relaxes and provides the freshness to the body where the day sleep creates the
fatigue in a human body and hence the night sleep is very important in order to get a
healthy life (Golden, 2016).
According to Haldane (2017), the labor market is also in the target where the employees
work all day long and they are also required to work in night shifts due to balance the
economic condition whether it is a personal condition or the national financial condition. In
the global world, there are very few skilled and knowledgeable people in the market. Due to
lack of skills and knowledge, unemployment is increasing and due to fewer employees in the
company, the labors and workers are instructed to do overtime after their shifts. This again
doesn't provide a healthy schedule to the employees and workers. Dahlgren et al. (2016)
11