Work Stress and Leadership: Telecommunications Company Report Analysis

This report analyzes work stress within a large telecommunications company experiencing organizational restructuring and increased workloads. The company, providing infrastructure and services, faces employee frustration due to long hours, heavy workloads, leadership changes, tight deadlines, job insecurity, and altered duties. The report explores how these stressors impact employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention, with 11% of employees considering leaving. It identifies key sources of stress, including long hours and leadership changes. Theories like Person-Environment Fit, Job Demand-Control, and Effort-Reward Imbalance are applied to explain the situation. The report provides recommendations for leaders to manage team stress, ultimately aiming to improve employee well-being and organizational performance. The report also includes appendices with supporting data.

Running head: WORK STRESS
Work Stress
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Abstract
The objective of the report is to understand about work stress. Employees of a
telecommunications organization have reported of excess work pressure and that they are
extremely frustrated with their work. This type of distinctive stress could easily increment
when the employees do not get support from the supervisors and colleagues and also feel that
they are having lesser control and manageability on work processes. The differences in
individual characteristics like coping with skills and personality could be termed as extremely
vital predictors only if any job condition is resulting in stress. This kind of stress occurs for
the individuals whenever reactions are affecting the work. The report has identified major
sources of work stress and has provided suitable recommendations to the leaders for team
management.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. Discussion..............................................................................................................................3
2.1 Brief Idea of the Case Study............................................................................................3
2.2 Main Sources of Stress for the Employees......................................................................4
2.3 Process of Stress Impacting the Employee Engagement, Satisfaction and Retention.....7
2.4 Suitable Recommendations for the Leaders to Manage the Stress of the Teams..........10
3. Conclusion............................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................13
Appendices...............................................................................................................................16
Appendix A..........................................................................................................................16
Appendix B..........................................................................................................................17

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1. Introduction
Occupational stress or work stress can be referred to as the stress that is solely related
to the job of any 1 person1. Such stress even starts from the most unexpected pressures and
responsibilities, which eventually do not remain aligned with the knowledge, skills as well as
expectations of a person after inhibiting the core capability for coping with the stress. Work
stress mainly occurs when it has significant impact on psychological and physical health and
it involves emotional, physical and mental strain. It occurs as soon as a staff is perceiving any
situation for being extremely strenuous to handle and hence threatening to his or her
wellbeing2. The following report outlines a brief discussion on a large telecommunications
organization that is responsible for providing infrastructure of all types of communications in
the entire country. The employees in this organization is facing work stress in their work and
hence they are feeling frustrated. This report identifies the sources of stress and provides
relevant recommendations for the leaders to manage the situation.
2. Discussion
2.1 Brief Idea of the Case Study
A large telecommunication company provides infrastructure for communications such
as mobile phone and broadband networks throughout the country. They even retail mobile
services and Internet connection to the community. The organization is quite large and more
than 4000 employees are working here with 4000 contractors. They are even running a call
centre for 24 hours for both retail sales and technical support3. Technicians are also present
on the road in vans, who implement connection and technical support. The employees work
1 Semmer, Norbert K., Nicola Jacobshagen, Laurenz L. Meier, Achim Elfering, Terry A. Beehr, Wolfgang
Kälin, and Franziska Tschan. "Illegitimate tasks as a source of work stress." Work & Stress 29, no. 1 (2015): 32-
56.
2 Klassen, Robert M., and Tracy L. Durksen. "Weekly self-efficacy and work stress during the teaching
practicum: A mixed methods study." Learning and Instruction 33 (2014): 158-169.
3 Lin, Song, David Lamond, Yan-Hong Yao, Ying-Ying Fan, Yong-Xing Guo, and Yuan Li. "Leadership, work
stress and employee behavior." Chinese management studies (2014).

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from Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm, with difference in the shift timings of call centres
and technicians.
Few months earlier, 1000 employees had lost their jobs for organizational
restructuring and as a result, there was redistribution of tasks and workload was increased on
the remaining staff. Few managers also left after 3 months and the new managing director
changed the senior leadership team4. It referred to the fact that every new manager came into
the new roles and implemented new ideas for running every department with effectiveness
and achieve new performance targets. Due to the increased work pressure and stress, most of
the employees have reported that they are under immense pressure and around 11% have
reported to quit from the job in next 1 year.
2.2 Main Sources of Stress for the Employees
Work stress is one of the major and the most significant issue that is eventually faced
by several employees and staff in their work schedule and duties. According to Siegrist,
Wahrendorf, and Siegrist, stress in work could comprise of several origins and even come
from any 1 event5. It could have major impacts on both employers and employees. Positive
stress is better for work as it provides new challenges to the respective employee, however
negative stress is responsible for increasing health problems, demotivation towards work and
frustration in work. Most of the employees feel extremely demotivated and frustrated due to
the increased work stress and result in cognitive impairment6. The categories of work
demand, which might cause such distinctive stress mainly involve role demands, physical
demand, interpersonal demands and even task demands.
4 Garbarino, Sergio, and Nicola Magnavita. "Work stress and metabolic syndrome in police officers. A
prospective study." PLoS One 10, no. 12 (2015): e0144318.
5 Siegrist, Johannes, Morten Wahrendorf, and Siegrist. Work stress and health in a globalized economy.
Springer Verlag, 2016.
6 Li, Li, Hongyan Hu, Hao Zhou, Changzhi He, Lihua Fan, Xinyan Liu, Zhong Zhang, Heng Li, and Tao Sun.
"Work stress, work motivation and their effects on job satisfaction in community health workers: a cross-
sectional survey in China." BMJ open 4, no. 6 (2014): e004897.

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In the given case study, the major and the most distinctive sources of work stress for
the employees of the telecommunications company are as follows:
i) Long Hours: The first and the foremost important and significant source of stress in
work place for the respective employees in the telecommunications organization is long
hour7. Due to the sudden increase in work load, these employees have to work for longer
hours, apart from the regular shift of 8am to 5pm and hence they are facing major issues
related to work pressure and work management.
ii) Heavy Workloads: The second distinctive and noteworthy source of stress in the
work place for each and every employee in the respective company of telecommunications
would be heavier workloads. One thousand employees have lost their jobs due to the
organizational restructuring and as a result, the pending tasks of those 1000 employees are
being burdened on the remaining three thousand employees8. Excessive stress has impacted
on their working conditions and they are highly disappointed with the work and are stressed
majorly. They have submitted report to their seniors that they are facing high stress and 11%
of the total strength of employees have reported that they are intending to leave the
organization within next 12 months (See Appendix A).
iii) Leadership Changes in the Company: The third distinctive and vital source of
work stress within the respective workplace for all staff is sudden change in leadership within
the organization. After the employees lost their jobs, few of the managers or leaders had more
employees to control and hence it provided that their span of control was much bigger.
Moreover, the managing director, who made the changes, left the organization after 3 months
7 Thorsteinsson, Einar B., Rhonda F. Brown, and Carlie Richards. "The relationship between work-stress,
psychological stress and staff health and work outcomes in office workers." Psychology 5, no. 10 (2014): 1301.
8 Matthiesen, Stig Berge, and Ståle Einarsen. "Perpetrators and targets of bullying at work: Role stress and
individual differences." Perspectives on Bullying: Research on Childhood, Workplace, and Cyberbullying 22,
no. 6 (2015): 135.

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and the new managing director changed each and every senior leadership team9. Thus, every
new manager came into the new roles and even implemented new ideologies for all
departments and achieving new performance target in the business. Such changes in
leadership could eventually bring major issues in the organization and can even hamper the
productivity of the business to a high level.
iv) Tight Deadlines: This is third distinctive and noteworthy source of work stress in
the telecommunications organization. Since work pressure have increased, the respective
employees have to work under tight deadlines. It has become extremely difficult for the
employees to work well under pressure and hence they are facing significant issues related to
work stress10. They are unable to complete the pending tasks on time, which is eventually
leading to subsequent frustration. Moreover, they are unable to plan and manage time and
hence unable to deliver better work.
v) Job Insecurity: The next distinctive and vital source of work stress is job
insecurity. The organization initially had 4000 employees and amongst them, 1000
employees had lost their jobs. This type of insecurity is responsible for increasing the overall
stress and could even lead to subsequent issues like employee frustration and feel of
redundancy11. It increases work load and they eventually prepare themselves for
unemployment. Insecurity is the significant concern regarding continuous existence of job in
future. Due to such frustration, 11% employees have intended to quit the job after 12 months.
vi) Changes in Duties: Another significant source of work stress for these employees
is the change in duties. The workloads had been increased to a high level and hence it has
9 Lunau, Thorsten, Johannes Siegrist, Nico Dragano, and Morten Wahrendorf. "The association between
education and work stress: does the policy context matter?." PloS one 10, no. 3 (2015): e0121573.
10 Allan, Blake A., Richard P. Douglass, Ryan D. Duffy, and Ryan J. McCarty. "Meaningful work as a
moderator of the relation between work stress and meaning in life." Journal of Career Assessment 24, no. 3
(2016): 429-440.
11 Chou, Li‐Fang, Chih‐Chieh Chu, Hui‐Ching Yeh, and Jashen Chen. "Work stress and employee well‐being:
The critical role of Z hong‐Y ong." Asian Journal of Social Psychology 17, no. 2 (2014): 115-127.

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incremented frustration and job responsibilities majorly12. There had been major damaging
effects of stress on each and every employee.
2.3 Process of Stress Impacting the Employee Engagement, Satisfaction and Retention
Work stress is considered as the most harmful emotional and physical responses,
which could eventually occur, when there exists a basic conflict within the demands of job
over the employee as well as the distinctive amount of management that a staff comprises for
meeting the respective demands. Bhagat, Segovis, and Nelson stated that such stress has
significantly impacted engagement, satisfaction as well as retention of employees in the
telecommunications organization13. This type of stress could even interfere with the
performances and productivity after impacting the emotional and physical health. Such
reactions vary from person to person and this stress is eventually expected and could even be
termed as a positive force in work place.
Neff argued that it even provides motivation and energy for meeting the daily
challenges and such stress response often is termed as rise and helps to fulfil the goals like
targets in production or sales and meeting deadlines14. Work stress could also determine
failure or success in the job and the respective staff could not even control anything in the
work environment and they are highly frustrated with their job. Stress contributes to reduced
organizational performances, reduction in overall employee performances, higher rates of
error as well as poor quality of work, high turnover of staff or even demotivation of the staff.
The major components of job stress include lack of proper administrative supports, huge
work demands and workloads, issue in customer relations and even maintenance of balance
in work and life.
12 Faulkner, Monica, Paula Gerstenblatt, Ahyoung Lee, Viana Vallejo, and Dnika Travis. "Childcare providers:
Work stress and personal well-being." Journal of Early Childhood Research 14, no. 3 (2016): 280-293.
13 Bhagat, Rabi S., James Segovis, and Terry Nelson. Work stress and coping in the era of globalization.
Routledge, 2016.
14 Neff, Walter. Work and human behavior. Routledge, 2017.

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Harzer and Willibald criticized that change in the workload subsequent tends in
changing the level of stress in employees that ultimately impact the employee performances15.
It has impacted on employee retention since 11% of the total employees has reported a
tendency of quitting their job due to excessive work pressure within next 12 months. A high
performance work system is referred to as the most significant distinguishing factor of the
leading companies. This particular organization has changed leadership and as a result, there
had been changes in the policies and processes. Due to the inadequate policies at the
management level, there had been significant negative impacts on the organizational
performances and employees are not getting permission for producing at their full potential16.
Moreover, employees are not getting engaged in the work and they are being forced to
complete their tasks by the senior leaders. According to Quick and Demetria, the excess job
demands have affected the organizational, social and physical characteristics of a job, which
needed psychological and physical skills and efforts17. Hence, they are completely related to
satisfaction and engagement of the employees in the company. The various demands of job
are hence needed to be reduced for stimulating growth, development and learning of the
employees. This type of excessive work stress is considered as a management issue and the
new ideas and new approaches by the newly appointed managers have created immense
pressure on the employees. They have even reported for their excess work stress, however not
got proper results in respect to other employees.
There are some of the most significant theories that help to understand the specific
scenario of work stress for these employees. The first and the most effective theory is Person
15 Harzer, Claudia, and Willibald Ruch. "The relationships of character strengths with coping, work-related
stress, and job satisfaction." Frontiers in psychology 6 (2015): 165.
16 Deery, Margaret, and Leo Jago. "Revisiting talent management, work-life balance and retention
strategies." International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 27, no. 3 (2015): 453-472.
17 Quick, James, and Demetria Henderson. "Occupational stress: Preventing suffering, enhancing
wellbeing." International journal of environmental research and public health 13, no. 5 (2016): 459.

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Environment Fit Theory or PE Fit Theory18. According to this particular theory, stress can
arise for the lack of fit within abilities, resources and skills of the individuals as well as the
major demands of the environment. The theory makes an explicit of the interactions within
the environment and individual for shaping the responses towards events and work situations,
however even highlights on the significance of individual perceptions. The second theory that
is applicable to this specific situation is job demand control theory. According to this theory,
there should be a control on the job demands for each and every employee, else work
conflicts could arise and there would exist situations of employee dissatisfaction and lack of
engagement with the staff.
The next distinctive theory is Effort Reward Imbalance Model or ERI Model. As per
this theory, the effort at work is being spent as the basic part of a psychological contract, on
the basis of principles of social reciprocity, in which efforts are being spent at work after
pairing with rewards, in respect to esteem, money and opportunities. However, in this case
study, employees will not be satisfied even with rewards and recognitions19. The reason of
such discrepancy would be that they are under excessive work pressure and the situation
would not change at any circumstance. In spite of having good payments and rewards from
the employers, they are unable to get motivation and get engaged into the work. They are not
accepting the imbalance for various reasons like the prospects of improvised working
condition to cope up with high demands at work20. Thus, such work stress has impacted on
employee engagement, satisfaction as well as retention in the telecommunications company.
18 Hassard, Juliet, Kevin RH Teoh, Gintare Visockaite, Philip Dewe, and Tom Cox. "The cost of work-related
stress to society: A systematic review." Journal of occupational health psychology 23, no. 1 (2018): 1.
19 Peterson, Chris. Work stress: Studies of the context, content and outcomes of stress: A book of readings.
Routledge, 2018.
20 Bliese, Paul D., Jeffrey R. Edwards, and Sabine Sonnentag. "Stress and well-being at work: A century of
empirical trends reflecting theoretical and societal influences." Journal of Applied Psychology 102, no. 3 (2017):
389.

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2.4 Suitable Recommendations for the Leaders to Manage the Stress of the Teams
The management and senior leadership of the organization has been changed by the
newly appointed managing director. Due to such changes, the new managers or leaders have
implemented new approaches and ideas in the business and hence work pressure has
increased for the employees. Relevant recommendations for the leaders to manage team
stress are as follows:
i) Forming Positive Relations: The first and the most suitable recommendation for
the leaders to manage team stress is forming positive relations with the team members. Since
there had been new managers appointed in the company, it is evident that the existing
employees do not have any idea regarding their updated ideas and approaches and hence they
have the tendency for resistance to change21. They are not showing positive behaviour
towards the increased work pressure and are getting demotivated and dissatisfied with the
work and few of them have even decided to quit their jobs after 12 months. However, with a
positive relationship with the leaders, it would be extremely easier to make the employees
understand about these changes (See Appendix B).
ii) Maintaining Good Communication: The second significant and relevant
recommendation for these leaders regarding team management would be maintenance of
good communication with the team members22. It would be highly required for them to share
the details of increased workloads with the employees. They would understand that due to
organizational restructuring, 1000 employees have lost their jobs and it is needed to change
management for implementing new methods for achievement of high production targets.
Suitable recommendations that should not be done by the leaders for their team are as
follows:
21 Siegrist, Johannes, Morten Wahrendorf, and Siegrist. Work stress and health in a globalized economy.
Springer Verlag, 2016.
22 Klassen, Robert M., and Tracy L. Durksen. "Weekly self-efficacy and work stress during the teaching
practicum: A mixed methods study." Learning and Instruction 33 (2014): 158-169.

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i) Imposing Decisions and Ideas on the Employees: This is the most vital
recommendation for the leaders to manage teams. They should not impose their decisions or
approaches on the employees23. Since these leaders and managers are new to the system, they
should have an open discussion with the tenured employees for understanding the current
situation in the organization and hence they would be able to resolve the issues of lack of
employee engagement, satisfaction and retention.
ii) Being Indecisive: Taking random decisions and being indecisive is the second
activity that should be done by the leaders. They should provide a definite and clear result
that would be gained after those decisions are undertaken24. The employees do not get ideas
about the result or benefit that would be obtained after following the leader in this case and
thus they try to resist to the changes and claim about excess work pressure.
3. Conclusion
Therefore, conclusion could be drawn that work stress is one of the most significant
aspect that is being faced by maximum employees in their work place. The most common
causes of stress in a work place for an employee include excessive high workloads with
almost unrealistic deadlines to make the employees feel absolutely rushed, overwhelmed as
well as under immense pressure. The other significant reasons for such distinctive type of
stress are insufficient workloads and making employees feel that their skills are completely
unused in the organization. The above provided report has properly outlined a detailed
analysis on the work stress for a large telecommunications company, where employees are
facing work pressure due to sudden increased workloads and few employees have even
decided to leave the organization within 12 months. The sources of work stress are being
identified for this given case study and impact of stress on satisfaction, retention and
23 Bhagat, Rabi S., James Segovis, and Terry Nelson. Work stress and coping in the era of globalization.
Routledge, 2016.
24 Harzer, Claudia, and Willibald Ruch. "The relationships of character strengths with coping, work-related
stress, and job satisfaction." Frontiers in psychology 6 (2015): 165.