Impact of Occupational Stress on Employee -Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Occupational Stress affects on Employee Health and Well-Being. Answer: Introduction: The issue of occupational stress deserves special mention in todays workplace, as it has emerged to be a major health hazard affecting millions of employees. While occupational stress in employees has stayed an important issue as it results in severe physical illness, depression and anxiety as well as substance abuse in employees, the crucial role it plays in influencing on employee motivation has not received much critical attention. Research Aims and Objectives: The aim of the research is to examine if the employees suffering from occupational stress fail to stay motivated and work productively in an organization. The research questions that the research intends to explore are as follows: Does occupational stress can lead to employee de-motivation and lead to low employee productivity? Do the organizations which are unable to eliminate employee occupational stress suffer from low employee turnover rates? Do mental illness such as anxiety and panic attack and physical illness such as back pain, or indigestion can affect the employee efficiency rate of the employees? Literature Review: Common Causes of Occupational Stress: According to the Person Environment Model of employee health, the health of the employee is dependent on the job role of the employee and his skills, knowledge and expertise. In case an employee is continuously assigned tasks outside his professional domain, he may suffer from occupational stress in the form of anxiety (Schaufeli et al., 2017). Besides, in absence of autonomy at workplace, apathy of the employer to understand employee feedback, low salary and no appraisal can lead to occupational stress (O'Brien Beehr, 2016). Besides, poor working conditions, longer working hours than usual, as well as excessive workload are common causes of occupational stress. Impact of Occupational Stress on the Well-being of Employees: With prolonged occupational stress, an employee is exposed to a variety of health problems. At earlier stage, the affected employee may suffer from minor heath problems such as headache, muscle pain, fatigue and insomnia (Adriaenssens et al., 2015). However, if an employee is exposed to stress for a prolonged period, occupational stress can lead to serious diseases such as Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Asthma and Spastic colon that can prove to be fatal. Although it is an underrepresented fact, occupational stress also leads to the development of suicidal behavior, domestic violence and substance abuse amongst the employees (Thirumaleswari Ragothaman, 2015). Impact of Occupational Stress on Employee Well-being: Occupational stress is not only harmful to employee well-being, but if not managed well, can lead to organizational failure. The occupational stress has been identified to be the single factor contributing to 40% of employee turnover and 50% employee absenteeism (Siegrist, 2016). Research Gap: Although previous researches have shed light on the definition and problem of occupational stress as well as its impact, no or very little research has discussed about how the issue of occupational stress can affect employee productivity and leading to organizational failure. In case an employee is suffering from occupational stress, he will be unwell and as a result, the company will have to suffer from problems like high absenteeism and high employee turnover rates. Research Methodology: The proposed research intends to adopt both qualitative as well as quantitative research methods (Flick, 2015). The past business journals and management theories will be critically evaluated to gain an insight into concepts like employee motivation and occupational safety. On the other hand, a survey will be conducted on 15 employees of Asux Private Limited to understand if and how occupational stress affects their motivation. Conclusion: Occupational stress not only affects employee health and well-being, but also employee motivation in a negative way. In case an employee is suffering from illness or is leading an unhealthy social life, it is quite expected that he will not turn up for work every day, or will not stay loyal to the organization. Hence, it is imperative to examine to what extent does occupational safety affect employee motivation and what are the steps an organization can implement to combat the problem. Reference List: Adriaenssens, J., De Gucht, V., Maes, S. (2015). Causes and consequences of occupational stress in emergency nurses, a longitudinal study.Journal of Nursing Management,23(3), 346-358. Clough, B. A., March, S., Chan, R. J., Casey, L. M., Phillips, R., Ireland, M. J. (2017). Psychosocial interventions for managing occupational stress and burnout among medical doctors: a systematic review.Systematic Reviews,6(1), 144. Flick, U. (2015).Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research project. Sage. O'Brien, K. E., Beehr, T. A. (2016). Managing employees' occupational stress.Stress and quality of working life: Interpersonal and occupation?based stress, 181-198. Schaufeli, W. B., Maslach, C., Marek, T. (Eds.). (2017).Professional burnout: Recent developments in theory and research. Taylor Francis. Siegrist, J. (2016). Stress in the workplace.The New Blackwell Companion to Medical Sociology, 268. Thirumaleswari, T., Ragothaman, C. B. (2015). 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