A senior official of a labor union stated: “All stress management does is help people cope with poor management. [Employers] should really be into stress reduction.” Discuss the accuracy of this statement.

The union official is only partially correct, in that poor management undoubtedly contributes to the stress level of employees. However, poor management is not the only cause, nor is stress always work- related. Sometimes, the stress involves time-based, strain-based, or role-base conflicts.

Also, two individuals faced with the same stressors may not react in the same way, or experience the same level of stress. This is because individual differences in coping strategies, resiliency, and social support networks are important determining factors.

Educating employees about stress management techniques also helps them cope with stress from many other sources, and not just those created by poor managers.


The union official’s suggestion that management should try to reduce stress has merit. For example, instituting work-life balance initiatives, reducing harassment, and offering employee assistance programs have been shown to reduce stress levels for employees.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is it possible to have a knowledge of what an organizational culture is before you become a part of the organization? How important is it for you to align yourself with your organizational culture?

Organizational culture is artifacts and shared values and assumptions. Artifacts may be observable before you become a part of the organization but the shared organizational values and assumptions are the intangibles and difficult to decipher before you become a part of it. It is important to align with the organizational culture because it represents the way things work in the organization. Organizational culture acts as the control system, the social glue and sense making. Any violation of what is shared by members of an organization is likely to create alienation for a new member.
Read more

“All decisions are ethical decisions.” Comment on this statement, particularly by referring to the concepts of moral intensity and moral sensitivity.

This sweeping statement is false. In other words, not all decisions are having equal right/wrong or good/bad dimensions. We are saying there is a threshold which defines ethical concern, and it is a function of moral intensity and moral sensitivity. For a decision to have an ethical dimension, i t has to have some moral intensity associated with it. Moral intensity is a characteristic of the situation. It refers to the degree to which an issue demands the application of ethical principles. “Who should be laid off?” would have high moral intensity. On the other hand, a decision to take an umbrella to work because it might rain has no moral intensity. This is because morally intense issues involve others in the society who may think the decision is good or evil, or the issue quickly affects people. Moral sensitivity refers to a characteristic of the decision maker, not the situation. Faced with the same issue, two decision makers may be more or less moral sensitive, depending on emp...
Read more

Corporate social responsibility is one of the hottest issues in corporate boardrooms these days, partly because it is becoming increasingly important to employees and other stakeholders. In your opinion, why have stakeholders given CSR more attention recently? Does abiding by CSR standards potentially cause companies to have conflicting objectives with some stakeholders in some situations?

These questions are open to speculation and debate. The arguments should be founded on the understanding of the stakeholder perspective which define stakeholders as any entity who affects or is affected by the organization’s objectives and actions e.g.  employees , shareholders, suppliers, unions, government, etc. Hence, the answer can be constructed by providing valid needs as perceived by different stakeholders. Many will suggest that CSR has become more important because of global warming, loss of habitat, and other highly visible indicators of problems. In addition, a few might argue that increasing wealth allows society to raise the bar on companies by demanding that they contribute more to society. Still others might suggest that globalization has brought developed world companies closer to people in poverty and countries in need of better health standards. Students may state that corporate scandals have raised CSR as a priority. Other reasons include the preference of...
Read more