Psychological Injuries at Work – What Every Manager Should Know

Abstract

A psychological injury is a diagnosable illness that affects a person’s thinking, emotional state and behavior. It can disrupt their ability to work and carry out other daily activities, and to engage in satisfying personal relationships. Unlike a physical injury, a psychological injury cannot be easily recognized and understood. This research document is a conceptual work, which tries to define and isolate stress and stress related injuries, as well as psychological injuries at work. Such an understanding would help the top management to cater and prevent injuries of such extent. Based on literature, a model has been developed for the study and the research document has defined “Psychological injury as an employee’s explicit manifestation of distress in the form of affective behavioral and cognitive dysfunction in work context”. This research document can be considered a seminal work done in Indian context. This works gains importance in the light of increasing number of lawsuits in Indian courts on work- related stress and agony. India still does not have any laws that deal with emotional health and stress related injuries at work or psychological injuries as compared to other countries like Canada, U.K and the U.S.