Organizational Stress Management Research Articles

User engagement with organizational mHealth stress management intervention – A mixed methods study

Mobile health (mHealth) demonstrates great promise for providing effective and accessible interventions within an organizational context. Compared with traditional workplace interventions, mHealth solutions may be significantly more scalable and easier to standardize. However, inadequate user engagement is a major challenge with mHealth solutions that can negatively impact the potential benefits of an intervention. More research is needed to better understand how to ensure sufficient engagement, which is essential for designing and implementing effective interventions. To address this issue, this study employed a mixed methods approach to investigate what factors influence user engagement with an organizational mHealth intervention. Quantitative data were collected using surveys (n = 1267), and semi-structured interviews were conducted with a subset of participants (n = 17). Primary findings indicate that short and consistent interactions as well as user intention are key drivers of engagement. These results may inform future development of interventions to increase engagement and effectiveness.

PopStress: designing organizational stress intervention for office workers

IntroductionExcessive work stress on office workers will affect people's health and work efficiency, and organizational stress management is becoming more and more critical. Current studies focus on the management of individual stress. The collective nature of stress and coping needs further exploration.MethodsThis paper proposes the PopStress system, which converts the negative stress of an office group into the energy of a popcorn machine. When the organizational stress accumulates to the threshold, the popcorn machine will start making popcorn and attract office workers to take a break and eat. Through multisensory stimuli such as visual, audio, and olfaction, the system encourages natural and entertaining social stress-relieving behaviors within the office.ResultsTwenty-four office workers were recruited and divided into six groups for the user study. The results showed that PopStress enables users to understand the collective stress status, and successfully relieved the individual's physiological and psychological stress. This work provides insights into organizational stress management, health product design, and social design.

Stress management in organizations: an analysis of the medical sector

Stress is one of the biggest management challenges for organizations worldwide today. The decrease in labor productivity, product quality, increase in staff turnover, and increase in disciplinary violations, work-related injuries and more frequent illness of employees are precisely due to stress. Eliminating the effects of organizational stress is costly. For example, in the United States alone, companies spend more than $60 billion a year on measures to combat the effects of stress (sick leave, creation of psychological support services for staff, etc.). Therefore, a modern manager must be fully aware of the danger of stress, be able to diagnose a stressful situation among employees, identify and eliminate its causes, apply basic and modern methods of dealing with stress in an organization, and develop stress prevention. The issue of stress as a scientific category has only been seriously studied in the 20th century. The article is about stress management.

Stress Management and Employee Performance

Purpose: This study investigated the extend at which stress has affected the performance of staff in organization setting. It addressed how performance can be improved upon for effective service delivery. Improving the performance of employees working within an organization has received attention in different contexts. This occurs because for an organization to achieve high performance, the contributions of its employees matter a lot to achieve their goals. For any organization to achieve its essence, it must have acquired the right calibre of employees and managed them properly. Is at the instance of this that this study was carried out to address how improved performance can be recorded and how stress can be properly managed for effective service delivery.
 
 Theoretical framework: The aim of stress management is to ensure effective performance of staff in organization and to meet the aim of the organization and deliver services effectively. Several concepts, such as: stress, stressors, signs, symptoms and sources, stress management, stress management practice and employee performance were reviewed to align with the direction of the study. The focus is to see to how personnel in organization can perform effectively, be able to manage stress. Factors causing stress were studied and addressed.
 
 Methodology/Design/Approach: This study which is descriptively adopted the survey research method. The study was carried out at a private university in southwest Nigeria. The population of this study comprised all the non-academic staff in the university. Two hundred and eighty (280) non-academic staff of the University participated in the survey. The questionnaire was the instrument for data collection in this research. Inferential and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data that had been obtained.
 
 Findings: The study finding revealed that stress has a significant impact on employee performance. The outcome also showed a substantial correlation between employees' performance and personal stress management strategies. This suggests that personal stress management strategies should be encouraged because they are linked to workers' productivity. The findings suggest that its contribution to employee performance is minimal perhaps because individuals do not adopt these techniques of stress management.
 
 Research, Practical & Social implications: The study concentrate on how stress can be well managed in organization because of the ill stress has caused in the performance of organization. It has also been established that there are two techniques namely individual and organisational approaches to stress management.
 
 Originality/value: The study added value to body of knowledge because its outcome showed that without effective stress management strategies, organization can not meet up with its optimization level in terms service delivery and achieving the goals of the organization. The individual techniques of stress management were found to have a significant role to play in suppressing employee poor performance while the organizational stress management techniques provide organizational support for employees to improve their performance on the job. This study established that effective stress management among non-academics of Bowen University would improve their performance on the job. The study as recommends that Management should redefine the stress management policy of the University to address gaps in it and make it more robust.

재난안전관리 공무원의 직무와 조직 인식 및 스트레스 관리 영향요인에 관한 연구

재난안전관리 분야 공무원은 복잡하고 불확실성이 높은 직무환경에 노출되어있으며, 직무특성으로 인하여 높은 강도의 직무 스트레스를 경함할 가능성이 높다. 재난상황에 직간접적으로 참여하는 임무를 수행하는 재난안전관리 분야 공무원의 역할이 중요하다. 따라서, 이들의 직무 스트레스와 직무만족, 조직몰입 그리고 직무위험이 관리되지 않는다면 정부의 재난안전관리 역량 및 효과성 그리고 재난안전관리 체계에 차질이 발생할 가능성이 높다. 이러한 점을 감안하여 본 연구는 재난안전관리 공무원의 직무요구, 직무압박 그리고 직무만족, 조직몰입 그리고 직무위험에 미치는 영향을 분석하였고, 직무요구, 직무압박과 직무역할이 직무 스트레스 관리활동의 시행과 참여 여부에 미치는 영향을 분석하였다. 분석결과. 직무요구가 증가할수록 직무위험성은 증가하고 있었고 직무압박이 증가할수록 직무만족은 감소하고 있었다. 또한, 직무역할에 대한 인식이 긍정적일수록 직무만족와 조직몰입은 높아지고 있었다. 한편, 직무요구는 스트레스 예방 프로그램, 직무역할은 사전예방 활동 및 스트레스 진단활동의 시행에 영향을 미치고 있었다. 이와 같은 점을 고려할 때, 재난안전관리 공무원의 직무요구, 직무압박, 직무역할에 대한 지속적인 관리가 필요하며, 직무 스트레스를 관리하고 완화할 수 있는 정책과 프로그램에 대한 실효성 제고와 조직구성원의 참여도를 향상시킬 수 있는 대안이 필요하다는 점을 확인할 수 있었다.

A hybrid decision-making framework to manage occupational stress in project-based organizations.

According to recent studies in the field of human resource management (HRM), especially in project-based organizations (PBOs), stress is recognized as a factor that has a paramount significance on the performance of staff. Previous studies in organizational stress management have mainly focused on identifying job stressors and their effects on organizations. Contrary to the previous studies, this paper aims to propose a comprehensive decision-support system that includes identifying stressors, assessing organizational stress levels, and providing solutions to improve the performance of the organization. A questionnaire is designed and distributed among 170 senior managers of a major project-based organization in the field of the energy industry in Iran to determine organizational stressors. Based on the questionnaire results and considering the best worst method (BWM) as an approach to determine the weighting vector, the importance degree of each stressor is calculated. In the next stage, a decision-support model is developed to assess the stress level of a PBO through fuzzy inference systems (FIS). Some main advantages of the proposed hybrid decision-support model include (i) achieving high-reliable results by not-so-time-consuming computational volume and (ii) maintaining flexibility in adding new criteria to assess the occupational stress levels in PBOs. Based on the obtained results, six organizational stressors, including job incongruity, poor organizational structure, poor project environment, work overload, poor job promotion, and type A behavior, are identified. It is also found that the level of organizational stress is not ideal. Finally, some main recommendations are proposed to manage occupational stresses at the optimum level in the considered sector.

Performance of Academic Staff during COVID-19 Pandemic-Induced Work Transformations: An IPO Model for Stress Management

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected all spheres of services-related business, including the higher education sector. As a pre-emptive measure, almost all traditional educational institutions have been transformed into virtual organizations. This pandemic-induced work transition has created stress among academic staff and has hampered their performance. The present study aims to examine the impact of leadership behaviors, e-training, and employment security on the stress management process, consequently improving employee performance during and after the pandemic. Based on the IPO (input–process–output) model, this study examines the effect of leadership behavior, e-training, and employment security on teaching staff’s tasks and adaptive and contextual performance, mediated by stress management. To test the conceptual model, data were collected from the teaching staff of Malaysian universities. The structural equation modeling technique was used for data analysis, while bootstrapping with the maximum likelihood estimator was used to confirm the mediational role of stress management. The study revealed that task- and relation-oriented leadership behavior, e-training, and employment security positively influence stress management and employee performance in virtual organizations. Moreover, stress management acts as a full mediator in the relationship between leadership behavior and employee performance, while partial mediation occurs between e-training, employment security, and employee performance. This study offers valuable insights into the literature by proposing leadership behavior, e-training, and employment security as input in the stress management process to attain the performance output of teaching staff. Higher education institutions should come forward to assist their teaching employees in managing their stress levels for better outcomes.

Rethinking Interpersonal stressors: Measurement development and implications for stress management in Chinese organizations

Rethinking Interpersonal stressors: Measurement development and implications for stress management in Chinese organizations

COVID-19 anxiety-coping strategies of frontline health workers in a low-income country Malawi: A qualitative inquiry

For this qualitative study, we adopted a two-wave data-collection approach involving 68 frontline healthcare workers at two geographically distinct central hospitals in a low-income country Malawi. We used in-depth telephone interviews and survey emails to explore the sources of COVID-19 anxiety and corresponding coping actions among frontline health care workers. The findings reveal four main sources of work-related anxiety among frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 crisis: (1) on-the-job risks, (2) infrastructure and technological deficits, (3) human-capital deficits, and (4) public stigma. Furthermore, the findings reveal that these workers have been coping with sources of COVID-19 anxiety by using strategic coping actions related to the five themes of (1) health, (2) self-assertion, (3) perception, (4) identity, and (5) social support. Healthcare management can thus manage frontline healthcare workers’ COVID-19-related anxiety by mitigating the sources of such anxiety as well as incorporating insights from employees’ strategic coping actions into organizational stress management programs.

Model of Socially Responsible Transfer of Parent Organization Culture to the Subsidiary Organization in a Foreign Cultural Environment Concerning Internal Communication, Stress, and Work Satisfaction

The organizational culture is a significant construct in a time of change during the organizational transition, and it plays an important role in achieving goals of social responsibilities, which is an important part of sustainability. The literature shows the gap of socially responsible transfer of organizational culture with the impact on employee’s well-being. The cultural changes of the organization during the transition are particularly in connection with the impact on internal communication where organizational culture presents a part of values, norms, and ethics, which influences successfully implemented changes and in such a way has an influence on the stress and work satisfaction. The main purpose of the presented study is the development of the model of socially responsible transfer of organizational culture to the foreign subsidiaries on a basis of adjusted internal communication, which reduces stress and increases work satisfaction. Impacts of organizational culture on internal communication, stress, and work satisfaction are clearly presented, as well as inter-related impacts of the constructs concerning national culture, leadership, and organizational knowledge. Thus, the new holistic model of socially responsible transfer of the parent organization culture to foreign subsidiaries clearly defines steps of organizational culture, internal communication, stress management, and work satisfaction. Managerial implications are discussed.

Process Evaluation of a Participative Organizational Intervention as a Stress Preventive Intervention for Employees in Swedish Primary Health Care.

This study is a process evaluation of a trial examining the effects of an organizational intervention (Productivity Measurement and Enhancement System or ProMES) on employee stress. The aims were to explore the implementation process and fidelity to the intervention guidelines, examine the influence of contextual factors (hindrances and facilitators) and explore participants’ experience of working with ProMES. We used the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) guidance to guide the process evaluation. The recruitment, reach and dose delivered were satisfactory and participation high. The employees felt ProMES clarified priorities, gave control and increased participation in decision-making. However, difficulty in obtaining statistical productivity data from the central administration office (a central feature of the intervention) hindered full implementation and regular feedback meetings. Staffing shortages interfered with the implementation process, while having seven design teams and one consultant prevented all occupational groups from working simultaneously. A detailed examination of access to necessary organizational data should be undertaken before implementing ProMES. We recommend a better introduction for new employees, more work on design and packaging and giving employees more training in how to use the software program. The study contributes to our understanding of process evaluations in research into organizational stress management interventions.

Relationship between stress management and job performance in organizations

This study aims to examine the concept of stress, which has become a part of our daily lives, in an organizational context, and to determine whether there are a relationship and interaction between stress management and job performance in organizations. In this article, which is an exploratory study, the sources behind organizational stress are investigated, and the individual and organizational results created by organizational stress management on business performance are discussed. Within the scope of the study, the studies in the literature conducted between 2005 and 2019 in different sectors and their results were examined. In the obtained results, significant negative relationships were found between stress management and job performance. Furthermore, in these results, the mediating role of stress management was also detected.

Stress Management in Organizations

Employee stress has increasingly become a concern for many organizations. Although it is not possible to eliminate stress entirely, people can learn to manage it. Many organizations have adopted occupational stress management programs to try and reduce the stress levels of their workforce. The high cost of work stress related problems highlights the need to spend more time evaluating work stress interventions and publishing the findings so that other organizations can gain insight into programs of merit. This article explore the three major approaches in stress management - primary, secondary and tertiary prevention and outline the importance of an evidence-based approach to stress management interventions. It is argued that an evidence-based approach will lead to advances in intervention practices. We also outline recommendations regarding planning and interpreting occupational stress management research in order to improve stress management interventions.

Appreciative Inquiry for stress management

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the innovative application of an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach for the design and implementation of organizational stress management interventions, alongside a case study of the successful design and implementation of the approach. By utilizing the AI methodology to develop a “local stress theory” for the participating organization, the authors propose a model which can be utilized in other similar organizations. Design/methodology/approach Stage 1: 35 participants completed up to ten daily logs by answering four positively framed questions regarding their working day. Stage 2: semi-structured interviews (n=13). The interview schedule was designed to further elaborate log findings, and begin looking into feasible organizational changes for improvement of stress. Stage 3: two focus groups (Stage 3, total 13 employees) verified interventions from logs and interviews and discuss how these can be implemented. Findings The log phase identified two key themes for improvement: managerial/organizational support and communication. From these, interviews and focus groups led to workable proposals for simple but likely effective changes. The authors reported findings to management, emphasizing organizational change implementation, and these were subsequently implemented. Research limitations/implications The study demonstrated the effectiveness of AI to identify and implement relatively simple but meaningful changes. The AI cycle was completed but allocating lengthy follow-up time for evaluation of outcomes was not possible, although initial responses were favorable. There are also issues of generalizability of the findings. Originality/value This is the among first studies to utilize an AI approach for the design of stress management interventions.

AffectiveWall: Designing Collective Stress-Related Physiological Data Visualization for Reflection

Excessive workplace stress affects the individual's health as well as social collaborations, so the management of stressors is essential. However, an individual worker who only subjectively reflects on his or her individual and social stressors may misinterpret them, and thus not be able to manage them. This paper aims at engaging workplace stress reflection on objective stress-related physiological data using a shared display, which provides an anonymous view of the individual stress-related physiological signals (i.e., heart-rate variability) through a collective visualization. A minimalist proof-of-concept system is implemented for investigating the design space and deployed during group collaboration. The user study results show that the visualization successfully drew the participants' awareness and increased their understanding of self and organizational stress. This work highlights the importance of objective physiological data in the reflection process of organizational stress management.

Stress Management Program in Selected Transport Companies in the Kingdom of Bahrain: it’s Influence on Job Performance

Nowadays in all the business organizations people are bullying at work for achieving various targets. Because of this, people are becoming sick. Stress of course is one of the reasons for cardiac arrest. So here a study has conducted in order to assess the extent of stress on the people in terms of their health, behavior, work performance effectiveness, personal life and development and also tried to analyze the level of effectiveness of the implementation of stress management technique in the business organizations and its influence on their job performance. To gather the data, survey questionnaires and interviews were conducted. The participant’s answers were analyzed by calculating weighted mean and correlation through SPSS. From the result it is clear that the respondents agree with the effect of stress on the performance level of employees in workplace and also in their daily life. Furthermore, the correlation conducted showed that there is no significance difference between the status and the level of effectiveness of stress management in business organizations. The managers and employees of Transport Companies in Bahrain are contended with the status of stress management program in terms of employee health, employee safety, performance management, stress relief and employee behavior. High cost of maintaining company health expenditures for stress-related disorders is one major problem faced by the transport companies related to stress management program. Anyways the management team in the co is high supportive for proper development and implementation of stress management program. Based on the analysis, the researcher has recommended that company should make provision for some good psychologists who have enough knowledge about stress handling techniques. Management staff and employees in the Company should get an ambiance for practicing stress management techniques on a daily basis and also they should be provided with good recreational facilities.

Examination of the effects of some variables in internal control and organizational stress management via multiple regression on perception of risk and uncertainty

Internal control is an essential element of successful and effective management. Internal control which plays a role as a proactive and integral element in organizations’ adapting to changing and changes also plays an important role in the realization of organizational strategy. In some cases, change brings risks along with uncertainties. One of the most effective tools against the stress occurring in cases where the risks and change cannot be managed is, without doubt, internal control practices. Risk management practices are dealt with within the scope of internal control. Risk management is directly related to perception of risks and uncertainties of the employees and the organization. The effect of some variables on the perception of risk and uncertainty has been investigated since the risks and uncertainties in the organizations are constantly in interaction with stress and internal control applications. The study was conducted face to face by asking 348 entrepreneurs operating on the textile industry to fill in the survey form in Kayseri in Turkey. The effects of total work experience, age, gender and strength on perception of risk and uncertainty have been determined.

Using a mixed method audit to inform organizational stress management interventions in sport

ObjectivesThe purposes of this study were twofold: to conduct a mixed method organizational-level stress audit within a sport organization and to explore recommendations for organizational stress management. Design and methodSemi-structured interviews, focus groups and surveys were conducted with 47 participants (professional sportsmen, coaches, sport science support and administrative staff) who represented a professional sport organization. Content analysis was employed to analyze the data. Results and conclusionsThe findings indicated a wide range of organizational stressors (e.g., cultural and academy issues), appraisals and coping behaviors (e.g., emotion-focused behaviors), and stressor outcomes (e.g., emotional responses) for sport performers. Content analysis and survey data supported the categorization of stress management recommendations at both an individual- (e.g., coping education) and organizational-level (e.g., improving communication channels) for particular target groups (e.g., players, staff, team). The identification of stress audit factors and recommendations have important implications for the optimization of organizational functioning within professional sport. Consistent with organizational psychology research, applied considerations for mixed method and multi-level intervention approaches are discussed.

Work-related stress, associated comorbidities and stress causes in French community pharmacies: a nationwide cross-sectional study.

BackgroundLike other health professionals, community pharmacists are exposed to stress factors (being efficient, avoiding mistakes and bearing emotional load), but they are also under the pressure of entrepreneurial responsibilities. The main objective was to assess the level of work-related stress in French community pharmacies. The other objectives of the study were to assess the associated comorbidities and causes of work-related stress.MethodsThis observational cross-sectional study was sent to all French community pharmacies by email. The survey was anonymous and designed to collect the following items: socio-demographic factors, professional status, characteristics of community pharmacy, work-related stress (visual analogic scale—VAS), fatigue (VAS), sleep disturbances (questions), anxiety and depression symptoms (hospital anxiety and depression scale), medical consultation for work-related stress, medication use for work related stress, psychoactive drug-use and causes of work-related stress. Participants were included in the survey if they were pharmacists (owner or assistant) or pharmacy technicians working in a community pharmacy at the time of the survey. Exclusion criteria were defined as follows: pharmacy students or other professionals involved in a community pharmacy (e.g. dietician, beautician) and lack of professional status information. There was no age limitation.ResultsAfter three months of data collection, 1,339 participants answered the survey and 1,272 participants were included in conformity with the inclusion and exclusion criteria, and to avoid missing data on the primary endpoint. Work-related stress was detected in 32.8% (417/1,272) of individuals (scores ≥70/100). Men were significantly more affected than women and there was no difference between professional statuses and no relation with the age of the participants. Work-related stress was significantly associated with anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep disturbances, medical consultations, medication use, alcohol consumption above the WHO recommendations for men and psychoactive drug use. Three causes of stress were clearly identified and related to stress levels, workload, working atmosphere and deterioration of work quality. However, causes of work-related stress were significantly different among professionals, for example: entrepreneurial burden for pharmacists-in-charge and workload for employees (assistant pharmacists and pharmacy technicians).DiscussionWork-related stress has a very strong impact in French community pharmacies. This stress was associated with several comorbidities and induces health resource consumption. Several causes of work-related stress have been identified such as workload, working atmosphere and deterioration of work quality; however, these causes could be detected and managed to improve stress levels. We recommend developing individual and organizational stress management in French community pharmacies.

Building Resilience in Families, Communities, and Organizations: A Training Program in Global Mental Health and Psychosocial Support.

This article describes the Summer Institute in Global Mental Health and Psychosocial Support, a brief immersion training program for mental health, health, and allied professionals who work with populations that have endured severe adversities and trauma, such as domestic and political violence, extreme poverty, armed conflict, epidemics, and natural disasters. The course taught participants to apply collaborative and contextually sensitive approaches to enhance social connectedness and resilience in families, communities, and organizations. This article presents core training principles and vignettes which illustrate how those engaging in such interventions must: (1) work in the context of a strong and supportive organization; (2) appreciate the complexity of the systems with which they are engaging; and (3) be open to the possibilities for healing and transformation. The program utilized a combination of didactic presentations, hands-on interactive exercises, case studies, and experiential approaches to organizational team building and staff stress management.