Presentation on Organization Change and Stress Management

1. Being Proactive:
An Organisational Approach to
Managing Workplace Stress
Presentation by
Raaz Dhamelia
KS School of Business Management
Ahmedabad (India)
Co. No. 9574 201 201

2. Healthy Work: Managing Stress in the
Workplace. (2003)
“ Creating a healthy and safe workplace requires
employers and employees to work systematically
together to identify hazards and manage them”

3. Stress an integral and inevitable
feature of most contemporary
workplaces
Workplace stress arises when individuals perceive
an imbalance between the pressures and
demands made on them and the resources they
have to cope with these demands

4. Managing Stress in the Workplace
Traditional view
Stress the responsibility of the individual
Organisational view
Employers and employees have a responsibility
to address work-related stress

5. The HSE Amendment Act 2002
Objective:
To promote the prevention of harm to all persons
at work through the systematic management of
hazards

6. HSE Amendment Act 2002 holds
Employers Responsible for
Implementation of effective systems for
identifying existing and new hazards,
including work-related stress
Systematic management of hazards, by
eliminating them, isolating them or
minimising them, in that order of preference.
Provision of opportunities for employee
participation.

7. 3 Approaches to Tackling Work-
related Stress
 Prevention
 Identifying and acting on the causes of stress
 Stress Risk Assessments
 Management
 Giving staff the skills to cope / manage
 Treatment
 Professional medical and psychological support

8. Stress Risk Assessment -
A Preventive Approach
SRA aims to identify:
1. The level stress (the harm)
2. The main sources of work-related stress (the
hazards)
3. What practicable steps can be taken to
eliminate the sources of stress
(hazards), if possible

9. An International Perspective
An international review of stress prevention
in the workplace highlights that there has
been a lack of systematic Stress Risk
Assessment (Kompier and Cooper, 1999).
The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
Guidance recommends that a risk
assessment approach be followed when
tackling work-related stress

10. Step 4 & 5 - Record and Re-Assess
Step 2: Step 3 (a): Step
Step 1: Evaluate Risks
Evaluate Harm Introdu
ntify Hazards
Who could How likely What c
What might
be harmed, is it that the to redu
ause harm?
and how? hazard could that
cause harm? will ca

11. Comparison of a Risk Assessment
With a Stress Risk Assessment
Risk Assessment Stress Risk Assessment
1. Identify the Hazards 1. Assess levels of stress
(harm)
2. Evaluate the Harm 2. Identify main sources of
stress
3. Evaluate the Risk 3. Identify the main sources of
stress for individuals / teams
4. Introduce Controls 4. Identify what can be done to
manage the main sources of
stress

12. Stress Risk Assessment Process
1. Planning and Consultation
2. Data Collection
Qualitative methods e.g. interviews, focus
groups, Stress Diaries
Quantitative methods e.g. structured surveys,
StressTools
3. Data Analysis
4. Feedback and Action Planning

13. StressTools
A Tool for Tackling Work-related Stress
 StressTools aims to help organisations identify and
manage work-related stressors.
 StressTools takes a preventive approach
emphasising removing work-related stressors rather
than treating stress symptoms
 StressTools developed by the Keil Centre with the
assistance of Birbeck College and local industry
 StressTools won the European Health and Safety
Best Practice Award.

14. StressTools
3 Work Stress Risk Assessments(SRA)
 Task-based SRA
 Team-based SRA
 Future-focused SRA

15. Task-based SRA
Identify and control stressors and other human
factors hazards arising from an unusual, complex or
hazardous task
 To be included in pre-existing Risk Assessment
process
 Emphasises links between stress and safety
 Tackles stigma associated with mentioning stress

16. Future-focused SRA
 Involve cross-section of employees identifying work-related
stressors likely to be associated with a future project or
organisational change and planning preventative measures
 Focuses on preventing future work-related stress
 Relevant to major projects or organisational changes
 Identifies relevant work-related stressors through employee
involvement
 Can be tailored to local circumstances
 Identifies actions to prevent / manage future sources of work-
related stress

17. Team-based SRA
The team-based SRA method, which identifies
levels and sources of stress in teams doing
similar work in organisations and identifies
locally relevant solutions through employee
involvement is particularly relevant in light of the
changes to the Health and Safety in Employment
Amendment Act 2002.

18. Team-based SRA Involves 4 Steps…..
Step 1. Evaluating harm .
Measures team members’ perceptions of level of work-
related stress and benchmark levels of stress with other
groups
Step 2. Identifying the hazards.
Assesses which work- related stressors are causing stress,
using a generic (40 predefined) and locally relevant work
related stressors. Identifies the main work-related stressors
affecting team members now or in the recent past
Step 3. Evaluating risks.
Assesses what are the most significant sources of stress for
team members and describing these sources in more detail.
Step 4. Introducing controls.
Identifies what can be done by management or team
members to prevent and manage work-related stress

19. Conducting a Team-based SRA
 Train project organiser / working team
 Needs to be well-respected by the team
 Important to maintain confidentiality about employees opinions
about stressors and levels of stress
 Prepare for the team-based SRA
 Use cross-section of employees to identify local work-related
stressors
 Customise the team-based SRA
 Identify sub-groups
 Choose comparison group for benchmarking purposes
 Add local work-related stressors
 Add additional questions. Questions need a yes no answer
format
 Collect data
 Paper workbook / on-screen option

20. Results of Team-based SRA
 Stress levels
 Stress comparisons with benchmark group
 Stress exposure - % of people in each group which
indicated that each stressor was “often” of “always” a
source of stress
 Stressors high- low
 Ranked stressors – significance of stressors
 Movement
 Written comments on main sources of stress

21. StressTools
14 Management Standards Providing Guidance on How
to Prevent Work-related Stressors
 Workload  Job design
 Management support
 Job Insecurity
 Tools and equipment
 Teamworking
 Communication
 Performance  Role ambiguity
feedback  Skill under-utilisation
 Training &  Work-life balance
development  Effort-reward imbalance
 Hours of work

22. Each Management Standard Includes…
 A definition of the stressor
 How the stressor can cause individual harm and organisational
harm
 How to identify if problem exists now or may do so in the future
 Management practices that may prevent or resolve these
problems
 A table which includes:
 “States” which describe a well-managed organisation, in
relation to this stressor
 A space to record current organisational practice, enabling a
gap analysis to be done
 Examples of the types of best practice which exemplify the
“state”
 A space to record next steps/actions

23. International Research Shows
1. Most of the activity in the field of stress
management has focused on reducing the
effects of stress rather than on reducing
the presence of stressors at work.
2. Most activities are primarilyy aimed at the
individual rather than the organisation.
3. Concluded that successful management of
stress requires intervention at both an
individual and organisational level.

24. Benefits of Stress Risk Assessment
Signals to employees that the employer is
being proactive and serious about managing
stress in the workplace.
It ensures that subsequent stress-related
activities aimed at management or treatment
are targeted at specific problems and specific
individuals.
Provides a tailored approach to managing
stress rather than a “pray and spray”
approach. In the long term it is more effective
in terms of costs and time.

25. In Conclusion
Compared to other stress management
techniques
The risk assessment approach to stress is
likely to more effective, as the source is being
addressed rather than the symptoms
It is a proactive

26. Stress Management = Good
Management
and
Good Management = Stress
Management