HighnessParrotMaster649
Question It has been discussed the maintaining a work-life balance…
Question
It has been discussed the maintaining a work-life balance can reduce stress and conflict related to work. What are some ways you can better achieve work-life balance? How do these initiatives affect your stress and conflict levels in your place of work?
Course Concepts:
Organizational Strategies for Managing Stress:
This chapter would be incomplete without a discussion of personal and organizational strategies to manage stress. These strategies either reduce demands or enhance resources.
Job Redesign:
Organizations can redesign jobs to reduce their stressful characteristics. In theory, it is possible to redesign jobs anywhere in the organization to this end. Thus, an overloaded executive might be given an assistant to reduce the number of tasks he or she must perform. In practice, most formal job redesign efforts have involved enriching operative-level jobs.
Especially for service jobs, there is growing evidence that providing more autonomy in how service is delivered can alleviate stress and burnout.102 Call-centre workers, fast-food employees, some salespeople, and some hospitality workers are highly “scripted” by employers, with the idea that uniformity will be appreciated by customers. This idea is debatable, but what is not debatable is that this lack of personal control goes against the research-supported prescriptions of job enrichment (Chapter 6) and empowerment (Chapter 12), and the job demands-resources model of stress. Boundary role service jobs require a high degree of emotional regulation in any event, and some autonomy allows employees to cope with emotional labour by adjusting their responses to the needs of the moment in line with their own personalities. Guidelines about desired service outcomes can replace rigid scripts, especially for routine (non-emergency) encounters. Also, excessive electronic monitoring should be avoided in call centres.103
Stressful job designs often emerge from heavy-handed downsizings, restructurings, and mergers. Common symptoms of such jobs are extreme role overload, increased responsibility without corresponding authority to act, and the assignment of tasks for which no training is provided. Executives overseeing such change efforts should obtain professional assistance to ensure proper job designs.
“Family-Friendly” Human Resource Policies
To reduce stress associated with dual careers, child care, and eldercare, many organizations institute “family-friendly” human resource policies to improve work-life balance. A welcome form of material support consists of corporate daycare centres. Flexibility (which provides more control over family issues) is also important and includes flextime, telecommuting, job sharing, and part-time work, as well as family leave policies that allow time off for caring for infants, sick children, and aged dependents. Although many firms boast of having such flexible policies, a common problem is convincing managers to encourage employees to use them in an era of downsizing and lean staffing. Another problem is a mismatch between the type of flexibility available and that needed. For example, lower-level employees might benefit the most from flextime, but it is often unavailable to them. Also, part-time work can help in recruiting and retaining higher-level employees but threaten the salary and career progression of those who choose to do so. Conversely, lower-level employees might be forced to work part-time, curtailing their wages and benefits.104
In general, perceptions of flexibility, a reasonable workload, supportive supervision, and a supportive culture are associated with less work-family conflict and higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment.105 The province of Quebec has established a voluntary certification program for work-life balance. Firms can apply for up to four levels of certification, depending on the exact features they offer to employees and the extent of commitment to balance. Frima Studio, a Quebec City video game developer, was the first organization to be certified, and it was seen as a way to attract and retain the best talent in a competitive industry.106 According to a Mediacorp study, some of Canada’s most family-friendly employers include Accenture, University of Toronto, and Desjardins.107 For an example of a family-friendly organization, see Applied Focus: Vancity Offers Family-Friendly Policies.
Stress Management Programs
Some organizations employ programs designed to help employees manage work-related stress. Some programs help mentally healthy employees prevent problems due to stress. Others are therapeutic in nature, aimed at individuals who are already experiencing stress and burnout. Most involve one or more of the following techniques: meditation, mindfulness training, muscle-relaxation exercises, biofeedback training to control physiological processes, training in time management, and training to think more positively and realistically about sources of job stress. These interventions are useful in reducing physiological arousal, sleep disturbances, and self-reported tension and anxiety, although impacts are modest in size.
