Abstract

The report
addresses the Work Stress in a large telecommunication company that provides the
infrastructure for all the communications in the country including broadband
networks and mobile phone infrastructure. The company is left with 3,000
employees after the restructuring. Due to the recent scenario of the company
the company went through a major organizational change. The staff reported
performance pressure as the workload on them has been increased and employees
report feeling frustrated. The report discusses the major sources of work
stress and its impact on work stress in employees’ engagement, satisfaction, and retention. The report formulates the intervention for the issues. The
report states its empirical background and discusses the critiques, limitations, and recommendations of the intervention programs. 

Contents

Statement
of Issue

Sources of
Work Stress

Impacts of
Work Stress

Key
components of the Intervention

Empirical
Research Evidence

Critique

References 

Outline of Structure

The report
contains the statement of overview or abstract of the report followed by the
table of contents. Moving ahead in the content, first of all, the report
portrays the scenario of the telecommunication company, provides background
information about the working and organizational structure of the company. This
scenario further leads to the new changes made in the company that brought out
the issues in the company. Furthermore, the workplace issue that is work
stress is discussed systematically. The key resources and impacts are
discussed in the report. Along with this, a solution (intervention) for the
issue/problem is formulated whose key components are elaborately discussed
including the empirical studies and the critiques of the intervention.

Statement of
Issue

The
telecommunication company is a large company comprising of approx. 4,000
employees with 4,000 contractors that provide the infrastructure for all the
communications in the country including broadband networks and mobile phone
infrastructure.  The company retail
internet and mobile services to the community. The company runs a call center,
24hrs a day, for retail sales and a separate call center, 24hrs a day for
technical support. The company has technicians on the road in vans who deal with
connections and technical support. Most of the office employees work Monday to
Friday 8 am-5 pm, but call centers operate eight-hour shifts that are from 7 am to 3 pm, 3 pm to 11 pm and 11 pm to 7 am, while technicians work 2 days, 2 nights and
have 4 days off every week.

Last year,
the organization has announced a restructure of the organizational design due
to which 1,000 employees had to exit the system. Subsequently, the performance
targets have been held steady since then. 
The restructure brought several notable changes in the
organization.  As 1,000 employees have
exited the system the tasks were redistributed among the others left
behind.  Consequently, the workloads on
the left employees have been increased. Furthermore, the similar reduction has been
seen in the number of managers, the number of managers was also reduced and now
the managers have to handle a number of employees than before and so their
‘span of control’ is also bigger. Besides this, Managing Director who made the
changes has also left the company only after three months stayed post the
redundancies. Furthermore, a new Managing Director has rearranged all the
senior leadership team.  As per the new
arrangement each new manager has got their new roles, they have been
implementing new ideas for the smooth and efficient running of the department to
reach the new performance targets.  

I have my
role in the company as an Organizational Development Manager. As per my role, I
am responsible for adaptability and concerned with employee satisfaction,
retention, and development. At the workplace, I have to collaborate with the Human
Resource managers and leaders for developing, designing and implementing
various interventions and learning programs. Organizational development is about
practicing and bringing about the planned and systematic changes in the
employee’s beliefs, attitudes and value system so that the organization could
better respond/adapt to the organizational changes and other advances.  Due to the recent scenario of the company as
explained above I have noticed that as the company went through a major
organizational change.  The staff
reported performance pressure as the workload on them has been increased ever
since when around 1,000 employees were removed. Clearly the workload on the
shoulders of the remaining employees has been increased and this is creating
work stress among them. Moreover, employees report feeling frustrated due to
the workload and 11% of the employees have reported their intention to quit
the job in the coming twelve months. 

Work stress
in the employees of the telecommunication due to the increased workload is the
major problem because the quality of work and performance of the employees with
less stress and high satisfaction is far different and effective than that of
the stressful and dissatisfied employees (Zafar, 2015). Stress arises when the
demand of work is beyond the capability of the employee. Any characteristic of
the workplace that causes a threat to the worker is known as the work stress. The
stress is caused when an employee is aware of his/her dysfunction, as a result
of the recognized conditions present in the workplace (Zafar, 2015).

The sources of work stress
in the employees in the telecommunication company are:

Ø  The work overload is a major reason of work stress among employees that
results in the lack of productivity and loss of interest in the majority of the
employees.

Ø  According to the research evidence, emotional exhaustion at the
workplace causes job stress and mainly impacts the turnover intention in the
telecommunication companies ( Khan, 2016).

Ø  The highly stressful work environment, lack of supervisory support and
motivational activities affect the stress level and job satisfaction at call
centers as the employees handle customer complaints and also function to sell
company products for achieving their targets (Memon, 2016).

Ø  Other factors causing work stress are dishonesty and conflict with the
supervisor, non-fulfillment of personal demand and promotion and induced job
switches within the organization. (Islam,2019)

Ø  The high, unclear, or conflicting demands or performance constraints that
are beyond the self-performance of the individual.

Ø  The work autonomy and interpersonal relationships.

 

The impacts of work stress
in employees’ engagement, satisfaction, and retention:

Ø  The job stress impacts the performance of the organization by causing
negative outcomes such as lack of enthusiasm and energy towards the job that
further leads to employee turnover, unfaithfulness, and less punctuality.

Ø  The employees have to put in extra efforts due to the increased
workloads which lead to dissatisfaction and demotivates the employees.
Employees’ job performance heavy depends on the work stress, sense of
satisfaction and work motivation (Kakkos, Trivellas, & Fillipou, 2010).

Ø  As per the research the low job satisfaction is the result of higher
workloads, poor co-workers and resources issues among the employees (Graham et
al., 2011).

Ø  The employees get mentally exhausted due to excessive workloads which
lead to back pain, muscle tension, fatigue, anxiety, headache, and loss of
appetite.  The employees also have to go
through an inconsistent health malady when they work in shifts in the
telecommunication companies (Memon, 2016).

Ø   The emotional exhaustion in the
work stressed employees’ shows a significant and positive association with
turnover intents and negative relationship with job satisfaction in the
telecommunication companies (Khan, 2016).

Ø  Workload or stress is the major cause affecting the employees’
productivity, performance as they suffer from health issues like eyes strain,
dizziness and sleeping disorders due to job stress.

Ø Furthermore, lack of relaxation in the working hours, work overload have a statistically significant negative impact on employees’ work performance
(Altangerel,2015). 

 A direct significant effect of work stress on
turnover intention has been seen, whereas, job satisfaction has a mediation
role between the work stress and turnover intention. Moreover, the turnover is
costly and can seriously impact business performance as further the high
turnover rates of the company reduces the capability of employees and the
organization to perform ( Djatmiko,2018).

Key
Components of Solution why the rationale

 

v Part-time arrangements- The telecommunication business takes place beyond the traditional
working hours because it is a service-based sector that includes 24-hour,
365-days of customer service and work interactions that take place across different
areas and time zones.  The working options
available should be individually negotiated work schedules formally reduced as
compared to the company time standards. The arrangements can be on a week wise,
month wise, annual, project-based, and could include job-sharing or
telecommuting. This arrangement is ideal for promoting the work-life balance of
the employees where they can make enough time for their personal lives as well.
The arrangement is proposed as an intervention, considering the facts of  work pressures, demands of work, the pressure to
work very fast, work hard, the limited amount of time for work, lack of focus on
work, facing work interruptions, and multi-tasking at the workplace.
Moreover, the part-time arrangements have great impacts on recruiting and
retention of valuable employee talent. Moreover, this arrangement is a widespread idea that is well accepted and a good choice for managers and
professionals. (Nelson,

v Training and Development- Training and development are the major components of the intervention so
that the employees should be able to result-oriented face the workloads, withstand
the political and environmental changes in the workplace. Training and
development enhance their skills and competencies for improved
organizational effectiveness and outcome. Moreover, the emotional intelligence of
the employee should be well assessed at the time of recruitment so that the
individual could be able to handle the work stress efficiently.

v Salaries and good working
environment – As the working population of the
telecommunication company is youth so the organization should increase their
salaries so as to motivate them and build a sense of competitiveness.
Furthermore, the system should have an open communications system among each level
of staff that helps in reducing employees' stress and enhance the work
efficiency performance.  The organization
should provide enough relaxation time in between the working hours for the
employees. Moreover, in order to reduce the workload stress and ensure proper
management of the work the organizations should make proper work designs for
the employees and also ensure the adequate allocation of employees for specific
skill-based jobs. This would help the employees in finishing their target work
on time, managing the workloads and doing their skill-specific works.

v Medical Facilities- Having medical facilities (first aid) at a working place should be a
priority as the majority of the workplaces has several illnesses due to work
stress. Moreover, intervention programs should focus on promoting the need for
physical health, adequate sleep and exercise especially for those that work on
the communication towers. Furthermore, the work stress should
be tracked using various methods and the use
of mindfulness meditation app should be promoted at the workplace for managing work stress and well-being.

 

 

Empirical
Research Evidence

 

v The intervention is based on the series of major studies conducted by the non-profit organization, Catalyst. The study clears the need for and importance of
part-time arrangements in modern organizations.  The information was collected from
several  literature reviews of previous
studies, telephonic surveys, interviews, mail surveys such as written surveys
with responses from 1,684 men and women graduates of 12 top-ranked business
schools (41% response rate) including  53%
women, 47% men, 25% people of color responding to the survey, further written
mail survey for 838 employees (a 38% response rate) in pipeline and senior
leadership positions in seven major securities firms where there were 58%
women, 42% men, 11 % of people of color respondents.

v  The intervention is based on the study was to explore the impact of training and development on organizational
effectiveness where t & d was and organizational strategy. Pakistan
telecommunication Authority was taken examined its effectiveness that showed
telecommunication authority to be very focused in the skilling of the employees
which bore health results for both employees and for the organization
(Chughtai,2016). Secondly, a Pakistan based study showed that employees working
with telecommunication industry can handle their job stress with the moderating
role of emotional intelligence and reduce the effect of job stress on life
satisfaction and happiness (Naseem, 2018).

v This study was conducted to investigate the effect of job stress on job
performance. The methodology of the study includes the collection of responses
to a well-structured questionnaire.  A
random sampling technique is used to collect primary data of 120 employees of
four telecommunication companies of Mongolia i.e. Mobicom, Unitel, Skytel and
G-mobile. The case study investigating the effect of job stress on the performance
of employees had 70 percent of respondents who are married with having an average
3 numbers of children, family size is more than 6 numbers of persons and more
than 2 numbers of persons who are economically dependent on each family. So,
the financial needs are the major drivers that can motivate the employees to work
qualitatively and quantitatively. Moreover, 69.2 percent of employees have got
ill because of work-related stress, eye strains, sleeping disorders, and
dizziness. (Altangerel,2015)

v An empirical study was conducted for investigating the prevalence of RSI
among a total of 100 respondents who were selected based on their daily
exposure to computer usage of more than 4 hours. The study results showed that 41% of computer users in Telecommunication Company X felt tired at the
upper-back near the neck and 38% at the shoulder region RSI among computer
users at a Telecommunication Company X. (Babaa, 2016).

Critique

 

v The intervention has certain limitations such as the part-time
arrangements mostly accommodate only women with young children and is a hardly
available option for the others. Secondly, the organizations hold on to certain
resentments, misconceptions, and stereotypes about those who work part-time as
being uncommitted to their careers and employers. The
stereotypes are based on just
because they employed work a flexible schedule, in spite of the fact that the
employee might be extremely committed, the part-time arrangement is also seen
as less professional. Furthermore, this arrangement can result in blurred
boundaries between work and home, the failed arrangements and stress, negative
impacts on career advancement, demotions and limited compensation, and
misconceptions and resentment that feed negative stereotypes about these
arrangements. In order to make this arrangement work the supervisor and the individual need to have a clear understanding of the policy,
this should be written.  These discussions
should include an agreement on how to work responsibilities will be reduced, as
well as the parameters of the arrangement and work expectations. Trusting
Relationships are important for this arrangement.

v  The training and development
should be carefully planned, should be a delivered on regular
practice in an organization should be conducted for both existing and new
employees in order to meet external challenges and to gain the core objectives
of the organization benefit for both individual
and organization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

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