Enabled employees

The study has also shown that though employers do carry out risk assessments on physical health and safety, few organisations have sought to know how to deal with psychological aspects of stress which can be damaging to the organisation. (Work-life balance, 2005) The blocking of goal achievement is one of the many reasons contributing to the greater importance on the management of stress. This occurs because organisations that have gone through decentralisation have now flatter structures, this makes it hard for employees to be rewarded on the basis of promotion.

Another example is the glass - ceiling effect experienced by woman who desire to get into professions that are largely dominated by males. The physiological and psychological outcomes of this can lead to frustration and even aggression. However the criticisms of this are that women may lack the necessary skills to break into those professions. (Milton, 2007) The management of stress is gaining importance greater importance in the workplace due to the following reasons.

Firstly well publicised courts have enabled employees to sue for damages; this can destroying the reputation of the employer, because they now can be charge for corporate manslaughter. So most large employers now have a stress management policy in place to alleviate the damage it may cause to the working lives of employees. (Jinhee, Sorhaindo & Garman, 2006) Legislation under the European directive on health and safety at work in which the UK is bound by UK law shows that the government have put legislation in place to prevent and protect employees psychological and social wellbeing at work.

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In the European framework directive (89/391) employers must ensure the safety and the health of all aspects of work carried out by the employee. (HMSO, 2007) Also the Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974 requires that employers and employees themselves take responsibility for their health and safety. The management of Health and safety at Work regulations, 1999 also requires that employers carry out suitable assessment of health and safety risks which their employees are exposed to while at work.

(Hmso, 2007) Employees have taken steps of their own in reducing stress in the workplace with the implementation of employee assistant programmes - these help employees cope and manage with the stress at work, and is also based on the principle that the individual has to learn how to cope with the stressor. Examples of EAP in the workplace consist of on-site gym facilities, relaxation classes, stress and health education and psychological counselling. Read about limitations of Manpower Planning

In terms of how effective it is research suggests that employees undergoing this program, reported significant improvements in mental heath and absenteeism, however there was little change to levels of organisational commitment and job satisfaction. (Williams, 2003) In contrast the view that the management of stress is not gaining greater importance in the workplace comes from the following evidence. One of the major criticisms of the approaches towards managing stress is that it deals with the consequences rather tackling the main issues of what causes workplace stress.

(Bratton & Gold, 2007) Organisations are usually too concerned with the interest of shareholders, rather than health and safety at work, evidence suggests that the health and safety policies are just blueprints which just look good on paper. (Trade union congress, 1986) Government intervention has had some huge criticism though with all the family -friendly policies there a major flaws in that the policies tend to favour the worker with a good job or educated employee, who can maybe afford to take off from work. (Personnel today, 2007)

In the past the workers working in the factories suffered horrific injuries some even resulting in deaths, back then the traditional approach to safety was the careless worker model in that most accidents resulted from the employee's failure to take safety seriously. Until death reports were high that it was then the government started to take initiative (Robens report) (Bratton ; Gold, 2007) and there has been a growing interest into Health and Safety at work ever since. In the 21st century a model of shared responsibility can be assumed i. e. with most accidents it involves failure in the area of control and managerial skills.

Employers are now realising that wellbeing of their staff is key to their financial success, for many firms their human assets is one of their major costs and precious commodities and in order to protect those assets we are seeing more investment into health and safety practices and even more into how it effects society as a whole. (Bratton ; Gold, 2007)

References

BBC News (2004) continuing cost of absenteeism [Online] [accessed: 5 march 2008] Bratton, J. , Gold, J (ed. ) (2007) Human resource management: theory and practice, (4th edn), Health and wellness management, Palgrave Macmillan, p479-521 Callan, S. (2007) implications of family friendly policies for organizational culture: findings from two case studies' work, employment and society. 21, 4, p673-679 Cooper, C. L. (1996) Working hours and Health, Work and stress, 10, 1, p1-4 CSO (1996) Central Statistical office, as reported in the financial times, JUVOS Cohort Database

Debt Statistics (2005) [online] http://www. moneystuff. co. uk/debt_statistics. pl? search=2005 [Accessed: 5 March 2008] HMSO (2007) [Online] htttp//: www. Hmso. gov. uk [Accessed: 6 March 2008] IDS (1993) Council Directive No 93/104/EC [Online] http://www. incomesdata. co. uk/information/worktimedirective. htm#SectionI [Accessed: 6 March 2008] Jinhee, K. , Sorhaindo, B. , Garman, E. T. (2003) Financial stress and absenteeism: An empirically derived research model. Financial Counselling and Planning, 14, 1, p31-42

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