Employee Stress, Safety, and Health

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Employee Stress, Safety, and Health
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• In the early years of the twentieth century
  stress and the health and safety of workers were
  not areas of concern in I/O Psychology. In the
  era of scientific management people were thought
  of as extensions of the machinery they operated.
  The Hawthorne Western Electric Studies changed
  this basic assumption and looked at workers as
  complex human beings with emotional and social
  needs as well as physical needs. This chapter
  looks at the development of concern about stress,
  health, and safety of employees and current
  applications of research in this field.

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I. Employee Stress, Safety, and Health

• Stress In the Workplace
• Stress- The physical and/or psychological
  response to the demands made on a person. Stress
  usually is perceived as something undesirable.
• The cost of stress in the workplace in the U.S.
  is estimated at about 200 billion to 300
  billion annually. Those costs include
  absenteeism, diminished productivity, employee
  turnover, accidents, direct medical, legal, and
  insurance fees and workers compensation awards.
  So, it makes good business sense to manage stress
  at work and reduce those costs.

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A) Stress and Productivity

• Stressors- The characteristics or conditions that
  lead to stress.
• Eustress- Stress that arises from a positive
  experience.
• Distress- Stress that arises from a negative
  experience.

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B) Consequences of Stress

• Organizational Outcomes
• Absenteeism
• Tardiness
• Low Performance
• Sabotage
• Accidents

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B) Consequences of Stress

• 2) Personal Outcomes
• Karoshi
• General Adaptation Syndrome
• Fight-or-Flight Response

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C) Contributors to Stress

• Organizational Contributors to Stress
• Work Overload
• Work Underload
• Role Ambiguity
• Role Conflict
• Technostress
• Sexual Harassment

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Types of Sexual Harassment

• Gender Harassment
• Seductive Behavior
• Sexual Bribery
• Sexual Coercion
• Sexual Imposition

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C) Contributors to Stress

• 2) Personal Contributors
• Life Changes

• Divorce
  
• Marital separation
• Imprisonment
• Death of family member
• Marriage
• Fired from job
• Death of spouse
  
• Marital reconciliation
• Pregnancy
• Retirement
• Sexual difficulties

• Gain of new family member
  
• Major business adjustment
• Death of close friend
• Change to a different career
• Buying a house
• Trouble with in-laws
• Beginning or ending formal school
  
• Trouble with boss
• Change in residence
• Change in eating habits
• Vacation
• Minor violation of the law

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• Type A Personality
• Type B Personality
• Polyphasic
• Negative Affectivity
• Hardiness
• Burnout

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D) Stress Management at Work

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Methods of Stress Management
• Exercise
• Meditation
• Relaxation
• Cognitive Approaches
• Time Management
• Goal Setting

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II. Safety In the Workplace

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration
  (OSHA) The federal government agency that
  oversees the health and safety of employees at
  work. The concern for safety in the workplace is
  a rather recent development. In 1971 legislation
  passed the OSHA Act.

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A) Accidents, Injuries, and Illness at Work

• Defining Accidents- The most important criterion
  for determining an accident at work is time lost
  from work.
• Factors of Organizational Contributors

• Physical Environment
• Noise
• Illumination
• Repetitive Motion Injury
• Shift Work
• Sick Building Syndrome (SBS)
• Mass Psychological illness

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• 3) Personal Contributors

• Accident Proneness
• Accident Liability
• Job Demand VS. Work Capability Theory

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B) Reducing and Preventing Accidents and Injuries
at Work

• 1) Design Factors

• Exclusion Design
• Prevention Design
• Fail-Safe Design

2) Human Factors

• Selection Process
• Employment Reliability Inventory
• Traning
• Safety Programs

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C) Workplace Violence

• Prevention

• Screen employees for potential problems
• Making changes in the physical environment of
  the
• workplace
• Safety awareness training for all employees

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Six Factors that increase risk of homicide in the
workplace

• Exchange of money with the public
• Working alone or in small numbers
• Working late-night or early morning hours
• Working in a high crime area
• Guarding valuable property or
• possessions
• Working in a community setting

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• 2) Crisis Teams
• If violence occurs in the workplace,
  organizations should have plans for trained
  crisis teams to deal with the violence and its
  aftermath.

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Employee Stress, Safety, and Health

• Organizations that make a strong commitment to
  the health and safety of their employees are
  viewed as for more desirable places to work and
  are able to hire and keep the best employees .