Chapter 7: Managing Change, Stress, and Innovation



Chapter 7: Managing Change, Stress, and Innovation

Section 7.3 – Stress: The Aftermath of Organizational Change

Key Terms

• Stress

• Karoshi

• Stressors

• Role conflicts

• Role overload

• Role ambiguity

• Type A personality

• Type B personality

• Employee assistance programs (EAPs)

• Wellness program

• Creativity

• Innovation

Summary

Organizational change creates stress for many employees. Stress is a force or influence a person feels when faced with opportunities, constraints, or demands that is perceived to be both uncertain and important. Constraints are barriers that keep one from doing what they want or desire and inhibit them in how they are allowed to control a situation.

Demands may cause a need to give up something desired. Demands tend to preoccupy one’s time and cause a shift in priorities. When constraints and demands are coupled with uncertainty about an outcome and the importance of the outcome, potential stress becomes actual stress. Stress related problems affects U.S. corporations through “lost productivity, increased worker compensation claims, turnover, and health care cost” amounting to a total cost of almost $300 billion annually.

In Japan, there is a term used, karoshi, which means death from overworking. Many Japanese employees literally work themselves to death – one in six working more than 3,100 hours annually.

Stressors, factors that create stress, can be grouped into two major categories – organizational and personal. Organizational stressors can be grouped into five categories:

• Task demands – factors related to an employee’s job

• Role demands – pressures related to the function of the role played within the organization; role conflicts, role overload, and role ambiguity fall under this category

• Interpersonal demands – pressures created by other employees

• Organization structure – includes excessive rules or lack of opportunity to participate in decisions affecting the employee, and

• Organizational leadership – the supervisory style of the company officials.

Personal factors that can create stress include family issues, personal economic problems, and, inherent personality characteristics and traits (Type A and Type B).

In addition to the categories of stressors, stress can reveal itself physiologically, psychologically, and behaviorally. The organization can help to alleviate some stress by making sure employees are properly matched to their jobs, understand the extent of their authority, understand exactly what is expected of them (reducing role conflict and ambiguity), and redesigning jobs if possible. Unfortunately, the managers have little to no control over the personal factors. To help deal with the personal issues, many companies have started employee assistance programs (EAPs) and wellness programs.

• Employee assistance programs (EAPs) are programs offered by organizations to help their employees overcome personal and health related problems.

• Wellness programs are programs offered organizations to help their employees prevent health problems.

In order to stay competitive, organizations must create new products and services and adopt state-of-the-art technology. Companies must remain innovative and creative to maintain their competitive advantage. Creativity is the ability to combine ideas in a unique way or to make unusual associations between ideas.

Innovation is the process of taking a creative idea and turning it into a useful product, service, or method of operation. Managers often talk about making an organization more creative but in truth, they want to make it more innovative. Some believe creativity is only inborn while others believe anyone can be creative with the proper training.

Becoming creative through training is thought to consist of a fourfold process consisting of:

1. Perception,

2. Incubation,

3. Inspiration, and

4. Innovation

The structure, culture, and human resource practices are three sets of variables that have been found to stimulate innovation within an organization. To stay competitive an innovation-supportive culture is crucial. This culture is based on the employee’s perception that the supervisory support and organizational reward systems is consistent with the level of innovation desired without excessive or unreasonable workload pressures being applied.

Section Outline

Stress After Organizational Change

A. What is stress?

B. Causes of stress

C. Symptoms of stress

D. How to reduce stress

Stimulating Innovation

A. Relationship between creativity and innovation

B. What is involved in innovation

C. Fostering innovation by management

D. The value of innovation to entrepreneurs

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download