In this 3rd part of the psychological stress series of articles, I would like to touch how psychological stress can impact society and what intervention approaches can be adopted.
As we discussed previously, psychological stress can cause organisations in terms of lost productivity and employees’ absence from work. Broadening the scope, how then can psychological stress impact the society?
If people are taking sick leave to stay away from work, this will inevitably affect the costs for increased health care and welfare spending to support those stressed working adults. It has been found in the United States that health care expenditures for employees who have a high level of stress were 46 percent than those who have a lower level of stress. (Goetzel et al, 1998).
On the other side of the pond, it has been reported that among the member states of the European Union, an estimated cost of 3 to 4 percent of GNP is related to mental health problems. (Seymour & Grove, 2005) . Black (2008) found that every year in the UK, there was an average of 200,000 working adults were dependent on welfare due to a mental health-related problem. All these should be sounding alarms for any government to take swift action to curb this issue. While I am not aware of any written legislation to deal with psychological stress, there are, however, thankfully, intervention approaches that can be used.
These interventions, also known as stress management interventions (SMI), can be categorised into an organisation focused and individually focused SMIs. Those SMIs that are an organisation focused tend to look at how to change aspects of the work to reduce psychological stress. These are known to be the primary level of prevention as they deal with work-related stressors as their source. (Cox et al, 2000; Giga, Cooper & Faragher, 2003 ). The programs use a highly participative approach whereby employees are involved in the identification of problems and the implementation of solutions. It has been found that such an intervention method is able to help people to have better control over their jobs. (Bond, Flaxman, & Bunce, 2008; Holman, Axtell, Sprigg, Totterdell & Wall, 2010).
On the other hand, individual-focused interventions seek to change the way individuals look at the stressful events and help to improve the individuals’ coping resources. One of the common approaches is stress management training (SMT) programs. Such programs are conducted in small groups using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) techniques. It has been found that the use of such CBT based programs is an effective way of improving mental health in the workplace. (Murphy, 1996; Richardson & Rothstien, 2008; van der Klink, Blonk, Schene, & van Dijk, 2001).
Psychological stress in the workplace is and will always be an issue that individuals, organisations and society cannot avoid. While there is no silver bullet to eradicate this phenomenon, preventive measures can be taken to at least reduce or alleviate the issue.
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2. Seymour, L., & Grove, B. (2005). Workplace interventions for people with common mental health problems: Evidence review and recommendations. London: British Occupational Health Research Foundation.
3. Black, C. (2008). Working for a healthier tomorrow. Report commissioned by the Secretaries of State for Health and Work and Pensions. Norwich, England: Stationery Office.
4. Cox, T., Griffiths, A., Barlowe, C., Randall, R., Thomson, L., & Rial-Gonzalez, E. (2000). Organisational interventions for work stress: a risk management approach. Health and Safety Executive research report 286/2000. Norwich: Stationery Office.
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6. Bond, F.W., Flaxman, P.E., & Bunce, D. (2008). The influence of psychological flexibility on work redesign: Mediated moderation of a work reorganisation intervention. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 645-654.
7. Holman, D.J., Axtell, C.M., Sprigg, C.A., Totterdell, P., & Wall, T.D. (2010). The mediating role of job characteristics in job redesign interventions: A serendipitous quasi-experiment. Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 31, 519-542.
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9. Richardson, K.M., & Rothstein, H.R. (2008). Effects of occupational stress management intervention programs: a meta-analysis. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 13, 69-93.
10. Van der Klink, J.J. L., Blonk, R.W.N., Schene, A.H., & van Dijik, F.J.H. (2001). The benefits of interventions for work-related stress. American Journal of Public Health, 91, 270-276.