Ethical Issues Inherent with Workplace Stress - Term Paper Example

This paper is a study of the ethical issues inherent with workplace stress. The basic definitions of workplace stress and ethical issues along with a brief introduction are mentioned. Various possible factors can be responsible for workplace stress and these factors can be professional issues or ethical issues. After a discussion of all possible issues related to workplace stress, the ethical issues are identified. Each issue is studied separately on the basis of causes due to which the issue arises and also on the basis of various different scenarios in which they can occur. Solutions for each problem are also mentioned with short implementation strategies. Conclusions are drawn at the end of the paper. Ethical Issues Inherent with Workplace Stress Introduction Due to the rapid changes in the market and industry the levels of stress at workplace are increasing every day and the staff and workers are being pushed hard to meet the targets. Stress has now become part and parcel of the life of each and every individual regardless of the profession. Constantly changing deadlines, long working hours, assignments beyond the capacity of workers are a few issues that the employees have to deal with at workplace. In addition to these most of the time the employees and staff members do not get the expected recognition and encouragement from the authorities. Some of the employees do not get the required health care options and their firms do not offer any stress management programs. Some individuals despite working very hard do not get the opportunity to grow in the organization and achieve higher positions, this adds to the stress they are carrying. The working environment is another important factor in determining the levels of workplace stress in individuals and workplace harassment is a major cause of stress in some organizations. Conflicts between colleagues are very likely to occur in a stressed working environment resulting in more stress. The issue of workplace stress has gained significant importance during recent times because it is directly related to the productivity of employees and the company. The concept of ethics is defined by every individual according to his own mindset and perception. Ethics are generally defined as a set of well established and acknowledged standards to distinguish between right and wrong practices. Ethics in a society depends upon the feelings of the individuals that form the society. Therefore the workplace ethics of a particular company or firm depend upon the society, the workplace environment, the cultural aspects of the region of company’s existence or the region in which the company does business and also on the organizational structure and employees’ development in a company. The Ethical Issues The various issues that can be classified as ethical issues inherent with workplace stress are: 1. Lack of encouragement and recognition 2. Insufficient health care facilities and lack of stress management programs for the employees 3. Conflicts between colleagues over work distribution and allocation 4. Harassment at workplace 5. Immoral workplace practices These issues will be discussed in detail in the following pages. Lack of Encouragement and Recognition This is the most common cause of workplace stress. It is the moral as well as professional responsibility of the employer to encourage, recognize and reward his employees for their efforts. Recognition is very important and serves as the motivational force which increases the productivity and efficiency of employees and at the same time it makes them own the company. When the employees are recognized and rewarded for their efforts through promotions, salary increments and performance certificates, a sense of growth is felt by the employees. As a result they work more enthusiastically because they start deeming the progress of company as their own progress. On the other hand if employees are not recognized and rewarded for their efforts this greatly affects their performance because when an employee gets a reward for his work his morale to work on the next project is renewed (Menzel, 2007). An employee who works hard for the success of a project does not get enough recognition for his efforts and is criticized for small mistakes takes this criticism to his mind and heart and experiences high levels of stress because he expects a reward on every successful project. Recognition of his colleagues by the officer just adds to his stress levels. The solution to this problem is to adopt an ethical approach in which the success of the company is shared with the employees by giving them salary increments and rewards. If these increments start hurting the company’s financials the company can only issue performance certificates and should recognize the hardworking employees among other staff members but a minimum level of recognition should be given to each and every individual behind a successful project. Moreover instead of criticizing a staff member on mistakes, he should be encouraged to work better next time and learn from his teammates and colleagues. Recognition at workplace is an emotional issue and should be solved on ethical guidelines to achieve a stress free working environment (Cartwright, Cooper, 1997). Lack of Healthcare facilities and Stress Management Programs When a company expects its employees to deliver their hundred percent and work to the best of their abilities for the success and growth of the company, it should also take care of its employees’ health. Long working hours and large workloads deteriorates the health of the staff members. A healthy working environment is the one in which employees are assigned tasks according to their abilities. Overloading the employees with a lot of work to maximize the profit is a very harsh and immoral practice and an ethical behavior should be adopted while assigning tasks to employees. Moreover the employees of the company should be considered an asset and should be treated like a family member to create an ideal working environment (Clarke, Cooper, 2004). The health of the employees should be given due importance and the benefit the success of the company should reach the employees. The company should spend a reasonable amount of money on its healthcare and stress management programs because it is in the best interest of the company as well as the employees. Workplace stress is inevitable and the working environment and the organization are not always responsible for it. An employee can experience stress due to disturbances in his personal life, due to some health problems or sometimes due to the customer’s behavior. In such a scenario it is the responsibility of the organization to facilitate its employees with proper stress management programs to help them overcome their workplace stress. The aim of the organization should not be just to maximize the profit; it should also take good care of the health of its staff members and arrange proper stress management programs. Conflicts between Colleagues over Work Distribution and Allocation Very often conflicts arise at workplace regarding the distribution and allocation of work. It is the ethical responsibility of the authorities to distribute work evenly between individuals and allocate work according to the technical expertise of the staff members. Some employees spend more time on gaining the favor of the managers and executives rather than spending time on their work and very often the managers are pleased with this flattering act and practice favoritism while allocating work to individuals. This has very negative impacts on the individuals who are overburdened resulting in high levels of stress and reduced efficiency. Conflicts between individuals also arise due to such a practice which deteriorates the overall working environment and encourages bullying. The managers should essentially stop such a detrimental practice. A possible solution may be following the matrix structure of organization in which teams are formed for carrying out different projects. These teams are multi-disciplinary and thus there cannot be any conflict regarding work allocation because the duty of each individual in the team is defined and different team members generally do not have the technical expertise to do the work assigned to the other team members. Harassment at Workplace Workplace harassment is any sort of unwanted activity towards an employee leading to difficulty and problems in performing the assigned duties and jobs. Workplace harassment creates a feeling of hostile environment (England, 2009).The various factors on which workplace harassment is based may be gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, culture and morals etc. Workplace harassment which also an ethical issue adds to the stress of the individual and it destroys the working environment in a company. The issue of workplace harassment based on culture and religion is very common in multinational companies where individuals belonging to various different cultures, religions and with different ethnical identities work together. In such organizations the individuals can form groups based on similar cultural backgrounds and start mocking each other. An ethnically different individual can be singled out in a company. Calling people names and immoral and unsuitable jokes which are against the cultural identity, religious ideology or sexual orientations hurt the feelings of certain individuals. Unwanted sexual advances from the colleagues are also an issue related to stress of individuals. Very often unethical managers offer their subordinate staff members promotions and increments in return to the fulfillment of their sexual desires (Gilliland, Steiner, Skarlicki, 2007).The solution lies in creating a healthy working environment in which everyone is concerned about his own work. A sense of respect should exist for the beliefs and morals of the colleagues; this can be done by adopting a common code of conduct for the employees and managers of an organization. Immoral Workplace Practices Sometimes the employees are asked to lie about certain aspects of a project and the managers are involved in corruption and illegal activities. Such practices put moral pressure on the employees because they are forced to work against ethical values resulting in stress. Laws should be formulated to stop such practices and the authorities in the organization should develop certain rules of procedure to follow in case of any such reports by the staff members or managers (Anna, 2008). Conclusion Ethical issues inherent with workplace stress are more important to deal with than the professional issues because these issues are related to the emotional feelings and moral values of the employees and result in high levels of stress. The solutions to these issues are very straight forward and lie in creating a healthy and productive workplace environment in which people respect each other’s traditions, cultures and moral values. References Anna, M. (2008). How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress: how leaders and employees protect their sanity from tension and turfwars. ReadHowYouWant.com. Cartwright, S., & Cooper, C. (1997). Managing Workplace Stress. Sage Publications. Clarke, S., & Cooper, C. (2004). Managing the Risk of Workplace Stress: health and safety hazards. Routledge. England, D. (2009). The Essential Guide to Handling Workplace Harassment and Discrimination. Nolo. Gilliland, S., Steiner, D., & Skarlicki, D. (2007). Managing Social and Ethical Issues in Organizations. IAP. Menzel, D. (2007). Ethics Management for Public Administrators: building organizations of integrity. M. E. Sharpe. Read More