Organizational Stressors: Annotated Bibliography
Order Instructions:
Organizational stress seems to be an inevitable consequence of doing business in today’s fast-paced global society. But what are the causes of organizational stress?
What is the impact of these stressors on an organization? How can these sources of stress be effectively mitigated and managed? Critically reviewing the body of research on these questions may yield valuable insight that will allow you to enable organizations of which you are a part to better manage stress.
To prepare:
•Select three peer-reviewed scholarly articles, with each article addressing a different source of organizational stress. In your evaluation of each article, consider the following:
- Reliability (evaluation of research methods used, theories used, and data on which it is based)
- Appropriateness for the intended audience
- Background and authority of the author
- Limitations of the research (which can depend on the scope, reliability, age of the document, and bias)
- Significance of the research
For more information and an example of an annotated bibliography, refer to the Walden University Online Writing Center’s annotated bibliography resource in this Module’s Learning Resources.
By Day 7 of Week 5, submit an annotated bibliography for the three resources. For each article, be sure to include the following:
•A full APA-style bibliographic reference including the author, title, publisher, and place of publication
•A summary of the document including the main points, its purpose, the theoretical perspective on which it is based, and the scope
•Evaluation of the source following the guidelines outlined under “To prepare”
SAMPLE ANSWER
Organizational Stressors: Annotated Bibliography
Marija Rok. (2011). Stress and stress management in a higher education tourism institution, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 279-290.
The article aimed at finding out the nature of stress found in institutions of higher learning, and how they affect the employees as well as methods used to handle them. The author conducted a case study in one tertiary institution and targeted employees of one faculty, i.e. the tourism department. The study followed a phenomenon approach focused on participants’ subjective experiences. Employees were subjected to a semi-structured interview with open-ended questions. Data was analyzed using a general analytical strategy where the author compared the findings of the study to other similar studies done both in that country and worldwide. The results indicated that employees in higher education institutions face stress similar to those in an enterprise.
The author did not base his study on any specific theory but instead, compared his data to other studies done previously. This was intentional as he wanted to get an unbiased result, which could be used or applied in any other higher education setting.
Typical answers given by participants on what they found stressful include dissertation work, diverse curricula, research obligations, lack of job safety, ambiguous roles, non-transparent leading, lack of opportunity for empowerment, organization climate, family obligations, and lack of time. Surprisingly, these issues were similar to those of employees found in corporates as well as previous studies done in tertiary institutions elsewhere.
Effects of these stress factors included tiredness, frustrations, irritability, aggression, and loss of interest among others. The participants understood how to relieve stress and engaged in activities like regular exercise, proper nutrition, regular sleep, engaged in hobbies, social gatherings, positive thinking, laughter, and relaxation. The organization, on the other hand, did nothing except hold meetings.
The case study method used was appropriate as it gave an opportunity for thorough investigation and a small sample size; hence, comprehensive results were gotten. The analysis the author draws from this study is that most of the stressors found in this institution were extrinsic i.e. based on bad tourism industry performance. His conclusion that stress is an unavoidable factor is true but it is rather a shallow recommendation, and he should have offered solid solutions instead of living the research hanging.
Lineta Ramonienė and Olena Gorbatenko. (2013). Managing Occupational Stress In Human Service Nonprofit Organizations In Mykolaiv, Ukraine. Organizations & Markets In Emerging Economies, VOL. 4, No. 2(8)
These authors sort to identify stressors in nonprofit organizations in a town in Ukraine using the transactional theory model that views stress as caused by relationship of a person and work. The study was conducted on the entire population of the non-profits of the town i.e. eleven institutions and six hypotheses were formulated using fourteen stressors. Using the regression model for analysis, the findings revealed that three stress factors were dominant i.e. demands exceeding abilities, demands falling short of abilities, and clients’ needs for emotional support.
The study shows that too many stress factors were chosen and out of original fourteen chosen, only eleven were applicable. Out of those, only six had positive results. Out of the six, only two revealed strong indicators to stress. Two stress factors had mild relation to stress and the other three had a weak link to stress. The three stress factors that failed to be used were career development opportunities, job insecurity, and dysfunctional relationships with supervisor. These are normally the main factors that contribute to stress among employees. However, it could be that this does not apply in the NGO sector as staffs here aim to “serve” and not “benefit” from the work. In addition, the lack of use of qualitative methods like interview that would have explained certain responses was an oversight. Lastly, even though the goal was accomplished i.e. to find out the stress factors that are found in NGO’s, the study left more questions than answers.
Caitlin Finney, Erene Stergiopoulos, Jennifer Hensel, Sarah Bonato and Carolyn S Dewa. (2013). Organizational stressors associated with job stress and burnout in correctional officers: a systematic review. BMC Public Health, 13:82
The authors reviewed the relationship between organizational stressors and employee stress and burnout in adult correctional facilities. The authors conducted a literature review and used Cooper & Marshall’s model of job stress to choose which stressors to use. The findings indicated that organizational structure and climate was the main cause of stress and burnout for employees.
The aim of the study was to identify areas that organizational interventions could target to reduce employee stress and burnout. The study was done using eight articles chosen from credible databases and journals, and five stressors including role in the organization, rewards at work, supervisory relationships at work, and the organizational structure and climate were applied. Negative consequences of burnout included high turnover rates, high absenteeism, and low productivity. Limitations of the study were many, especially that the articles selected used varying measures for organizational stressors. Moreover, the fact that this study used a cross sectional design as opposed to longtitudal design, which is more appropriate for behavior related researches is another weakness. In addition, the articles chosen were mostly from one country and involved public correctional institutions.
The authors in their conclusion recommended increase in communication between management and employees, while mild and more radical solutions might be necessary, especially when giving staff more decision-making power and reviewing job descriptions.
References
Caitlin Finney, Erene Stergiopoulos, Jennifer Hensel, Sarah Bonato and Carolyn S Dewa. (2013). Organizational stressors associated with job stress and burnout in correctional officers: a systematic review. BMC Public Health, 13:82
Lineta Ramonienė and Olena Gorbatenko. (2013). Managing Occupational Stress In Human Service Nonprofit Organizations In Mykolaiv, Ukraine. Organizations And Markets In Emerging Economies, Vol 4, No. 2(8)
Marija Rok. (2011). Stress and stress management in a higher education tourism institution, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 279-290.
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