Infobridge Private Limited is a product development company. It started with two employees and has now grown to 275 employees. This huge growth occurred because of its innovative product development and it is still growing rapidly.
Alan Gay had joined as a managing director in 2009 and started managing its operations. Despite the economic crises in 2010, the company made profits and the credit was given to the managing director. Later in 2012, the company found that it had started going into losses. On investigating, it was found that many employees are on leave for sickness, a few of them are complaining about the sleeping problem, and some of them have upset stomachs. The employees were forced to work overtime and were expected to help each other.
The managing director then hired John Stewart to assess this problem and take necessary actions. On analyzing, John realized that there is a strong correlation between the organization and the employee satisfaction. The top management met and discussed the problem. To have more clear insights into this matter, a one-day workshop was organized for the top management. They conducted a few games where the top management was involved in spontaneous movements of their body. They were asked to touch a body part which they found to be very firm. Alan touched the back of his body. This was quite obvious as he carries all the responsibilities on his back for all the operational matters of the organization. The workshop clearly revealed the problems because of which employees were on leave and could not be productive. In another meeting, they discussed about the problems that arose in the organization with all the possible interventions. After a long discussion, it was decided that three departments would be established, each separate from the other on a professional basis. Three leaders were appointed to look after these departments independently. They also decided to have a rest policy where employees can spend a few minutes as a coffee break at 3.30 pm.
To measure the efforts put by the management in order to overcome losses and regain profit levels, they chose a few parameters such as ensuring and monitoring physical fitness through sports activities and make employees avail shopping benefits through usage of gift/travel vouchers thereby increasing work satisfaction and their productivity.
Six months later, the outcomes were evaluated. The profit levels started to grow again, and the number of sick leaves was dropped to a minimum. A questionnaire was drawn up to assess the work satisfaction. Stress management proved to be successful within six months.
Questions
1. What type of job stress is found in this situation?
2. How did the stress affect the organization?
3. What other stress management strategies could have been implemented?