Occupational Stress and Scientific Monitoring

Elena Georgiou*

Abstract

The aim of this project was to review evidence available on occupational stress and how it can be monitored scientifically. Closed-ended questionnaires were used to obtain data from 150 participants. Data was analyzed using OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regression analysis. Data included the demographic background of participants: age, sex, and their occupational background. From the demographic background, all participants (150) were literate where more than 73% of participants had college or university degrees. Moreover, more than 74% of participants had at least 3 years working experience, where more than 78% of participants had at least 2 years working experience with their present employers. The results indicated that workload has been the major contributing factor leading to workplace stress. The study suggests that organizations should recruit more staff to reduce workload to manage workplace stress. Moreover, organizations should improve the supervisory control to reduce stress.

Keywords: Occupational stress, performance, scientific monitoring systems, workloads, harassment, bullying by management, lack of motivation or advancement opportunities.

Introduction

Occupational stress comes along when an employee was faced with demands within the workplace, and they were not able to complete or carry out these demands. The failure to complete the demands placed upon them would cause the employee mental and physical strain as their body would have a physiological reaction. According to research, various factors contributed to stress in the workplace. These factors included isolation, extensive working hours, negative workloads, unhealthy working environments, harassment, bullying by management, and lack of motivation or advancement opportunities. Keeping in view the positive nature of stress which can help employees improve their performance, organisations introduced scientific monitoring systems so that realization of being observed can force them perform at optimum level.

The research questions were:

What are the causes of workplace stress?

What are the effects of occupational stress to employees, family and the organization?

How does effective supervision affect occupational stress?

How effective are strategies used by other organizations in the quest for stress management?

The study answered the research questions using the OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regression analysis. The data analysis was used to establish the cause of occupational stress, effect of occupational stress and how supervisory control affects occupational stress. The data analysis also established the strategies to mange occupational stress within a workplace.

The results established that workload has been the major contributing factor leading to workplace stress. Larger number (the half) of participants accepted that workload, time pressure, ability to meet deadlines and heavy workload have been the major factors leading to workplace stress. Thus, the effect of stress could cause problem within a workplace. The research suggests that organizations should recruit more staff to reduce workload to manage workplace stress. Moreover, organizations should improve the supervisory control to reduce stress.

Background

The modern 21st century has posed new challenges for the organisations to survive and grow (Smith et al., 2010). As they are operated and managed by human beings, the challenges are ultimately faced by the individuals who are responsible for making decisions and implementing them (Nieuwenhuizen, Weiss and Rossouw, 2009; Smith et al., 2010). As challenges are multifaceted, and human lives are divided into various aspects, it is difficult to excel in every field. The gap between desired and actual state of mind leads to stress and has a high impact on employee performance and productivity.

The concept of supervision is not new in business settings. It may be rooted right in the main essence of organisational structure from where delegation of authority and chain of command were introduced. As relaxation leads to slow motion of work and decreased productivity consequently, many organisations deliberately introduce supervision and monitoring systems (Robbins & Coulter, 2007; Smith et al., 2010) so that employees perform at their optimum level. It can be concluded that when employees are in occupational stress, they tend to perform better (Hartley, 2010; Smith et al., 2010).

As there is a perceived relationship between occupational stress and need to supervise employee, there is strong need to explore the possibility of any such relationship. It is because organisations can mould their supervisory techniques so that employees perform better. In the present challenging world of 21st century, organisations are concerned about performance improvement of their employees and want to leave no stone unturned for it.

Literature Review

Defining occupational stress involves the defining of its two constituent words. Occupational means all workplace-related activities and elements whereas stress talks about a natural body response to emotional or mental strain in a person. Therefore occupational/work stress can be defined as any system by which the body tries to conform to its workplace environment. These systems include the normal body system for managing work stress, popularly called the fight or flight response as well as all other likely or unlikely responses. These responses include anxiety, eyestrain due to staring at a computer screen for a long period, depression, physical and emtional stress, reduced concentration, cognitive problems such as memory losses and more. All these responses could cause poor work performance, cardiovascular disease, higher employee turnover, injury, higher absenteeism and even mortality (Patterson et al., 2005).

Occupational stress can equally be defined as an occupational safety and health recognized hazard which could have an adverse effect on employee health and which employers have to identify, evaluate and manage in every way possible. It is also referred to as the result when a person is not able to handle the pressures of the workplace (Rees, 1997). This is caused either because the person is not the right fit based on his/her strengths and the needs of that role or because the conditions of the workplace are not favorable.

Many organizations emphasize the important of supervisory support for employees because of its advantages. Among the largest advantages is its effect on worker morale and job satisfaction. Supportive supervision helps to reduce occupational stress, which helps employees to handle their opportunities thus reducing the influence of other factors that affect job performance or lead to less than satisfactory products or services to clients or customers. According to Kadushin (1992), the supportive supervision helps to prevent potentially stressful situations thus removes employees from stress and reduces stress on the worker. This helps employees to adjust to the work environment and increases morale and job satisfaction.

Definition of Supervision

Supervision simply means the control or regulation of behavior via laid out guidelines and restrictions. A large number of authors claim there are several supervision aspects that have to be analyzed before it can be defined. These aspects are application of practices and ideas which provides a suitable environment for the employees to follow the laid out restrictions, provision of support and advice, ensuring that employees have access to the proper equipment and resources necessary for succeeding in their job roles and organizing job functions in an orderly manner so as to ease decision-making processes.

Categories of Supervisory Models

Supervision models are classified into three, based on their typical features. These classes are the developmental models, psychotherapy-based models and the integrative models (Smith and Witt, 1993).

Integrative supervision models rely on several theories and techniques (Haynes et al., 2003). A good example of these models is Bernards discrimination model developed by Bernard (1979) and revised by Bernard and Goodyear (2009). This model states that there are six foci of supervision. The first three are foci, which are intervention, conceptualization and personalization while the last three are roles, which are teacher, counselor and consultant. According to the model, the supervisor responds using one of the nine ways resulting from the three roles x the three foci. Another model is the systems approach model (Holloway, 1995) which argues that the supervisor and employee have a mutually involving relationship with seven dimensions. These are supervision functions, supervision tasks, employee, trainee, supervisor, and the institution (Mimura and Griffiths, 2003).

Research Method

Research Objectives

The purpose of the research was to reach the objectives of the study, which are:

To find out the causes of workplace stress.

To examine the effects of occupational stress to employees, family and the organization.

To evaluate how effective supervision affects occupational stress.

To evaluate strategies used by other organizations in the quest for stress management.

Techniques

In order to determine, identify and measure the causes and effects of occupational stress, it was important to conduct a multivariate OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regression that controls for organizational size, number of working hours per week, gender, seniority, level of supervisory support, and ethnicity.

Research Design

The questionnaire was designed to be closed-ended. In order to succeed at answering the research questions, the study used a collection of quantitative data in order to balance the cause and effect relationship among the variables and to be able to gain an accurate description of the study phenomenon from the respondents. The quantitative design was considered better for the research questions.

Piloting the Survey

A pilot study on 10 participants was conducted to ensure that the questionnaire was pretested for accuracy and reliability.

Selection of Participants

For the selection of participants the snowball effect was used a total of 150 employees participated in the survey.

Operationalization of constructs

Various constructs were measured in this study. These included demographic information such as age, education, and gender which were used to categorize the respondents per their education and functional background. These constructs were operationalized by peer-review of the questionnaire and pre-testing it to ensure that it has the highest representation of appropriate choices in the questions. It also ensured that the questions were phrased in the simplest language possible for the respondents to understand and respond appropriately.

Demographic data

Demographic data was collected to help in identifying which may be confounders and thus beneficial in the OLS multivariate regression. Data collected included gender, age, in what sector they worked, duration of employment with their current company, total number of years of experience, and highest level of education. These questions were closed ended with equally distributed scales depending on the question. In order to reduce the chances of bias in the responses received, education was dichotomized to show whether or not a person has a college degree.

Dependent variables

The causes and effects of organizational stress were tested on six distinct dimensions of work. These were job satisfaction, moral, perceived opportunities for advancement, extra effort required to achieve organizational goals, level of supervision, and the approachability of supervisors. These form the dependent variables for the study. They were originally coded on a 3-item likert scale for example: (1) never (2) sometimes (3) often. The reason for choosing a 3-item likert scale is that it does not have a middle point; therefore responses will either be on the negative or on the positive. Responses were reverse coded in order to ensure that higher values indicate greater responses of job satisfaction, morale, effort or opportunities for advancement. Operational definitions for each of the variables were defined to ensure the research has a baseline for understanding what is constituted in each of the variables.

Job satisfaction

According to Hodson and Sullivan (2011), there are various factors that affect job satisfaction. These include intrinsic such as finding meaning in work and extrinsic rewards such as salary, promotion, etc. The questions were related to work and productivity issues. In addition, officials were asked to answer some other questions which will show if there is less productivity or not and that in due. The options in this question would include increased or decreased job stress, increased or reduced supervision, promotion, change of organizational culture, reduced / increased workload, etc.

Morale

The operational definition of morale that was used for this study is the capacity of the employees to maintain sufficient belief in the organization and its goals especially when faced with opposition in the form of change resistance, occupational stress and hardships such as difficult work environments. For this variable, the study attempted to identify whether occupational stress affects the morale of employees in carrying out their duties and functions.

Perceived opportunities for advancement

This is a broad ended phrase that encompasses all opportunities ranging from study leaves, promotions, salary increments, fringe benefits and much more. This has been chosen intentionally since it may be difficult to design questions that capture the responses for each individual value.

Extra effort required to achieve organizational goals

The operational definition of extra effort that is picked focus on the employees willingness to put in extra effort towards the achievement of organizational goals. This question reflects on the idea of the organization providing the necessary resources required to achieve the goals and objectives stated.

Level of supervision & Approachability of supervisors

Respondents were first asked to state whether they receive supervision in their organization. For those whose organizations do not provide supervision, they were asked to state how frequently they transfer difficulties to family or friends. For those whose organizations provide supervision, they were asked to fill in 6 different categories for supervision such as Secure Base Subscale, Construction Subscale, Enchain Subscale, Contemplative Education Subscale, Role Model Subscale and Instructive Feedback Subscale.

In the section of Secure Base Subscale respondents were asked to specify if supervisor respect them opinions and ideas, if the supervisor and them were equal partners in supervision, if the supervisor had a collaborative approach to supervision, if in them sessions for supervision they felt safe, if the supervisor was critical in supervision, if the supervisor treats them with respect, if the supervisor is open minded to supervision, if they felt criticized by supervisor to feedback concerning them performance, if the advice they received from supervisor were restrictive and only collaborative, if with supervisor felt able to discuss them concerns openly, if in supervision they feel that is an exchange of ideas, if the supervisor gave them feedback in a way that felt safe and if they openly discuss them feelings with supervisor, they would be evaluated negatively.

In addition in the Section of construction Subscale respondents were asked to specify if the sessions of supervision they performed regularly, if the sessions in them supervision are structured, if the meetings of them supervision regularly shortened by supervisor, if the supervisory sessions were focused, if the supervisory sessions were disorganized, if the supervisory sessions were arranged in advance and if the supervisor and them drafted an agenda for supervision together.

Moreover, in the Section of Enchain Subscale respondents were asked to specify if the supervisor is excited with them supervision, if the supervisor shows them interest in supervision, if the supervisor is indifferent to them, if the supervisor cares about them as a person, if they feel like a burden to the supervisor, if the supervisor is accessible, if the supervisor is at them disposal, if the supervisor gives them attention when they were talking about them feelings and them worries.

In the Section of Contemplative Education Subscale respondents were asked to specify if the supervisor drew a series of theoretical models, if the supervisor gave them the opportunity to learn a range of models, if the supervisor linking theory with practice very well, if the supervisor give them special attention to the process of supervision, if the supervisor recognize the power difference between supervisor and supervised and if they learned a lot by observing the supervisor.

In the Section of Role Model Subscale respondents were be asked to specify if the supervisor is them connoisseur, if the supervisor is an experienced supervisor, if they respect the abilities of them supervisor, if the supervisor is aware of them organizational system in which work, if they respect them supervisor as a professional, if they respect them supervisor as a supervisor, if they respect them supervisor as an individual, if the supervisor gave them practical support, if the supervisor respects all supervised persons and if the supervisor is indifferent with supervisees.

Finally, in the Section of Instructive Feedback Subscale respondents were asked to specify if the supervisor give them useful negative feedback on them performance, if the supervisor is able to balance negative comments about them performance with honors, if the supervisor give them positive feedback on them performance, if the opinion of them supervisors for them performance is constructive, if them supervisor give them attention to the level of them competence, if the supervisor helps them to track them learning needs, if the supervisor did not examine the impact of them previous skills and experience on them learning needs, if the supervisor thinks the training that they need, if the supervisor give them regular update on them performance, if the skills and them confidence grew because of them supervisor and if the supervisor adjusts them supervision at the level of them competence.

Measuring level of supervision is expected to be difficult to measure and therefore the method that was used provided the closest representation of level of supervision. Also, the approchability of supervisors was defined as the ease of approaching a supervisor to resolve a problem or complaint.

The responses on the 7-itm likert scale will be: (1) strongly agree (2) agree (3) slightly agree (4) neither agree or disagree, (5) slightly disagree, (6) disagree, (7) strongly disagree. By multiplying the reverse code of the questions, the level of supervision for each organization will be coded.

Therefore organizations with 2 (agreement) and 3 (strongly agree) point should be considered strict supervision and have effective supervision, so the supervisor uses the right roles and skills. While anything above 4 (neither agree or disagree) will be very lenient and therefore regarded as low supervision, so the supervisor used the wrong roles and skills or not giving the correct dedication during supervision to solve a problem.

Threats to internal and external validity

Threats to validity are anticipated in the quantitative research design and were addressed in various ways. In order to ensure validity of the data, a standardized…

Occupational Stress and Scientific Monitoring

Elena Georgiou*

Abstract

The aim of this project was to review evidence available on occupational stress and how it can be monitored scientifically. Closed-ended questionnaires were used to obtain data from 150 participants. Data was analyzed using OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regression analysis. Data included the demographic background of participants: age, sex, and their occupational background. From the demographic background, all participants (150) were literate where more than 73% of participants had college or university degrees. Moreover, more than 74% of participants had at least 3 years working experience, where more than 78% of participants had at least 2 years working experience with their present employers. The results indicated that workload has been the major contributing factor leading to workplace stress. The study suggests that organizations should recruit more staff to reduce workload to manage workplace stress. Moreover, organizations should improve the supervisory control to reduce stress.

Keywords: Occupational stress, performance, scientific monitoring systems, workloads, harassment, bullying by management, lack of motivation or advancement opportunities.

Introduction

Occupational stress comes along when an employee was faced with demands within the workplace, and they were not able to complete or carry out these demands. The failure to complete the demands placed upon them would cause the employee mental and physical strain as their body would have a physiological reaction. According to research, various factors contributed to stress in the workplace. These factors included isolation, extensive working hours, negative workloads, unhealthy working environments, harassment, bullying by management, and lack of motivation or advancement opportunities. Keeping in view the positive nature of stress which can help employees improve their performance, organisations introduced scientific monitoring systems so that realization of being observed can force them perform at optimum level.

The research questions were:

What are the causes of workplace stress?

What are the effects of occupational stress to employees, family and the organization?

How does effective supervision affect occupational stress?

How effective are strategies used by other organizations in the quest for stress management?

The study answered the research questions using the OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regression analysis. The data analysis was used to establish the cause of occupational stress, effect of occupational stress and how supervisory control affects occupational stress. The data analysis also established the strategies to mange occupational stress within a workplace.

The results established that workload has been the major contributing factor leading to workplace stress. Larger number (the half) of participants accepted that workload, time pressure, ability to meet deadlines and heavy workload have been the major factors leading to workplace stress. Thus, the effect of stress could cause problem within a workplace. The research suggests that organizations should recruit more staff to reduce workload to manage workplace stress. Moreover, organizations should improve the supervisory control to reduce stress.

Background

The modern 21st century has posed new challenges for the organisations to survive and grow (Smith et al., 2010). As they are operated and managed by human beings, the challenges are ultimately faced by the individuals who are responsible for making decisions and implementing them (Nieuwenhuizen, Weiss and Rossouw, 2009; Smith et al., 2010). As challenges are multifaceted, and human lives are divided into various aspects, it is difficult to excel in every field. The gap between desired and actual state of mind leads to stress and has a high impact on employee performance and productivity.

The concept of supervision is not new in business settings. It may be rooted right in the main essence of organisational structure from where delegation of authority and chain of command were introduced. As relaxation leads to slow motion of work and decreased productivity consequently, many organisations deliberately introduce supervision and monitoring systems (Robbins & Coulter, 2007; Smith et al., 2010) so that employees perform at their optimum level. It can be concluded that when employees are in occupational stress, they tend to perform better (Hartley, 2010; Smith et al., 2010).

As there is a perceived relationship between occupational stress and need to supervise employee, there is strong need to explore the possibility of any such relationship. It is because organisations can mould their supervisory techniques so that employees perform better. In the present challenging world of 21st century, organisations are concerned about performance improvement of their employees and want to leave no stone unturned for it.

Literature Review

Defining occupational stress involves the defining of its two constituent words. Occupational means all workplace-related activities and elements whereas stress talks about a natural body response to emotional or mental strain in a person. Therefore occupational/work stress can be defined as any system by which the body tries to conform to its workplace environment. These systems include the normal body system for managing work stress, popularly called the fight or flight response as well as all other likely or unlikely responses. These responses include anxiety, eyestrain due to staring at a computer screen for a long period, depression, physical and emotional stress, reduced concentration, cognitive problems such as memory losses and more. All these responses could cause poor work performance, cardiovascular disease, higher employee turnover, injury, higher absenteeism and even mortality (Patterson et al., 2005).

Occupational stress can equally be defined as an occupational safety and health recognized hazard which could have an adverse effect on employee health and which employers have to identify, evaluate and manage in every way possible. It is also referred to as the result when a person is not able to handle the pressures of the workplace (Rees, 1997). This is caused either because the person is not the right fit based on his/her strengths and the needs of that role or because the conditions of the workplace are not favorable.

Many organizations emphasize the important of supervisory support for employees because of its advantages. Among the largest advantages is its effect on worker morale and job satisfaction. Supportive supervision helps to reduce occupational stress, which helps employees to handle their opportunities thus reducing the influence of other factor that affect job performance or lead to less than satisfactory products or services to clients or customers. According to Kadushin (1992), the supportive supervision helps to prevent potentially stressful situations thus removes employees from stress and reduces stress on the worker. This helps employees to adjust to the work environment and increases morale and job satisfaction.

Definition of Supervision

Supervision simply means the control or regulation of behavior via laid out guidelines and restrictions. A large number of authors claim there are several supervision aspects that have to be analyzed before it can be defined. These aspects are application of practices and ideas which provides a suitable environment for the employees to follow the laid out restrictions, provision of support and advice, ensuring that employees have access to the proper equipment and resources necessary for succeeding in their job roles and organizing job functions in an orderly manner so as to ease decision-making processes.

Categories of Supervisory Models

Supervision models are classified into three, based on their typical features. These classes are the developmental models, psychotherapy-based models and the integrative models (Smith and Witt, 1993).

Integrative supervision models rely on several theories and techniques (Haynes et al., 2003). A good example of these models is Bernards discrimination model developed by Bernard (1979) and revised by Bernard and Goodyear (2009). This model states that there are six foci of supervision. The first three are foci, which are intervention, conceptualization and personalization while the last three are roles, which are teacher, counselor and consultant. According to the model, the supervisor responds using one of the nine ways resulting from the three roles x the three foci. Another model is the systems approach model (Holloway, 1995) which argues that the supervisor and employee have a mutually involving relationship with seven dimensions. These are supervision functions, supervision tasks, employee, trainee, supervisor, and the institution (Mimura and Griffiths, 2003).

Research Method

Research Objectives

The purpose of the research was to reach the objectives of the study, which are:

To find out the causes of workplace stress.

To examine the effects of occupational stress to employees, family and the organization.

To evaluate how effective supervision affects occupational stress.

To evaluate strategies used by other organizations in the quest for stress management.

Techniques

In order to determine, identify and measure the causes and effects of occupational stress, it was important to conduct a multivariate OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regression that controls for organizational size, number of working hours per week, gender, seniority, level of supervisory support, and ethnicity.

Research Design

The questionnaire was designed to be closed-ended. In order to succeed at answering the research questions, the study used a collection of quantitative data in order to balance the cause and effect relationship among the variables and to be able to gain an accurate description of the study phenomenon from the respondents. The quantitative design was considered better for the research questions.

Piloting the Survey

A pilot study on 10 participants…

Occupational Stress and Scientific Monitoring

Elena Georgiou*

Abstract

The aim of this project was to review evidence available on occupational stress and how it can be monitored scientifically. Closed-ended questionnaires were used to obtain data from 150 participants. Data was analyzed using OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regression analysis. Data included the demographic background of participants: age, sex, and their occupational background. From the demographic background, all participants (150) were literate where more than 73% of participants had college or university degrees. Moreover, more than 74% of participants had at least 3 years working experience, where more than 78% of participants had at least 2 years working experience with their present employers. The results indicated that workload has been the major contributing factor leading to workplace stress. The study suggests that organizations should recruit more staff to reduce workload to manage workplace stress. Moreover, organizations should improve the supervisory control to reduce stress.

Keywords: Occupational stress, performance, scientific monitoring systems, workloads, harassment, bullying by management, lack of motivation or advancement opportunities.

Introduction

Occupational stress comes along when an employee was faced with demands within the workplace, and they were not able to complete or carry out these demands. The failure to complete the demands placed upon them would cause the employee mental and physical strain as their body would have a physiological reaction. According to research, various factors contributed to stress in the workplace. These factors included isolation, extensive working hours, negative workloads, unhealthy working environments, harassment, bullying by management, and lack of motivation or advancement opportunities. Keeping in view the positive nature of stress which can help employees improve their performance, organisations introduced scientific monitoring systems so that realization of being observed can force them perform at optimum level.

The research questions were:

What are the causes of workplace stress?

What are the effects of occupational stress to employees, family and the organization?

How does effective supervision affect occupational stress?

How effective are strategies used by other organizations in the quest for stress management?

The study answered the research questions using the OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regression analysis. The data analysis was used to establish the cause of occupational stress, effect of occupational stress and how supervisory control affects occupational stress. The data analysis also established the strategies to mange occupational stress within a workplace.

The results established that workload has been the major contributing factor leading to workplace stress. Larger number (the half) of participants accepted that workload, time pressure, ability to meet deadlines and heavy workload have been the major factors leading to workplace stress. Thus, the effect of stress could cause problem within a workplace. The research suggests that organizations should recruit more staff to reduce workload to manage workplace stress. Moreover, organizations should improve the supervisory control to reduce stress.

Background

The modern 21st century has posed new challenges for the organisations to survive and grow (Smith et al., 2010). As they are operated and managed by human beings, the challenges are ultimately faced by t.......and Rossouw, 2009; Smith et al., 2010). As challenges are multifaceted, and human lives are divided into various aspects, it is difficult to excel in every field. The gap between desired and actual state of mind leads to stress and has a high impact on employee performance and productivity.

The concept of supervision is not new in business settings. It may be rooted right in the main essence of organisational structure from where delegation of authority and chain of command were introduced. As relaxation leads to slow motion of work and decreased productivity consequently, many organisations deliberately introduce supervision and monitoring systems (Robbins & Coulter, 2007; Smith et al., 2010) so that employees perform at their optimum level. It can be concluded that when employees are in occupational stress, they tend to perform better (Hartley, 2010; Smith et al., 2010).

As there is a perceived relationship between occupational stress and need to supervise employee, there is strong need to explore the possibility of any such reationship. It is because organisations can mould their supervisory techniques so that employees perform better. In the present challenging world of 21st century, organisations are concerned about performance improvement of their employees and want to leave no stone unturned for it.

Literature Review

Defining occupational stress involves the defining of its two constituent words. Occupational means all workplace-related activities and elements whereas stress talks about a natural body response to emotional or mental strain in a person. Therefore occupational/work stress can be defined as any system by which the body tries to conform to its workplace environment. These systems include the normal body system for managing work stress, popularly called the fight or flight response as well as all other likely or unlikely responses. These responses include anxiety, eyestrain due to staring at a computer screen for a long period, depression, physical and emotional stress, reduced concentration, cognitive problems such as memory losses and more. All these responses could cause poor work performance, cardiovascular disease, higher employee turnover, injury, higher absenteeism and even mortality (Patterson et al., 2005).

Occupational stress can equally be defined as an occupational safety and health recognized hazard which could have an adverse effect on employee health and which employers have to identify, evaluate and manage in every way possible. It is also referred to as the result when a person is not able to handle the pressures of the workplace (Rees, 1997). This is caused either because the person is not the right fit based on his/her strengths and the needs of that role or because the conditions of the workplace are not favorable.

Many organizations emphasize the important of supervisory support for employees because of its advantages. Among the largest advantages is its effect on worker morale and job satisfaction. Supportive supervision helps to reduce occupational stress, which helps employees to handle their opportunities thus reducing the influence of other factors that affect job performance or lead to less than satisfactory products or services to clients or customers. According to Kadushin (1992), the supportive supervision helps to prevent potentially stressful situations thus removes employees from stress and reduces stress on the worker. This helps employees to adjust to the work environment and increases morale and job satisfaction.

Definition of Supervision

Supervision simply means the control or regulation of behavior via laid out guidelines and restrictions. A large number of authors claim there are several supervision aspects that have to be analyzed before it can be defined. These aspects are application of practices and ideas which provides a suitable environment for the employees to follow the laid out restrictions, provision of support and advice, ensuring that employees have access to the proper equipment and resources necessary for succeeding in their job roles and organizing job functions in an orderly manner so as to ease decision-making processes.

Categories of Supervisory Models

Supervision models are classified into three, based on their typical features. These classes are the developmental models, psychotherapy-based models and the integrative models (Smith and Witt, 1993).

Integrative supervision models rely on several theories and techniques (Haynes et al., 2003). A good example of these models is Bernards discrimination model developed by Bernard (1979) and revised by Bernard and Goodyear (2009). This model states that there are six foci of supervision. The first three are foci, which are intervention, conceptualization and personalization while the last three are roles, which are teacher, counselor and consultant. According to the model, the supervisor responds using one of the nine ways resulting from the three roles x the three foci. Another model is the systems approach model (Holloway, 1995) which argues that the supervisor and employee have a mutually involving relationship with seven dimensions. These are supervision functions, supervision tasks, employee, trainee, supervisor, and the institution (Mimura and Griffiths, 2003).

Research Method

Research Objectives

The purpose of the research was to reach the objectives of the study, which are:

To find out the causes of workplace stress.

To examine the effects of occupational stress to employees, family and the organization.

To evaluate how effective supervision affects occupational stress.

To evaluate strategies used by other organizations in the quest for stress management.

Techniques

In order to determine, identify and measure the causes and effects of occupational stress, it was important to conduct a multivariate OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regression that controls for organizational size, number of working hours per week, gender, seniority, level of supervisory support, and ethnicity.

Research Design

The questionnaire was designed to be closed-ended. In order to succeed at answering the research questions, the study used a collection of quantitative data in order to balance the cause and effect relationship among the variables and to be able to gain an accurate description of the study phenomenon from the respondents. The quantitative design was considered better for the research questions.

Piloting the Survey

A pilot study on 10 participants was conducted to ensure that the questionnaire was pretested for accuracy and reliability.

Selection of Participants

For the selection of participants the snowball effect was used a total of 150 employees participated in the survey.

Operationalization of constructs

Various constructs were measured in this study. These included demographic information such as age, education, and gender which were used to categorize the respondents per their education and functional background. These constructs were operationalized by peer-review of the questionnaire and pre-testing it to en