Connecting the Individual to the Organisation: Employers' Response to Stress in the Workplace

Abstract

Stress affects not only the well-being of the individual but also the productivity of businesses. Two separate studies were undertaken in the Borough of Merton in order to assess what policies employers had to deal with employee stress and how they promoted mental health. Findings indicated that stress was a factor in staff sickness and almost one in four staff absences were stress-related. Although the majority of employers saw it as the responsibility of the NHS to deal with such stress and only a third of businesses had a stress management policy, the majority recognised a need for further initiatives to promote mental health in the workplace. The main recommendation arising from this work is the need for employers to take a more active organisational role in monitoring and managing work-related stress. An approach based on the work of Cox (1990) is proposed, which moves away from working at a personal level to a more strategic organisational level when thinking about occupational stress.