Organizational Behavior: Free Essay with the Article Review

Employees in any organization experience work-related stress, attitudes, and perception which hinder their productivity. One good example of professionals who are victims of workplace stress is nurses. They face usually encounter job stress due to their daily job demands and hazardous impacts of their jobs on their health. The article by Sharma et al. (2014) is identified for review since it contains relevant information regarding perception, stress, and attitude of employees in a workplace. The objective of the article is to establish the degree and the contingent factors of job stress that staff nurses encountered in their workplaces. On the other hand, its main topic area is focused on occupational stress and its determinant factors among staff nurses in their work environment. The main audience that the article addresses is healthcare organizational management to improve the working conditions for nurses, for improved and better healthcare services. It also addresses nurses and doctors alike on the need to alleviate workplace stress and negative perceptions and attitudes. To understand this article, particularly the analysis and interpretation of its research findings, readers require prior knowledge of chi-squares.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Brief Summary

In this article, Sharma et al. (2014) wanted to identify the susceptibility of nurses to occupational stress as well as the perception of their colleges in the medical field such as doctors regarding them. To achieve good result, these researchers used a cross-sectional study that is institutional-based on qualified nurses. They distributed pre-designed questionnaires to their target population that covered their socio-demographic factors. The questionnaire also explored the professional life stress of nurses through the use of a scale named after David Fontana. The data gathered were then analyzed using logistic regression and chi-square tests to determine the influence that attitudes and perceptions among other factors had on the job stress among nurses. The study pinpointed that poor perception and attitude of doctors towards nurses was a key contributor to the professional stressors that these nurses experienced. Another source of nurses' stress was limited time for rest.

Findings/Results

The findings revealed that nurses' stress was unrelated to socio-demographic factors like the age, number of children, and marital status among others. The analysis using chi-square indicated that the number of children that respondents had, their marital status, and their gender had P-values of 0.614, 0.609, and 0.778 respectively, which were insignificant at a 0.05 level. On the other hand, the study revealed that the poor attitude that both doctors and patients had on nurses played a paramount part in their professional stress. It is imperative to note that Sharma et al. (2014) indicate that 21% of professional nurses that took part in the study perceived patients' poor attitude as their source of workplace stress, while 5% of the nursing staff believed that doctors' attitude played a huge part in their job strain.

Sharma et al. (2014) also noted verbal abuse from the healthcare physicians to be a contributory factor to workplace stress for nurses. These researchers recounted that verbal abuses create poor relationships between physicians and nurses, a situation that generates professional misunderstandings and problems, thus underperformance in the workplace. Also, it was established that there was a close link or association between the level of stress and the department of posting of nurses. Nurses who were posted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) suffered from severe stress compared to those posted in other departments within the hospital. Finally, the research also found out that the working conditions of nurses had a pivotal role in their level of stress they encountered. The nurses who perceived their working conditions to be poor suffered from a considerable amount of job-related stress than their colleagues who had better working environment.

Analysis

The article by Sharma et al. (2014) highlights various consequences of stress among nurses in a hospital. As an illustration, research findings revealed that occupational stressors such as too much work, posting in busy organizational departments, and limited resting time among others impeded the ability of nurses to deliver quality healthcare. In fact, stress among nursing professionals reduces their attention, judgment skills, concentration, and decision-making. This theoretical framework thus gives the hospital management an insight of how to create an enabling environment for nurses, for instance, improving their pay, giving them enough time to rest, and so on. Therefore, it is imperative to note that the article's theoretical framework has relevance to hospital management as it helps to facilitate improvement in healthcare organizations.

Organizational behavior models or frameworks are prudent in explaining how and why employees or workers behave in their workplace. These models, therefore, examine various factors that affect job performance of nurses. The article scrutinized how various factors contributed to nurses' stress levels in their workstations. The researchers noted that nurses perceived poor attitudes from patients and doctors as their stressor factors, which in turn lower their working morale, thus poor job performance. The guidelines that the article enlisted regarding nurses stressors can be used to create and promote a good working relationship between nurses and other colleagues within the medical field such as physicians, doctors, and so on. Consequently, improved relationship will alleviate stress and negative attitude among nurses and other medical professionals, which will improve nurses' job satisfaction and productivity.

The attitude and perceptions of employees are feelings, beliefs, and opinions about their working environment. It is worthy to note that bad feelings about a workplace results in stress among employees, a condition that negatively affects their health and wellbeing. Workplace stress leads to disengaged employees and lack of job satisfaction, a situation that is detrimental to their productivity. The framework that this article is helpful to nurses as it enlightens them on the need to come together and condemn mistreatment and discrimination in their workplace through their unions. For these reasons, the frameworks and findings of this article apply to various stakeholders within the healthcare organization as herein discussed.

Contributions of the Article

The field of organizational behavior has been undergoing research since time immemorial as managers of various organizations try to examine contingent factors that affect the performance of employees that work under them. It is worthy to note that this article has contributed a vast knowledge to the research field, policymakers, and future researchers or scholars. To begin with, it has article has immensely contributed to organizational behavior of nurses by highlighting various factors that contribute to their workplace stress, which makes them underperform as far as their professional duties are concerned.

To policymakers, predominantly hospital managers, the research made them understand how nurses feel about their job and challenges they experience in the course of discharging their professional mandate. Moreover, this research article has enriched their knowledge on how to formulate various policies that will encourage job satisfaction and productivity by eliminating various nurses' stressors such as too much workload, hostile working relationship with other medical practitioners, and lack of adequate resting time, among others.

Finally, to future researchers, this article has identified research gaps that they need to focus on during their empirical studies. For example, the need to conduct studies aimed at allocating manageable tasks to nurses and other employees to reduce workplace stress. Also, there is a need to research on the best procedure and formula that can be used to rotate nurses across departments within the hospital to improve their job performance. The article has also challenged future researchers on the urgency to conduct more investigations on various motivational strategies that can promote their satisfaction and engagement in their professional duties.

Conclusion

The organizational behaviors of employees such as their attitudes and perceptions have a direct influence on their stress levels, thus productivity. The article aforementioned above highlights stressors that are specific to nursing professionals. It recounts that nurses' stressors include, but not limited to, poor attitude from patients and doctors, mistreatment and verbal abuse by physicians and other medical professionals, inadequate resting time, and too much workload. Notably, the research article applies to various healthcare stakeholders since it gives in-depth insight on various stressors, negative attitudes, and perceptions that inhibit organizational quality. In this regard, hospital managers can use these findings to find amicable solutions that are tailored towards reducing workplace stress among nurses. Also, the article has proved instrumental to future researchers for it has identified various gaps that still need more research to guarantee an enabling environment to nurses and other healthcare employees.

Reference

Sharma, P., Davey, A., Davey, S., Shukla, A., Shrivastava, K., & Bansal, R. (2014). Occupational stress among staff nurses: Controlling the risk to health. Indian journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 18(2), 52.