Improving workplace stress management in hoang duong tc co

To further support the goal of this research, through the guide ofManagement Standard by UK Health and Safety Executive’s, design to defineeffective way of stress management, Hoang Duong

NATIONAL ECONOMIC UNIVERSITY

BUSINESS SCHOOL

Duong Hoang Duc Huy

IMPROVING WORKPLACE STRESS MANAGEMENT

IN HOANG DUONG T&C CO LTD

Bachelor of Business Administration in English (E-BBA)

Thesis

HANOI, 2019

First and foremost, I would like to give my sincere thanks and deepestgratitude to my instructor, Prof Dr Le Thi Bich Ngoc for her time, guidance andsupport during this research

Next, I want to give my thanks to the Director of Hoang Duong T&C Co Ltdand all the employees of the company for the support in my internship, creatingchances for me to learn and understand many new things, widen my view onnumerous aspects Also I’m extremely grateful for the flexibility in work, givingtime to finish this research

Thirdly, my thanks to all my family and friends for positive encouragementsand supports within my time carrying on with the study Without all of support, theresearch on this topic cannot be completed

Last, I would like to send a big thank you to those at the BSNEU includingthe project coordinator, Mrs Nguyen Thu Hang and all of my teachers for all mytime here and all the memories

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 1

ABREVIATIONS 4

LIST OF FIGURES 5

LIST OF TABLES 6

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 9

1.1 Rationale 9

1.2 Research Objectives 11

1.3 Research Questions 11

1.4 Research methodology 11

1.4.1 Research process 11

1.4.2 Data collection 13

1.5 Research scope 15

1.6 Research structure 15

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ON WORKPLACE STRESS MANAGEMENT 16

2.1 Definition of Workplace stress 16

2.1.1 Concept of Workplace stress 16

2.1.2 Causing of Workplace stress 17

2.1.3 Effects of Workplace stress 18

2.1.4 Signs of Workplace stress 19

2.2 Definition of Workplace stress management 20

2.2.1 Concept of stress management 20

2.2.2 Components of Workplace stress management 21

2.2.3 Stress management treatment 23

2.3 Indicator reflecting efficiency of Workplace stress management 26

Chapter 3: Current situation of Hoang Duong T&C Co Ltd, 30

3.1 Overview of Hoang Duong T&C Co Ltd 30

3.1.1 Organizational structure of Hoang Duong 31

3.1.2 Performance of the company 34

3.2 Workplace stress at Hoang Duong 34

3.3 Workplace stress management at Hoang Duong 38

3.3.1 Stress management prevention 38

3.3.2 Stress management treatment 40

3.3.3 Advantages of Hoang Duong stress management 57

3.3.4 Disadvantages of Hoang Duong stress management 58

Chapter 4: Solution for manager to improve Workplace stress management at Hoang Duong T&C Co Ltd, 59

4.1 Strategic orientation of Hoang Duong 59

4.2 Solution to improve stress management 60

4.2.1 Solution 1: Preventative stress management programs 60 4.2.2 Solution 2: Managing way of stress management 64 LIST OF REFERENCES 68

APPENDIXES 70

PSS: Perceived Stress Scale

DASS: Depression Anxiety Stress Scales

GHQ: General Health Questionnaire

SRRS: Social Readjustment Rating Scale

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1: Process of researching 12

Figure 2.1: Stressors of Occupational Stress 17

Figure 2.2: Management Standard process 27

Figure 3.1: Hoang Duong organization structure 32

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: Summary of In-depth Interview 13

Table 1.2: Scoring of survey 14

Table 2.1: Effects of workplace stress 19

Table 2.2: Stress management programs classification 22

Table 2.3: Organization workplace stress intervention 24

Table 3.1: Hoang Duong department activities 33

Table 3.2: Perceived Stress Scale 10 questions 35

Table 3.3: Stress level of Hoang Duong 37

Table 3.4: Description of statistical data 37

Table 3.5: MS percentile scoring 42

Table 3.6: Expectation average score of Management Standards 43

Table 3.7: Mean scores of Management Standards 45

Table 3.8: Mean score of Demands Standard 47

Table 3.9: Mean score of Control Standard 48

Table 3.10: Mean score of Manager Support Standard 49

Table 3.11: Mean score of Colleagues Support Standard 50

Table 3.12: Mean score of Relationships Standard 51

Table 3.13: Mean score of Role Standard 52

Table 3.14: Mean score of Changes within the organization Standard 53

Tables 4.1: Effectiveness and limitation of short-term strategies 59

Tables 4.2: Types of preventive programs for stress 60

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Since the beginning of the term stress was created, it has been a significantproblem, posts threat to the human society due to negative effects on physicality andmentality of a person And in the modern days, where the world is getting morecomplicated everyday, life is becoming harder and harder, mental treatments isconsidered to be a vital part people daily routines

For organization, stress has always been vital to businesses, as effects of ithave influence on all aspects of the organization It links directly to performance,increasing of cost, employees’ loyalty and many more So because of that, a betterconsideration for the problem and putting more focus on it would be extremelybeneficial to business, on operating and developing view

The goal of this study is the improvement of stress management of HoangDuong, which haven’t been developed clearly through out operation of thecompany By comparing methods of employer in stress management and reliableresearches on stress and management methods, the problem was addressedspecifically and easier to approach for subjects of the study targeted in

To further support the goal of this research, through the guide ofManagement Standard by UK Health and Safety Executive’s, design to defineeffective way of stress management, Hoang Duong stress management strategies areassessed by four standards: employees demands and control of the job, support ofsurrounding environment with relationships in company, as well as their knowledge

of own positions, own role and the attitude toward organizational changes In term

of data collection, primary data are gathered by in-depth interview with theemployer of Hoang Duong, the director, also, a survey of stress managing is given toall the employees of Hoang Duong Population of the survey is all personnel of thecompany due to the fact that Hoang Duong is a small owned company Thefollowing step is comparing the aspects of Hoang Duong stress managing style tothe management standard, using mean value and other statistical method

After collecting data and analyzing, the result had shown there are level ofstress of Hoang Duong staffs is pretty low but comparing Management Standards,the gaps between expectation of indicators to the numbers of gathered data foremployees’ survey At the moment, implementing of stress management seems toprove its effectiveness, but only for the short term as managing process onlyhappens when there is a high level stress point in the organization

From the study, there are some recommendations to improve managing style

on aspects to meet management standards Having a better stress management,preventing and managing stress, the problem will not be a menace for theorganization in the future, as nature of construction industry deliver a lot ofpressures to people who working within it With appropriate stress managementprograms, a more detailed way to approach the issue, Hoang Duong will have abetter foundation for the incoming changes of the system

This research target, Hoang Duong is a company working in constructionindustry, a very harsh industry compares to others Contrasts to the growth of theeconomic of Vietnam, the particular industry is predicted to slow down since it hit ithighest growth percentage in 2015 There are many reasons that affected theeconomic of Vietnam and mainly because Vietnam actively participates inglobalization with many successful economic agreements and by the year of,construction industry had reached the highest point than it ever did, so it could easilypredict that it couldn’t be able to keep the trend of growing As a matter as fact, thegrowth percentage of following years wasn’t keep up with 2015 This year, 2019,has the same result as forecasted in 2018 In 2019, the construction industry could befacing the roughest year due to the trading war of China and America, whichincreases price of inputs of many company, the changes of Vietnam to deal witheconomic difficulties and with the nature of the industry, it is a normal thing thatmany companies are facing a hard time on their journey To sum up the situation,construction is a tough industry, fill with unpredictable risks and put a lot ofpressure on most of company working in it.

At the moment, while participating in a rough industry, Hoang Duong T&C

Co Ltd is facing 2 main obstacles First is the stress management of the company.The nature of the industry: unpredictable and fluctuated, giving employees hardtimes and sometimes high level of stress occurs At the moment, there isn’t aproperly developed program for stress management for Hoang Duong There aresome drawbacks for that due to stress relates to many company indicators, forexample, the company high turnover rate in the year 2019, over 50% at the moment,double the turnover rate of Vietnam of 24%, predicted by Anphabe, an established

whole turnover rate of Vietnam and Hoang Duong is a small owned company,within construction industry with expected high rate Second problem is the projectmanagement is lacking of competencies that required for the project to performbetter with the full potential of the company: better at controlling personnel, timing,managing cost At the current situation, projects of company are underperformed,but on the bright side, the company is quick at solving and handling problems occur

on the site

In Vietnam, at the present, stress management is still being taken lightly bymany companies, especially small one like Hoang Duong T&C Co Ltd Stressmaybe is a personal problem of each individual, but it is related to the bigger role of

a company, and at a larger view of a human resources manager, on the long term, itwill affect the operation of the company, drive down the performance Using theknowledge of situations of the company and also through the understanding of stressand stress management through past researches, knowing the important of them tohuman resources managers, to companies in the modern day where everyone isaffected by pressure one way or another, the author has chosen to conduct theresearch: Improving workplace stress management in Hoang Duong T&C Co Ltd

1.2 Research Objectives

The objectives of this research are:

 To determine the stress level of the employees

 To identify stress managing situation of the company

 To analyze current methods and strategies to improve the quality of stressmanagement

 To give out better ideas for employer stress managing

1.3 Research Questions

To clarify the objectives of this research, the following questions were asked:

- What is the situation of stress in Hoang Duong?

- What is the application of stress management of employer of Hoang Duong?

- What is the outcome of company’s ways managing stress?

- What could be the improvements to the situation and stress management ofthe company?

1.4 Research methodology

1.4.1 Research process

This research process follows the objectives of the thesis In order tocomplete the work, the author had done these procedures during internship in HoangDuong T&C All of actions are illustrated in the figure below

Figure 1.1: Process of researching

Sources: Author’s synthesis

- Relevant journals, magazines and books with other articles related to stressand stress management

 Primary Data

Mainly the author used three ways: In-depth interview, Survey andObservation

- In-depth interview: The interview was conducted with the director of Hoang

Duong to have the most accurate data of company stress management

Table 1.1: Summary of In-depth Interview

- Current view on stress within the organization

- Stress management in Hoang Duong(strategy, method, evaluation and indication of effectiveness)

- The necessary to improve stress management

Sources: Author’s synthesis

- Survey: The survey will be in the type of questionnaires which will be sent toemployees to be done in order to have the data to analyze.

Respondents: Employees of Hoang Duong

Sample size: All employees of Hoang Duong

Sample method: convenient method

Questionnaire distribution: Online survey

Questionnaire design: Two parts are Survey on Stress state and Effectiveness ofHoang Duong Stress management, the answers have five levels

Table 1.2: Scoring of survey

Score Survey on Stress Survey on Effectiveness of Hoang Duong Stress management

5 Very frequently Absolutely agree (Very frequently)

Sources: Author’s synthesis

- Observation: Within the period of internship, the author had observed the

employees of Hoang Duong to give out data for the analysis of the research

 Data analysis

Data analysis is done by using Microsoft Excel 2016 After the respondentsfill in the questionnaires, the data is entered to Excel and analyzed The results areshown in form of table

1.5 Research scope

Research object: Stress management in Hoang Duong T&C Co Ltd

Location: Hoang Duong T&C Co Ltd, 15th floor Nam Cuong building in Ha DongDistrict

Timeline:

- Secondary data: Data which are topic related to Hoang Duong from 2016

- Primary data: From September 1st 2019 to December 1st 2019

1.6 Research structure

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Theoretical background on Workplace stress management

Chapter 3: Current situation of Workplace stress management at Hoang Duong T&C

Co Ltd

Chapter 4: Solution for manager to improve Workplace stress management at HoangDuong T&C Co Ltd,

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ON

WORKPLACE STRESS MANAGEMENT

2.1 Definition of Workplace stress

2.1.1 Concept of Workplace stress

- Concept of stress

Stress is a basic term we all use nowadays – which origin came from theancient language of Latin “stringere” In fact, there are many definitions of stressthrough out years of research, defined by many aspects At first, the word wassimply used to describe pressure that has impact on a certain material in physic

In the year of 1927, Walter Canon was the first person to give out foundationfor the modern biology term of stress Simply, stress was understood as programmedreactions of the body to harmful factors for purpose of gathering the strength to copewith them – usually called the “Fight or Flight” reaction The definition of

“programmed reactions” giving us the idea of ways to identify state of stress throughexpressions of body because these reactions tend to repeat itself so it’s predictablefor each individual 20 years later, Han Selye (1946) had first come up with themodern biology term, which is: Stress is a symptom which includes unspecificresponses for stimuli of environment Those responses were created for the purpose

of balance state of homeostasis, which means balancing internal environment aliving organism, also improve the adaptation of body when facing changes fromliving conditions Still, there are other definitions like from R.S.Lazarus (1966):stress comes up when an individual consider himself isn’t capable of dealing withdemands or risks threatening to the survival of the specific individual From theview of R.S.Lazarus, stress is the result of the lost of balance between demands andresources In 1999, S.Palmer redefined stress: stress comes up when pressures areabove the ability to comprehend of a human being

In this study, after referring numerous study, concept of stress is the adversereaction when people facing overwhelming pressures and demands place up onthem This definition is used through out the study, giving based line to furtherunderstand other concepts

- Concept of workplace stress

To focus more for the particular part for the research, the stress term must beshrinking down to a narrower concept To be more specific, the concept is

“Workplace stress” or also called “Occupational stress”, which is vital to businessesbecause its impacts on all aspect of an organization In work place, pressures are amajor contributor to the level of individual stress, leads to physical diseases andpersonal distress In addition, environment, structure and relationships in a businesscould deliver excessive amount of stress for employees Because of that, businesshave to pay for the costs of stress, directly in the form of employees’ health care,and indirectly in form of underperformance Because of these reasons, the initiative

of stress management programs is necessary

2.1.2 Causing of Workplace stress

In recent decades, there were many researches on stress influencers to givebusinesses a based knowledge on the problem Researching in this area, the authorrecognized numerous of health institutions and agencies had conducted analysis andgiven out more precise information through wide experiments and surveys Healthand Safety Executive (HSE), an agency responsible for or the encouragement,regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare, and for researchinto occupational risks, for many years, they have researched and attainedknowledge on occupational stress and prevention measure After years ofconducting research on the particular problem, HSE concluded there are six mainareas of work design having effect on stress level:

Organization changes

Occupational Stress

Figure 2.1: Stressors of Occupational Stress

Sources: HSE Management Standards 1999

- Demands on the job: Includes problems such as workload, work patterns andthe work environment

- Control over the job: How much say the person has in the way they do theirwork

- Workplace surrounding support: This includes the encouragement,sponsorship and resources provided by the organization, line managementand colleagues

- Relationships at work: This includes promoting positive working to avoidconflict and dealing with unacceptable behavior

- Role within organization: Whether people understand their role within theorganization and whether the organization ensures that they do not haveconflicting roles

- Organization changes – how organizational change (large or small) ismanaged and communicated in the organization

If do not carefully manage, these six areas, or “stressors” can lead to related stress In addition, stress influences people differently – stressors may differfrom one another, personal factors can affect the ability to cope of employees

work-2.1.3 Effects of Workplace stress

Mohammad Mosadeghrad had mentioned in "Occupational stress and itsconsequences: Implications for health policy and management" (2014) thatoccupational stress can cause physical, mental and social illness, in addition,psychological distress, directly affecting the health of employees On the level of anorganization, it is linked to performance, decreases attention, concentration anddecision making Another strong inverse relationship was found between job stressand employees’ quality of working life, morale, motivation, job satisfaction andwork commitment Many more negative influences can be mentioned, influencingindividual and organizational scale

To be specific, there a range of effects: Subjective effects, Health effects,Behavioral effects and Organizational effects These effects are created by stress ingeneral and workplace stress in particular

effects

Anxiety, aggression, boredom, depression, fatigue, frustration, guilt and shame, irritability and bad temper, moodiness, low-self esteem, threat and tension, nervousness, and loneliness, inability to make decisions and concentrate, frequent forgetfulness, hypersensitivity to criticism, mental blocks

Health effects

Asthma, chest and back pains, coronary heart disease, diarrhea, faintness and dizziness, dyspepsia, headaches and migraine, neuroses, nightmares, insomnia, psychoses, psychosomatic disorder, skin rash, lost of sexual interest and weakness

Behavioral

effects

Accident proneness, drug taking, emotional outbursts, excessive eating or loss of appetite, excessive drinking and smoking, excitability, impulsive behavior, impaired speech, nervous laughter, restlessness and trembling

Organizational

effects

Absenteeism, poor industrial relations, poor productivity, high accident rate, high turnover, poor organization climate, low morale, antagonism at work and job dissatisfaction

Table 2.1: Effects of workplace stress

Source: Stress Management: Programs and Prospects 1986

2.1.4 Signs of Workplace stress

Workplace stress has signs that can be identified in organization

- Higher staff turnover

- Increasing reports of stress

- More sickness absence

- Decreased performance

- Complaints and grievances

There is also sign could be noticed by observing: changes in how employeesfeel and act can be signs of having workplace stress The effects of workplace stresscan also be used by manager to identify the problem Although many symptoms maynot indicate that the employees are struggling with stress at work, but better care ofemployees and focus on the symptoms could help managers to detects the workplacestress sooner and take action faster

2.2 Definition of Workplace stress management

2.2.1 Concept of stress management

Stress management is a wide range of techniques and therapies for mentalhealth improvement with the aim to control the stress level of individual, improvingeveryday activities of a person These could be used by organizations to reduce theeffect of stress on employees An organization can support employees in reducingstress and stress managing through the appliance of organizational stressmanagement Stress management plans are prescriptive and typically focus ontechniques can be used by individuals to control their reactions while havingstressful circumstances (Morrison & Payne, 2003) The techniques are mostlyrelaxation-based and have many kind of approaches, including cognitive-behavioralskills training, meditation, biofeedback and progressive muscle relaxation (Murphy,1996) Other kind of approaches target lifestyle and emphasize the importance ofusing adaptive coping techniques to reduce level of stress and improve physicalhealth (Lindquist & Cooper,1999) Typically, organizations keeping aid in stressreduction aims for changes in individuals, but for those that promoting a healthywork environment, there are also changes in work place, policies and job designthrough management plans

However, there still lack of concern about occupational stress and stressmanagement intervention by manager In 1996, Daniel K, in discussing of riskassociated with job stress, point out two views from a risk perception perspective: 1,Management may underestimate risk associated with stress and 2, Managementbelieves individuals, not organizations, responsible for managing stress Althoughwith the prevailing view that stress is a personal problem (Murphy & Sauter, 2003),increasing research in the area proved that at least some organization and theirmanagement have started to direct attention to the organization’ role in providingemployees with better factors for stress management For some stress managementplans, view of responsibility belongs to individuals while mentioning about stress isstill presented in the design

Also, according to Murphy (2003), often the implementations of stressmanagement occur when organization facing crisis By that, actions taken towardsolutions mostly based on cost reduction rather than maximizing potential or gainingcompetitive edge The danger of this approach is that when the problem has beenabsented, the implementation is no longer required So in the contrast, gains-drivenapproach is a much more suitable for maintaining and improving occupationalhealth

A healthy works organization with prevention strategies that changes aspects

of the system: management practices, organizational culture and climate or simplerelements like jobs and tasks, directly linked with overall strategy of the organization

in business This indicated that businesses which have effectiveness often create agood stress management strategy to aid core of business is the employees

2.2.2 Components of Workplace stress management

- Stress management prevention

For company scale, there are stress management preventing programs Theseare implemented to ensure low level of stress in work place and education based onthe development of workplace stress awareness To be more specific, programsclassify into 3 levels:

Table 2.2: Stress management programs classification

Source: Author’ synthesis

- Primary prevention: Includes changing in job and environment

characteristics Changing in job comprises changes in wages and salaries toincrease job satisfaction, reduce stress, promotion policies or changes takeplace, carry organizational characteristic, like events for special occasion.This creates first base of physical and emotional satisfaction for theemployees to deliver better organization performance Also environmentcharacteristics changes are included in this prevention, which includes:communication, work-life balance, understanding, atmosphere andacknowledgement

- Secondary prevention: Aims to reduce the individual’s experiences of job

stress by educating employees to better managing job stress, improvingcoping mechanism and by creating supportive structures to lessen theorganizational stresses through improved management processes and supportgroups This strategy focuses staff-support interventions at the individuallevel as well as the interface between the individual, means employees andthe organization

- Tertiary prevention: Individual level intervention aims to treat disorders and

problems These are, as mention in individual method for stress prevention,part of employee assistance programs and include counselling,psychotherapy, debriefing, medical treatment and rehabilitation activitiessuch as physiotherapy and occupational therapy

Considering the tertiary prevention work on individual scale, to be morespecific, tertiary prevention happens in worst case scenario and often being dealtindividually, for organization, there are on implementation of primary and secondaryprevention However, organization can create tertiary prevention for individual byproviding counselling to help them recover from stressful events Example isEmployee Assistance Program (AEP) helping employees recover from challengingcircumstances This prevention has proved to be costly and the situation ofemployee receive severed effect by workplace stress is unlikely to happen so the

implementation of prevention in organization usually focus on primary andsecondary

On primary and secondary prevention, there are some interventions could begiven out to demonstrate the implementation of these prevention

- Cognitive – behavioral approaches are secondary prevention by the nature,helping the employees rethink of challenging situation In this case, thetargeted employees will learn to know they pessimistic and distorted thoughtcould brings workplace stress up The approaches tend to encourageemployees to think in a more optimistic way

- Relaxation approaches given as meditation, deep breathing, and many morerelaxation methods are also secondary prevention Employees are taught ofcalming they thought and finding out awareness of their own tension Theseapproaches could be promoted by organization at workplace, however, theyonly amplify the effectiveness of stress coping within organization

- And lastly, organization approaches, are mostly primary prevention, focus onthe changes to create a least stressful environment for working

At a large scale, there are some specific example of workplace stressprevention program implementation

- In 1983, Honeywell Corporation created a stress course to raise awareness oftheir employees The courses are 2-hour long per week with fee supportingfrom the corporation The program promoting healthy work environment,healthy people and healthy company is responded by participant with positiveresults, which are shown in the annual satisfaction poll of the company

- In 1982, AT&T Communications also delivered a program which is divide inthree part: Identify and recognize signals of stress and stressors, Coping skillsand Skills relating to others The courses are 1,5-hour session for 8 weeks.Since the beginning of the program after 1-year designing, in 1983, it wasofficially tested and later expanding all over the population of the company

2.2.3 Stress management treatment

As stress awareness globalized, the need of appropriate approaches risesbecause of organizations want to get better care for their employees For big

However, in order to reduce the cost of organization, some of them, mostly smallcompanies, there is almost no preventative approach for workplace stress In everycase those organizations deal with the occupational stress when it happens inside thesystem

Because of that, there is a need for a new concept for stress managingprocess Stress management treatment is the actions are took when the occupationalstress has happened inside the organization The treatment generally has three step:

- Identify the problem: In the case of stress state increasing, a good manager

has to have an understanding of the sources of the stress and the victim thatcould be harmed by it

- Develop solution: This includes changing in job and working environment.

Similar to Primary prevention, these solutions deliver changes in all aspects

of the job, physically and mentally They promote job satisfaction, employeesdelivering higher performance and reducing stress However, its not aprevention due the facts that the implementations of solutions happen whenparticular effects of stress have happened

- Assessing effectiveness: After the implementation, the organization has to

assess the result to see if the solution gives out a good impact onorganizational stress state A negative result happens when the manager can’tidentify right factor influencing workplace stress in organization orinappropriate solution were delivered

Also when applying stress management treatment, there are someorganizational interventions can be listed out that an organization could use whenfacing employees stress

Table 2.3: Organization workplace stress intervention

Organizational management practices

Supportive, approachable, appreciativeCommunicative

Frequent business/staff meetingsSupervision

2-way feedback

Organizational team culture

Space for discussionDialogue groupPre-/post- groupNotice board

Organizational working structure

FlexibilityBalanced working hoursTake time off in lieu of payment for overtime (TOIL)

Fixed days offWell-planned shifts

Organizational education Educational/training courses

Fixed training day

Organizational environment

Open-plan officeRelaxation roomWorking room

Organizational health promotion Health promotion courses

Health promotion activities

Source: Perceptions of work stress causes and effective interventions in employees working in public, private and non-governmental organizations: a qualitative study

2016

2.3 Indicator reflecting efficiency of Workplace stress management

 Assessing workplace stress management

Organization can assess the level of employee stress or the effectiveness ofstress management through many sets of questionnaires

Indicating workplace stress level, there are many tools and scales to measurethe stress level of each individual Each scale is used for a purpose of specific targetand research, for example the Perceived Stress Scale of Sheldon Cohen (PSS),General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) or Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS)

by Lovibond In Vietnam, the self perceived scales are more widely used for theiraccuracy and convenient such as Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) byHolmes & Rahe and PSS by Cohen

For stress management, the MS toolkit is available for organization to use.The toolkit assesses the stress state of the employees when working within theorganization and then give out results indicate that if there should be improvement

on managing aspects at workplace and reducing occupational stress

 Implementation of Workplace stress management approach

Over the decade, many organizational approaches were created to subdue theimpact of occupational stress These approaches give out specific steps, suggestions

on improvement and also tool to assess the efficiency of the management

In the early 2000s, HSE had created the Management Standards (MS), givesout guidelines and toolkit for managers to freely use Since then the approach and itstoolkit are widely use by many managers and organizations to improve stressmanaging or create stress management program if they didn’t have a program in thefirst place The MS approach is an organizational, preventative process formanaging the risks to employees from work-related stress It is a toolkit that helpsemployers prepare for and conduct an appropriate assessment for prevention ofstress and gives ideas for what to do when having the results Follows the MS,manager can deliver an efficiency preventive programs for the organization, alsohaving the tool to know how well the workplace stress management work, includeschanges in managing way to the implementation of new strategy or treatment

Management Standards process consists 5 major components

Figure 2.2: Management Standard process

Source: HSE Management Standards approach 1999

I Identifying stress factors – Understanding the Management

Standards

Standards of stress management

If stress doesn’t get properly treatment, for employers, it would have caused anumber of problem to the business entity Through research, HSE has developed thestandards for stress management, a set of condition for effective stress managementimplementing The Management Standards approach is an organizational,preventative process for managing the risks to your employees from work-relatedstress These standards cover six areas, six stressors of occupational stress

- Demands on the job

- Control over the job

- Workplace surrounding support

- Relationships at work

- Role within organization

- Organization changes

By getting to know affecting factors of occupational stress, employers have abetter to give out suitable strategy for stress prevention Indicating an effective stressmanagement process is measured by the six standards, by how well the MS weremanaged in the perspective of employees.

II Gathering data – Identify who can be harmed and how

For a company, there are many kinds of data that can be gathered for theprocess of stress management:

- Sickness absence data

- Return to work interview

With all available data, the aims need to be look for are correlations betweendata, the problems could be shown and areas where current stress management isperforming well Next, the issues are mapped to the Management Standards

III Analyzing data and Developing solutions – Evaluate the risks

After gathering and mapping, data are analyzed following the demand of thestandards A well-performed stress management process will have to show theseindications through the data:

- Employees indicate that they are able to cope with the demands of their jobs

- Systems are in place locally to respond to any individual concerns

Also, there are states need to be achieved:

- The organization provides employees with adequate and achievable demands

in relation to the agreed hours of work

- People’s skills and abilities are matched to the job demands

- Jobs are designed to be within the capabilities of employees

- Employees’ concerns about their work environment are addressed

The analyzation identifies the gap between current and a standards followingmanagement Solutions are given out to improve the managing aspect, minimize thegap of states of the organization

IV Developing and Implementing – Record your findings

Identifying the gap is the based line for solutions which need developing andusing in real situation The output of these need to be consider in particular aspect

- Timing: the span of the solution plan indicates the effectiveness of the stressmanaging process, depends on the problems have to be dealt with in longterm or short term

- Level of intervention: the scale of the plan has to be fit with the population,micro intervention for a team, macro for a department and strategic for awhole organization

- Responsibility: identifying the individual taking the action and report theprogress

V Assessing effectiveness – Monitor and review

For the assessment, these actions are taken to evaluate effectiveness:

- Reviewing existing policies & procedures based on interventions

- Evaluating effectiveness of interventions by gathering organisationalperformance data and analysing them

Chapter 3: Current situation of Hoang Duong T&C Co Ltd,

3

3.1 Overview of Hoang Duong T&C Co Ltd

Hoang Duong T&C Co Ltd is a professional company working inconstruction and trading in construction industry Founded in 2007, their mainactivities are design, procure and install industrial and civil construction project

Constructing is a very competitive industry in Vietnam, as for the country is adeveloping one, although it’s been not a long time since the founding day of HoangDuong, the company have managed to improve the quality of their main duties withthe aim to be the best in the industry The income of the company had been veryimpressive in the recent period but due to the instability of the industry because thenumber of projects fluctuates every year, the growth of Hoang Duong is could beconsidered having the ability to be stable compared to other competitors

As for the outcome of the company, mostly come out of the projects ofHoang Duong, after being finished, the result always satisfies their customer andcreate a reputation for the company But not only their ending products areconstruction projects, they also do maintenance services of mechanical, electricalsystems and participate in trading business with constructing related products likedraining pumps with accessories for air conditioner

Some of the projects Hoang Duong had participated in

 Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Complex

 Dorco Vina Factory – Ha Nam Industry Zone

 Foster Vietnam Electronics Factory

 Daiwa Plastic Factory

 Toyoda Airbag Factory

In the near future, the organization is expanding on the commercial side togenerate a more stable income for the company, instead of heavily relying onconstruction aspect of Hoang Duong As the industry shows to be more competitive,regulations are tightened for companies working in the construction area, theexpanding of the company is a bigger step in the game, gaining the company moreadvantages over their competitors

3.1.1 Organizational structure of Hoang Duong

Hoang Duong, as small company working in a big industry, theorganizational structure these kind of company could be considered simple, a sectorcould have duties of finishing many tasks at a time One employee could handle a lot

of tasks within a day, especially on beginning and ending of a construction project.The structure shows clearly under the director, there two vice directors Under themare many sectors and sub sectors For project department, there are two smallersectors for their own purposes Technical, Administrative, Purchase and Stock allhave sub sectors for different purposes Only Accounting sector does not have subsector Also, the population of Hoang Duong divided into work forces

Work force at Hoang Duong T&C CO Ltd

The company operated with 3 kind of work force

 The indirect staffs: They are the work force working in the office andthey control and handle all the paper works, which includes thedirector

 The direct staffs: People who working directly at the field, managingthe progress at the scenes and reporting to the indirect staffs of theprogress or if there are need of materials and supplies

 The task workers: Mainly workers or office staffs the company hiresfor specific tasks in determined periods

At the moment, Hoang Duong has about under 50 working employees divided intothree groups of work force as above To be more specific, until the end of theinternship, the number of employees in Hoang Duong is 37 employees

Source: Hoang Duong T&C Co Ltd

Figure 3.1: Hoang Duong organization structure

Table 3.1: Hoang Duong department activities

DIRECTOR Manage, oversee the business Develop plans and strategies for the future of the company

VICE-DIRECTOR Control the quality of projects and the safety of the employees

Document team: Recording file and keeping them and last the

Safety team: Ensure worker’s safety while conducting the jobs.

ADMINISTRATIVE

DEPARTMENT

Deal with paper works, employees’

satisfactions, salary and wages, offering staffs with suitable tasks, etc.

PURCHASING

DEPARTMENT

Handle purchasing materials, composing contracts and importing products for trading activities

3.1.2 Performance of the company

It’s been a rough few years for contractors as Vietnam infrastructure isdeveloping rapidly, but since 2016 Hoang Duong had keep a steady growth inrevenue but met a slight fall in 2018 However, in 2019, there is a positive signal ofthe revenue stream of the company Secondly, talking about the performance of thecompany, in the span of 2016 to 2019, Hoang Duong has undertaken a stablenumber of project every year, developed the business and when compare to othercontractors as a small and medium enterprise, Hoang Duong has done their job tosurvive in a rough industry like this

The year 2015 was tough for Hoang Duong as for the situation of the industrydidn’t seem to be positive for small companies The revenue of Hoang Duong waslow compares to expectation that year and it was about 13 billion and a half inselling and providing products and services But after a change in personnel in 2016,the company performance went up to 23 billion VND, almost double the revenue ofthe year before After reducing all the fees, the costs of operating and financing, theprofit of the company is 462 million before tax and 370 million after tax and doublethe number of 2015 Since then the activities of Hoang Duong were looking morepositive In 2017, the revenue hits 82 billion VND and the profit before tax wasabout 595 million for the company Keeping the good pace in 2016 and 2017, but

2018, things for Hoang Duong isn’t that great Revenue in 2018 was halved 2017and profit drop about two third of last year The reason was, according to the report

of the industry, the economic kept growing but there will be difficulties forcontractors as for relegations, fast developing pace of Vietnam infrastructure andthere is the competitive between many contractors Many company couldn’t survivethe heat and had to file for bankruptcy With a big hit like that, 2019 surely is atough year for Hoang Duong

Fortunately, through words of the director, performance of Hoang Duong as acontractor is above average this year, not that good but not as bad as it was Also onthe bright side, in the late 2019, Hoang Duong was developing more on the tradingside of the company, increasing the capacity of it, not just relying on income fromcontracting activities

3.2 Workplace stress at Hoang Duong

There are 2 main issues First is the stress management of the company.Employees within this kind of industry could easily getting stress, and at themoment the isn’t particular stress managing process in the company When stress

level arises, company comes up with solutions to counter it This prove to be useful

on short term but in long term, especially when Hoang Duong is having big chances

in business model, a better stress managing from employer could be a positivefeature As mentioned, the company has a high turnover rate in the year 2019, over50% in the same year, bigger and almost double Vietnam turn over just for about24% With the indicator related to stress at this high, stress is a considerable problemfor Hoang Duong should it comes up Second problem is the project management islacking of competencies that required for the project to perform better with the fullpotential of the company: better at controlling personnel, timing, managing cost Atthe current situation, projects of company are underperformed, but on the brightside, the company is quick at solving and handling problems occur on the site

As a small own company, with number of employees about under 50 people

to utilize the task performance on each with each person, most of personnel focus onproject department Without proper stress management strategy, program orapproach, stress could be easily proved to be a menace to the company

 Assessing workplace stress level at Hoang Duong

In this research, the PSS scale, designed by Cohen, was used because it’s notlimit to a particular scenario, giving a better view of stress appearing in all thehappened events during the past month, by so giving a more accurate data for theanalyzation Although there is no need for the PSS in the approach of ManagementStandards, but for giving better indication of employee workplace stress,contributing to the effectiveness of the stress managing process in Hoang Duong, theauthor decided to include this scale

Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is a classic tool, developed by Sheldon Cohen,popular as a scale for assessing, measuring the extent of situations creating stress,emotionally and cognitively In each scenario, employees of Hoang Duong wereasked of how frequent they meet these scenarios and response based on Likert scalewith 5 levels

Table 3.2: Perceived Stress Scale 10 questions

1 How often have you been upset because of

something that happened unexpectedly? Sheldon Cohen (1983)

Perceived Stress Scale

2 How often have you felt that you were unable to

control the important things in your life?

3 How often have you felt nervous and

“stressed”?

4 How often have you felt confident about your

ability to handle your personal problems?

5 How often have you felt that things were going

your way?

6 How often have you found that you could not

cope with all the things that you had to do?

7 How often have you been able to control

irritations in your life?

8 How often have you felt that you were on top of

things?

9 How often have you been angered because of

things that were outside of your control?

10 How often have you felt difficulties were piling

up so high that you could not overcome them?

Source: Perceived Stress Scale 1983

In the original tool, the scale is from 0 to 4 But in this research, the scale isfrom 1 to 5 to sync with Part 2 of the survey The scores of survey answers weresummed up, the higher the score, the higher the level of stress In these special cases

of questions 4, 5 and 7, answers score are reversed

(1) = 5; (2) = 4; (3) = 3; (4) = 2; (5) = 1

 Under 23: Low level of stress, have the ability to control

 From 24 to 36: Average level of stress, beginning to be overloaded

 From 37 to 50: High level of stress, need professional examination andtreatment

