Ravalier PhD Theis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

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intervening in workplace stress, such as that proposed in the current project, may therefore be
severely affected by employee resistance to change.
3) The Current Project
The organisation which has agreed to take part in the current study is a borough
council in the East of England, to be called PAO (i.e. the participating organisation). It had
been agreed prior to the research beginning that PAO would be the organisation which takes
part. PAO is currently (from 2008 onwards) going through a time of severe financial
austerity, as is the rest of the government-owned public sector and many privately-owned
organisations, and as such are going through a series of organisational efficiency and
effectiveness development changes, known throughout PAO as Fundamental Service Reviews
(FSR). However the FSR process also takes into account the views and opinions of
employees from all levels of the organisation, making the processes involved participatory in
nature. Examples of outcome changes that have taken place due to the FSR processes include
more flexible working for all employees (including at which desk all individuals sit on any
working day) and more efficient communication technologies for when working from home
(e.g. Broadband and telephone access from home). These organisational changes have the
potential to affect the outcome and effectiveness of the current project, and as such have to be
taken into consideration at various stages of the research (see Chapter V, Section 2 for a
more in-depth review of the organisation).
Organisational stress has the potential to affect the financial running of an
organisation (see Chapter III, Section 1c.3). Compelling strength of evidence has suggested
that primary organisational stress interventions (see Chapter III, Section 1e.1) which focus
on making changes at the source of stress, although not utilised as often as secondary and
tertiary initiatives, have the potential to make long-term positive changes to the organisation.
As such, this project will focus on everyday stressors as experienced by individuals during
their work day, and attempting to reduce or eliminate some of the identified stressors via
organisational change initiatives.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is a crucial organisation responsible for
health and safety in the workplace. The HSE has identified occupational stress as a potential
health and safety risk similar to other (see Chapter VI, Section 2a), more tangible risks such
as physical dangers. As such the HSE has developed a set of Management Standards (MS)
related to occupational stress, and thus again highlighting the perceived importance of
tackling stress in the workplace. These management standards draw very heavily on the Job