The office manager has sole responsibility for valuing properties and producing sales literature. The state of the market is ambiguous. Some properties, moderately priced ones especially, sell quickly. Approximately 60% of listings have been on the market for about six months, 20% for over a year. Staff have to cope with frustrated clients saying, "Why is my property not selling; what are you doing about it?" Staff has aggressive sales targets.
1. Analyze the potential sources of workplace stress.
2. As a manager, what are the key factors in successfully managing this stress
3. Use the text and outside research to justify your response.
The nature of work is changing at whirlwind speed. Perhaps now more than ever before, job stress poses a threat to the health of workers and, in turn, to the health organizations.
Vecchio (2006, p 256) defines the stress as the physiological and emotional experience that occurred when one confronted with circumstance or situation that poses a threat (extreme nature of which is termed as conflict). Simply put, stress is the sum total of all mental and physical input over a given period of time (Sabre Sciences, n.d.).
There is also significant economic consequence to a given organization whose employees suffer from workplace stress. Vecchio (2006, p 256) asserts that prolonged exposure to stressful situations is believe to produce serious dysfunctional influence that can affect job performance.
There are several factors responsible for the causes of stress. The causes of stress can be categorized as Personal, Interpersonal and Organizational factors (Vecchio, 2006 p 257-261). For the case study, it is possible to relate to the personal factors from client perspectives and it’s influence on the real estate agent, however, impersonal causes of stress is not evident since personalities, relationship between staff was not mentioned. On the other hand, organizational factors are clearly involved workplace stress condition.
Let us consider Personal factors and explore how client’s expectation has caused stress for real estate agents:
· Changes in One’s Life: Vecchio (2006, p 259) describes this category of stress as personal factor that can produce stress both in magnitude and the frequency as one’s life changes. Real estate related issues are given a relative weight of "31" in the "Scaling of Life Change: Composition of Direct and Indirect Methods" (Vecchio, 2006 p 260). For the case study, client’s personal factor contribute to stress and due to it’s extreme measure, this has resulted in conflict with real estate agent. According to Vecchio (2006, p 235), conflict serves no useful purpose and it drains energy and resources and also distract employees.
Lait, Jana et al (2002) has conducted a survey to examine how certain conditions of work affect human service workers' job stress. The study suggests that whether client’s expectations are met is critical in explaining job stress for human services employees. Pat Matson (2007) explains asserting the situation of Jeff Fisher, the principal of Jeff Fisher LogoMotives in Portland, OR, that to please a high-profile, highly demanding client, fisher found himself trapped in an endless cycle of grueling work weeks. He spent 12-hour days running between his office and the client's. He wasn't eating properly, wasn't exercising and, finally, couldn't sleep. A visit to his doctor was the wake-up call: His blood pressure was skyrocketing, and at the age of 35, he was, he says, "a heart attack waiting to happen".
The major cause for stress, however, in this case study, is due to aggressive sales target in an ambiguous market. Henceforth, organizational factors are clearly involved. Since commission is the major part of the real estate agent’s income (1% -1.5%), not achieving target has a negative impact on the incumbent’s income. Secondly, in the struggle to achieve aggressive targets, agents have to work harder visiting more prospective buyers and distributing more literature etc. This perhaps led to stress and burnout. Thirdly, management’s casual valuation of properties and aggressive sales target are counter productive. Henceforth, we could surely assume, "Role Ambiguity" and "Role Overload" organizational factors are involved in the causes of stress for the case study.
· Role Ambiguity: Vecchio (2006, p 263) describes role ambiguity occurs when clarity is missing regarding how to perform one’s job. Wilf Ratzburg (2005) argues that role ambiguity can also be due to the complexity of the job. Frequently, role ambiguity may be exhibited by less capable or less confident group members, he adds. It is clear from the case study that real estate agent lack clarity on performing their job in ambiguous market. On the top since moderately valued properties are sold quickly, this lead to believe that ambiguity is further caused by property valuation.
· Role overload: Vecchio (2006, p 264) describes role overload occurs when too many activities are expected of an employee given, the time available and ability of the employee. According to Duxbury and Higgins, role overload exists when the total demands for time and energy associated with prescribed activities of multiple roles are too great to perform these roles adequately or comfortably.~ In other words, people have too much to do in the time available to them JobQuality.ca (2006). In the case study, real estate agents are expected to perform several tasks under ambiguous market condition. Property valuation and too many tasks could create lead to the subordinates believing that supervisor is lack interested supporting them.
Key factors in successfully managing the stress: Managerial Perspective
Workers’ physical and mental wellbeing appear to be correlated with job satisfaction (vecchio, 2006 p 273).
There are several intrinsic and extrinsic sources of satisfaction can be endowed to employees of this case study as follows:
1. Expectation: Setup proper expectation for the job. Vecchio (2006, p 274) suggests company can counter potential problem of unrealistic expectation by providing job-oriented programs that present more realistic view.
2. Property Valuation: Ensure that properties are correctly valued under the ambiguous market condition knowing that moderately or reasonably valued property sold quickly.
3. Means to achieve target or perform the job: It is appropriate under the multi-tasking situation that a means of tools or methods are created to help support the sales force that includes but not limited to radio/TV advertisements, alternative markets e.g. commercial real estate etc.
4. Commission vs salary and commission: Understand what works best for employees by evaluating a combination of salary and commission since agent may go without a commission pay (under current contract) for months due to lack of sales.
5. Renewed customer engagement: Ensure that customers are properly engaged to setup their mindset about ambiguous market issues. Proper explanation to customer will help lower property valuation and thus improving sales volume.
Item 2 to 5 will contribute "Dispositional Influence" (Vecchio, 2006 p 275) helping to improve employee’s job attitude and satisfaction.
Reference
Vecchio, R.P, 2006. Organizational Behavior: Core Concepts. 6th ed. USA: Thomson Soth-Western [cited 17th August 2007]
Sabre Scinces, n.d. Stress Hormones. Sabre Sciences, Inc., USA. [online]. Available from http://www.sabresciences.com/stressHormones.htm [cited 17th August 2007]
Lait, Jana et al, 2002. Industrial Relations: Stress at work: A study of organizational-professional conflict and unmet expectations. Goliath Business News [cited 17th August 2007]
Pat Matson Knapp, 2007. Shedding Stress. Masterfile, Canada. [online] Available from http://www.masterfile.com/info/products/open/024.html?eid=open024 [Cited 17th August, 2007]
Wilf H. Ratzburg, 2005. Role Ambiguity. British Columbia Institute of Technology. [online] Available from http://www.geocities.com/athens/forum/1650/htmlgroups08.html [Cited 17th August, 2007]
JobQuality.ca, 2006. Role Overload. Work Network of Canadian Policy Research Networks. [online] Available from http://www.jobquality.ca/balance_e/balance002_1.stm [Cited 17th August, 2007]
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