LETTER:There are times when organisations have turned a blind eye on their most valuable resource - humans. The advancement of the computing technology and automation brought upon by Industrial Revolution 4.0 might exacerbate the situation.
Thus, the management of the most important aspect of the organisation, human resource, must be given due attention including training and development, compensation management, performance evaluation, career management and occupational safety and health.
Among all these, the occupational health issue has to be prioritised, seeing that it is global issue and can affect human resource competitiveness.
Continuous health issues will affect the productivity of the workers, disrupt operations and affect the country's productivity. Excessive work stress can leave a profound effect on humans' physiology, psychology and behavior. An individual continuously stressed can lead to depression.
If this stress is not handled as quickly as possible, it can leave a bad impact on one's health leading to heart problems, high blood pressure, fatigue and so on. The effect of depression on the stress at work comprises of the psychology (worry, sadness, temperamental), physiology (high blood pressure and strong muscle pressure) or behaviour (poor work performance, accident, sleep deprivation, drug abuse).
Studies also show that excessive stress at work can cause failing individual mental and physical systems that can adversely impact performance and health. It needs to be understood that stress actually is not the cause of diseases, but it will weaken the immunisation system and disrupt the capability of the body in fighting off infection and diseases.
It's a certainty that uncontrollable stress at work will leave a negative impact on the workers, family and the entire organisation. More worrying, burnout can happen if stress occurs continuously and individuals do not have a strong body system. Running out of energy is the long term effect from chronic stress. That someone will feel exhausted physically and emotionally.
This individual will then feel that it is difficult to fulfill his personal and work responsibility positively. The issue of extreme work stress also influences an individual's social life. This often continues at home and disturbs personal or social relationships.
Feeling stress at work exists in every organisation and no one can steer clear from it. Studies, however, have shown that stress at work gives both negative and positive effect.
This is because there are individuals who experience career development and improvement by successfully navigating stress. For these individuals, stress is an internal motivation that encourages them to make the effort.
In summary, the impact of stress is a cause for concern especially when countries are competing amid the Industrial Revolution 4.0. Thus, it is very important for the majority to be able to balance between emotions and work demand to minimise stress.
PROFESSOR DR ZAFIR KHAN MOHAMED MAKHBUL
Faculty of Economics and Management, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times