Article Summary on Technology and Workplace Stress

Essay by thankyouCollege, UndergraduateA+, May 2005

download word file, 3 pages 4.3

The article chosen to summarize technology and workplace stress highlights "information technology and the role it is playing in reshaping organizations" and will emphasize three main points: a) the impacts of workplace stress in the information age; b) the emotional affects from stress and how it spreads throughout an organization; and c) the affects on an individuals immune system due to stress.

Technology has become increasingly prevalent in organizations and in our daily lives. Since technology in the workplace allows more efficiency, individuals often take on more office duties. The article suggests that technology is creating and alleviating workplace stress, yet businesses cannot sustain without it. The most stressful demand is the numerous changes in assignments. The average office worker must shift assignments seven to eight times per hour in a typical workday. The altering in shifts includes the following examples: responding to voicemail, email, Internet, fax, pagers, and cell phones.

Additionally in alleviating workplace stress technological advancements allow us to perform multiple functions, help us to communicate more quickly and more efficiently, keep us better informed, and offer almost immediate feedback. Workplace stress is the sacrifice for the necessity of instantaneous information. As a result, workers often cope with stress by performing tasks that are urgent instead of doing the ones that are important.

The second main point of the article emphasizes the emotional affects from stress and how it proliferates throughout an organization. Comparable to a cold virus an "emotional virus" is highly infections. Individuals unable to cope with the factors of stress become emotionally drained and the people around them soon become infected. One example of an "emotional virus" is when one employee consistently complains and the other employee listening begins to take on that individuals attribute. Once the "virus" is recognized individuals are able to notice...