Technology and Stress: An Article Review - MGT 331: Organizational Behavior - analyze internet article on technology and stress, discuss organization's approach to stress

Technology and Stress: An Article Review

The increase in technology associated with workplace production has increased the stress level for workers. This is according to a survey conducted and prepared in 1999 by Braun Research, Inc. for Kensington Technology Group as a part of an ongoing study on workplace technology and stress (Technology, 1999). Kensington Technology Group released the survey results on August 11, 1999 as a press release article on its website.

According to the survey, which questioned 501 adults full-time American workers in the traditional and home-office setting, workers are feeling more stressed with the possibility of losing documents due to computer crashes, voice-mail and email demands, and increased technology demands for productivity and communications. A similar study completed prior to the Kensington survey showed that stress-related problems can cost an American company with 50 employees almost $40,000 a year (Technology, 1999).

As an environmental, health and safety engineer, my role includes recognizing the different stressors within the organization and providing guidance for recommendations or solutions.

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I have experienced some level of stress with potentially lost documents or databases in the past. A prime example was the training and safety database that was populated with over 200 employee files containing address and training history information. When an update to the training software was downloaded, the previous data was lost. This data, which took over two weeks to populate, included vital information that would be needed for a report at a meeting the next day in front of the vice president of the company. Fortunately, the Information Technology department had maintained the backup tapes from the last database refresh operation, so they were able to repopulate the database with only ten days of lost information.

Hitachi Automotive Products, Los Angeles (HAP-LA) has realized the importance of dealing with stress...