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Instructions

Students must search for TWO (2) journals related to job stress factors in the
hospitality industry. The report writing must include a) Introduction of Customer
Service & Stress.
b) Content - One (2) journal - Summary of the journal - Description of the stress
factors in the journal - Solution taken (What type of techniques or process can be
applied to solve the issue)
c) Your suggestion/recommendation.
d) Conclusion. COURSE OUTCOME: CO
2: Apply the proper problem-solving techniques during handling customer problems
and complaints (based on the situation).
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Table of content

Introduction………………………………………………………………..3

Journal 1……………………………………………………………………5

Summary of the Journal 1…………………………………………….6

Stress factors in the journal 1…………………………………………...7

A solution took 1…………………………………………………………...8

Journal 2…………………………………………………………………….9

Summary of the Journal 2……………………………………………...10

Stress factors in the journal 2………………………………………….10

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A solution took 2………………………………………………………….11

Own suggestion/recommendation……………………….……12

Conclusion………………………………………………………….13

References………………………………………………………….14

Introduction of Customer Services and Stress

Customer service is the process of identifying customer's needs and resolving

their problems whenever they arise and continues even after the requirements have
been met. Usually, consumers are superior because their response is essential in
keeping every business running. Whether a company sells a product or a service, it
requires constructive feedback to better their products and ultimately grow. The
tutorial documents helpful strategies to maintain customers both existing and
potential, happy and ensure they are satisfied so that business can thrive. A
customer is anyone who receives a good, product, service, or an idea, although the
provisions may or may not include financial transactions, thus, bringing us to the two
types of customers: internal and external customers. Internal consumers are people
with a direct relationship with an enterprise. More often, they include stakeholders
and employees. On the other hand, external customers are people who are not part
of an organization.
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There are a few customer service characteristics which can be used to deliver
high-quality services. The first is promptness, that is, being on time with whatever
service or product a company has promised to offer. It involves knowing one’s P's
and Q's, and dictates that service providers must be courteous to their customers;
such that aside from the usual opening and closing greetings, they should make the
conversation liberally formal yet respectful with phrases like ‘please, sir, thank you, or
sorry’ to create a good company’s image to every customer. Next, organizations
must be empathetic of their customers' problems, and should never make them feel
inferior. Also, companies should strive to establish a personal connection with their
fanbase. A personal touch, such as addressing the customer by name, can help us
gain his loyalty.

The hospitality industry is ever-changing with complex environment

presenting a never-ending array of pressures and work-related demands that can
quickly become sources of stress for service persons. A challenge for the hospitality
industry has always been finding effective ways to empower front-line employees to
provide quality service that satisfies customers (Hu & Cheng, 2010). The existing
literature demonstrates the importance of managers investigating job-related and
other extraneous factors affecting the performance of customer service employees is
critical as employees are frequently faced with challenging issues at work
(Netemeyer et al, 2005).

The identification of current and potential stressors affecting this group of

employees, as well as the subsequent development of interventions that employees
can use to manage and reduce stress effectively, is critical. This paper aims at
providing critical insights into the causes of stress among customer service
employees in the hospitality industry. The individual, individual-organizational, and
organizational antecedents of stress are exclusively assessed and potential
interventions that can be used to manage stress among customer service employees
provided.

A nagging customer, a strict hotel supervisor, job insecurities, negative

attitudes, role overload, family-work conflict, or uneasy interpersonal relationships
can all cause 'discomfort' in customer service employees (Murphy & Duxbury, 2005).
These stressors will be discussed in greater detail in the subsequent sections.
According to Lee-Davies and Bailey (2007), the biological 'distress' point is calibrated
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by that point of discomfort that is constant in all employees. "...the signs of stress can
be biological and cognitive, and are linked to the inbuilt 'flight and fight' mechanisms
our bodies have for survival," the authors write (p. 182). One’s level of mental
discomfort stimulates stress, especially when people believe some things are beyond
their ability.

Journal 1

Brouwers et al. conducted a cross-sectional study across 35 countries,

including India and reported that about two-thirds of employees who had suffered
from depression either faced discrimination at work or were neglected while applying
for new jobs. His study also found that both anticipated and perceived discrimination
was more in high-income countries compared to lower-income countries. The two
types of discrimination forced majority to suffering silently at the workplace and not
seek proper care due to stigmatization. Usually, prejudice can be a significant issue
when seeking care for mental disorders because it might prevent the victims from
seeking clinical help, which increases the treatment gap in the proportion of people
who suffer from mental disorders and the proportion of them who receive adequate
mental health care. If organizations are made aware of this and encourage staff to
seek appropriate mental health care, it will lead to improved care for persons with
mental disorders and to a situation where employees can comfortably discuss their
mental health concerns with appropriate staff (human resource) who can appropriate
who can initiate early intervention measures whenever severe mental disorders
manifest.

Summary of the Journal 1

The summary of the journal focuses on alleviating symptoms and risk factors
associated with workplace-related mental disorders as less emphasis has been
placed on gathering evidence on how mental disorders affect performance and
absenteeism. Thus, more research is needed to gather evidence on the cost-
effectiveness of interventions and the cost of mental disorder-related loss of
productivity in the larger community. This is relevant to all countries and becomes
specifically significant when each employment sector tries to become more
competitive and wants to increase productivity while simultaneously trying to keep
their cost to the minimum. In low- and middle-income countries, there are additional
needs to (i) conduct basic epidemiological studies to understand the prevalence of
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workplace-related mental disorders and specific risk factors associated with different
employment sectors, (ii) understand what kind of systems are being put in place by
different sectors to manage them, and (iii) to what degree are existing laws being
followed and implemented, and what organizational restructuring is needed to
improve the situation.
Current evidence suggests that no single intervention can work in isolation,
and it is recommended to have a package of interventions at the organizational level
that those in need could access. Some interventions specifically found to be helpful
were enhancing employee control, promoting physical activity, cognitive behavior
therapy for stress management, and problem-focused return-to-work programs. On
the contrary, counseling and debriefing following trauma were not effective, and any
exposure to trauma should be followed by the provision of psychological first aid and
proper psychological support by trained professionals. Workplace screening for
mental disorders, followed by access to essential mental health services, is adequate
but could lead to a potential increase in anxiety levels in those who are screened as
false positives, so routine screening at the workplace is not recommended.

Stress factors in the journal 1

Another risk factor besides depression or anxiety is an outcome of stress, like

physical disorders such as hypertension and diabetes. While research has
established a two-way link between stress and these physical disorders,
organizations need to realize this and encourage their staff to maintain an excellent
work-life balance. This cannot be easy to implement given strict deadlines, having a
less competitive edge, unsustainable/unhealthy cultures, and one's personal desires
to earn more by extrapolating their normal schedules to work overtime. Thus,
organizations need to have guidelines about working hours based on good industrial
practices and take measures to enforce these routinely.

Sexual harassment and bullying at the workplace are other workplace-related stress
that can happen at any organization. Both genders could be affected by these, but
women and those lower in the hierarchy are often at affected. Organizations should
be cognizant of this and institute legal measures to ensure that the workplace is safe
and secure for every worker. There are specific legal provisions in India to ensure
safety in the workplace (http://labour.gov.in/policies/safety-health-and-environment-
work-place). In addition, there are regulations to prevent sexual harassment
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(http://indiacode.nic.in/acts-in-pdf/142013.pdf). These strict measures and processes

must be highly embraced, and every organization should establish committees to
handle misconduct.

Solution taken

Some factors that caused stress at the workplace include 'workload (both
excessive and insufficient work), lack of participation, monotonous or unpleasant
tasks, role ambiguity or conflict, lack of recognition at work, inequity, poor
interpersonal relationships, poor working conditions, poor leadership, ineffective
communication and higher expectations from their seniors. Chronologically, the
document outlines instrumental guidelines that can improve the situation and
enumerated four key steps relevant not only to individual organizations but to other
stakeholders, such as trade unions.

There are a few techniques that can be applied to solve the issues. Step 1:
Analyzing the mental health issues - As a first step, it is essential to have a clear
understanding of the prevalence/incidence and risk factors associated with workplace
stress and a piece of better knowledge about the cost implications to an organization
in terms of lost productivity. The exercise can be done at individual organizations,
specific employment sector levels in specific regions, or across the nation. This might
need gathering new data through surveys and analyzing the data available from
human resources, or anonymized health records.

Step 2: Developing the policy - A policy can be developed once the initial knowledge
gained through the first step is available. The primary objective of such a policy
should be to address the concerns of all stakeholders and adhere to the
organization's vision and mission. This should involve multiple meetings with different
stakeholders to identify critical components that must be addressed. This
engagement should be a continuous process throughout the development and
execution of the policy.

Step 3: Developing strategies to implement the policy - While implementing the

policies, care should be taken to identify the key strategies that need to be
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implemented, the processes that need to be in place to implement such strategies,

the targets to be achieved, and timelines that need to be adhered to while
implementing the strategies. Finally, any additional budgetary allocations or training
required to implement the policies must be made available.

Journal 2

A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted among the Pokhara

Metropolitan career women. A stratified random sampling technique was used in the
study with the total number of samples being divided into each organization category
as per the data available. Additionally, a self-administered structured questionnaire
was given to all 183 women from the selected public and private organizations. Th
descriptive statistics report majorly focused on demographic, socioeconomic, and
various environmental job-related stressors of the respondents. A Chi-square test
was used to find out the association between the variables, and the results revealed
that the prevalence of job stress was 47.5% in the Reward Imbalance Questionnaire,
which detailed a mean score of 40.08 (standard deviation ± 4.97). The age range of
the participants was between 20 and 40 years, with a median age of 29 years. The
majority of working women (61.2%) were 20–30 years old. From the findings, stress
is a result of one's interaction with their surroundings. Similarly, occupational stress,
also known as job stress, is the experience of negative emotional states such as
frustration, anxiety, and depression that can be attributed to work-related factors. Job
stress varies according to individual experience and gender since not everyone
reacts to the triggers in the same way. According to a recent study, 28% of men and
53% of women reported work-family stress affecting their ability to concentrate at
work. The study affirmed that females worldwide rarely have time to relax and are
often stressed due to family issues paired with higher job demands.

Summary of the Journal 2

The journal summarizes risk factors that often cause stress; these are sex,
education level, teaching experience, quality of life, anxiety, depression, and coping
styles. According to a study of German general practitioners and practice assistants,
female general practitioners had the highest level of chronic stress, followed by
practice assistants and male general practitioners. As the number of working hours
per week increased, so did the level of chronic stress since age, education, marital
status, children, hours worked per week, working shifts, job insecurity, physical
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exertion, social support, hazard exposure, job perception, and attitude toward the
employer were found to trigger job stress. The descriptive statistics reported for the
respondents' demographic, socioeconomic, and various environmental factors were
analysed using the Chi-square test to determine the relationship between the
variables.

Stress factors in the journal 2

The study's results showed that 47.5% of people reported were experiencing
occupational stress on a regular basis. The prevalence of stress in Tanzania was
equivalent to the available data. Nevertheless, in contrast to the current study, the
rate of stress amongst working women from Delhi was greater, at 64.6%.
Furthermore, it was discovered that the individual's age was related to the likelihood
that working women experience stress. The gap between younger and older
Australian employees in terms of job management was also smaller. This might be
the case since a young worker can provide any firm with more commitment and
production.

According to this study, occupational stress and user's family type are significantly
correlated. According to a systematic review of this journal, Indian women have been
shown to be caring for the elderly as well as the kids while also working for the
government thus leading to stress. This in turn affects the development of their
careers.  In some cultures, marriage and reproduction age are regarded appropriate
between the ages of twenty and forty. Women in this age bracket must balance their
duties at the workplace while also taking care of their families. For women, this
position is more stressful.

Based on this research, there is no link between a subject's duty hours and the
prevalence of occupational stress. Correspondingly, a Japanese study found no
connection between workplace stress and the hours worked, however, it did find that
extended work hours come with a number of dangers for employees, families,
companies, and the society as a whole. Moreover, working for such a long time
causes many emotional and physical changes in ladies, a lack of care and support
might make these changes worse by raising stress and anxiety levels. According to
this study, there is a considerable connection between occupational stress and
the availability of health incentives. In agreement with this finding, a study of
workplace practices from 28 European nations revealed a statistically significant
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correlation between the availability of sick leave entitlements and the decline in job
stressors, which improves mental health.  
It could be high due to increased job competitiveness for qualified workers in Delhi,
India, where the population density is high.
Nearly half of the career women suffering from job stress acknowledged that the
above mentioned significantly contributed to their mental disorientation, adding that
the triggers were completely unnoticed until their situations worsened. It shows that
job stress has become a significant public health issue affecting working women and
men worldwide as the concern continues to receive less attention characterized by
few studies in countries like Nepal. This issue needs to be studied further to gain a
better understanding of job-related stressors. Originally, the study identified risk
factors easily preventable in society with proper care, support, counselling, and
education for working women. In general, the study will also serve as a foundation for
future research.

Solution taken

People may believe that some stress-relief techniques do not work whereas
others strongly do. When a technique is ineffective, it is usually due to one of the two
possibilities: it is either a poor match for the personality or does not fit the situation.
Breathing exercises, for example, can effectively relieve stress, even though it might
not be effective as the sole coping strategy for someone suffering from caregiver
stress, chronic job stress, or another type of chronically occurring stress. There are
so many ways to relieve stress but it can be challenging to find the correct strategy
for your personality and situation, or it may seem like more work than you want to do
when you are already stressed. However, finding effective stress relievers is
essential, particularly when dealing with acute stress – a kind of stress that knocks
you off balance within a short time. This type of stress comes on quickly and often
unexpectedly, lasts a short time, but shakes you up and requires a reaction, such as
an argument with someone in your life or an exam for which you are not adequately
prepared. The process that can be applied is that the company needs to give more
priority to women; for example, they can be allocated less workloads than men.

Own Recommendation
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The most appropriate recommendation I can provide is for development of

strategies where one might need to have a small illustration of the project to be
taken; and based on the results, tweak the strategies then scale it up to a more
significant forum. Before implementing a policy, information should be disseminated
widely through a formal launch meeting or individual organizations' dissemination
network. For example, significant government-level policies that impact many
employees or employers could have a launch meeting. In contrast, policies affecting
only one organization with limited staff could be disseminated through office emails.
This would enable everyone to be aware of the policies. However, a major drawback
of many policies is that they lack a formal evaluation, which should be built into the
system and appropriately funded from the outset. Specific guidelines about
monitoring and evaluating the policies should be in place at the time of the launch of
the policies and conducted as per agreed timelines. Some employers and employees
assume that high levels of workplace stress are expected or that pressure to perform
is the only way to stay productive and profitable, although research tends to
challenge these assumptions.

Conclusion

Workplace stress and mental illness are realities that every employer and
employee face daily. However, it is frequently the case that none of the mentioned
parties are often fully aware of the issues are neither well informed about their
implications. Although laws exist in most countries to protect the rights of people
suffering from mental disorders related to workplace stress, they are frequently not
implemented or regulated effectively, resulting in a situation in which people suffering
from mental disorders are unable to verbalize their problems and suffer silently - a
situation that eventually leads to increased mental health-related disability which in
turn affects productivity. This year, all stakeholders should take action when
workplace stress is identified as a global concern. According to the CDC, "workers
who must take time off work due to stress, anxiety, or a related disorder will be off the
job for about 20 days." A healthy workplace should experience low rates of illness,
injury, and disability among its employees while remaining competitive in the market.
These organizations have the following characteristics: Employees are recognized
for their outstanding work performance, Opportunities for advancement in their
career, an organizational culture that places a premium on the individual worker, and
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management actions that are in line with the values of the organization. Some
remedies can be taken to reduce job stress. The actions include; employee
assistance programs (EAP) and stress management training improve workers' ability
to deal with complex work situations by understanding the sources of stress, the
effects of stress on health, and strategies to eliminate stressors. Time management
or relaxation exercises are a good to identify job stressors. As a result, the
management is able to identify the root causes of the major issues. Through this, the
company is able to run smoothly without any conflict of interest or dissatisfaction
matters.

References

Bhandari, Dr-Tulsi & Ojha, Jenny & Karki, Renu. (2020). Job stress and its
associated factors among working women in Pokhara Metropolitan, Nepal. Journal of
the Scientific Society. 47. 105-109. 10.4103/jss.JSS_50_20.
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NO ISSUE 4 3 2 1

1 Describing the Showed a Showed a Showed a Showed little

job stress factors thorough working basic understanding of
in hospitality and understanding understanding understanding the job stress
suggesting of the job of job stress of the job factors; poorly
recommendations stress; able to factors; able to stress factors; summarized and
s summarize and summarize and attempted to recommend.
recommend at recommend but summarize and
a deep level at a surface recommend at
level a minimal level
satisfactorily

2 Paragraph All paragraphs Most Some Para. Lack of

have clear paragraphs paragraphs clear ideas.
ideas and are have clear have clear
supported ideas, ideas,
with examples are supported support from
and have by some examples may
smooth examples and be missing,
transitions. have and transitions
transitioned. are weak.

3 Organization: Well-planned A good overall There is a No sense of

Overall and well- organization sense of organization
thought-out. includes the organization,
Includes main although some
title, organizational of the
introduction, tools. organizational
statement of tools are used
main idea, weakly or
transitions, and missing
conclusion.

4 Grammar & Excellent There are a few It shows a Continuous

Mechanics grammar, grammars, pattern of grammar.
spelling, spelling, syntax errors in
syntax, and , and spelling,
punctuation. punctuation grammar,
errors, but only
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a few. syntax, and/or

punctuation.
It could also be
a sign of a
need for more
proofreading.

5 Punctuality of Submit during Submit after Late Late submission

submission class. class on the submission without any
date given. with reason. reason.
The report will be evaluated based on the rubric.

/ 20
Do not write anything FULL
MARKS
here) MARKS
Describing the job
stress factors in
a. hospitality and 4
suggest
recommendations
Organization of
b. 4
paragraph

c. Format 4

Grammar and
d. 4
mechanics

e. Submit on time 4

TOTAL MARKS 20