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Occupational Stress in the Service Sector: A New Dimension

Labour, Employment and Work in New Zealand

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Title Occupational Stress in the Service Sector: A New Dimension
 
Creator Hannif, Zeenobiyah
Lamm, Felicity
Lo, Karen
Lu, Jeffrey
 
Description Previous research on occupational stress is limited in that it has tended to focus on the individual and is frequently located within occupations that are deemed to be stressful, such as nursing and policing. The intention o f this paper is to broaden the scope of analysis by investigating a range of employment factors (i.e. heavy workloads, interpersonal relationships and organisational factors) which can contribute to stress amongst workers and to include more industry sectors. In particular, this paper endeavours to draw attention to occupational stress amongst workers in emotionally demanding, so-called "low risk industries” - namely the call centre and hospitality industries, and to explore their perceptions of stress, their attitudes concerning managing stress and their responses to the inclusion of stress detailed in the Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Act, 2002. Findings, from two studies indicate that working in the hospitality and call centre industries can be stressful and that most workers are vulnerable in terms of their poor working conditions and low wages. Findings also show that, consistent with other studies, there was low trade union presence and a high rate of casualisation and staff turnover in each of the industries. At the same time there was a lack of overt conflict between management and workers, with an apparent close alignment of goals between the two parties and a style of management that could be described as unitarist.
 
Publisher Victoria University of Wellington
 
Date 2006-02-08
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/LEW/article/view/1608
10.26686/lew.v0i0.1608
 
Source Labour, Employment and Work in New Zealand; 2006: Labour, Employment and Work in New Zealand
2463-2600
 
Language eng
 
Relation https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/LEW/article/view/1608/1451