"Managing Employee Stress: A Key to the Effectiveness of Strategic Supply Chain Management"
Organizational Dynamics
2007, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 78-92
Common reasons for supply chain problems include failure to design an effective supply chain system, poor implementation of what ever system has been designed, and lack of support from top management.
The authors of this article focus on employee stress as another cause of poor supply management practices. Given the context of globalization and competitive pressures for shorter product cycles, supply chain members are likely to feel the stresses of role conflict and role ambiguity from five different sources:
- Pressures to behave in new ways based on the need for strategic thinking
- Shifts in the role of "negotiator" to others in the organization
- Greater pressure to analyze the value of various partners
- Stresses from technological change
- Stresses from the need for continuous improvement
To reduce the stresses from the above sources, the authors recommend the following initiatives to reduce stress on employees:
- Training to deal with the new demands of working with a strategic supply chain
- Clearer role definition for employees
- Identification and addressing of user issues before and after technological changes
- Sharing communication strategically, in a free but responsible way
- Trust management with supply chain partners
- Flexibility through contingency planning
- Networking to provide greater access to information
- Corporate entrepreneurship through establishing a culture of change and creativity
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