Frustration: Hindrance To Organisational Growth

THESE days, every organization employs a personnel manager to run the institutional works. Organisations hire, train, pay, motivate, maintain, and provide psychological counseling to their employees. It is a fact that these activities are done only through specialized personnel managers. A manager is one who exercises authority and leadership over other employees. Thus, the personnel manager performs the basic functions of management. To be specific management is the planning, organising, directing, and controlling of the procurement, development, compensation, integration, psychological advice and help, maintenance, and separation of human resources to the end that individual, organisational, and societal objectives are accomplished.

Especially, in the developing countries, the workers exhibit frustration as they are paid low salary, discriminated in promotion and training opportunities, imbalance in reward and punishment, frequent transfer and unjust job assignment. The psychology of management is not always negative and destructive. If the managers work together with their subordinates to resolve organizational frustrations and aggression, then the solution of these problems are often more creative and fruitful.

The management experts have highlighted various strategies of overcoming frustration and aggression through openness to new ideas, better interaction, open communication, trust, respect for other’s ideology, negotiation and clear objectives. Management researchers point out that lack of communication, personality differences, divergent culture, generation gap, inadequate policies and rules may generate divergent the problems in organisation like frustration, conflict, stress, aggression etc.

One source of stress is frustration. The word frustration is generally used in two ways. It refers to the thwarting or blocking of desires and actions. Frustrations differ in seriousness. Frustrations in respect to time or loss of some possession or in respect to not having the kind of job one likes are disturbing. However, the particular techniques anyone develops for handling such frustrations may, if good, contribute greatly to his or her progress in life. If ineffective, they may handicap him. In relation to frustration, psychologists, Herbert, S., Marguerite M. and Garlie A. highlight that it can disrupt the whole pattern of an individual’s life like severe marital difficulties, often leading to divorce, loss of a job or business failure, a serious accident, long illness etc. The -happenings like there destroy hopes and reasons for living.

There are four major characteristics of frustrated behavior, each of which may be readily observed and is capable of being experimentally produced in the laboratory. These are, aggression, regression, fixation and resignation, and they are so important in understanding the behaviour found in organisation, and, of course, elsewhere.

Psychologically, working mothers embrace a high amount of anxiety and frustration in their personality make – up which may be due to their greater exposure to out ide life and its complexities together with the greater amount of time spent in employment. The South Asian Journal of Psychology (1996) says that if a woman is working by her own choice, holds a job which is interesting and rewarding and has a moral support from her husband and family, she is more satisfied comparatively. The pressures of modern life, the demands of organizations and industrializations are blurring the differences between men and women’s abilities to cope with frustrations of different kinds.

Particularly, when the situation is felt to be a real threat to the integrity of the individual (mentally and physically) the feelings may be anger mingled with fear and anxiety. In other words, fear, anxiety, and the rage are only experienced when the organism’s attempts at adjustment fail, or appear to fail, and is unable to achieve results. Sigmund Freud, the Austrian psychiatrist believed that there is a childish part of our personality, which demands immediate gratification of all its wishes. Whenever this "child" in our mind is frustrated, it may either throw a temper tantrum or display other immature forms of emotion.

Physiologically, the two basic emotional states-the avoiding reactions (fear, frustration and rage) and the approach responses (love and desire)- are represented by the autonomic nervous system which is controlled by a centre in the base of the brain known as the hypothalamus. Psychologically, frustrated people tend to give up constructive attempts at solving their problems and regress to more primitive and childish behaviour. The most extreme examples of this process are to be seen in the neurosis and psychosis mental disorders, which are caused by prolonged frustration. The World Book Encyclopedia (1992) has highlighted that aggression is a natural reaction to frustration. Some organizational psychologists emphasize the need to consider other factors as well, such as a person’s frustration tolerance and the presence of a target for the aggression. Still other researchers claim frustration results from instincts, genetic defects, or brain damage.

When any goal –directed activity is blocked, the normal individual experiences a psychological and physiological reaction, which continues, as long as the need remains, unsatisfied. Frustration and the resultant stress add to the original drive, leading the individual to intensify his or her effort to find a means of satisfying the initial, thwarted need. Thus the resolution of conflict and the consequent reduction of frustration are extremely important in motivating human behavior.

Sometimes, of course, attempt to overcome obstacle may be impractical. Many of our everyday frustrations function only as sources of minor annoyance. Some types of frustrations however, constitute real threats to our fundamental need. For the mature adult losing his or her job for instance, can be a source of genuine apprehension, the problem of unemployment not only means reduced financial ability to satisfy his or her biological needs but also may involve feelings of insecurity, lowered self-esteem, and loss of social approval.

Ego-involving frustrations are highly painful and call for an immediate defence. Since successful adjustment depends on how we handle our frustrations rather than on how many we have, it is extremely important for us to examine our own reactions as honestly as we can. Only in this way can we recognize and modify the ineffective ones. Recently, the Dr.Chuck Hillman and colleagues, of University of Illions, USA carried out a research and recommended exercises the brain to improve mood and reduce fatigue. They have found that exercise can enhance a person’s brainpower. Especially, brain waves measurement highlights the importance of exercise in cognitive functioning.

Finally, managers can help their subordinates on the bases of raising employee awareness, fitness, providing social support, redesign of work and managing time. Psychologically, redesigning jobs provide employees more responsibility, more meaningful work and more autonomy. These effective management strategies can reduce frustration of the personnel. Psychological coping refers to those actions and thoughts that raise capability of the employees to tackle difficult circumstances. Also behavioural medicine is used in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the frustrated workers in the organization.

AIDS Scare Is Real

By Mohan K.C.

THE World AIDS Day-2001 was recently celebrated with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba launching the HIV/AIDS awareness programme. This is befitting in the sense that awareness is the only key to prevent the rapid spread of the deadly disease. As diseases know no boundary it is essential that people realise how the disease can spread and as no cure for it has been discovered yet prevention is the only way for stopping the onslaught of HIV/AIDS.

That the government is aware of the threat is seen by Prime Minister Deuba disclosing that the government is mooting the formation of National AIDS Control Council. This will be a step in seeing that the disease comes under focus unlike in the past and action plan formulated accordingly. It is in keeping with the way the disease is spreading. Though the magnitude of HIV/AIDS in Nepal is not as much as that in Africa or India, yet it merits a greater degree of attention.

The revelation that there are 40,000 people suffering from HIV/AIDS in the country is enough to show that the disease is rapidly spreading and if measures are not taken immediately it will not be long before it will become an epidemic.

HIV/AIDS as is well known is spread through unsafe sex and use of infected needles. The realisation among the people regarding the mode how the disease spreads is essential. But Nepal being a country with more than half of its population illiterate, the problem is compounded. The awareness campaign that had been launched in the past has had barely any impact. Poverty too has added to the spread of the disease.

It is no hidden fact that there are many children and girls trafficked to India and elsewhere to be inducted into the flesh trade. Despite great efforts of the government, girl trafficking has not abated. With an open border with India, the movement of people is unhindered. With this the disease too has easy access to the exposed population. This suggests that more vigilance on the part of the government is needed to check the spread of the disease.

The medical check up of people returning from abroad may be necessary if the battle against the menace is to be won. This does not necessarily mean that anyone travelling abroad indulges in unsafe sex but it is only a strategy to check the import of a disease for which no drug has been found.

Though still a conservative society, sex before marriage and out of wedlock has become a problem mainly because of the freedom that people are reportedly becoming accustomed to nowadays. The promotion of condoms has gone on well but the spread of sexually transmitted diseases sees no sign of stopping. For the other STDs, there are known cures but HIV/AIDS still remains an uncharted diseases. The research works to find a cure for AIDS is being conducted in many countries but a foolproof drug has eluded the scientists. In such a scenario, it is best to create awareness among the people and make them realise that prevention is the only way to check the disease from spreading.

There is some combination of drugs available but they are very expensive. Another point is that the drugs in the market cannot completely cure the disease, they can only prolong the life of the patient. As the people are poor they cannot afford the expensive drug and so death awaits them once they have contracted the disease. This is the reason why the government has launched a massive HIV/AIDS awareness campaign.

The move to incorporate a long-term programme to control HIV/AIDS in the 10th Plan is an encouraging measure. Like poverty alleviation is receiving focus, controlling HIV/AIDS too requires concerted efforts. It is not only the government that has to put in efforts but every related agency and the people in general too must contribute their mite. Without the efforts of the people and the social organisations, the disease cannot be controlled.

Prostitution and drug addiction are two most important causes of the spread of HIV/AIDS. The law enforcement agencies must come down heavily on these two fronts. Flesh trade provides an easy access for the disease to spread mainly among the 15-35 age group that is the sexually active group of the population is vulnerable. To prevent this group from falling prey to the disease, awareness among them is necessary. This can be only done through publicity and awareness programmes at the grassroots level. Advertisements over the radio, TV and newspapers alone cannot have the desired effect, the only way is to come face to face with the target group to deliver the message.

In this context, the government’s plan to form a National AIDS Control Council is very encouraging and will prove a valuable aid in chalking out strategies for the control of the deadly disease HIV/AIDS.

Child Rights: A Development Issue

By Jhabindra Bhandari

CHILDREN are still facing numerous problems in terms of child labour and exploitation particularly in the poor and developing countries of the world. We often read the news of the events related to child trafficking, bonded labour and drug addiction among children. And Nepal is also not an exception in this regard.

It is important to know that high infant mortality and morbidity indicate the poor status of child development—that represent significant proportion of the entire population. Unless we ensure the rights of the children in the societies, the development efforts will not have desired impact.

Increasing poverty, illiteracy and the challenge of food security have serious negative impacts particularly on the livelihood of children. A country’s development largely depends on the future of its children. Only with good nutrition, education, family support and health care, the lives of majority of the children will have brighter future.

Even though, advocacy on protection of child rights in the country is steadily progressing, the achievements are still dismal. One can observe many children are staying in others’ homes and are working hard for survival. Their rights to good education and better lives are almost violated.

In the bus stations, streets, hotels, factories and others, one can see the bitter examples of increasing child labour. Particularly, for the children who are forced to leave the families for economic benefits, education and health care for such children become a distant dream. In most societies, there is still social discrimination between son and daughter in terms of access to education and other services.

Moreover, due to a number of reasons, some of them take to the street and thus become vulnerable. With a few active NGOs working in the field of child rights and development, the desired progress has not been achieved. The government should encourage participation of local NGOs and develop concrete strategies for the elimination of child labour in the country.

Most importantly, in many social development initiatives—participation of children is most often a neglected issue. The efforts of the national and international NGOs’ in this regard should be innovative and effective. The programme should bring positive changes in the lives of the children for socio-economic development.

It would certainly be interesting to note here that the organisations like Plan International, Save the Children US and UK, International Labour Organisation (ILO), UNICEF and many others have been supporting the government and local NGOs to plan and important various programmes in the field of child rights and development. Despite their concerted efforts, child rights continues to be a neglected issue.

There should be a joint effort between the government and civil society to fight against social problems that undermine the fundamental rights of the children. Policy makers and planners should listen to the voices of the children for the emerging needs and value their basic rights of social security, justice, education and health care. Now is the time to join our hands to respect and value child rights. And it is our great responsibility to make the national campaign on child rights a grand success.