Taking on occupational stress!

The brilliance of Jamaicans is once again significantly impacting the international scene, with individuals and organisations from across the globe using a doctoral research paper done by local banker, Dr Ransford Davidson, as reference point.

The doctoral research, Leadership Strategies to Reduce Employee’s Occupational Stress, was Davidson’s requirement to obtain his doctor of business administration degree from Walden University in 2018, and was published in October of that year. Davidson graduated in 2019 with the research landing him the Walden University Leadership Excellence Award for distinguished Leadership, Scholarship and Mentorship.

The research is accessible worldwide via Scholarworks and also via Walden University’s website, or Google.

Since its publication, the research has been downloaded nearly 2,000 times and accessed by over 250 organisations in over 100 countries, spanning all inhabitable continents – Africa, North, and South America, Asia, Europe and Australia.

Davidson is happy for the impact that his research paper is having.

“I am happy because it is also having a global impact, so other countries and organisations are also looking at the information to see what strategies are really applicable that can also be used by their organisations to improve employee wellness and well-being and to reduce the stress phenomenon in their organisations,” Davidson shared.

The response to the research comes as costs associated with occupational stress skyrocket across the world, with a study conducted by Mental Health America indicating that stress costs United States employers approximately $500 billion in lost productivity annually.

Locally, Ministry of Health and Wellness figures show that the country lost over $859 million in 2013-2014 because of the absence of employees from work as a result of mental health issues.

While stress is not considered a psychiatric diagnosis, it is closely linked to mental health, as it may cause mental health problems, or worsen existing problems.

Sectors such as national security, education, and health are areas that readily come to mind when it comes to workplaces where employees are believed to be more susceptible to stress than the average worker.

With the wide international response, coupled with several from local organisations, including B and B University, located in Kingston, Davidson is set to lead an initiative to get more employers to pay attention to the problem.

According to Davidson, a bank manager at Jamaica National, “It (the research) was really done in response to what I thought generally was happening in the work environment and how leaders needed to adjust and apply that sort of a leadership agility to counter some of the dynamics in the work environment in terms of strategies that they would need to employ to ensure that employees, from a mental perspective, remain strong and also reduce the whole stress phenomenon that normally comes with the level of aggressiveness in the work environment.”

Davidson said he wanted to see if he could inform what organisations can implement, to reduce the level of stress at the workplace.

Based on the response to the research, Davidson’s work seems to be contributing significantly to the field of occupational stress, and he believes it can greatly assist Caribbean leaders and organisations with respect to identifying insights into the leadership skills, techniques and interventions required for managing workplace stress.

He believes it will allow leaders to balance job demands and job resources in such a way that employees remain healthy, motivated and productive.

Davidson said his next step is to continue to lobby aggressively for increased organisational investments in occupational stress prevention.

“I want to continue to lead that effort just to ensure that employees’ lives are improved,” Davidson pointed out.

Davidson is a business and banking professional who is very active in community outreach. He serves in numerous leadership positions and is a justice of the peace.

He is also first vice-president of the St Ann Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Governor General Achievement Award committee for St Ann, a board member of York Castle High School and Brown’s Town Community College; executive member of the St Ann Justices of the Peace Association, chairman of the St Ann Jamaica Cultural Development Commission Committee and a member of the St Ann Homecoming and Heritage Foundation committee.

Davidson also served as a director on the board of the Jamaica National Building Society (now JN Bank) in 2007 and 2010. He currently serves at the management level at JN Bank, leading two branches in St Ann.

carl.gilchrist@gleanerjm.com