Applied business Psychology

For this essay I will be interviewing a full time paid individual. The assay will include analysis of the challenging/difficult work and none work roles and analyse they thoughts, feelings and behaviour using the personality, stress and emotion theory. The essay will establish my outcomes of my learning from the analysis of their experience. The contributor I will be interviewing is Mrs Farah Bhoja; she works for a GP surgery as a practise manager in South West London area.

She has been working for the surgery now for 10 years and has been acting as practise manager for the last 5 years. She started off as a receptionist and worked her way up to being an admin secretary then to assistant manager and now to practise manager. An Analysis of her work roles Farah Bhoja has been working at the surgery now since 1999. When she started off her job roles included dealing with the public, answering calls, doing prescriptions, making sure that the doctor’s rooms were clean before the next clinic.

However, she then became the admin secretary where she was not dealing with the public much. It included more of typing out referral letters, taking calls for the doctors, ordering

equipment for the surgery. After 4 years of being an admin secretary she was offered the position of being the assistant manager which she took up. She was the assistant manager for 2 years and now has become the practise manager.

Mrs Bhoja said that as a practise manager her job role included; dealing with patients, handling complaints, making sure that the partners of the surgery filled out insurance papers/ general practitioners reports that the doctors would need to fill out, making sure that the schedule and rota is set for doctors, training new members of staff, dealing with patient queries, set meeting every week with the partners of the surgery and covering staff when they are away, arranging meetings with doctors for reps.

I began my questions asking Mrs Bhoja the level of stress or difficulties she feels in her work environment and those questions are in detailed with answers of Mrs Bhoja as followed. When Mrs Bhoja was asked whether or not she feels that her work life interferes with her personal life in terms of the difficulties she goes through, since she has become the practise manager she reply’s “yes, it does to a large extent because of the amount of hours worked and pressure of getting the work done. At times I have to stay at work till late to get the work done.

As the practise manager I have the responsibility of making sure everything is done on time. ” Her thoughts, feelings whilst answering the question were frustration with the workers and the bosses with giving her more work when they don’t understand how much work we already have. Her behaviour in regards to this situation is getting upset with co-workers who don’t do their jobs, so she does not have enough time to do her job. In result she gets angry with irate customers who don’t realize she is only trying to help. Therefore she gets worried about uncertain future.

With all these emotions, most people don’t think they have anything to do with how they are feeling. They believe their emotions are a result of an external cause, i. e. , the circumstances or situations of their lives or the behavior of others. It looks that way because that’s how you have been taught to think about emotions. Mrs Bhoja said that when other employees of the surgery are off sick or are on holiday it her responsibility to do their work and make sure she finds cover for them and if she cannot find cover for them she has to cover whoever the employee is.

She said this can be hard at times because she has set hours of work every day from 7. 30pm till 5. 30pm she sometimes has to cover people who do the evening shifts which would mean she would have to stay in the surgery until 10pm in the night, working more than 12 hours in a day. The reason why Mrs Bhoja works over contract hours because of the volume of work and the need to meet deadlines, as seniority at the work is declining, so she says she feels that she is working over time by choice.

Mrs Bhoja’s answer reveals that the relationship between feeling overloaded, the hours of one work over contract and level within an organisation is quite complex. However, it does reveals that in the organisation there is a strong sense of overloading particularly for manager (Mrs Bhoja) and, that working contract hours is concentrated among the senior manager. 2. 5 When I asked her why she works she said that she enjoys the working life although recently it has become more stressful.

She said that it keeps her busy and occupied but since taking the role of manager she finds it extremely difficult to do things that she was able to do before being a manager and by the time she gets home she just wants to go straight to bed. It has also been starting to have an effect on her health. 2. 6 Mrs Bhoja has started to find that because of her workload her attention spam has gone down because she is hardly getting time to rest at home. She has started to get severe migraines and has lost a dramatic amount of weight because she doesn’t even get time to eat.

Working long hours is not something that Mrs Bhoja enjoys just as many other managers and they would not do it if they were not pressurised into doing it by the volume of work they have to deal with, the culture norms within the organisation and by the actions of coercive employer. When asked why does she work over time she stated that “I believe as a manager it is the only way to deal with overload work and as it is expected by my manager and sometime I have to do it to sacrifice to get ahead”. 2. 7 Mr Bhoja has been married for 15 years and has 3 children.

She stated that she does not get the time anymore to sit at home with her children or her husband because of working so much and feels very distanced from her family and this has started to depress her. 1. 0 An Analysis of non-work roles: 3. 1 Mrs Bhoja’s non- work role involves being a mother to 3 children’s (two boys aged 12, 8 and one girl aged 5years old). She is been married to her husband for 15 years. When questioned about what responsibility does her and her husband hold forwards their children and household.

Her reply was” my husband drops and picks up children from schools, then it’s my duty to take them to the Islamic centre for religious studies etc, a part from supporting my children with the studies, as a good parent we take them out at times for family outing, however that also depends on whether we have the time to make plans for family outing as it has become hard recently since I have been promoted as a manager role, therefore less time I get to spend at home due to overload of work and long hours of work”.

3. 2 when asked to elaborate this point she also carried on saying that she is highly committed to work and also wanted to make an change now to her career. As being a manager was not as easy as she thought it to be. She now thinks that if she finds a part-time work may reduce the amount of work and the stress from long hours of work and its side effects that are affecting her family life and her interest and hobbies which she cannot afford the time to.

3. 3 The work does influence family functioning and it is also acknowledged that family functioning influences work. It is certain that Mrs Bhoja wants to balance live with involvement in both home and work where neither becomes too dominated. If this is to occur however, Mrs Bhoja feels to change her job role or take on part time job.