Counseling in Corporate Industry-Workplace

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NAME OF GROUP MEMBERS

MOHD UZAIR BIN YAHYA PC76984

LEE CHEE WEI PC76950

JOSEPH LAU CHIH HIN PC76972

HAMDI BIN ADAM PC76948

MOHD SAHRUL BIN HATTA PC76954

HAIRUL HAQIM BIN HITAM PC76955

MOHD NOOR FIZUAN BIN MOHD SOHIB PC76962

LECTURERS NAME: PN. HUSNI BINTI MOHD RADZI

SUBMISSION DATE: 29TH OF AUGUST 2008


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CONTENT

TITLE PAGE

1. INTRODUCTION 1

a. What is counseling?

b. What is counseling in corporate industry?

c. What is workplace counseling?

2. HISTORY OF WORKPLACE COUNSELING 2

3. PROBLEMS IN WORKPLACE 4

4. WHY WORKPLACE COUNSELING? 6

5. MODELS OF WORKPLACE COUNSELING 7

6. CRITICISM OF WORKPLACE COUNSELING 12

7. CONCLUSION & REFERENCES 14


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INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, counseling has been applied widely in corporate industry. One of the most

applied counseling is workplace counseling. It is a system that helps to improve the smoothness

& productivity of a corporate industry. What is workplace counseling?

What is counseling?

Counseling is a service provided to help people in a systematic way according to

psychological concept. It involves the verbal and non-verbal communication between a helper

(counselor) and the person who needs help (client). Counseling is proven as an effective way to

facilitate and solve psychological issues.

What is counseling in corporate industry?

Counseling in corporate industry is a specialized counseling practice which is used in a

corporate industry. It consists of a variety of counseling practice such as organizational

counseling, vocational counseling, workplace counseling and others.

The main purpose of counseling practice in a corporate industry is that it is a part of

workers welfare and to enhance the productivity of the industry.

What is workplace counseling?

Workplace counseling is a counseling practice that is held in a corporate industry. It is

conducted to help workers in a corporate industry by solving their problems in their workplace.

Workplace counseling usually deals with workers who have problems in their workplace.

Some of them may be referred by the employer while some of them may come willingly for the

counseling session.

Big corporate industry usually have employed counselor in their human resource unit so

that the counseling session can be done within the company itself, but some corporate industry

send their workers to private counseling practice that specializes in workplace counseling.

Workplace counseling consists of many modules according to the clients problems. The

modules of counseling are usually done in a quick way. This is to ensure that the productivity of

the company will not be affected.


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HISTORY OF WORKPLACE COUNSELING

If modern counseling started during the Reformation Era in 1900 then when did workplace

counseling started? Counseling in the workplace actually has existed about the same time in the

early 1990s although it is uses a much different format than the ones we use today.In brief, there are three stages or eras in the history of corporate counseling. The three eras are:

1. Human Relationship Era

2. The Alcohol Awareness Era

3. Internal and External Counseling Provision Era

(Michael Carroll 1996)

THE HUMAN RELATIONSHIP ERA (1900s-1940s)

Where did it started? It began in the US and is intertwined with the arrival in industry of

medical, psychiatric and social work provision (Michael Carroll 1996). The first era in employee

COUNSELING emphasizes on human resources and human relations.

1913- By this year, there were about 2000 welfare workers in the industry (Carter, 1977)

1914- First counseling program in industry was initiated by the Ford Motor Company

1920- A survey commissioned by the Engineering Foundation of New York found out that 62

percent of employees where discharged sue t social problems than occupational incompetence.

1922- Metropolitan Life Insurance employed full time psychiatrists.

1924- R.H. Macey employed full time psychiatrists. Anderson, the first psychiatrist for Macey

provided the first book connecting psychiatry with industry entitledPsychiatry and Industry

(McLean et al., 1985)

1948- It was only until this year the first training program in occupational psychiatry was

introduced. (McLean et al., 1985)

THE ALCOHOL AWARENESS ERA(1940s-1960s)

What happened during this era?


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During this era a new phase of interest emerged directed at employee health and growth.

However, alcohol concerns pretty much dominated much of the counseling provision from this

stage until the 1960s.

The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism introduced the term EAP (Employee

Assistance Program) as a way of widening the counseling provision to include other than

alcohol.

During this era, a whole range of people became involved with employees: ex-alcoholics,

psychiatrists, social workers, psychologists and personal officers. Counseling covers a variety of

approaches from job testing to alcoholism and family problems.

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL COUNSELING PROVISION ERA

What happened during this era?

The third phase in employee counseling move beyond dealing solely on alcohol issues. Still with

an emphasis on drink and drunk problems, corporate counseling move swiftly to encompass a

range of services, legal and financial help, stress management, telephone counseling and face-to-

face counseling. The numbers of EAPs grew quickly and were set up as either:

1. Internal services as a part of the organization

2. External Services- a service specializing in providing EAPs to a number of organizations

Apart from internal and external EAPs, in-house counselors, counselors hired by companies to

work with their staff, began during this era.

TRADITIONAL AND CONTEMPORARY EAPs

What is the difference between corporate counseling now and in the past?

Traditional Programs Contemporary ProgramsEmphasis on alcoholism Broader approach: Any issue appropriate for

serviceProblems identified at late stage of

development

Problems identified at earlier stage of

development

Services offered by medical and alcoholism

specialist

Services offered by counselors

Focus on employees with work performance Focus on work and non-work related problems


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problems e.g. family problems

PROBLEMS IN WORKPLACE.

Nowadays, there is a lot of pressure at our workplaces. This leads to stress which then leads to

diseases and health complications such as hypertension, high blood pressure, asthma, stroke and

heart attacks. Stress also cause employers and employees to resort to negative activities to

release their daily tension such as smoking, taking drugs and alcohol. Among problems that arise

at workplace include:

Work-Related Problems Non-work Related Problemsa) Low motivation a) Family problems

b) Demanding Employer b) Addiction e.g. alcohol, drugs

c) Peer pressure c) Personal problems

d) Sexual harassment d) Financial problems

e) Low pay e) Health problems

Problems at workplace will result low productivity, financial cost and slow growth. How can we

tackle these problems? This is where corporate counseling comes in.


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SURVEY

1. Do workers think counseling is important?

2. Do workers think that counseling helps them in their working life?


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WHY WORKPLACE COUNSELING?


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Why do employers and large organizations are turning to corporate

counseling?


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Overall, workplace counseling is pivotal to ensure that a company is able to succeed.

MODELS OF WORKPLACE COUNSELING

Counseling-orientation models


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These models are characterized by its use of a counseling approach as the key

factor in what is offered to employee client. Counselors, by and large, subscribe to

or are affiliated to, and trained in, a particular therapeutic approach which they

use when working with organizational clients. Subscribing to a particular

counseling orientation normally means accepting a specific view of human nature

and an explanation of why individuals behave the way they do. This, in turn, leads

logically to an assessment congruent with the counseling approach and

interventions designed to bring about change. However, their main interest is still

focused almost exclusively on individuals and the organizational dimensions of

counseling work are largely ignored.

Brief-therapy models

Brief therapy differs from other schools of therapy in that it emphasizes a focus

on a specific problem and direct intervention. In this model, the therapists take

responsibility for working more proactively with the clients in order to treat

clinical and subjective conditions faster. It also emphasizes precise observation,

utilization of natural resources, and temporary suspension of disbelief to consider

new perspectives and multiple viewpoints.

Rather than the formal analysis of historical causes of distress, the primary

approach of brief therapy is to help the client to view the present from a wider

context and to utilize more functional understandings (not necessarily at a

conscious level). By becoming aware of these new understandings, successful

clients will de facto undergo spontaneous and generative change.

Problem-focused models
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptual_positionshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousnesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptual_positionshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness


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These models of counseling see the counselors role as helping individuals to

work with the immediate problems they bring. Whereas these problems may not

be entirely worked-based, counseling confines itself to working with the

immediate issue. One model of this is contained in a training manual for

counselors in the workplace; formulate problem, generate solution, and action

plan. Problems-focused counseling emerges for a number of reasons: the limited

amount of time counselors can provide to clients, the number of counselors

available to service a company, the theoretical background from which counselors

emerge, and organizational constraints (e.g.: finance). However, problem-solving

approaches to counseling are a fairly well-established perspective in their own

right and like brief therapy will no doubt play a large part in workplace

counseling.

Work-orientated model

Work-orientated models of counseling pinpoint the immediate problem as a

workplace issue and work with it. They do not spend time on the underlying areas

of why problems exist, nor are they interested in problems or issues that are not

related to the workplace. Their aim is to facilitate the individual to overcome

workplace problems and move back to work as quickly as possible. This is anattractive counseling model for managers who want value for money and want to

think that time spent in counseling is for the welfare of the organization through

the individual. However, it is not always easy, in practice, to differentiate between

what is the workplace problem and what is a personal problem not related to

work.

Manager-based models


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Though not widespread, there is vulnerability in some organizations to view

managers as quasi-counselors for their staff. With the introduction of counseling

training for personnel officers, human resource officers, managers and a host of

other individuals in industry and public services, there is the tendency for people

to combine a number of roles with employees this gives rise to innumerable

problems. It is a small wonder that legislation in the United States of America

forbids managers to enter into counseling with their subordinates. On the other

hand, training in counseling skills for managers helps them to recognize signs of

disturbance in employees and no doubt provides valuable aids in their managerial

and personal roles according to Martin (1994). However, Nixon and Carroll

(1994) have argued strongly against managers taking on a formal counseling role.

Not only does it cross boundaries, in their view, but it puts employees in an

impossible situation: asking on one hand, that they share personal issues with

their manager, and on the other hand, that they be ready for appraisal their careers

with the same manager.

Externally based models

Externally based models of counseling are the counseling services brought in, and

bought in, from outside the organization. It is usually in the form of an Employee

Assistant Program (EAP) and they are administered and organized from outside.

The format used can be any of the above models, or even mixtures of them. One

of the strengths of external counseling services is that it can offer clear

confidentiality and training as well as counseling. It also provides a range of

services and a number of counselors with different skills and backgrounds.

However, it also brings along other unwanted problems. The counselors may not

be flexible in what they offer and may not have had experience of workplace

counseling. Besides, they may not adapt easily to individual companies and may

also not understand the culture of the organization.


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There are several formats of external counseling provision used by organizations:

some employ established EAPs, others set up an internal EAP while others opt for

employing individuals to work on a session basis with employees. Full-service

programs, limited utilization programs and information and referral-only

programs are the examples of EAP programs.

Internally based models

In-house counseling provision is the norm in a number of companies. A part-time

or full-time counselor, or a team of counselors, is employed to work with

employees. The counseling service can be part of an already-existing department

or an independent unit in its own right. The strength of internal counseling

services is that the counselors are in touch with the culture of the company. Thus,

they can adapt counseling work to organizational needs and they have flexibility

to adapt to client needs. This can build up great credibility for the counseling

service. However, one of the weaknesses is that the counselor can be more

subjective in his or her assessments and he or she may get involved in politics of

the organization. It is also more difficult to maintain confidentiality. In-house

counseling provision can be set up in a variety of ways: an in-house EAP, with ateam of counselors, with an individual counselor, as within a particular

department, as outside all departments, as part-time or full-time.


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Welfare-based models

Welfare-based models of counseling combine a number of roles with employees,

one of which is counseling. Welfare officers have traditionally been employed in

a number of organizations to fulfill several tasks depending on client needs:

befriending, information-giving, advocate, home-visiting during sickness, giving

legal and financial advice, advising on a range of topics and counseling. Welfare-

based models of counseling have been the predecessors of counseling provision in

the workplace. Such models were more social work based, seeing counseling as

one of many roles enacted with employees. Their strength is their ability to

provide a range of interventions, one of which may be counseling.

Organizational-change models

Counseling which is targeted on the organization as a whole though is mainly

implemented by working with individuals and groups. Counseling in

organizational settings is directly valuable to the individual and indirectly

beneficial to the organization. Perhaps beginning to integrate counseling more

specifically into organizational growth, development and transition would be a

valuable asset to organizations.


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CRITICISM OF WORKPLACE COUNSELING

From the Newtons criticize about the current theories of stress and the use of such provision as

individual counseling as a method of managing, he criticizes workplace counseling such as:

Individualizes problems such as stress will makes someone become in isolation and not

interested in politic. When the counseling was introduced in 1936, Newton looks to the

history of EAPs where the Hawthorne Works as a prime example of employee problems

becoming individualized and made the responsibility of the individual.

The way of managing emotions where it could be view as a method of organizational

social control to individual client which emotion are permitted and which not within the

organization.

Newton summarizes:

Rather than expressing problems and grievance through a collective channel, through

stress management practices they become individualized, a personal problems rather than one

which be share by a large number of employees (1995:146)

Allied to the criticism, further indictment counseling in the workplace is that it becomes a tool of

management.

In some organization, there is great anxiety that going for counseling will be seen as a

weakness that will take its roll on career and promotion.


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There is some validity in the criticism that counseling help individual deal with emotion

that needs advice to be more appropriately directed outwards towards the injustice.

Counseling is not integrated into the organization but remains on the outside. This can

happen all too easily in certain kinds of companies which relegated counseling to the

periphery of the organization.

If inadequate introduced, the counseling service itself can become dysfunctional.

On the other hand, over-involvement of the organization in its counseling service can

lead it to become a form of social control.

Wilensky and Wilensky were critique the Western Electrics counseling service in 1951,

The company has developed a network of lower-level functionaries to drain off

hostility and has integrated into its structure those forces which represent a potential

challenge to its control over the worker(1951:280)

The other criticisms from the other person about the counseling of the workplace:

Trying to teach employeesto cope with stressful working conditions, proponents of this

approach can be seen to be blaming the victim of poor communicationchannels,

inadequate training, autocratic management stylesand other common sources of

workplace stress.

The second criticismoften directed at the individual-oriented approach is that strategies

aimed at helping people to cope with stressful working conditions, without addressing

those conditions, contravene the occupationalhealth and safety legislation that exists in

many industrializedcountries. In the UK,for example, employers must monitor both

physical and psychosocialhazards and, as a result, a failure to address adverse working

conditions, so far as is reasonably practical, is a breach ofthat legislation.


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The final majorcriticism directed at the worker-oriented stress preventionstrategies is

that they often fail to achieve any significanthealth and or productivity outcomes.

It is important to take the criticisms of workplace counseling seriously and to isolate the

underlying philosophies that drive the implementation of counseling services. It is nave to see

automatically as of value to employees .Organization are certainly beyond introduction

counseling to control their employees above making organization problem the responsibility of

individual employees.

CONCLUSION

Workplace counseling is proven to be effective in handling workers psychological

problems in their workplace. The usage of counseling in corporate industry must always be

revised and improved, and the criticism on it must not be taken lightly for the better of both

corporate industry and their employees.

REFERENCES

1. Workplace Counselingby Michael Carroll, SAGE Publications (1996)


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2. An Introduction To Counselingby John McLeod , Open University Press (1998)

3. Counseling At The Workplace by Norman C. Hill, McGraw-Hill Book Company (1981)

4. Psychology Applied To Workby Paul M. Muchinsky, Thomson Wadsworth (2003)

5. Introduction To Industrial / Organizational Psychology by Ronald E. Riggio, Prentice

Hall (2000)

Counseling in Corporate Industry-Workplace

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