Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°2, 214-219
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.226 214
M
ANAGEMENT OF
W
ORKING
P
RESSURE AND
C
OUNSELING
M
ETHODS FOR
M
ENTAL
H
EALTH OF
G
RASS
-R
OOTS
C
IVIL
S
ERVANTS
Xiumei Chen
Abstract
The work of grass-roots civil servants is critical to the long-term stability and development of the entire country. However, many grass-roots civil servants are under great pressure at work, resulting in serious mental health problems. This paper aims to put forward effective management measures to relieve the working pressure and develop counseling methods for their mental health problems. Thus, the working pressure and mental health of grass-roots civil servants were evaluated through a survey in Huaihua, central China’s Hunan Province. The results show that the mental health of grass-roots civil servants is affected by gender, age and grade; the grass-roots civil servants are under huge working pressure and mental pressure, resulting from the difficulty and urgency of work tasks; the grass-roots civil servants, the state, the society, the employers, the families and other organizations must work together to relieve the work pressure of civil servants and improve their mental health. This research provides theoretical basis and methods for alleviating the mental health problems of grass-roots civil servants.
Key words: Grass-roots Civil Servants, Working Pressure, Mental Health, Management Measures, Mental Pressure.
Received: 18-05-19 | Accepted: 12-08-19
INTRODUCTION
Grass-roots civil servants are the important executors of national construction. Under the condition of the increasing influence of social transformation and the intensification of group competition, the public responsibility pressure of grass-roots civil servants has doubled (Reichenberg & Maccabe, 2007). As the group closest to the masses, only have healthy mental quality can grass-roots civil servants bring healthy work behaviors. However, greater work pressure result in great harm to the mental and physical health of grass-roots civil servants (Muller, Jochemsen, Visseren et al., 2013). Currently, existing researches have found that although the working pressure of people in all industries of life shows a significant growth
School of Education, Tangshan Normal University, Tangshan 063000, China.
E-Mail: [email protected]
trend, the working pressure is not regarded as a pure bad thing, and can also be regarded as an incentive. Only when the working pressure exceeds the limit that the human body can bear, will the working pressure turn into a negative impact (Lien, Rikard Haavet, Thoresen et al., 2007; Barker, Cote, Panagiotopoulos et al., 2014). Some researchers have found that some middle and high-rank civil servants in grass-roots civil servants generally have negative emotions and mental health problems, which are mainly related to work stress and long-term energy consumption (Brackette, 2014).
Excessive work stress directly affects people's physiology, behavior, organization and mood, and then shows mental health problems. Strengthening work stress management can reduce the negative impact on people's psychology (Romig & Gruenke, 2011). Mental health counseling is conducive to promoting people's mental health and mental harmony. Mental health counseling is complicated in real
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life. Mental counseling subjects need to be calm, rational and patient in the mental counseling process. They must have sharp observation, be good at expression, meet and distinguish, and have the ability to create and adapt (Leibert, 2006; Giorgi, Leon-Perez, Pignata et al., 2018). At present, there are many researches on the mental health problems of grass-roots civil servants. The negative emotions such as anxiety, tension, anxiety, worry and fear in work stress are all mental health problems. It is necessary to explore ways to ease mental health problems and ways to manage work stress (Rybak, 2013).This paper takes the grass-roots civil servants as the research object, explores the status in working pressure and mental health of the grass-roots civil servants, and gives effective management measures to relieve the working pressure and counseling methods for mental health problems. The research in this paper provides theoretical basis and methods for guiding grass-roots civil servants to cultivate their mental health emotions.
RESEARCH ON WORK PRESSURE
MANAGEMENT OF GRASS-ROOTS CIVIL SERVANTS
Problems and causes in work stress management of grass-roots civil servants
Grass-roots civil servants mostly work in rural towns, communities or relatively remote areas for a long time, and they serve the masses of the people. There are many reasons for the greater mental pressure of grass-roots civil servants, in summary, conflicts between individuals and work, between individuals and units, and between individuals and the environment. That is, the contradictions or conflicts shown by individual civil servants at work bring great work pressure (Tetrick & Winslow, 2015). According to the stimulation theory of working pressure, when the working pressure exceeds the normal pressure that the human body can bear, the working pressure will have a negative impact on the individual and will cause interference and destructiveness to the mental balance of the human body (Edwards & Burnard, 2003). Presently, there are many models related to work pressure, mostly used are people-environment matching model, conflict-theory model and work requirement-work decision freedom model (Edwards & Beale, 2011) etc. This paper uses the theory of five types of stressors to analyze the work pressure of
grass-roots civil servants. The five types of stressors include the characteristics of grass-roots work, the characteristics of ethnic minorities, difficulties in interpersonal communication, organizational and operational pressures, and the pressure of vocational perspective etc. This paper conduct investigation and research on the working pressure of grass-roots civil servants in Huaihua City, Hunan Province. Most of the civil servants invested are section member and section-level cadres. Figure 1 shows the results of the current work pressure of grass-roots civil servants. In Figure 1, It can be clearly seen that the greatest work pressure of grass-roots civil servants comes from the pressure of grass-roots work characteristics and vocational perspective. The causes of work pressure are the nature of work and its own characteristics.
Figure 1
.
Grass-roots civil servants work
pressure status quo results
Countermeasures and suggestions on work stress management of grass-roots civil servants
With the rapid development of society, pressure management is applied to fields such as psychology, management and organizational behavior (Hatta, 2010) with an increasing number. It is necessary for civil servants themselves, the state, society, units, families and other organizations to work together to relieve the work pressure of civil servants, which aims to improve the work level of grass-roots civil servants and the satisfaction of the masses. Fig. 2 shows the countermeasures of working stress management of grass-roots civil servants. Firstly, from the perspective of civil servants themselves, they should learn to control and manage their own stress, open themselves up
MANAGEMENT OF WORKING PRESSURE AND COUNSELING METHODS FOR MENTAL HEALTH OF GRASS-ROOTS CIVIL SERVANTS 216
and increase their adaptability to the grass-roots work environment. Secondly, they should arrange their work reasonably so as to combine work with rest. Secondly, from the perspective of society, the nation should rationalize the organizational structure and standardize the organization and operation of civil servants, to carry out on-demand training for grass-roots public affairs, to improve the skills of civil servants themselves, to achieve the matching of positions and the implementation of tasks in the distribution of work, and to achieve fairness and openness in everything and a harmonious internal atmosphere in the organization. Finally, from the perspective of the unit, leaders of the unit should give full play to the role of group organization, create good interpersonal relationships, give full play to the role of unit trade unions, fully protect the interests of groups, and give full play to the role of non-governmental organizations to help grass-roots civil servants create good interpersonal relationships and working environment.
Figure 2
.
Countermeasures of working
pressure management of grass-roots civil
servants
Countermeasures of working pressure
management of grassroots civil servants
Self-stress management
Rationalize organizational structure
and standardize organizational operation
Give full play to the role of group organization
and build good interpersonal relationship
Develop oneself, strengthen to basic-level environment adaptability
Arrange your work reasonably and combine work with rest
On demand training to improve skills
Energy bit matching, task implementation
Fair and open, harmonious atmosphere
Give play to the role of trade unions and protect the interests of organizations
Play the role of non-governmental organizations
Help grassroots civil servants build good interpersonal relationship
RESEARCH ON THE MENTAL HEALTH OF GRASS-ROOTS CIVIL SERVANTS
Investigation and Analysis on mental health of grass-roots civil servants
Self-control ability demonstrated by mental health can further improve self-mental adjustment in complex social environment changes and maintain a stable and good attitude in mental situation. At present, the standard for evaluating mental health is the Mental Health Scaling Method. The dimensionality indexes of mental health problems include somatization,
compulsion, interpersonal relationship, depression, anxiety, hostility, psychosis and paranoia, etc. The research subjects of this paper are all grass-roots civil servants from Huaihua City, Hunan Province. Table 1 is the basic data statistics of grass-roots civil servants in investigation. There are 134 grass-roots civil servants in total were invested. Civil servants come from different units or departments, mainly exploring the impact of gender, age and grade of civil servants on mental health. In this paper, the questionnaire method and statistical method are used in the investigation of this paper. The index of each dimension is 100 points. The higher the score, the more serious the mental health problem.
Table 1.
Survey basic statistics of
grass-roots civil servants
Type Classification Quantity Percentage
Gender Male 97 72.39%
Female 37 27.61%
Civil service
age
25-35 33 24.63%
36-45 58 43.28%
>45 43 32.09%
Civil service
rank
Section 82 61.19% Section chief 41 30.60% Director 11 8.21%
Figure 3
.
The influence of gender factors on
mental health problems of grass-roots civil
servants
76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92
Psychosis
Average
sc
ore
Male Female
Somatization
Obsessive-compulsive symptoms
Interpersonal sensitivity
Depression Anxiety Hostility Paranoia
Figure. 3 shows the influence of sex factor on the mental health problems of grass-roots civil servants, it can be clearly seen that the mental
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health problems of male grass-roots civil servants are significantly higher than that of female civil servants. Scores of female civil servants in psychotic and paranoid dimensions are higher than that of male civil servants and the other mental health dimensions are all higher than that of female civil servants. In hostile dimensions, the scores of male civil servants are significantly higher than that of female civil servants, this is mainly related to the greater demand for promotion of male grass-roots civil servants, which results in greater mental pressure. Figure. 4 shows the influence of age factor on the mental health problems of grass-roots civil servants, it can be clearly seen that with the growth of the age of civil servants, the scores of various dimensions of mental health increase in addition to the compulsive and psychotic dimensions, which indicates that with the growth of the age of civil servants, the more serious the problems of mental health exist. Figure. 5 shows the influence of grade factors on the mental health problems of grass-roots civil servants, it can be clearly seen that with the increase of grade of civil servants, the scores of various dimensions of mental health increase. Moreover, the mental health problems of civil servants at the department level are apparently higher than those of civil servants at the section level, which are mainly related to the work pressure they bear.
Action mechanism of mental health
counseling
Taking the maintenance of mental health as the basic goal and the mental positivity development and autonomous growth of grass-roots civil servants as the center, mental health counseling is considered to be able to promote the all-round and healthy development of people. Mental health counseling should establish correct son world, life and values, and fully mobilize the subjective initiative of grass-roots civil servants on the basis of mutual equality. Fig. 6 shows the action mechanism of mental health counseling. from the perspective of psychology, the action mechanism of mental health counseling can be divided into two types: individual action mechanism and social action mechanism, of which the individual action mechanism includes emotional catharsis, mental repair, cognitive promotion, value guidance and behavior adjustment. The social action mechanism includes the collection and analysis
of social public sentiments, the catharsis and early warning of social emotions, and the adjustment and balance of social mentality.
Figure 4
.
The influence of gender factors on
mental health problems of grass-roots civil
servants
76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94
Average
sc
ore
25-35 36-45 >45
Somatization Obsessive-compulsive symptoms
Interpersonal sensitivity
Depression Anxiety Hostility Paranoia Psychosis
Figure 5
.
The influence of civil servant level
factors on mental health problems of
grass-roots civil servants
70 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 92 94 96 98 100
Average
sc
ore
Section Section chief Director
Somatization Obsessive-compulsive symptoms
Interpersonal sensitivity
Depression Anxiety Hostility Paranoia Psychosis
Figure 6
.
The action mechanism of mental
health counseling
Individual action mechanism of mental
health counseling
The social mechanism of mental health counseling
Emotional catharsis
Psychological mastery
Cognitive promotion
Value orientation
Personality adaption
Collection and analysis of social public opinion
Catharsis and early warning of social emotions
Adjustment and balance of social mentality The mechanism of
mental health counseling
MANAGEMENT OF WORKING PRESSURE AND COUNSELING METHODS FOR MENTAL HEALTH OF GRASS-ROOTS CIVIL SERVANTS 218
Methods and countermeasures for mental health counseling
This paper studies the status of mental health of grass-roots civil servants, and through investigation, it is found that there are many factors that affect the mental health of grass-roots civil servants. Firstly, the particularity of living environment, many grass-roots civil servants have difficulty in communication with the masses; there exists difficulty in policy implementation, which virtually increases the working difficulty of grass-roots civil servants. Furthermore, the particularity of the work determines its harsh working environment, especially in the areas where the country is currently struggling to shake off poverty, and the work tasks are urgent, bring great mental pressure to grass-roots civil servants. Through investigation and research, it is also found that the grass-roots civil servants lack the health care and fitness idea, the channels of mental counseling and counseling mechanism, therefore, excessive work pressure cannot be relieved, resulting in more and more serious mental health problems.
Figure 7
.
Methods and countermeasures of
mental health counseling
Mental health problem counseling
methods
Strengthen the guidance of mental health of grass-roots public servants
Local governments improve mental health guarantee mechanism
The positive effect of family on mental health
Pay attention to the psychological evaluation of civil servants at the grassroots level
Establishment of psychological counseling and treatment institutions
Improve the emergency adjustment mechanism of mental health
Improve recruitment and assessment management mechanism
Create a harmonious working environment
Strengthen one's ability of psychological adjustment
Keep healthy living habits
Increase time with family
Effective counseling methods for mental health and countermeasures are very helpful to the mental health of grass-roots civil servants. Fig. 7 shows the methods and countermeasures of mental health counseling, which need to be carried out from three aspects: individual civil servants, government and family. Firstly, strengthen the guidance on the mental health of grass-roots civil servants, attach importance to the mental evaluation of civil servants, set up mental counseling and treatment institutions and perfect the emergency adjustment
mechanism of mental health. Secondly, the local government should also improve the mental health protection mechanism, recruit grass-roots civil servants with strong pressure resistance through improving the recruitment and assessment management mechanism, and create a harmonious working environment for civil servants. Finally, give full play to the family's positive role in mental health, strengthen civil servants' mental adjustment ability, maintain healthy living habits, and increase the time spent with family members.
CONCLUSION
This paper takes the grass-roots civil servants as the research object, explores the status in working pressure and mental health of the grass-roots civil servants, and gives effective management measures to relieve the working pressure and counseling methods for mental health problems. The specific conclusions are as follows:
(1) The greatest working pressure of grass-roots civil servants comes from the characteristics of grass-roots work and the pressure of career prospects. It is the nature of work and its own characteristics that causes working pressure.
(2) The mental health problems of male grass-roots civil servants are significantly higher
than that of females. What’s more, the older or
higher the rank of civil servants, the more serious the mental health problems of grass-roots civil servants are, which are mainly related to the work pressure they bear.
(3) It is necessary for civil servants themselves, the state, society, units, families and other organizations to work together to relieve the work pressure of civil servants and improve their mental health problems. which is of great significance to the improvement of the work at the grass-roots level in the country.
Acknowledgement
Social science found project of Hebei province (HB18JY056); Social science development research project of Hebei province (201803040160); Human resources and social security in Hebei province (JRSHZ-2018-08022).
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