Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°2, 717-723
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.301 717
P
REDICTION AND
I
NTERVENTION
M
ETHODS FOR
H
UMAN
R
ESOURCE
M
ANAGEMENT TO
C
OMBAT
P
SYCHOLOGICAL
C
RISIS
Lijie Lin*, Jingxia Ji
Abstract
The psychological crisis of employees exerts a significant negative impact on the development of enterprises. This paper aims to design effective ways for human resource management of enterprises to predict and intervene in psychological crisis. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was carried out among employees in several enterprises of Nanjing, China. The subjects are of different ages, genders, and academic backgrounds. Through the analysis on the survey data, the author summed up the situation and problems of human resource management in enterprise, identified the common patterns of psychological crisis in human resource management, and suggested solving the crisis through educational intervention and corrective intervention. The results show that the in the psychological crisis of human resource management is mainly intervened through education; conversation is adopted to solve the crisis in 46.5% of all enterprises; the strength of corrective and organization interventions must be strengthened; the psychological guidance through educational intervention and corrective intervention enabled employees to acquire new ideas and methods. The research results lay a solid foundation for human resource management to combat against the psychological crisis.
Key words: Human Resource Management, Psychological Crisis, Crisis Prediction, Crisis Intervention.
Received: 23-02-19 | Accepted: 31-07-19
INTRODUCTION
With the advancement of social development and economic globalization, employees of enterprises are also faced with various pressures and psychological problems. If these problems cannot be effectively dealt with, it is not conducive to the long-term development of enterprises, and may also lead to the loss of talents (Binyamin & Carmeli, 2010; Katou, 2015). The survey results showed that the primary factor that hinders the development of enterprises and causes the enterprises to be at different levels of crisis state is the human resource crisis (Katou, 2017; Iris, Timothy, Jillian et al., 2017; Environmental, 2012). The human
Yantai University of Economics and Management, Yantai 264005, China.
E-Mail: linlijiezh@126.com
resources crisis is mainly embodied by the floating of grass-root employees and the job-hopping or resignation of talents at the management level. The loss of talents will have a serious impact on the long-term development and operation of the company (Seidu, 2012; Boon, Belschak, Hartog et al., 2014; Guzzo & Noonan, 1994). Therefore, the psychological crisis prediction and intervention of enterprise human resource management employees need to attract the attention of enterprises.
Research showed that the psychological status of enterprise employees and the loyalty to enterprises were influenced to a large extent by
corporate culture education, personal
development prospects and corporate care for employees (Srivastava & Dhar, 2016; Farndale Horak, Phillips et al., 2019). The existing research had carried out more research on the human resource crisis of the enterprises and the company's development model, but it had not
LIJIE LIN,JINGXIA JI 718
clearly revealed the psychological crisis
prediction mechanism in the enterprise human resource management, and had not proposed the measures to effectively prevent the company employees from hopping and retain the higher level technical talent (Meyer & Dunphy, 2016;
Subramony, 2006; Guest, 2010). The
psychological crisis prediction and intervention were performed from the perspective of human resource management and corporate crisis early warning system was established, which was a
necessary measure for the long-term
development of the company (Thite, 2012; Keebleramsay & Armitage, 2010; Katou & Budhwar, 2012).
Based on the above problems and needs, this paper investigated and summarized the situation and problems of human resource management in China's enterprises, and analyzed the common patterns of psychological crisis of enterprise employees by taking enterprise employees as the investigation objects and taking the form of questionnaires. The specific ways of employee psychological intervention were formulated, and the effects of prediction and intervention were analyzed. This study provided a theoretical basis for human resource management and crisis processing.
PSYCHOLOGICAL CRISIS RELATED THEORY
Concept of psychological crisis
Psychological crisis means that in the face of emergencies or important events, individuals
cannot evade, while their psychological
adjustment ability can not bear the problem, resulting in psychological imbalances. When individuals encounter unsolvable crises and difficulties, they will lead to functional disorders in understanding, emotions, and behavior. The psychological crisis mainly includes four aspects. The individual suffers from major internal and external stimuli; the litigant can't deal with the situation he or she faces, can't deal with the predicament in a conventional way, and feels helpless; the litigant feels a serious threat, loss and despair. It is mainly that if the litigant's perception of the environment and self can't be relieved in time, the litigant will have the sense of a huge imbalance and have to face a collapse state; the imbalance of the litigant's own psychological system.
Due to different family backgrounds, cultural educations, and individual experiences of the
individuals, psychological crisis does not occur
absolutely. Everyone’s mental state and
response to the crisis are varied, and the occurrence of crisis is also random and special. From the perspective of crisis, it can be divided into three categories: First, developmental crisis appears in the individual's growth or adaptation. Abnormal reaction caused by dramatic changes in the environment or himself/herself may occur to the individuals. All developmental crises, such as employment crisis and promotion crisis that the practitioner may encounter belong to normal phenomena; second, situational crises are mainly sudden events which individuals cannot predict and control, such as interpersonal relation conflicts, violent crimes, nature disasters, etc., are random, strong, shocking, and catastrophic for individuals; third, existential crises are mainly internal anxiety and conflicts that arise when individuals face with important issues in life, such as values of freedom, death, self-awareness, and the outlook on life, the removal of these crises has a far-reaching influence on individuals who set up values and lives.
The psychological crisis is characterized by universality and particularity, and may occur to each individual. In the case of crisis, due to individual differences, various situations appear in the handling of the crisis. The psychological crisis is complex, and it generally does not have certain rules. The emergence of psychological crisis is a huge test of the coping ability of individuals. The ability to cope with crisis depends more on the individual's understanding of life, experience and events. The psychological crisis lacks rapid solution, although individuals attempt to find a quick solution in the face of a crisis, but they merely mitigate the appearance and could not eliminate the crisis from the roots.
Psychological crisis prediction and intervention
The intervention in psychological crisis is evolved from short-term treatment mainly through medical emergency and persuasion, using certain measures to improve and intervene in the crisis, solve the dilemma and problems faced by the litigants, and help them restore their psychological balance and motivation. Eventually the mental state returns to a normal level. The intervention in the crisis is mainly to solve the problem, rather than reinventing the personality. Crisis intervention is a kind of
short-PREDICTION AND INTERVENTION METHODS FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TO COMBAT PSYCHOLOGICAL CRISIS 719
term psychological treatment, mainly including listening treatment and supportive treatment. Psychological intervention is also the best way to treat psychological stress.
At the beginning of the crisis, the litigants are most likely to accept help and change the original idea. If the intervention is not timely, the litigants may go astray, or a more serious crisis will occur. The intervention in the crisis can provide an opportunity for the individual to grow and change. The common intervention approach includes a balance mode, a social transformation mode, and a cognitive mode, etc. The balance mode is mainly applied in the situation of psychological imbalance. The method of dealing with or coping with the problem can not meet the needs of the litigants. Importance should be attached to emotional appeasement. To enable them to get good emotions, this method is suitable for early intervention.
The cognitive mode is mainly applied to the litigants whose mentality is gradually stabilized. The damage to psychology by the crisis is mainly the wrong thought of the litigants to cope with the crisis, and the lack of cognition of the crisis. The crisis is not caused by the litigants
themselves, they have to re-recognize
themselves, re-establish self-confidence, and gain a new way of thinking that can rationally judge the crisis and enable the litigants to
control their emotions. The social
transformation analyzes mainly from the inside and outside of the litigants, and understands people around the litigants in addition to the litigants themselves. The intervention in crisis is to combine the individual's adaptation with social resources, so that the litigants can have more choices to promote individual recovery and establish a better psychological balance.
RESEARCH ON THE PREDICTION AND INTERVENTION IN EMPLOYEE PSYCHOLOGICAL CRISIS BY ENTERPRISE HUMAN RESOURCES
Investigation of the current situation of occupational psychological crisis
This paper adopted questionnaires to conduct a survey on the enterprises in Nanjing, analyzed the common ways of psychological crisis of employees, formulated specific ways of psychological intervention in employees, and analyzed the effects of prediction and intervention. The objects extracted for this paper were enterprise employees of Nanjing and
were selected according to different ages, genders, and academic background. 300 questionnaires were distributed and 286 questionnaires were collected, including 276 valid questionnaires with an effective rate of 92%. The basic information of the objects in the survey was shown in Table 1 and Figure 1. It can be seen that the ratio of male to female in this survey was close to 1:1, and the distribution of age was not balanced. This has a certain relationship with rejuvenation in all walks of life. As to education background, the subject of this
survey has the largest number of
undergraduates, accounting for 76.2%.
Table 1.
Basic information of research objects
Category Number Proportion
Gender Male 143 51.81%
Female 133 48.19%
Age
20-29 127 46.01%
30-39 85 30.80%
40-49 41 14.86%
Over 50 23 8.33%
Education
Junior College 53 19.20%
Undergraduate 121 43.84%
Graduate
student 68 24.64%
Doctor 34 12.32%
Rank
The basic level 193 69.93%
Backbone 48 17.39%
Senior
executive 35 12.68%
Figure 1
.
Number of men and women of all
ages
0 20 40 60 80
62
42 25
14 65
43
16 9 30-39
N
u
m
b
e
r
Male Female
20-29 40-49 Over50
These people were tested on the SCL-90 scale. The scale consisted of 90 items, 10 factors, including human feelings, thoughts, behavior, interpersonal relationships, etc., and mainly to accurately reflect the subjects' self-conscious
LIJIE LIN,JINGXIA JI 720
Table 2.
Test results of SCL-90
Project Staff Domestic norm t P
Anxious 0.42±0.51 0.47±0.42 -2.021 0.184
Depressed 0.41±0.52 0.45±0.52 -1.025 0.324
Hostile 0.53±0.51 0.47±0.52 -2.423 ＜0.05
Force 0.37±0.41 0.38±0.41 -1.314 0.271
Mental disease 0.46±0.52 0.47±0.51 -2.147 ＜0.05
Sleep 0.32±0.45 0.29±0.42 -0.573 0.328
Body 0.42±0.43 0.46±0.43 3.161 ＜0.01
Paranoia 0.41±0.52 0.45±0.53 -3.532 ＜0.01
Interpersonal relationship 0.39±0.45 0.35±0.42 -8.753 ＜0.01
Terror 0.23±0.34 0.24±0.43 0.863 0.452
symptoms. It is one of the most frequently used measurement tables measuring mental health. The statistical results were compared with domestic norms, and the statistical results were descriptively analyzed. The results were shown in Table 2.
It can be seen from Table 2 that employees scored significantly higher in terms of sleep, hostility and interpersonal relationship as compared with the domestic norm. Sleep mainly reflected difficulty in falling asleep, dreaminess at night and insufficient sleep, etc. Hostility mainly referred to thought, emotion and the feelings of boredom, red-face argument, the inability to control their own temper, etc. The interpersonal relationship mainly meant the tension between colleagues, the superior and subordinates, or difficulty in getting along with each other. The purpose of this survey was to grasp the psychological state of sports and then carried out targeted interventions. Therefore, the intervention in the psychological crisis of employees mainly involved three aspects: sleep, hostility and interpersonal relationship.
Methods and effects of human resources psychological intervention
Questionnaire survey on psychological crisis intervention of these 276 employees was carried out. Figure 2 showed the survey results of employees' psychological crisis. It can be seen that the interpersonal relationship accounted for 25.6% of the factors leading to employee psychological crisis, and promotion and salary increase accounted for 27.5%. The two proportions are close, the highest proportion was work capacity, reaching 34.2%, indicating that employees faced a variety of psychological crisis in the enterprise, and the employees needed help.
Figure 2
.
Causes of psychological crisis
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
0.256
0.342
0.275
0.127
P
ro
p
o
rt
io
n
（
%
）
Other Working
ability
Relationship Appreciation
Figure 3
.
The way of psychological crisis
intervention
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
0.756
0.094
0.053 0.097
P
ro
p
o
rt
io
n
（
%
）
Education Rectify Organization Other
The psychological crisis prediction and intervention methods adopted by enterprise human resources were shown in Figure 3. It can be seen that the proportion of interventions in the psychological crisis through education was 75.6%, and the proportion of other methods was relatively small. The education intervention was mainly through training and panel discussion.
PREDICTION AND INTERVENTION METHODS FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TO COMBAT PSYCHOLOGICAL CRISIS 721
corrections for employees such as psychological
counseling and behavioral therapy.
Organizational intervention was guided by government policies, such as the establishment of a mental health education center, so that employees can understand their mental health in advance and forecast and intervened in advance. The results of this survey showed that the way of corrected interventions and organizational interventions by human resources needed to be strengthened.
The results of the survey on education intervention in the psychological crisis of employees by the human resources of the enterprise were shown in Figure 4. It can be seen that human resources intervened psychological
crisis for employees mainly through
conversation, accounting for 46.5%. In the process of communication and conversation between human resources and the employees, the psychological crisis of the employees can be understood and their psychological crisis can be eased through one-to-one education. However, this method was not combined with the environment closely enough and had certain drawbacks. The proportion of psychological training reached 32.8%. Psychological training currently lacked relevant assessments, and the application scope of this method was not wide. Through interviews, it was learnt that the employees were willing to receive professional psychological training, understand relevant knowledge, and enhance the psychological quality to face the crisis.
Figure
4
.
Methods
of
educational
intervention
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
0.465
0.143
0.328
0.064
P
ro
p
o
rt
io
n
（
%
）
Conversation Work report
Psychological training Meeting
The survey results of corrective interventions
adopted by human resources were shown in Figure 5. It can be seen that 47.3% of those who
adopted corrective interventions chose
psychological counseling. Family is a warm harbor for everyone, and people choosing family support also reached 28.5%. But people asking company colleagues or leaders for help only accounted for 24.2%, indicating that human resources were not satisfactory in terms of employee care. Corrective interventions were generally used when there were serious
psychological problems. Employees who
generally required corrective interventions would take a long time to restore mental health.
Figure 5
.
Methods of corrective intervention
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
0.078
0.164
0.285
0.473
P
ro
p
o
rt
io
n
（
%
）
Leadership instructions
Helping colleagues
Family support
Psychological counseling
Figure 6
.
Professional level of human
resource psychological intervention
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
0.243
0.532
0.225
P
ro
p
o
rt
io
n
（
%
）
Professional Commonly Unprofessional
The survey results of the professional level of
human resources psychological crisis
intervention were shown in Figure 6. It can be seen that 53.2% of the employees thought that the professional level of the performance of
LIJIE LIN,JINGXIA JI 722
human resources in psychological crisis
intervention was just so so, and 24.3% of the employees thought that human resources were
very professional, indicating that some
enterprises had done a good job in manpower training. As a whole, the professional degree of the psychological crisis intervention of human resources is relatively low and needs to be further improved.
The survey results of the effects after psychological intervention were shown in Figure 7. It can be seen that after psychological intervention by human resources, 66.4% of the employees thought that there was a positive effect, and the psychological crisis had been significantly improved. People who believed that there was no effect or there were negative effects accounted for 33.6%. In general, human resources played a certain role in the prediction and intervention of employees' psychological crisis. They can provide some psychological guidance to employees through educational intervention and corrective intervention, and also enable employees to actively acquire new ideas and increase new knowledge.
Figure 7
.
Effect of psychological intervention
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
0.664
0.213
0.123
P
ro
p
o
rt
io
n
（
%
）
Positive
results No effect
Negative effect
CONCLUSION
This paper adopted questionnaires in combination with statistical analysis to analyze the psychological crisis forms of enterprise employees and formulated corresponding employee psychological intervention methods. Finally, the effects of human resource psychological crisis prediction and intervention were analyzed. The main conclusions are as follows:
(1) Employees face a variety of psychological crisis in the enterprise. Enterprise employees urgently need help from enterprise human resource management staffs; enterprise human resources staffs mainly intervene in employee psychological crisis mainly through education, and the intensity of correct intervention and
organization intervention needs to be
strengthened.
(2) Educational intervention and
psychological training adopted by human resources staffs accounted for 46.5% and 32.8% respectively. Educational interventions often intervene in the psychological crisis of
employees through conversation, while
psychological training lacks an assessment system and the corresponding management system needs to be improved.
(3) The professional degree of the
psychological crisis intervention of human resources is relatively low, and needs to be further improved. Educational intervention and corrective intervention provide psychological guidance to employees and can enable employees to actively acquire new ideas.
Acknowledgement
This research has been financed by National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Project in
2014 of “Longitudinal research on the structure,
Multilevel influence Mechanism and effect of employee change commitment from the Perspective
of Resource Preservation Theory” (71402067).
The Project of Shandong Natural Science
Foundation of China in 2019 of “the double-edged
effect of Service-oriented Human Resource Management system on Service performance and its
Mechanism of Action” (ZR2019MG002).
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