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# 4 Organisations, changes and stress

This final section pertains to change and the stress linked to this in health and social care services. The key area of focus will be on making sense of and understanding change.

You saw an example of organisationally induced stress in Angelique in the case study in the previous section. You are going to take a closer look at the ways in which organisations can cause stress. Organisational change is everywhere in health and social care. As stress and anxiety are most likely to occur during times of transition and change, the focus will therefore be on change in organisations.

Before you go any further, you need to have a clear understanding of change and its implications. This activity focuses on another reading. It will help you to understand the pressures for change in health and social care contexts, as well as introducing some key ideas about change from organisational theory.

## Activity 8 Understanding change

Allow about 1 hour

Read the rest of the reading (from the heading ‘4 Approaching change’ on p. 12 to the end): Caring through stress, anxiety and change.

As you read, make notes on what you think a caring approach to managing change, in whatever context, should embody.

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### Discussion

As you will now appreciate, change impacts in different ways across health and social care, placing demands on all those involved.

While change can be challenging for families, recipients of care and frontline staff, those tasked with making changes happen can also face significant challenges. Several models for managing change have been developed. In terms of adopting a caring approach to managing change in any context, the reading shows that rather than being authoritarian, it is important to stay in what is referred to as the ‘caring approach’. The strategies for doing so include making people feel they are being listened to and engaging them in the changes, nurturing a collaborative climate, being emotionally aware, emphasising potential improvements that the changes can bring and enabling those affected to see the bigger picture.

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OpenLearn - The caring manager in health and social care
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