Project

The project titled "Readiness of small and medium-sized enterprises in V4 for stress management interventions" is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

The grantee is the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Faculty of Economics.

Background

The EU strategic framework on health and safety at work in 2021-2027 can be summarized by prevention, change, and preparedness. This concept should help foresee potential risks and identify priorities in areas such as digitalization, green jobs, and work-related stress (WRS). WRS deals with the stigmatization of topics where stress is perceived as a by-product of responsible work. Its negative consequences are lower productivity; increased cost; accidents; absenteeism; and poor performance, as well as higher costs of staff turnover which will increase in the face of the upcoming "great resignation" wave. Enterprises must deal with new challenges, such as the digitization, which might be perceived as a potential stressor (job insecurity, new capabilities, technostress). The most threatened by these changes are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that do not have the necessary capabilities for stress management implementation, which is a vital part of prevention. Stress management interventions should be implemented in enterprises on the organizational and individual levels. Enterprises enumerate many barriers to stress management implementation – a lack of time and staff, the complexity of legal obligations, the lack of experts, and lack of awareness from supervisors and staff.

Aim

The project's main aim is evaluation of existing theoretical and newly acquired knowledge about the issue of stress management in the corporate environment and propose desirable recommendations for enterprises that plan to incorporate stress management into their internal processes. The international project is cooperated with Hungary, Poland and Slovakia (V4 level).

Implementation Period

01/06/2023–30/11/2024 (18 months)