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Case study of Hungary

SPAT
Stress management case study for Small and Medium Enterprises

by Zsuzsanna Geraszkone Kirchner and Timea Wolfling

1. Case study of Hungary

1. CASE STUDY

1.1 Description of the company

The CalibraNet Informatics Ltd. was established by Szcs Andor in 2004. Due to its innovative
technological solutions, the company has been developing rapidly; from the initial 4 employees today
there are already 26 employees working for CalibraNet.
gnes Kos, who has a degree in commerce, joined CalibraNet as a technical managing director in 2007.
She soon became a key figure in the everyday life of the company.
Other employees of the enterprise are: 2 assistants, 4 head of departments, 16 employees within these
departments, an accountant and an HR manager. Apart from the latter two and the CEO, all of these
employees fell within the scope of authority of Agnes.
Their profit was continuously growing till the second half of 2009 despite of the economic crises. From
then on, stagnation and a smaller draw-back are visible. The success of the company was thanks to the
technical managing director in the first place, however, the signs of exhaustion and stress can already be
easily observed on her.
1.2 Stress-factors and impacts
More and more employees have been going on a few days of sick-leave; complaining about stomachpains and problems with sleeping. The employees were often obliged to work overtime and help with
each others task. However, the relationships between the colleagues were supportive and conflicts were
rare.
The technical managing director also mentioned her physiological, somatic problems together with
back-pains and problems with the spine, but she could not go on a sick-leave because of substitution
problems.
The CEO, understanding the problem of his best colleague, hired an assistant 6 months ago, but Agnes
could only give a small amount of her work for the new assistant.

1.3 Methods and application of risk assessment

Andor then asked for help from us, from the Linner Consulting, to assess the existing problems and
make necessary provisions.
After analyzing the basic documents, we recognised a strong correlation between the presence of the
employees and the financial situation.
We organized half-structured interviews with the CEO, the technical managing director, the head of the
departments, the accountant and the HR manager. For the employees within the departments we held
problem-unfolding group discussions.
It became clear that the organisational structure basely hindered stress-management in the firm. The
technical managing director had to make too many operational decisions and the range of actions was
also not divided clearly.

1. Case study of Hungary

It was a source of stress for the heads of the departments that they did not have an own scope of
authority, their tasks were sometimes overlapping. They also mentioned that sometimes they get only
superficial support from Agnes in professional questions.
For the employees of the departments, the most of the tension was caused by the unclear scope of
activities.
After observing the situation on the level of the individual, we also wanted to have a picture about the
organization as a whole. That is why we held a one-day-long workshop for the broader management
team. The somatic, physiological health-problems indicated the use of psychodramatic games, which
enabled spontaneous movements to understand the needs of their bodies. For example, all managers
and employees had to find a symbol: which body part would they be if we assume that the firm is a
human body? Very expressively, Agnes became the back of the firms body. It is clearly in
correspondence with her role: she carries all the responsibility on her back regarding the operational
matters of the company.
The workshop underlined and clearly revealed the problems. Through a video analysis, the stressfactors became visible together with the difficulties deriving from the inappropriate organizational
structure.
1.4 Steps and effects of the prevention and intervention techniques
We organized another workshop for planning the steps of the intervention with the management. After
introducing the team to the theoretical background of stress-management, we played dramatic games
that bring the potentials of the solutions to the surface. Finally, the team discussed the problems that
arose together with the possibilities of intervention.
Suggestions were made for changing the structure of the organization. Based on a common decision, the
management will establish 3 new departments that will be separated from each other on a professional
basis. 3 directors will be appointed to lead these sections independently. Agnes became the commercial
director thanks to her field of expertise and degree. The CEO took responsibility for controlling and
directing the process of organizational transformation in one months time. With the same deadline, the
directors took responsibility for organizing their new departments.
It was another target to form new job descriptions, which became the responsibility of the HR manager.
They also decided on holding a third workshop for bringing the new groups together to cooperate. This
way the operation of the firm became clearer, and the tasks were not concentrated in the hands of Agnes.
They organized a meeting room in an unused hall, where employees can have a few minutes rest during
lunch-time or at coffee-brake at 3pm. They can also leave notes for each other at the board on the wall.
In order to measure the success of the intervention, we chose the following criteria: moderation and
ceasing of the somatic physical symptoms, decreasing number of sick-leaves, increasing rate of
satisfaction with work and increasing profitability.

1.5 Sustainability, evaluation and prevention

Half a year after the stress-management trainings, we measured the outcomes. The profitability of the
firm started to grow again, the number of sick-leave days dropped back to half. We brought a worksatisfaction measuring questionnaire that showed good average results. Thanks to the monitoring done
by the management every half a year, stress-management was proved to be successful and sustainable.