The Study On The Application Of EAP Development In China

With the rapid development of economic globalization, an increasingly competitive society, people are facing increasing pressure. The excessive, sustained pressure makes the psychological problems of employees prominent, and it also declines the loyalty and satisfaction of employee in a corporate. Meanwhile, this pressure causes a serious impact on employees'health and the job performance which also reduces the company's production performance, and even hinders the development of social economy. The employee's career stress, mental health and the negative impact of the enterprise attract the wide attention of the society. Solving these problems is becoming urgent. How to deal with the stress, emotional and psychological problems has already become one of the most pressing issues of enterprise management in 21st century. EAP (Employee Assistance Program), which prevailing in Europe and North America, plays a very positive and important role in alleviating the pressure on employee, addressing the psychological problems of employees, promoting the employees'health and job performance and even improving the production performance of the enterprise.EAP is the abbreviation of Employee Assistance Program. The Chinese meaning is the plan for helping the employee, which is set by the organization, and aimed to give the members systematic, long-term assistance and welfare programs. The professionals give the organization diagnosis and provide the members of the organization and their families with professional guidance. They also train and consult to help members and their families address the psychological and behavioral problems, in order to maintain the mental health of members, improve the organizational performance of members, the organization's management and image, and finally establish a good organizational cultural environment. EAP can bring enterprise huge economic benefits.EAP originated in the early twentieth century in America. It was originally used to solve alcoholism, drug addiction and adverse drug abuse and other issues of the psychological barriers. After nearly a hundred year of development, today's EAP has gradually become a system which sets up long-term welfare and support programs for employees. Its content is far beyond the original mode of operation and service, it becomes extremely rich, covering the stress management, occupational mental health, career development, financial management, crisis of layoffs,catastrophic events, legal disputes, health lifestyle,diet and weight loss and other aspects, all-round 360 to help employees solve personal problems. Currently, EAP in the United States, Britain, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan has considerable development and wide application.Employees in China are facing a greater degree of pressure than employees in Western countries, and there are many psychological problems. According to the researchers preliminary estimates, the enterprises lose hundreds of millions yuan because of the employee's work problem of stress in China each year. EAP has been tested by Western countries, and it's a good resolution for management. And it's also an effective way of dealing with the psychological problems of employees. EAP will become the inevitable choice for business management.EAP came from Western countries, and flourished in Western developed countries, but it is only nearly ten years time since it was introduced to Chinese enterprises. At present , EAP is still a relatively new concept in China. It is still at the initial stage of development. Many business people don't concern about the psychological problems of the employees, and they also fail to recognize the importance of employees in the enterprise. The managers and employees in China don't have enough understanding and awareness of EAP. And the social awareness of EAP is still relatively low. They aren't aware of the specific function of EAP which can bring both enterprise and its employees the benefits. The professional level of EAP services and quality of the staff are relatively low. And it lacks a sound EAP evaluation system of operation.Previous studies on EAP mostly introduced the concept, the development and the importance, etc. There is a serious lack of systematic application. Most Chinese enterprises apply EAP rarely. During the application process, enterprises mostly copy the foreign EAP model. There are few creative applications made according to the actual situation in China. And they are lack of specificity and guidance. In China, the researches on EAP have not formed the localization system. Both EAP localization application research, the theoretical system of Chinese enterprises, and EAP specific application method need continuously exploring. Therefore, the urgent task we are currently facing is introducing EAP to Chinese enterprises and strengthening the localization of research and application.This thesis consults the experts and scholars on the EAP study of relevant literature and theoretical works. And it uses the literature searching method and comparative analysis to study the localization of EAP in China. It expatiates the connotation, the origin, the development in China and abroad of EAP. It discusses the related theory of EAP. It summarizes the characteristics of the development of EAP in China by comparing with the western model. It analyzes the difficulties and problems in the process of EAP's development. It provides the countermeasures and suggestions of the implementation of EAP in China. Through the EAP concept, development and implementation of development theory and application of relevant in-depth research could enable Chinese enterprises to realize the importance of stress and psychological problems. These can help the managers and employees of Chinese enterprises understand the importance of the EAP well, which will also promote the usage and extension of the EAP. This study also compensates for the previous studies which only do basic concept, theoretical introduces or copying the western mode in EAP applications. Facing the problem that the EAP application in Chinese enterprise lacks of systematic and guiding research characteristics, it combines the western countries the EAP theory and the enterprise reality in China and produces a set of feasible schemes for the EAP application, which provides theoretical and methodological guidance to realize the localization of EAP. All of these have important theoretical and practical significance in the popularization and application of EAP, and they are the contribution of this thesis.