Job Stress and Coping
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STRESS MEDICINE. VOL. 12: 69-70 (1996) EDITORIAL JOB STRESS AND COPING The articles in this special issue focus on research into coping with job stress. Each article is based on empirical research conducted by the authors to examine factors which contribute to the experience of stress in work environments or the behaviour which individuals utilize in their endeavours to manage job stress. In addition to presenting empirical evidence. the articles raise questions about the structure of stress-coping processes, factors which may influence the choice of coping strategies and outcomes of various forms of stress- coping. They contribute, therefore, to the ongoing debate about the structure of coping and the effectiveness of diverse coping strategies. In the first article. Linda Trenberth and her colleagues examine the structure of the coping process among senior staff in secondary schools in New Zealand, who were asked to describe the frequency with which they utilized a wide range of coping behaviours (developed by Dewe and Guest 1). While principal components analysis suggested the existence of five coping factors, factor replication reduced this set to two factors which could be subsumed under Folkman and Lazarus’ labels of emotion-focused and problem- focused coping. The implications of these findings are outlined. Leslie Frederikson and Philip Dewe consider in their article the factors which might influence the choice of coping strategies. In their study, cluster analysis was used to determine categories of coping behaviours and of stressful incidents. These were then examined with reference to two types of coping response derived from principal compo- nents analysis of a 49-item coping scale. Freder- ikson and Dewe found that increased levels of frustration in a stressful environment led to greater use of avoidance coping, while the greater the importance of the issue, the greater the likelihood of the person using an approach coping strategy. Address for correspondence Professor Cary L. Cooper, Manchester School of Management. UMIST, PO Box 88. Manchester M60 IQD. LJK Peter Hart and Alexander Wearing also consider factors relating to people’s choice of coping mech- anisms. Their study focuses eSpecially on the unresolved issue of the extent to which coping strategies are situational versus dispositional in nature. Structural equation analyses of longi- tudinal data collected from police officers in Australia illustrated that similar patterns of coping were used to deal with problems encountered in job and non-work settings. Further analyses also showed some stability over time in use of coping strategies, while a third set of analyses obtained evidence for dispositional stability. Deborah Terry and her colleagues, on the other hand, focus on an important outcome of coping. They present results from a series of studies which examined adjustment to organizational change, which is a major stressor for many organizations in the current economic climate. Using Folkman and Lazarus’ model of the stress-coping process, Terry, Callan and Sartori assessed characteristics of the situation, primary appraisal processes, coping responses and both personal and social resources available to the individuals. They found that the situation, appraisal processes and resources had an indirect influence on adjustment to organizational change, via the effect of coping responses. And finally, Michael O’Driscoll and Cary Cooper outline findings from a study which used critical incident analysis to examine stressors, coping responses and outcomes. As well as attempting to categorize these three elements, and examining the effectiveness of different forms of coping, O’Driscoll and Cooper discuss the advan- tages and limitations of the critical incident tech- nique as a method for understanding the nature of stress-coping behaviours. The set of articles in this special issue are derived from a symposium held by the Australian Psycho- logical Society in Sydney in July 1995. They share common elements in their approaches and find- ings; in particular, they are all based on the transactional perspective of stress-coping, which proposes that stressors (situations), coping res- ponses (behaviours) and outcomes (consequences) (~ 1996 by John Wile\ & Sons. Ltd
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Transcript of Job Stress and Coping
STRESS MEDICINE. VOL. 12: 69-70 (1996)
EDITORIAL
JOB STRESS AND COPING
The articles in this special issue focus on research into coping with job stress. Each article is based on empirical research conducted by the authors to examine factors which contribute to the experience of stress in work environments or the behaviour which individuals utilize in their endeavours to manage job stress. In addition to presenting empirical evidence. the articles raise questions about the structure of stress-coping processes, factors which may influence the choice of coping strategies and outcomes of various forms of stress- coping. They contribute, therefore, to the ongoing debate about the structure of coping and the effectiveness of diverse coping strategies.
In the first article. Linda Trenberth and her colleagues examine the structure of the coping process among senior staff in secondary schools in New Zealand, who were asked to describe the frequency with which they utilized a wide range of coping behaviours (developed by Dewe and Guest 1). While principal components analysis suggested the existence of five coping factors, factor replication reduced this set to two factors which could be subsumed under Folkman and Lazarus’ labels of emotion-focused and problem- focused coping. The implications of these findings are outlined.
Leslie Frederikson and Philip Dewe consider in their article the factors which might influence the choice of coping strategies. In their study, cluster analysis was used to determine categories of coping behaviours and of stressful incidents. These were then examined with reference to two types of coping response derived from principal compo- nents analysis of a 49-item coping scale. Freder- ikson and Dewe found that increased levels of frustration in a stressful environment led to greater use of avoidance coping, while the greater the importance of the issue, the greater the likelihood of the person using an approach coping strategy.
Address for correspondence Professor Cary L. Cooper, Manchester School of Management. UMIST, PO Box 88. Manchester M60 IQD. LJK
Peter Hart and Alexander Wearing also consider factors relating to people’s choice of coping mech- anisms. Their study focuses eSpecially on the unresolved issue of the extent to which coping strategies are situational versus dispositional in nature. Structural equation analyses of longi- tudinal data collected from police officers in Australia illustrated that similar patterns of coping were used to deal with problems encountered in job and non-work settings. Further analyses also showed some stability over time in use of coping strategies, while a third set of analyses obtained evidence for dispositional stability.
Deborah Terry and her colleagues, on the other hand, focus on an important outcome of coping. They present results from a series of studies which examined adjustment to organizational change, which is a major stressor for many organizations in the current economic climate. Using Folkman and Lazarus’ model of the stress-coping process, Terry, Callan and Sartori assessed characteristics of the situation, primary appraisal processes, coping responses and both personal and social resources available to the individuals. They found that the situation, appraisal processes and resources had an indirect influence on adjustment to organizational change, via the effect of coping responses.
And finally, Michael O’Driscoll and Cary Cooper outline findings from a study which used critical incident analysis to examine stressors, coping responses and outcomes. As well as attempting to categorize these three elements, and examining the effectiveness of different forms of coping, O’Driscoll and Cooper discuss the advan- tages and limitations of the critical incident tech- nique as a method for understanding the nature of stress-coping behaviours.
The set of articles in this special issue are derived from a symposium held by the Australian Psycho- logical Society in Sydney in July 1995. They share common elements in their approaches and find- ings; in particular, they are all based on the transactional perspective of stress-coping, which proposes that stressors (situations), coping res- ponses (behaviours) and outcomes (consequences)
(~ 1996 by John Wile\ & Sons. Ltd
70 EDITORIAL
need to be examined jointly to gain a full under- standing of the stress-coping process. Each article highlights specific elements of that approach, and hopefully contributes to our limited knowledge of the relationship between stress and coping.
REFERENCE
1. Dewe, P. and Guest, D. Methods of coping with stress at work: A conceptual analysis and empirical study of measurement issues. J. Org. Behav. 1990; 1 1 :
CARY L. COOPER 131-150. Manchester School of Management
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK
MICHAEL ODRISCOLL University of Waikato
New Zealand
