Work stress and the stress-buffering roles of work and family resources

This paper describes the development of the Work Environment Scale, which includes measures of perceived stressful and supportive aspects of the job milieu. This scale is used to examine stressful effects of the work environment on personal functioning and the stress-buffering value of work and family social resources among a representative community group of men and women. Work stressors had a greater impact on men, but supportive social resources provided more attenuation of such effects among men than among women. Although work stressors generally had less effect on men whose wives were employed, high stress in the women's work settings had some indirect negative consequences for their husbands. Reprint requests should be directed to the authors, Social Ecology Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University Medical School, Stanford, California 94305, U.S.A.     

Gearing-up governance for sustainable development: Patterns of policy appraisal in UK central government

The UK is reportedly an international leader in the application of environmental policy appraisal (EPA). From the late 1980s until 2004, UK central government sought to produce ex ante assessments of the potential environmental impacts of different policy options. Critics maintain that EPA had a very limited impact on policy-making activities in Whitehall departments. However, the empirical basis for these claims is surprisingly thin. This paper seeks to better understand what facilitated or retarded EPA by looking at its use in Whitehall, with the aim being to draw lessons for the UK's new and more integrated appraisal regime, as well as similar systems in the European Union. The paper finds that the implementation of EPA was both weak and highly sectorised, and that there is an underlying resistance to policy appraisal per se in Whitehall. These weaknesses urgently need to be addressed otherwise new systems of integrated appraisal will not deliver what is expected of them.     

Learning lessons from the 2011 Van Earthquake to enhance healthcare surge capacity in Turkey

Historically, Turkey has adopted a reactive approach to natural hazards which resulted in significant losses. However, following the 1999 Kocaeli Earthquake, a more proactive approach has been adopted. This study aims to explore the way this new approach operates on the ground. A multinational and multidisciplinary team conducted a field investigation following the 2011 Van Earthquake to identify lessons to inform healthcare emergency planning in Turkey and elsewhere. The team interviewed selected stakeholders including, healthcare emergency responders, search and rescue services, ambulance services, and health authority representatives, in addition to conducting a focus group. Data were analysed according to an open coding process and SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat) analysis. The findings suggest that the approach succeeded in developing a single vision by consolidating official efforts in a more structured way, mobilising many governmental and non-governmental organisations, securing significant amounts of resources including physical and human, and increasing the resilience and flexibility of infrastructure to expand its capacity. However, more attention is required to the development of stronger management procedures and acquisition of further resources.     

Sources of organisational resiliency during the Thailand floods of 2011: a test of the bonding and bridging hypotheses

Based on the Institutional Collective Action framework, this research tests the impact of two competing hypotheses—bonding and bridging—on enhancing organisational resiliency. The bonding hypothesis posits that organisational resiliency can be achieved if an organisation works closely with others, whereas the bridging hypothesis argues that such a structure places considerable stress on an organisation and advocates for an organisation to position itself as a central actor to gain access to novel resources from a diverse set of entities to achieve resiliency. The paper analyses data gathered from semi‐structured interviews with 44 public, private, and non‐profit organisations serving communities affected by the Great Floods of 2011 in the Thai capital, Bangkok (urban), and in Pathum Thani (suburban) and Ayutthaya (rural) provinces. The findings suggest that: organisational resiliency was associated with the bridging effect; organisations in the rural province were more resilient than those in the suburban and urban centres; and private and non‐governmental organisations generally were more resilient than public sector organisations. The findings highlight the importance of fostering multi‐sector partnerships to enhance organisational resiliency for disaster response.