Coping with job stress: A conceptual evaluation framework for coping measures

Intense interest in stress had led to a proliferation of coping measures. To aid researchers in choosing or developing coping measures applicable to job stress, this paper provides a conceptual evaluation framework. The framework serves to evaluate the extent to which coping measures are comprehensive (focus and method of coping) and specific (coping behaviors versus coping effectiveness, coping style, or coping resources; and stress management applications). Both theoretical and organizational stress management perspectives are incorporated.     

Value congruence,control, sense of community and demands as determinants of burnout syndrome among hospitality workers

Employees working in the hospitality industry are constantly exposed to occupational stressors that may lead employees into experiencing burnout syndrome. Research addressing the interactive effects of control, community and value congruence to alleviate the impact of workplace demands on experiencing burnout is relatively limited. The present study examined relationships among control, community and value congruence, workplace demands and the three components of burnout. A sample of 418 employees working in a variety of hospitality associations including restaurants and hotels in Spain were recruited. Moderation analyses and linear regressions analyzed the predictive power of control, community and value congruence as moderating variables. Results indicate that control, community and value congruence were successful buffers in the relationships between workplace demands and the burnout dimensions. The present findings offer suggestions for future research on potential moderating variables, as well as implications for reducing burnout among hospitality employees.     

The measurement of experienced burnout

A scale designed to assess various aspects of the burnout syndrome was administered to a wide range of human services professionals. Three subscales emerged from the data analysis: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. Various psychometric analyses showed that the scale has both high reliability and validity as a measure of burnout.     

Violence breeds violence: burnout as a mediator between patient violence and nurse violence

The present study examines whether patient-perpetrated violence triggers anger, hatred and other negative emotions that, under certain circumstances, might motivate nurses to behave violently with patients. In doing so, this study considers burnout as a mediator in the patient violence–nurse violence relationship. To test the causal paths, data were collected from 182 nurses working in two government-sector teaching hospitals of Pakistan's Punjab province. Results confirm that patient violence toward nurses leads to nurse violence toward patients through the mediating effect of burnout. The study advises hospitals to provide wellness and stress management programs to nurses who regularly experience events involving patient violence. Hospitals may consider allowing nurses to take short breaks after an encounter with violently behaving patients. In addition, hospitals should conduct empathy-promoting training, emotional intelligence training and ‘lens of the patient’ training programs to sensitize their nursing staff.     

An interpersonal perspective of perceived stress: Examining the prosocial coping response patterns of stressed managers

We adopt an interpersonal perspective and examine the adaptive effects of managers' perceived stress on their behavior towards subordinates. Drawing from the transactional model of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), we advance a model that highlights the propensity for stressed managers to engage in prosocial coping behaviors towards their employees, which in turn are related to lower levels of turnover and higher levels of job performance. We tested our predictions in a sample of 281 employees and their 53 managers working in a clothing retailer in Turkey. Consistent with predictions, we found positive effects of managers' perceived stress on their prosocial coping behaviors and employee outcomes. Managers' perceived stress was positively related to sharing credit with employees for managers who held positive implicit prototypes about employees. Results also indicated that managers' perceived stress was positively related to sharing knowledge with their subordinates regardless of implicit follower prototypes. Both sharing credit and sharing knowledge, in turn, were related to turnover intentions and actual turnover, and sharing credit was related to job performance. This study extends past work by adopting an interpersonal perspective of stress and demonstrating that managerial stress can have positive effects on employee outcomes via prosocial coping behaviors.     

Jailed resources: conservation of resources theory as applied to burnout among prison guards

This study evaluates a salutogenic perspective of the burnout process. Building upon Hobfoll's ( 1989 ) Conservation of Resources theory, it proposes a simultaneous test of three hypothesized resources‐based models. These competing models test the structure of burnout in relation to depleted resources (e.g., lack of skill utilization, of participation, of co‐worker support, and of professional worth) and negative correlates (e.g., absenteeism and depression). SEM results provide equally good support for two resource‐based models, although each of them proceeds from two different approaches (Leiter vs. Golembiewski). Of all burnout components, personal accomplishment is found to be least related to resources depletion, while emotional exhaustion is the most related to absenteeism and depression. Results are analyzed in light of existing literature and of the specific nature of the sample, a large population of French correctional officers (n = 707). Implications for burnout theory and human resource management are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Expressed and suppressed anger as predictors of health complaints

In this study, associations were examined of expressed and suppressed anger with anxiety, depression, and somatic complaints in a sample of owner/managers of smaller businesses. A direct relationship between suppressed anger — anger-in — and the three health complaints was found. Also, anger-in moderated the relationship between the responsibility for people stressor and both anxiety and depression. Further, expressed anger — anger-out — moderated the relationship between responsibility for people and depression. In each interaction, responsibility for people related more strongly with the health complaint when anger-in or anger-out was high than when it was low.     

The construct validity of two burnout measures

The present study was carried out among a sample of 667 Dutch nurses and assesses three aspects of the construct validity of the two most widely used self-report burnout questionnaires: The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Burnout Measure (BM). Although the factorial validity of the three-dimensional structure of the MBI was convincingly demonstrated by confirmatory factor analysis with LISREL, four weak and ambiguous items were identified. Regarding the BM, some doubts have arisen about its one-dimensionality. The congruent validity of the questionnaires was well established: They both refer to the core element of the burnout syndrome (i.e. exhaustion). Moreover, linear structural analyses suggested that burnout is a two multi-dimensional construct consisting of an affective component (i.e. exhaustion) and an attitudinal component (i.e. a negative attitude towards recipients and towards one's job performance). However, the discriminant validity of the first component is rather poor since it considerably overlaps with self-reported somatic complaints and psychological strain. It is concluded that the MBI can be employed as a reliable and valid multi-dimensional indicator of burnout in professionals who work with people. The BM assesses the non-specific affective component of burnout (i.e. exhaustion) and should therefore be supplemented by a scale that measures the attitudinal component of the syndrome.     

The contribution of burnout to work performance

While the notion that ‘burnout’ is related to a decline in work performance is widely recognized, empirical support for this relationship is lacking. The present study, composed of human services personnel, is the first to empirically test the relationships among Maslach's three dimensions of burnout and work performance. A negative relationship was established between one dimension of burnout, emotional exhaustion, and subsequent work performance. However, the results failed to establish relationships among work performance, depersonalization and diminished personal accomplishment. These results provide further support for emotional exhaustion as a key component of the burnout experience. Future directions and implications of these findings are introduced. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Managers' coping resources,perceived organizational patterns,and responses during organizational recovery from decline

This study proposes that individual coping resources and organizational patterns explain the responses of mid‐level managers to organizational recovery after decline. The study sample consisted of 252 managers in Israeli enterprises recovering from organizational decline. The responses studied were—citizenship responses, negative responses, the wish to exit and acts to exit the organization. Hypotheses were developed relating these responses to individual coping resources of job involvement, self‐esteem and locus of control, and to organizational factors of organic processes, top management support, and organizational opportunities. Findings indicated that most coping resources and organizational patterns correlated with type of response: citizenship behaviors were related to job involvement, internal locus of control, self‐esteem and to perceptions of opportunities and organic processes in the organization. They were negatively related to external locus of control. Negative behavior was negatively related to job involvement, self‐esteem, perceived organizational opportunities and organic processes. The wish to exit related negatively to job involvement, external locus of control, and perceived opportunities. It related positively to self‐esteem. Actual exit behavior was not predicted by the coping resources, nor by organizational factors. Three‐stage multiple regression analyses revealed that individual coping characteristics reduced the impacts of organizational factors for most responses. Implications for management are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

高危岗位矿工心理倦怠对注意执行功能的影响

为探究心智游移在倦怠和注意执行功能间的作用机制,有效减少由负性心理状态引起的不安全行为,降低人因事故发生率。在文献研究的基础上,引入心智游移,采用SART范式和AX-CPT范式,以问卷筛选出的100位国有煤炭企业高危岗位作业人员为研究对象,讨论倦怠、心智游移和个体注意执行功能之间的关系。研究结果表明:高频AX试次会引起惯性反应偏向,被试者需要更多的时间来维持线索字母A和解决无效线索B与有效探针X之间的冲突;高倦怠矿工比低倦怠矿工的注意执行控制功能更易受到高频心智游移的影响;心智游移在倦怠与注意执行功能间起到调节作用。     

Long-term consequences of burnout: An exploratory study

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between degree of burnout experienced during the first year of the career and career adaptation during the next decade. Subjects were 25 human service professionals originally working in the fields of public service law, public health nursing, high school teaching, or mental health. They were studied during the first year of their careers and again 12 years later. Early career burnout was assessed via ratings of interviews that were highly correlated with the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Career adaptation variables included career stability, work satisfaction, attitudes towards recipients, and flexibility as measured at the time of follow-up. Each of these variables was measured via interview ratings, a questionnaire, and ratings made hy confidants of the subjects. Results showed that subjects who were more burned-out early in their careers were less likely to change careers and more flexible in their approach to work as rated by confidants at the time of follow-up. The results suggest that early career burnout does not seem to lead to any significant, negative, long-term consequences. However, burnout occurring later in the career might have more serious long-term effects.     

Distributive and procedural justice as predictors of employee outcomes in Hong Kong

This study examines the extent to which employee judgments about distributive and procedural justice predict job satisfaction, intent to stay and evaluation of supervision in Hong Kong. Distributive and procedural justice each plays a role in determining work outcomes of Hong Kong employees. However, some effects of these justice variables differ from results of previous studies in the United States (U.S.). First, in previous U.S. studies, procedural justice moderates the relationship of distributive justice with evaluation of supervision, but not with job satisfaction or intent to stay. For Hong Kong employees, procedural justice moderates the effects of distributive justice on job satisfaction and intent to stay, but not on evaluation of supervision. Second, previous U.S. studies have shown that procedural justice has a larger effect on work outcomes for women, while distributive justice has larger effects on outcomes for men. For Hong Kong employees, the effects of procedural and distributive justice are about the same for men and women. Differences in the effects of distributive and procedural justice between Hong Kong and the U.S. may reflect cultural dimensions, such as collectivism/individualism and power distance, as well as the relative availability of rewards for women in the work force. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Work stressors and coworker support as predictors of individual strain and job performance

This study examined job stressors and coworker social support in relation to both psychological strains and performance. One hundred and ninety‐eight door‐to‐door bookdealers, employed on a seasonal basis, completed self‐report measures of job stressors, psychological strains, coworker social support, and job performance. Performance data were also obtained from company records. Results indicated that stressors predicted both psychological strains and one of the two measures of performance. The strongest predictor was a job‐specific measure of chronic stressors. Social support predicted psychological strains, although it was only weakly related to performance. There was no evidence that social support moderated the effects of any of the stressors. Implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparing safety climate factors as predictors of work-related driving behavior

INTRODUCTION: Research suggests safety climate (SC) is a strong predictor of safety-related outcomes in organizations. This study explores the relationship between six SC dimensions and four aspects of work-related driving. METHOD: The SC factors measured were "communication and procedures," "work pressures," "relationships," "safety rules," "driver training," and "management commitment." The aspects of self-reported occupational driving measured were traffic violations, driver error, driving while distracted, and pre-trip vehicle maintenance. RESULTS: Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the SC factors accounted for significant amounts of variance in all four aspects of work-related driving, over and above the control factors of age, sex, and work-related driving exposure. However, further investigation indicated certain SC factors (particularly safety rules, communication, and management commitment) were more strongly related to specific aspects of work-related driving behavior than others. Together, the SC factors were better able to predict self-reported distraction from the road than the other aspects of driving behavior measured. Implications for occupational safety, particularly for the management of work-related drivers are discussed.     

Occupational stress: Coping of police and their spouses

One hundred seventy-seven police officers and their spouses from two metropolitan areas completed separate questionnaires regarding stress and coping. Both the police and spouses reported using four coping activities in response to their own stressors: problem focused, emotion focused, religiosity, and rugged individualism. Three potential police strains previously noted in non-empirical literature were given special attention; divorce potential, drinking behavior, and suicide thoughts.     

Patterns of burnout among managers and professionals: a comparison of models

Using structural equation modeling, this paper compares the intertemporal sequences of the burnout components proposed by Maslach (1982) and Golembiewski (1989) using responses from 354 human resource professionals. The relationship between the burnout components and several critical variables that are theoretically linked to the phenomenon are also investigated. Studying human resource professionals allows us to examine the generalizability of burnout. This group of employees provides a range of services to a largely internal client group, and thus experience strain from interpersonal interactions. Results support Maslach's three-factor sequential model of burnout, although its superiority over the Golembiewski sequential model is not definitive. A post hoc analysis reveals a significant path between emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment, and an insignificant path between depersonalization and personal accomplishment. Investigation of the relationship between the burnout components and several critical, theoretically linked variables indicates significant paths between (a) role overload and emotional exhaustion, (b) noncontingent punishment and depersonalization, and (c) contingent rewards and personal accomplishment. The work documents the generalizability of burnout to managers and professionals in corporate settings. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.