Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Executives Job stress Victoria'

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004.
Hierdie artikel bied 'n teoretiese oorsig van stres en streshantering in die korporatiewe omgewing. Die artikel begin met 'n kort oorsig van die historiese ontwikkeling van die streskonsep, gevolg deur 'n kort bespreking van die konsep streshantering. Vervolgens word verskeie faktore wat tot stres in die werkplek bydra, in oënskou geneem. Dit word opgevolg deur 'n bespreking van stres wat kenmerkend is van bestuursposisies en 'n kort oorsig van onlangse navorsing oor streshanteringsprogramme. Sommige van die probleme wat met navorsing oor streshanteringsprogramme ondervind word, word kortliks oorweeg. Die artikel word afgesluit met 'n poging om, op grond van gepubliseerde bevindings, te illustreer watter stresverminderende intervensies doeltreffend is en watter nie.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie artikel bied 'n teoretiese oorsig van stres en streshantering in die korporatiewe omgewing. Die artikel begin met 'n kort oorsig van die historiese ontwikkeling van die streskonsep, gevolg deur 'n kort bespreking van die konsep streshantering. Vervolgens word verskeie faktore wat tot stres in die werkplek bydra, in oënskou geneem. Dit word opgevolg deur 'n bespreking van stres wat kenmerkend is van bestuursposisies en 'n kort oorsig van onlangse navorsing oor streshanteringsprogramme. Sommige van die probleme wat met navorsing oor streshanteringsprogramme ondervind word, word kortliks oorweeg. Die artikel word afgesluit met 'n poging om, op grond van gepubliseerde bevindings, te illustreer watter stresverminderende intervensies doeltreffend is en watter nie.

Generic models of job stress, such as the Job Strain Model (JSM), have recently been criticised for focusing on a small number of general work characteristics while ignoring those that are occupation-specific (Sparks & Cooper, 1999). However this criticism is based on limited research that has not examined the relative influence of all three dimensions of the JSM - job demand, job control and social support - and job-specific stressors. The JSM is the most commonly used model underpinning large-scale occupational stress research (Fox, Dwyer, & Ganster, 1993) and is regarded as the most influential model in the research on the psycho-social work environment, stress and disease in recent times (Kristensen, 1995). This thesis addresses the lack of information on the relative influence of the JSM and job-specific stressors by assessing the capacity of an augmented JSM to predict the strain experienced by managers and professional Australian footballers. The augmented JSM consisted of job-specific stressors in addition to the generic components of the model. Managers and professional Australian footballers represent two very different occupational groups. While the day-today roles of a manager include planning, organising, monitoring and controlling (Carroll & Gillen, 1987), the working life of a professional Australian footballer revolves around preparing for and playing football (Shanahan, 1998). It was expected that the large differences in the work undertaken by managers and professional Australian footballers would maximise the opportunities for identifying job-specific stressors and measuring the extent that these vary from one group to the next. The large disparity between managers and professional footballers was also used to assess the cross-occupational versatility of the JSM when it had been augmented by job-specific stressors. This thesis consisted of three major studies. Study One involved a survey of Australian managers, while studies Two and Three focused on professional Australian footballers. The latter group was under-represented in the literature, and as a result of the lack of information on the stressors commonly experienced by this group, an in-depth qualitative study was undertaken in Study Two. The results from Study Two then informed the survey of professional footballers that was conducted in Study Three. Contrary to previous research examining the relative influence of generic and job-specific stressors, the results only provided moderate support for augmenting the JSM with job-specific stressors. Instead of supporting the versatility of the augmented JSM, the overall findings reinforced the broad relevance of the original JSM. Of the four health outcomes measured in Studies One and Three, there was only one - the psychological health of professional Australian footballers - where the proportion of total variance explained by job-specific stressors exceeded 13%. Despite the generally strong performance of the JSM across the two occupational groups, the importance of demand, control and support diminished when examining the less conventional occupation of professional football. The generic model was too narrow to capture the highly specific work characteristics that are important for this occupational group and, as a result, the job-specific stressors explained significantly more of the strain over and above that already provided by the generic model. These findings indicate that when investigating the stressors experienced by conventional occupational groups such as managers, the large amount resources required to identify job-specific stressors are unlikely to be cost-effective. In contrast, the influence of the more situation specific stressors is significantly greater in unconventional occupations and thus the benefits of identifying these non-generic stressors are more likely to outweigh the costs. Studies One and Three identified strong connections between job-specific stressors and important characteristics of the occupation being studied. These connections were consistent with previous research and suggest that before attempting to identify job-specific stressors, researchers need to first become familiar with the nature and context of the occupation. The final issue addressed in this thesis was the role of work and non-work support. The findings indicate that the support provided by supervisors and colleagues was a significant predictor of wellbeing for both managers and professional footballers. In contrast, the level of explained strain accounted for by non-work support was not significant. These results indicate that when developing strategies to protect and enhance employee well-being, particular attention should be given to monitoring and, where necessary, boosting the effectiveness of work-based support. The findings from this thesis have been fed back to the management and sporting communities via conference presentations and peer-reviewed journals (refer pp 220-221). All three studies have been presented at national and international conferences and, overall, were well received by participants. Similarly, the methods, results and major findings arising from Studies One and Two have been critiqued by anonymous reviewers from two international journals. These papers have been accepted for publication in 2001 and 2002 and feedback from the reviewers indicates that the findings represent a significant and unique contribution to the literature. The results of Study Three are currently under review by a sports psychology journal.

Wendel (1994, p. 91) defined perceived organizational support (POS) as “organization support in terms of all things that relate to assistance and relationships amongst working peers and colleagues, which involve the feeling of need between superiors and subordinates . Rothbard (2001, p. 656) in defining job engagement (JE) listed two components which he thought were critical for its effectiveness on organizational functioning: (i) attention and (ii) absorption, with the former referring to “cognitive ability and the amount of time one spends thinking about the role”, while the latter “means being engrossed in a role and means the intensity of one’s focus on a role”. Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) was first introduced by Organ in the 1980s and he defined the concept of organizational citizenship behavior “as discretionary behaviors by individuals (employees) that do not form part of formal requirements of a job, but are necessary and promote effective functioning of the organization (Organ, 1988)”. The objective of study was to explore the relationship between perceived organizational support and job engagement and their effect organizational citizenship behavior. Other relationships that were tested were first, the direct relationship between POS JE. Secondly, the combined effect of POS and JE on OCB. The study was conducted amongst nurses at Victoria hospital, in Alice within the Nkonkobe district municipality. The results showed a significant relationship between JE and OCB, whilst the relationship between POS and OCB was not accepted. The results for the other two hypotheses that were tested; (i) relationship between POS and JE, (ii) combined effect of POS and JE on OCB also showed that they were not accepted. The consistency scores for these variables were of international level (n=106). The Pearson correlation coefficients were used for hypothesis testing.

The research at hand focuses on job satisfaction as a moderator of the relationship between work-family conflict and stress among female civil service managers in the Department of Education in the King William’s Town District. Samples of 100 employees were used in the study. The data was collected by means of a questionnaire which consisted of the following sections: (i) a biographical and occupational data questionnaire,(ii) Eum, Lee, and Paek’s (2007) Effort-Reward Imbalance questionnaire, (iii) Bedenia, Burke, and Moffat’s (1998) Short-form Work-family Conflict questionnaire, and (iv) Halpern’s (1966) Job Satisfaction questionnaire. The data were analyzed by means of Pearson’s Correlation Technique, Multiple Regression Analysis, and Analysis of Variance. The results showed that job satisfaction does not moderate the relationship between work-family conflict and occupational stress. The study also found a significant positive correlation between work-family conflict and occupational stress and between work-family conflict and job satisfaction. It also showed that both work-family conflict and job satisfaction respectively accounted for a significant proportion of variance in occupational stress. The thesis ends with several recommendations for future research and for future professional or managerial practice.

This study was conducted within the Retail Credit Evaluation and Assessment (RCEA) units at one of the big four banks within South Africa. The aim of this study was to assess stress amongst employees that were employed within the credit evaluation and assessment unit of a financial institution and then evaluate the factors that contributed to these employees stress levels with an option of implementing stress management programmes and employee assistance programmes within the organisation. The objectives of this study was to determine the overall stress levels of employees working within this environment based on demographics, length of service and qualification levels. The questionnaire was designed around obtaining data on the objectives of the study and respondents were requested to give information on the stress levels, their qualification levels, and length of service, race and gender. Respondents were also requested to rate the items that they believed contributed to their stress levels using a five point Likert-scale measurement tool. The medical information of respondents was assessed and respondents were to identify the medical conditions that they suffered from and if it was stress related. Employees were also asked about whether they would be willing to participate in stress management programmes and interventions to assist in managing their stress levels. The RCEA environment is a relatively small business unit within the chosen bank and is based across the major cities of South Africa. The decision was taken to obtain information from as many staff as possible through a web based survey using the on-line software programme QuestionPro, in order for the survey to be accessible to all respondents. The results of the survey found that 47.3% of respondents identified their current stress levels as very high to high and a further 44.7% of respondents experienced moderate stress levels as opposed to 7.9% of respondents who rated their stress levels as low and very low. A salient feature of this study is that the majority of respondents were prepared to accept assistance in managing their stress levels in that 65.5% of respondents revealed that they would participate in a healthy lifestyle programme and that 67.6% of respondents would attend monthly physical checks by medical practioners if provided by the employer. The study can benefit the organization in identifying the factors that cause employees to experience stress and then develop and implement strategies to manage stress levels of employees. A healthy workforce is a more productive workforce.
Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.

M.A.
Stres is ’n welbekende verskynsel in hedendaagse tye wat ’n ernstige impak het op die maatskaplike funksionering van mense. Individue ervaar dikwels hierdie impak veral binne hul werkomgewings, wat ’n direkte impak het op hul prestasies, medewerkers en kliënte. Binne diensorganisasies, soos die Suid-Afrikaanse Vrouefederasie, is daar vele uitdagings wat daagliks verskeie stresvolle situasies vir werknemers tot gevolg het. Wanneer hierdie situasies nie korrek hanteer word deur die beskikbaarheid en toepassing van doelgerigte intervensies, effektiewe streshanteringsvaardighede en ondersteuningsnetwerke nie, kan dit die kwaliteit diens negatief beïnvloed. Bestuurders van tehuise en behuisingskemas vir bejaardes en gestremdes vervul ’n baie verantwoordelike rol in hierdie inrigtings. Hierdie individue is aanspreeklik vir elke personeellid, inwoner en aksie wat vanuit die inrigting van stapel gestuur word. Deur middel van professionele waarneming deur die navorser, erkenning deur sekere van die bestuurders dat hulle wel stres ervaar, asook twee stresmetings, is vasgestel dat stres beslis ’n realiteit is binne die maatskaplike sisteme waarbinne hierdie individue funksioneer. Verskeie faktore dra by tot die belewenis van hul stres, waarby organisatoriese strukture, werkomstandighede, interpersoonlike verhoudings en verwagtinge slegs ’n paar is. Hierdie navorsingstudie se fokus is veral daarop gerig om te bepaal watter van hierdie faktore wel ’n rol speel sodat aanbevelings en riglyne vir die SAVF se oorweging aangebied kan word. Dit was die navorser se voorneme om deur middel van hierdie studie ‘n professionele ondersoek van stapel te stuur na die belewenis van stres deur bestuurders werksaam in die SAVF, sodat riglyne vanuit die ondersoek se resultate saamgestel kon word. Hierdie riglyne se doel is tweevoudig, eerstens om die individuele maatskaplike funksionering van die bestuurders te bevorder en tweedens om ’n positiewe impak op die kwaliteit diens wat vanuit hierdie strukture gelewer word, te fasiliteer. Stres is ‘n verskynsel wat dikwels ontken word en beslis nie die nodige erkenning en korrekte aandag ontvang nie. Veral binne diensorganisasies word die klem van ondersteuning en hulp hoofsaaklik op die kliëntesisteme geplaas, en dikwels word daar van diegene wat die diens lewer, se maatskaplike behoeftes vergeet. Met hierdie studie hoop die navorser om ’n positiewe bydrae te lewer om hierdie tendens effektief aan te pak.

A dissertation submitted to the school of psychology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master of arts (industrial psychology), by coursework.
Despite the potentially devastating effect that stress may have on the performance and productivity of the workforce (Greenblo,1992), few South African companies have thoroughly looked at and studied the various aspects of stress. By doing this, they should then be able to develop and implement effective stress reduction programmes, The aim of the present study, therefore, was to identify some of the causes, outcomes, and moderators of stress, which could then be used as the basis for developing stress reduction programmes. Some stressor-outcome relationships (such as job satisfaction, self-esteem, propensity to leave the organisation, and health) were looked at, after which the possible moderating effect of certain variables (gender, personality, coping style, job pressure, and organisational support) were considered. The study adopted a cross-sectional design and the data was collected using both quantitative and qualitative means. The sample consisted of 290 managers all of whom belong to one of the country's largest financial institutions, and work in one of'the various branches in and around the Gauteng region. Correlations, t-tests, anovas and a content analysis were used to evaluate the stressor-outcome relationships. In addition to these statistical analyses, moderated multiple linear regressions were conducted in order to test for any moderating variables. Overall, most of the stressor-outcome relationships were found to be significant, but the number of actual moderating variables was shown to be rather minimal. Inaddition. the information which was derived from the content analysis served to add some insight into the sometimes contradictory findings, An in-depth look at the findings of the present study can be found in the discussion section, where possible reasons and explanation for the result- are presented. Theoretical and practical implications of the study, together With the limitations, are offered. Following this, some important guidelines and suggestions for future research are considered.
AC2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities University of the Witwatersrand In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Organisational Psychology
Stratified Systems Theory classifies roles within organisations according to varying discontinuous levels or layers of work (Stamp, 1981). These levels are differentiated according to the time frames within which employees typically see results, the level of responsibility they are expected to take on, as well as the complexity of the work they are engaged in (Jaques, 2007a). The aim of the current study was to contribute towards existing literature on managerial derailment by investigating whether there is an association between the level of work and the risk of derailing behaviour, and if the degree of fit between an individual’s level of work and their current and future cognitive capability is associated with the risk of derailing behaviour. Derailing behaviour is conceptualised as destructive actions that have a detrimental effect on the career progression or success of an individual (Freedman, 2005). Archival data was made available to the researcher from a single large, international telecommunications organisation based in South Africa. Participants who had been assessed using the Modified Career Path Appreciation (MCPA) as well as the Hogan Development Survey (HDS) were included in the study. The final sample (n=252) consisted of managers working at various levels of the organisation who had been assessed for the purposes of either selection or development during 2015. Overall, the research hypotheses were not supported. Contrary to what was expected, a higher level of work was not associated with a greater risk of derailing behaviour. In fact, a greater number of derailers were evident at a lower level of work when compared to a slightly higher level of work. Furthermore, contrary to what was hypothesised, those whose level of work exceeded their current or future capabilities did not display a greater risk of derailing behaviour than those who achieved fit with their environment. On the contrary, a greater risk of derailing behaviour was found for those whose current or future capabilities exceeded that required by their level of work. No differences in the types of derailing behaviour reported were found to be associated with the level of work an individual is operating at, the degree of fit they experience between their current capability and their work environment, or the degree of fit they experience between their future capability and their work environment. All the analyses conducted reinforced the same finding that participants in the sample were more likely to report a high risk of displaying derailers falling into the ‘moving against’ category, regardless of these factors.
GR2017

碩士
國立臺北大學
企業管理學系
96
Business executives are the prime players in a developing organization. As the market is getting more and more competitive at the present era, there is not easy for an organization to create high margin profitability. Reciprocally, business executives are shouldering increasing work pressure to establish better job performance. For business executives in their workplaces, the questions on how to cope with various work pressure, how to gain work satisfaction as well as to achieve satisfactory performance, have become new issues and challenges for them inevitably. The objective of this research is to study how business executives with different characteristics carry out self evaluation on work satisfaction and performance under stress. The individual characteristic of a business executive (categorized according to his or her gender, age, education level, and marital status, year of servicing), promotion in work placement, work categories, personal assets and the variables of populations are taken into account to this research. The study also aims to further understand how the business executives with different backgrounds will be affected by the impact of work pressure. This research was completed by using sampling method and questionnaire. The total of 235 questionnaires were sent out and 188 valed questionnaires were collected to carry out the analysis. The statistical analysis was conducted by using SPSS statistic software. The series of reliability analysis, descriptive statistic, correlation analysis, T-distribution analysis, single factor variables analysis, Multi-Variables Analysis and multiple regression analysis were carried out. Conforming the various analysis patterns, the below findings and conclusions are established: 1. Work pressure is negatively related to work satisfaction. 2. Work satisfaction is positively related to job performance. 3. Work pressure is negatively related to job performance. 4. Work pressure, work satisfaction and job performance appear to be differents due to some demographic characteristics.

Three questionnaires were administered to 75 workers and 75 middle managers in the Durban-based Portnet business unit of Transnet. The aims of this administration were the following: * to establish whether there is any relationship between perceived stress and general health within a single occupational group of middle managers and workers separately (horizontal comparisons). * to find out if there are any differences between the perceived stress, coping strategies and the general health of the middle managers and that of the workers (vertical comparisons). It was found that the relationship between high levels of perceived stress and the general health is very weak. This was attributed to the effectiveness of the coping strategies used by the members of the two occupational groups in their work environment. Significant differences between middle managers and workers on perceived stress, coping strategies and the general health were also established. These differences were ascribed to the different content and contextual work dimensions existing in these two occupational levels.
Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, 1993.

M.A. (Psychology)
The purpose of this study was to establish whether stress at various levels of management􀌀 namely Executive 1 Senior and Middle Management levels and between various Companies differed depending on personality related. environment related and family related variables. The theoretical basis for this study was that potential causes of stress (independent variables) such as person, environment, and family related variables manifested in stress (dependent variables) leading to physical and emotional ill-health and certain behavioural manifestations ...

M.A. (Social Sciences)
Presently a fine balance between South Africa's politics and the industrial situation exists. The South African political focus was aimed at fulfilling the clamouring of America and Europe, and not tailored for the South Africa situation that asks for reciprocity. This immediate way of handling the South Africa political field, has resulted in the industry being at the receiving end of the country's political controversies. What we find in the industry is a total distortion of white male managers occupying 88.2% of all the middle and senior positions, whilst 75% of the South African population consist out of blacks. A very poor representation of African managers is thus visible in the industry that asks for change, reformation and renewal. These changes that are required, will have to take place within a limited accelerated time span, which might be revolutionary rather than evolutionary. Limited research has been done on coping during stressful situations (Feldman & Brett, 1983; Latack, 1986; Burke & Belcourt, 1974; Newton & Keenan, 1985 and Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). The research that had been implemented was taxonomic (Burke & Belcourt in Newton & Keenan, 1985:108). This scientific research is about the stress management and coping skills of Afrocentric and Eurocentric middle managers. These managers are employed by Eskom which implies a working milieu that has been exposed to reorganisation, structural changes and rationalisation. An important component of .this research, is that the Eurocentric middle managers are being compared with the Afrocentric middle managers regarding their work and life circumstances and coping skills one or two months before South Africa's very first democratic election that took place on the 27th April 1994. It was important to assess the climate within Eskom as an organisation regarding the white versus the black managers just before a third world democratisation.

碩士
南臺科技大學
教育領導與評鑑研究所
107
This study aims at exploring the relationship among work stress, job burnout and job satisfaction of elementary school teachers in Tainan City. It adopted questionnaire survey method. Based on 209 elementary schools in Tainan City and 6,451 teachers in total, it divided the classes into three levels according to each schools’s scale and its number of classes: fewer than 12 classes (including 12 classes), 13 to 48 classes, and more than 49 classes (including 49 classes). According to the allocation percentage of each level, it adopted stratified sampling to send out questionnaires. It applied questionnaire survey to 32 public elementary schools, sent out 350 questionnaires and collected 319 ones; the collection rate was 91.1%. Among them, there were 312 valid questionnaires and 7 invalid ones; the effective questionnaire rate was 97.8%. The data acquired were analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, Tukey’s post-hoc test, Pearson product-moment correlation, stepwise multiple regression analysis and mediation regression analysis. The research findings were as follows: 1. The teachers presented the moderate level on the overall working stress, job burnout and job satisfaction. 2. In terms of working stress risk management, “job role” performed the best, then “workplace relationship”, “colleagues’ and social support”, “work change”, “supervisors’ and social support”, “job control”; “job requirements” preformed the worst. 3. Age and marriage had no effect on working stress risk management, job burnout and job satisfaction. 4. The teachers with 10 to 14 years teaching experience and also as team leaders presented inferior in job burnout. 5. The classroom teachers presented better in job satisfaction. 6. There was apparent relation between risk management of the teachers’ working stress and job satisfaction. 7. There was apparent relation between the teachers’ job burnout and job satisfaction. 8. The teachers’ working stress possessed predictability on job satisfaction. 9 There was apparent partial media between the working stress risk management of the teachers’ job burnout and job satisfaction.

Due to employment equity legislation that opened up opportunities for women, women are under pressure to perform at work - something that may affect their occupational stress and impact on both the individual and the organisation. The respondents comprise six women managers in a market research organisastion. The respondents' perception of stress was supported by qualitative research methods and compared to the researcher's Organisational Stress Model. From the data it is evident that stressors at work such as workload, relationships, role overload and individual traits primarily affect the respondents' experience of stress. These stressors have an effect on respondents' perceptions of stress and impacts on their productivity and personal life. The respondents denoted a necessity for skills development in order to enhance themselves at work and on a personal level. The study has furthermore found that stress at work can, however, be somewhat alleviated by implementing stress programmes in organisations.
Psychology
M.A. (Navorsingsielkunde)

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts Masters (Industrial/ Organisational Psychology) in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. March, 2016
This study investigated whether the lifestyle behaviours and psychological well-being of women executives and managers predicted their ten-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The sample of South African women executives and managers work in a variety of industries in the cities of Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. The study sought to determine the predictability of the women executives and managers’ risk of developing cardiovascular disease through examining their level of alcohol consumption, level of physical exercise and the nutritional and dietary choices that they made as well as their level of depression, anxiety and stress. The data was gathered through an executive health and wellness programme and logistic regression and Chi-squared tests of association were used in conducting the analyses. The results suggested that the level of alcohol consumption and the nutritional and dietary choices made were predictive of the individual’s ten-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Additionally, the level of anxiety was found to be associated with the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The results suggest that both individuals and organisations should prioritise the changing of unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, specifically excessive alcohol consumption and daily dietary choices, in order to lower their risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
MT2017

This thesis examines work stress in the Community Services Sector (CSS) in Victoria. Psychological injuries are extremely high in the CSS (WorkSafe Victoria), and yet there has been no research specifically addressing this issue in the sector. Further, there has been little research that examines workers’ perspectives of work stress. The thesis thus focuses on the ‘missing voices’ of workers by outlining what workers have to say about work stress, its causes and its effects. In order to place this research into both its historical and socio-political contexts, the genealogical roots of work in the CSS are examined and the impact of neo-liberalism on the sector critically assessed.

M.A. (Social Work)
There are some drastic changes that took place in Telkom SA during the past six years. The extent andpace of these changes could lead to increased stress levels in employees and especially technical managers. This study undertakes an exploratory and descriptive investigation into the manifestation of work / stress in the lives oftechnical managers employed by Telkom. The study has a dual purpose, namely to explore work stress from a social work perspective and to determine to which extent the technical managers experience work stress. Four measuring instruments were used during the empirical research. A description of the group ofrespondents was obtained by way of a biographical questionnaire. The use of the experience ofwork and life circumstances questionnaire (WLQJ provided information about the stress levels ofrespondents and the stressors that influence respondents. The stress reaction questionnaire gives a quantitative indication of the stress reactions and symptoms which manifests in managers. This questionnaire also served as a cross correlationfor the WLQresults. Focus group discussions were facilitated to obtain information about the envisaged nature and impact ofspecific stressors in Telkom. Most respondents presented normal stress levels on the WQL results, while 64% of the respondents presented high levels of stress reactions (symptoms). Respondents with high stress levels also had high levels ofstress reactions. Managers in the age category 35 - 39 years with 0 - 5 years experience on management levels and in the Free State- and Northern Cape region apparently had higher stress levels and stress reactions. Respondents from the Northern Cape area presented higher stress levels than their colleagues in the other areas. Stressors such as organizationalfunctioning and task content was perceived by all respondents as being most stressful. Recommendations with reference to the study are made: Industrial social workers in Telkom can present programmes to improve the internal capacity of managers to deal with stress. Programmes can include include stress control, management support the establishment of support networks and mid-life crisis information. A further recommendation is that human resource sections must join forces to ensure career planning, effective organizational structures and healthy management culture. It is recommended thatfurther research in this regard must be undertaken.

A large body of research has documented the deleterious relationship between work stress and health and wellbeing. This research has also examined which factors intrinsic and extrinsic to the individual create variations in this pattern of relationship. Two notable factors in this regard are gender and social support. Previous research has indicated that gender and social support can lead to variations in the way individuals perceive, cope with and react to stress. This research has also indicated that gender can influence the extent to which individuals will effectively utilise different sources of social support. However, much of this research has focused on a dichotomous conceptualisation of gender, restricting the exploration of gender to that which is biologically defined. Research advances have been made utilising Bem’s (1974) Theory of Psychological Androgyny. This theory has acknowledged and explored socially constructed ‘within gender’ differences of masculinity and femininity, proposing that androgyny, defined as an equal balance of masculine and feminine traits within an individual, independent of biological sex, is the ideal with regard to experienced optimal health and wellbeing. While this theory has enjoyed a vast empirical base that indicates that those with an androgynous sex role identity tend to enjoy the greatest health and wellbeing; the research on psychological androgyny has not been without its limitations. Competing models of gender identity, such as the ‘Differentiated Model have suggested that gender identities are made up of both socially desirable and socially undesirable sex-typed behavioural traits; this model promoting a ‘new prescription’ for gender in the 21st century. This new prescription requires the acknowledgement of both types of sex-based behavioural traits, expanding the conceptualisation of gender to take into account both negative and positive sex-based feminine and masculine traits, that is, traits that are both socially desirable and undesirable in terms of masculinity and femininity. This new prescription thus intends to segregate and explore the relationship between socially desirable and socially undesirable sex- typed behavioural traits to health and wellbeing. Consequently, the present study adopts this prescription in order to examine this expanded conceptualisation of sex role identity, utilising a South African sample of female managers. More specifically, the present study examines the relationship between socially desirable and socially undesirable sex role identities and perceptions of work stress, social support, psychological wellbeing and self-esteem. In addition, the present study examines the moderating effect of social support in the relationship between indicators of work stress and wellbeing. The Extended Personality Attributes Questionnaire (EPAQ) was revised and utilised to assess the expanded conceptualisation of both socially desirable and socially undesirable sex role identities within a South African sample of 1477 female managers accessed from two national financial institutions and one tertiary institution. Results of the study indicate that the socially desirable, positively valenced identities fare better on health indicators than the socially undesirable, negatively valenced identities. In all instances positively valenced sex role identities perceive the least stress and have the highest level of psychological wellbeing and self-esteem as compared to the negatively valenced identities. Clearly those with negative identities, more particularly those that were negatively feminine or negatively androgynous are significantly worse off in terms of health and wellbeing than those with positive identities. Overall, the hypotheses proposing significant differences between positive identities, that is, positive androgyny and the negative femininity and negative androgyny, with a few exceptions, were supported. Three sources of social support, that is, colleague, supervisor and partner support had a main effect on psychological wellbeing while all five sources, that is colleague, supervisor, partner, family and friend had a main effect on self-esteem. With regard to moderating effects, both colleague and supervisor support interacted with work stress to moderate the relationship between work stress and psychological wellbeing to reduce the impact of work stress on wellbeing. None of the non-work sources of support interacted to moderate the effect of work stress on psychological wellbeing. In addition no interaction effects for all sources of support were observed for self-esteem with the exception of friend support which moderated the relationship between work stress and self-esteem. However, this interaction effect was in an unexpected direction, in that friend support exacerbated the relationship; indicating that the higher the social support the lower the self-esteem. Based on the results of the study and the methodology utilised, a number of strengths and weaknesses of the present research are identified. With regard to strengths, the present study has added to the literature on sex role identity and its implication for female managers within a South African context by identifying specific positive sex role identities and specific negative sex role identities and their relationship to health and wellbeing indicators within an occupational context. In addition, the findings of the present research suggest that there may be specific contingencies pertaining to stressor situations, the contexts within which they occur and the domains upon which they predict, which may prescribe which sex role identity may be most or least beneficial in terms of health and wellbeing. Study limitations have both theoretical and methodological implications for future research. In particular, issues pertaining to the measurement of gender are outlined that need to be resolved by future researchers in order to effectively measure the construct of gender and its relationship to wellbeing. In addition, in order to determine which sex role identities will have the most or least beneficial health effects, future researchers need to develop and explore specificity hypotheses that enable the examination of gender in relation to specific stressors within specific socio-cultural contexts and the relationship thereof to particular predictor domains.

The work of ambulance paramedics is usually physically and emotionally draining and can place significant amounts of pressure on the emergency service worker. The work they do can impact their social life, their family and ultimately, their health. The primary aim of this research was to explore the psychological and social coping strategies of ambulance paramedics, in dealing with the day to day aspects of their work in the context of their long term health and well-being. A secondary aim was to examine the use of current peer support programs and other referral services used by paramedics. This study was a qualitative exploration of the experiences of ambulance paramedics through interviewing. Qualitative research has allowed the researcher to capture the stories of individuals, in their own words. This study included nine novice paramedics (first year) and 12 longer term employed (five plus years) paramedics within Rural Ambulance Victoria. Participants were also recruited to reflect the gender ratio in the paramedic workforce.

Die studie foku.s op die verwantskap tussen sin vir koherensie as 'n intrinsieke hanteringsbron aan die een kant, en elk van streshantering, algemene gesondheid en sielkundige uitbranding aan die antler kant. Vraelyste wat hierdie veranderlikes meet is aan 200 bestuurders gegee om te voltooi. Die bevindinge van hierdie studie toon aan dat bestuurders met 'n hoi! sin vir koherensie goeie algemene gesondheid geniet. Die bestuurder met 'n hoi! sin vir koherensie behoon dus meer e.ffektief te junksioneer in die werksiruasie as die bestuurder met 'n lae sin vir koherensie. Voons is ook bevind dar 'n hoi! sin vir koherensie nie noodwendig aanleiding gee tot lae vlakke van stres of van sielkundige uitbranding nie. Aanbevelings word gedoen oor hoe om die negatiewe gevolge van stres en sielkundige uitbranding te venninder en algemene gesondheid te bevorder, ten einde die bestuurder se potensiaal optimaal benut.
This study focuses on the relationship between sense of coherence as an intrinsic coping mechanism. and work stress, general health and psychological burnout. To measure these variables, questionnaires were completed by 200 managers. The findings of this study indicate that managers with a high sense of coherence experience good general health. The manager with a high sense of coherence should therefore junction more efficiently in a work situation·than the manager with a low sense of coherence. It was also found that a high sense of coherence does not necessarily lead to low levels of stress nor of psychological burnout. Recommentfations are made on how to reduce the negative effects of stress and psychological burnout and how to improve general health in order to make optimal use of the manager's potential.
Industrial and Organisational Psychology
MCom (Bedryfsielkunde)

Previous research has highlighted general practitioners (GPs) maladaptive coping efforts, but little is known about GPs who appear to adapt positively to their inherently demanding work. This study aimed to address this knowledge gap by identifying factors that optimise GPs adaptation to working in general practice. A qualitative methodology underpinned by a constructionist epistemological stance was used. Twenty-six semistructured individual interviews with suburban and rural GPs in the State of Victoria aged between 24 and 77 years were conducted. GPs identified work demands consistent with previous research: time pressure, long hours of work, heavy workload, and pace of work; work interfering with non-work/family, threat of malpractice litigation, and bureaucratic interference. However, the degree of concern and coping responses was varied; some GPs appraised the work demands as a threat while others considered them an opportunity. GPs adopted a range of adaptive behaviours to manage and resolve work demands that were influenced by six key elements. These were: (1) the degree of work centrality to GPs, (2) the inclination of GPs towards integration or segmentation of work and non-work/family domains, (3) situational factors in the general practice and non-work/family domains, (4) ability to psychologically detach from GP role (5) choice of respite activity, and (6) adequate recovery from work demands. An heuristic schema that brings together these six elements and their implications for GP adaptation was presented. Understanding and self-knowledge about work orientation, and preference for integrating and segmenting life domains, point to the need for tailored respite strategies that facilitate psychological detachment, recovery of resources, and successful adaptation to working in general practice and life as a GP. This knowledge may also assist medical students to prepare for meeting the challenges of their future medical careers.