Stress, Coping and Management

A considerable amount of research has been devoted to the manner in which individuals cope with stressful situations in daily organizational life. Coping efforts can either mitigate feelings of stress, have no impact on felt stress, or exacerbate felt stress when coping efforts fail. During the last two decades, as coping research has evolved, some researchers have focused on the trait-like aspect of coping, emphasizing the stable coping styles of individuals. Others have taken a state or situational approach, emphasizing the dynamic features of coping and viewing it as a process. Still others have taken the middle ground, treating coping patterns as stable, situation-specific styles that individuals develop over time and deploy in stressful situations.

One of the first models of stress, labeled the general adaptation syndrome, posits that, under stress, an individual senses alarm and either flees or adapts to the situation. Focusing on how individuals adapt to stress, R. S. Lazarus and his colleagues provided perhaps the most studied model of coping, often referred to as the appraisal or transactional model of stress. According to this model, coping comprises behavioral, cognitive, and emotional efforts aimed at managing external and internal demands, thereby managing felt stress and restoring an individual's sense of equilibrium. The transactional model of the stress process includes both a primary appraisal of the stressor and a secondary appraisal of the coping mechanisms available to the individual.

The primary appraisal of a stressor will differ among individuals because perceptions of a particular stressor can vary given personality characteristics (e.g., negative affectivity, optimism, locus of control), knowledge of a stressor, or experience with a stressor. For example, a new graduate who is hired to prepare complex tax returns by the April 15 deadline will likely perceive the seasonal volume of work to be more threatening than does an experienced tax preparer who is familiar with the laws, required forms, and recurring deadline. An individual with high self-efficacy within a specific domain will perceive stressors within that domain differently than an individual who feels less efficacious and less in control. Finally, individuals with an external locus of control may perceive that sources of stress at work are beyond their control (e.g., organizational policies) and withdraw more quickly from a source of stress than an individual with an internal locus of control who is actively engaged in influencing his or her outcomes. Individuals' reactions to stressors also differ given their perceptions of the coping choices available within the organizational context, relationships with a supervisor, and other organizational resources. In sum, individuals assess the means by which they can regain control of the situation that is generating negative feelings of stress. A large body of literature suggests that perceptions of greater control aid in reducing felt stress.

Lazarus and his colleagues argue that strain results when a person feels unable to cope with an identified threat. In other words, not every potential stressor becomes a source of strain for an individual. In the appraisal model, individuals assess whether events in the work environment have implications for their well-being. Those deemed irrelevant have no bearing on well-being. Events that could affect well-being trigger a secondary appraisal in which individuals determine the adequacy of their coping resources. In a related approach, the cybernetic model of stress and coping proposes that the discrepancy between the individual's current state and desired state affects psychological well-being and activates coping as the individual seeks to restore well-being directly or alter the source of stress. Feelings of stress spur individuals to find a method of coping that restores a sense of cognitive and emotional balance.

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