Marc J. Schabracq

The changing nature of work and stress

Considers the architecture and production of everyday life and its positive outcomes, as well as ways of disrupting it, resulting in the loss of these outcomes. Indirectly, such disruption might be brought about by the possible effects of the huge, interacting global changes (in the fields of macro‐economics, technology, culture and politics) on our organisations. These changes force organisations to change themselves too, in order to survive. Some of these forms of adaptation are discussed. Looking at their consequences on the everyday life of their employees, the article roughly distinguishes two kinds of consequences. The article indicates a number of possible sources of stress, and some approaches and interventions that may mitigate their possible harmful effects. Moreover, it concludes that such interventions can have more general positive effects for the organisation, because stress‐related complaints can be indicators of underlying factors that may negatively affect other organisational goals as well.

Toward a Phenomenological Framework for the Study of Work and Organizational Stress

In this article, elements from different stress models are embedded in a phenomenological framework for work and organization stress based on practical insights on the one hand and ideas and methods from ethology, microsociology, and cultural anthropology on the other. The framework is compatible with most of the existing research and theoretical views, and pays attention to some lacunas in these views. The central concept is integrity, i.e., the ways in which the process of situated individual functioning is organized in a niche, consisting of a limited set of situations. Integrity refers to the internal integration of individual functioning and the integration of the individual in his or her niche (and thereby in an organization and society at large). Integrity is a multileveled process with considerable individual variation, characterized by signification, morality, and individual experiences, which, with the help of four auxiliary verbs, can be analyzed in terms of individual options for action. Inadequate integrity may result from underdevelopment, decay, change, and intrusions by external events or an ongoing stress process. These can be described as (overlapping, and often coinciding) stress sources. In this respect, the framework makes a distinction between stressors that primarily affect the task itself and stressors that disturb the immediate environment of the task. All these stressors can be described as a matter of too much or too little on a great number of variables, of which usually only the medium range is conducive to adequate integrity. Lastly, attention is paid to stress reactions, which can act as stressors in their own right.

Diabetes, employment and fatigue-related complaints: A comparison between diabetic employees, "healthy" employees, and employees with other chronic diseases.

The work situation and fatigue-related complaints of employees with diabetes (N = 141) were compared with “healthy” employees (N = 8946) and employees with other chronic diseases (N = 1883). Baseline data from a Dutch Cohort Study on Fatigue at Work were used to test differences in background variables, work characteristics, lifestyle factors, and fatigue-related complaints. Odds ratios were calculated for prolonged fatigue, the need for recovery, burnout, and psychological distress. Results showed that employees with diabetes work more daytime hours and work less overtime than the other groups. If they have no comorbidity, they are no more likely to report fatigue-related complaints than “healthy” employees, except for a depressed mood. Comorbidity (the presence of one or more additional chronic diseases) is associated with increased fatigue-related complaints. Therefore, this group will need special attention from professionals.

High sensory-processing sensitivity at work

In this study, the construct validity of an instrument for the measurement of sensory-processing sensitivity (SPS), the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS), was examined. Among the outcomes, first, the results confirm an earlier conclusion of researchers that the HSPS does not measure a one-dimensional construct. Most hypotheses concerning relationships with the personality variables sense of coherence, alienation, self-efficacy, and negative affectivity were supported. Second, the SPS-construct was introduced into the field of work stress. Positive relationships with work stress facets pertaining to the second stage of stress were found. Third, the user-friendliness of the HSPS was addressed by shortening the instrument without affecting its reliability and validity. Implications for interventions are discussed.

Flexibility of Labor, Well-Being, and Stress

After a short introduction into the changing nature of our society and organizations, we outline two kinds of flexibility of labor: qualitative flexibility, that is the degree to which people who work in or for a certain organization can and do perform different tasks, and quantitative flexibility, that is, varying the quantity of personnel and their working hours. Then, the different ways in which we organize our work and organizations are dealt with in terms of quantitative and qualitative flexibility. Next, we survey these ways of organizing on the degree to which they moderate the positive individual outcomes, or individual goals, of work. It can be concluded that quantitatively flexible work, besides some minor positive consequences, may have serious negative consequences for ones well-being, health, and personal development, while qualitative flexibility may have many more advantages, though it may lead to a devastating task overload. Last, we explore some ways to alleviate these negative effects.

To be me or not to be me: About alienation

This article is about the experiential side of the concept of alienation and its relations to the stress process in the context of work and organization. We distinguish two kinds of alienation: primary alienation, the experience or feeling that something is different from normal, and secondary alienation, the absence of an experience of or feeling about something abnormal. After having gone into everyday reality and how it can be so disturbed that alienation ensues, we go further into the experiences involved in both kinds of alienation and their positive and negative consequences. Secondary alienation is described as a common final path in the second stage of a human stress process. In the discussion, we pay attention to the social scientific tradition of alienation as result of an evil societal influence, which has turned out to be an unfortunate approach. Instead, we advocate an approach that conceives alienation as the outcome of a personal choice. Lastly we indicate shortly what can be done about secondary alienation.

Stress, Performance, and Organizational Cultures

This study concentrates on some issues concerning the origins and developmental patterns of salutogenesis, i.e., health fostering coping style. First, we identify a number of environmental factors reportedly connected to successful coping with stress. Then we describe a method with which we can analyze team cultures and identify cultural factors related to team health. Finally, we present some results that we obtained while testing this method on several teams of middle management in an industrial enterprise. These results suggest that an “and–and” approach to coordination of actions (as opposed to an “or–or” approach), and a clear awareness of the value of specialized contributions to the total outcome play a significant role in improving the well-being of teams.

Team cultures, stress and health

The article describes a method for in-depth analysis of team cultures. Culture may be defined as the way in which a group of people solve problems, ie team culture represents the coping repertoire of a given team in its specific operational domain. As such, culture influences the way the team deals with stress and consequently affects the overall health of the team. Culture comprises a pattern of shared basic assumptions, which operate on more or less unconscious levels and, thus, are not easy to identify during tranquil periods. However, various cultural patterns become visible in critical situations. The present method investigates team cultures by simulating critical incidents via dilemmas. The method analyses four cultural dimensions—adaptation, goal attainment, integration and pattern maintenance—and uses neural networks for data processing. Cultural ‘maps’ obtained by applying this method to six middle management teams in an industrial enterprise reporting excellent to average health are presented. The ‘maps’ can be used for identification of areas where the existing culture can be enriched to improve the coping capability of the teams.