Michael R. Manning

Occupational stress, social support, and the costs of health care.

Relationships among health care costs, social support, and occupational stress are investigated. Health care cost data were collected over two years for 260 working individuals. Multiple regression analyses were used to control for initial health care costs, age, and gender in predicting later costs; independent variables were stress, strain, social support, and their interactions. Main effects and interactions each accounted for significant proportions of the variance in various health care costs.

Cause Maps, Sensemaking, and Planned Organizational Change

This study represents a first attempt to employ cognitive cause-mapping techniques to explore individual sensemaking during a planned organizational change. The authors evaluated the contribution of this method as a vehicle for exploring sensemaking processes during a change effort. Study data revealed that cause mapping generates a rich source of information, demonstrates a high degree of content validity, and is a particularly useful technique for capturing the dynamics of sensemaking. The study also provided needed longitudinal and structural analyses of cause maps. Results showed significant differences in cause map content over time without corresponding differences in cause map structure. An integrated model of sensemaking during organizational change is offered.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STRESS AND HEALTH CARE USE: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE BUFFERING ROLES OF PERSONALITY, SOCIAL SUPPORT AND EXERCISE

The main and interactive effects of social support, physical exercise, and personal hardiness on objective measures of health were investigated using a longitudinal research design. Data were collected from 192 working adults. Results showed main effects for hardiness and exercise on the dependent variables of health care costs and the number of health insurance claims filed. Hardiness appeared to be associated with fewer health problems. Contrary to prediction, those who exercised more appeared to have greater health care use. Three-way interactions suggested that health care use was lowest for those high in all three resistance resources: exercise: hardiness: and social support. But, the converse of this reasoning, that absence of these resources is associated with higher levels of illness, was not entirely supported. The interactions suggested that hardiness in the absence of exercise and social support was associated with the highest health care costs. The highest number of claims was apparent for those exhibiting hardiness and exercise. Thus, the presence of exercise, hardiness, and social support seemed to decrease health care use, but the factors contributing to greater health costs and claims were more complicated to interpret.

Psychosocial Predictors of Health Status Revisited

A one-year prospective design was used to explore health care costs, claims, and job burnout in relation to the following predictors: work and life stress, social support, exercise, Type A behavior, and personal hardiness. Nowacks (1991) model guided the study. A sample of 260 working adults from two organizations participated. Bivariate correlational results suggested that stressful work events were positively related to health care costs and the number of claims filed. With regard to job burnout, (a) stress appeared positively related to personal accomplishment and (b) Type A behavior was associated with greater emotional exhaustion. Higher job satisfaction, social support, and Type A behavior were associated with an increased sense of personal accomplishment. Findings concerning objective health indicators are discussed in relation to previous results pertaining to self-reports of health/illness.

Developing First Encounters of the Close Kind: A Beginning Class Exercise

Initial meetings with new colleagues or teammates frequently give rise to behaviors such as nervousness, shyness, sarcasm, or false joviality. These behaviors can make the formation of a strong working relationship very slow and even difficult. This article presents an exercise for helping one interact more comfortably and effectively during a first encounter. The exercise provides a basis for improved interpersonal interaction and teamwork throughout the relationship or class. The exercise also leads to an exploration of individual entry behaviors and an examination of the effectiveness of those behaviors in developing a collaborative learning environment. The exercise can be used to introduce important management course topics (i.e., decision making, leadership, attitudes and perceptions, communication processes, interpersonal style, group dynamics, issues of trust, and organizing processes) via experiential methods. The success of this exercise is discussed along with a pedagogical framework for class discussion guided by Kolb’s experiential learning model.