"Which coping strategies does the working environment offer you?" A field study of the
distributed nature of stress and coping
Engelsk titel: "Which coping strategies does the working environment offer you?" A field study of the
distributed nature of stress and coping
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Författare:
Kirkegaard, Tanja
;
Brinkmann, Svend
Email: tanja.kirkegaard@gmail.com
Språk: Eng
Antal referenser: 0
Dokumenttyp:
Artikel
UI-nummer: 16045331
Sammanfattning
This study explores work stress as a cultural phenomenon, distributed socially and materially,
by introducing the metaphor of a landscape of appraisal and coping. By using this landscape
analogy, it is emphasized that concrete contexts invite employees to appraise the situations at work
in a certain way and afford using certain coping strategies rather than others. This study uses data
based on a field study in one department of a multinational company and demonstrates how
definitions of stress, appraisals of the working environment and coping strategies vary across
professional groups. Furthermore, the study indicates that these different appraisal and coping
practices are deeply embedded in the concrete context in the sense that the different aspects of the
working environment such as the physical surroundings, the work organization, the social
interactions and cultural characteristics both separately and combined invite the employees to
engage in distinct appraisals and coping practices and limit the use of others. By invoking the
landscape metaphor, we aim to expand our understanding of stress as something more than a
transaction between the individual and a specific stressful situation at work.