Week 5 WorksheetDirections For this assignment complete the work sh.docx

Week 5 WorksheetDirections: For this assignment complete the
work sheet below. Please type out your answers on a separate
Word document and then upload it . Don’t forget to number
your answers so they can be matched up to the correct question.
1. People were asked how many miles they lived from work.
The responses were
22, 20, 1, 25, 35, 23, 18, 5, 22, 22, 15, 7, 14, 21, 5, 9 and 13.
The national average distance from work is 20 miles. Find the
following:
a) Mean
b) Median
c) Mode
d) Standard deviation
e) Z-Score
f) Range
d) What would be the most appropriate measure of central
tendency and why? Does this data represent a skewed
distribution? Why or Why not?
2. At a pet store, a survey was taken asking how many pets each
person had. The results were: 2, 5, 3, 1, 0, 4, 2, 7, 0, 2, 5, 1, 2,
6, 2, 10, 7, 3. The population average is 2. Find the following:
a) Mean
b) Median
c) Mode
e) Z-Score
f) Range

3. A sample of eight students were randomly selected and asked,
"How many times did you check your email yesterday?" The
numbers were: 3, 0, 8, 7, 10, 2, 6, 12, 45, 82, 1, 23, 11, 4, 55, 0.
The average number of email checks in the population is 16.
a) Mean
b) Median
c) Mode
e) Z-Score
f) Range
Running Head: ORGANZIATIONAL CULTURE AND
PRODUCTION 1
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND PRODUCTION 2
Organizational Culture and production
Name
Institutional Affiliation

Maamari, B., & Saheb, A. (2018). How organizational culture
and leadership style affect employees’ performance of genders.
International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 630–651.
Organization Culture and Production
Summary
The topic of the source is how organizational culture and
leadership affect employees’ performance of gender. The
authors sought to research on how the leaders’ choice and
corporate culture influence employees. The study aimed to
investigate if there is statistical evidence of the significant
effects of organizational culture on the performance of the
various genders and whether the leadership style in such an
organization has an impact on the relationships. The study used
observational method to conduct quantitative research and
observation to identify organizational behavior and regularities.
The study uses past literature on organizational culture,
leadership, and performance in validating and carrying out the
research (Maamari & Saheb, 2018). The authors concluded that
the leadership style chosen by the organization and the
organization culture has an effect on employee performance and
gender implication.
Analysis
The authors have clearly outlined the research question, which
was to identify the effects of leadership style and organization
culture on employee’s performance. They have followed this
strictly throughout the study by first covering on previous
studies that have cover areas such as leadership style,
organizational culture and performance thus their research adds
value to the previous research which did not cover on gender.
The theoretical framework of the study was not clearly captured
as the authors have briefly discussed it, and a reader cannot
identify it or understand it. The research methodology chosen
by the authors was appropriate for the study as they have
carried out an in-depth observation on organization set up. The
authors issued questionnaires to the respondents, which is an

effective method of obtaining information to the anonymous
nature of the results. The sample size was also efficient for the
study. In addition to the research questions, a survey was also
conducted in the course of the research, thus supplying extra
information to the researcher as well as validating information
obtained from the research group (Maamari & Saheb, 2018).
The authors have outlined the limitations of the study so clearly
so that future research on the same area can be carried out
efficiently.
Application
The research has provided reach knowledge in the field of
organization management as it has clearly shown how
leadership style and organization culture influences
performance. It has gone a notch higher in also explaining
the effects of leadership and culture on gender performance.
This information is very important in the business world today
as the issue of gender and performance has not been clearly
covered by previous researchers. It thus feels the gap in the
field of organizational performance as it offers new information
which has not been previously covered. The study is very
relevant to me as I can rely upon it when carrying out a project
related to organizational culture, leadership, or gender-related
performance (Maamari & Saheb, 2018). The article has a
universal application as in every organization, there is a chosen
leadership style an organization culture which influences
performance and gender hence, it can be applied in any
organization set up.
Running Head: INQURY-BASED STRESS REDUCTION 1
INQUIRY-BASED STRESS REDUCTION 3

Inquiry- Based Stress Reduction
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Lia, S., Inbal, M., Keren, Z., Zehavit, G., & Shahar, L. ( 2017).
Inquiry-Based Stress Reduction Meditation Technique for
Teacher Burnout: A Qualitative Study. Mind, Brain, and
Education , 75-82.
Inquiry- Based Stress Reduction
Summary
The source covers on the stress reduction on teachers using an
inquiry-based technique. The authors of the article realized that
there was a problem encountered by teachers as they carried out
their day to day duties which caused them to have burnouts as
well as affecting their mental wellness. They conducted
research on teachers to identify how effective Enquiry-based
stress reduction technique was on reducing these cases of
burnout and emotional, mental load. The authors identified a
gap in research where other researcher had carried out research
on teachers but the idea to investigate the effects on
mindfulness-stress based intervention. This created a gap in
research which necessitated the need for the research. The
participants of the study were teachers of a high school in
Israel, and the chosen research design was the
phenomenological analysis method (Lia, Inbal, Keren, Zehavit,
& Shahar, 2017). From the research, the authors concluded that
that Inquiry based stress reduction technique had an effect of
reducing burnout in teachers.
Analysis
Teachers sought to answer the question of whether an Inquiry-

based stress mediation technique can have a positive effect on
burnout. They used teachers as their research respondent.
Throughout the research study, the author stuck by the
questions as they tried to answer this research question, which
was clearly formulated. They contributed significantly to the
body of knowledge as previous researches have only studied
burnout in teacher using different techniques other than the
Inquiry-based technique. The authors chose a phenomenological
analysis method, which was appropriate for the research study.
They chose a sample size of 27 teachers from a high school in
Israel, which was appropriate for the study as it was manageable
(Lia, Inbal, Keren, Zehavit, & Shahar, 2017). The conclusions
made from the research study were justified by the chosen
results obtained from the study.
Application
The research study is very rich in knowledge as it has widely
covered the topic of stress and burnout among teacher. Previous
researches conducted in the area of stress were too shallow
hence, the study has filled the knowledge gap that was existing
in this important area. The article is very useful for my future
research in issues to do with stress and burnout as the literature
review applied in the study are rich in knowledge. The results
obtained from the study are also very relevant for any future
study in this area. The phenomenological analysis method
chosen for the study is also an efficient method for conducting
research, especially when dealing with individual experience
hence, it gave the best results for the study. I could use the
same method when conducting research relating to individual
experiences (Lia, Inbal, Keren, Zehavit, & Shahar, 2017). The
article is also universal since cases of burnouts are universal
among different professionals, not just in teachers. Therefore,
the techniques can also be applied in various professional
fields.

How organizational culture and
leadership style affect employees’
performance of genders
Bassem E. Maamari
Department of Management Studies, Lebanese American
University,
Beirut, Lebanon, and
Adel Saheb
Adnan Kassar School of Business, Lebanese American
University,
Beirut, Lebanon
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to highlight the importance of
organizational culture on the leader’s style and
the effect of the chosen leadership style on the team’s
performance. It surveys a strata of leaders from the
Middle East in the current turbulent environment.
Design/methodology/approach – A research paper based on a
quantitative data collection in the
service sector from a large number of stratified sampled firms
and respondents.
Findings – The cross-sectional data from 40 service companies
reveal some interesting results highlighting
the interrelationships between these three variables. The
findings suggest that managers need to build on this
concept finding in providing further training and development
of employees’ skills in addition to an
organizational culture of acceptance, adaptation and diversity.
Research limitations/implications – Electing to use a specific

set of criteria in sampling might have
resulted in eliminating a meaningful different direction in the
results. Moreover, the size of the survey tool
limited the number of variables to test with the study.
Practical implications – A number of implications are worthy of
mention. First, devising reward
programmes that are fairly attractive to both genders
independently of each other should be a managerial
priority, along with the creation and development of strong
organizational cultures.
Social implications – Finally, a coupled performance and
organizational culture of efficiency at the
workplace, if not paralleled with a proper leadership style that
fosters positive results, will only result in
partial improvements in the big organizational picture, resulting
in the persistence of the old prejudice and
discrimination along the gender and age lines.
Originality/value – The study examines a suggested model in a
new environment that is known to be
deeply rooted in old-fashioned paternalistic managerial
behaviour, and where change, if occurring, is
extremely slow to introduce.
Keywords Performance, Leadership style, Organizational
culture, Gender
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The contemporary integration of female workers into the
Lebanese workplace has pulled the
attention of the organizations towards the need of amendment to
embrace this evolution.
Due to the importance of employees’ fit to their commitment
towards the organization
(Behery and Paton, 2008), organizational culture is established

from the inception phase in
the life of any organization. It develops over time to reach a
level of pervasiveness and
deployment, making it one of the most challenging factors to
change at a later point. With
IJOA
26,4
630
Received 10April 2017
Revised 11 September 2017
20 October 2017
Accepted 22 October 2017
International Journal of
Organizational Analysis
Vol. 26 No. 4, 2018
pp. 630-651
© EmeraldPublishingLimited
1934-8835
DOI 10.1108/IJOA-04-2017-1151
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1934-8835.htm
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-04-2017-1151
the advent multi-fold increased influx of women in the
twentieth century to the workforce
(Igbaria and Baroudi, 1995), the importance of the culture lies
in its setting the framework
for a number of variables in the organization, including

performance standards, attitudes
(efficiency and/or effectiveness) and norms of behaviour. These
in turn limit the contribution
of the lower level leaders and managers that attempt to apply
randomly different styles of
leadership, whether transactional or transformational, to this
setting where the norms are
already pre-set. Therefore, this study is seeking to investigate
the existence of statistically
significant effect of organizational culture on performance of
both genders and whether
leadership style can or doesmediate this relationship.
The organizational culture presents by itself as both an
organizational strength as well
as a barrier to development. Its effect may vary between
improving efficiency and
performance and hindering the workflow processes. Whereas
leadership sets the rules of the
game of how employees relate to each other and to managers, its
outcomes provide value to
the firm in terms of commitment, loyalty and dedication of the
team members towards their
colleagues, respective teams and their leaders. In this
organizational setting, in a context
where research concerning consequence and significance of the
organizational culture and
leadership style on performance is extremely limited in
Lebanon, testing the proposed model
earns a higher interest in themanagerial circles.
This manuscript is organized into four sections, namely, a
review of the available
scholarly literature, followed by the methods used in the study,
then the results and their
analysis to draw somemanagerial implications and conclusions.

2. Literature review
Dwelling into the managerial world, and seeing the importance
that operational teams
dedicate to performance and the ensuing outcomes, clears the
picture for researchers. The
compression of operating costs in a globalized business
environment where the firm seeks to
satisfy an ever-changing demand within a highly competitive
market, forces the today’s
organizations to overlook certain factors. Among these are the
effects of organizational
culture and leadership style on performance. The following
presents a glance at the
scholarly literature on the topics at hand, beginning by
organizational culture, followed by
leadership style then performance and the relationship between
these factors.
2.1 Organizational culture
Organizational culture or corporate culture is the set of values,
beliefs and way of doing
things in an organization. It defines the ambiance in which an
employee is working and how
he/she should behave to achieve his/her duties (Mgbere, 2009),
and his/her awareness of
what is occurring in the organizational environment (Hofstede,
2011). It has also an impact
on decision-making, level of authority and agency theory in
organizations (Childe et al.,
2016). Therefore, this aspect of the organization has become
widely important and
interesting to measure its abilities to innovate and adapt to the
change of the cultures and
how it affects its performance (Mgbere, 2009). The national and
societal culture of the

country affects organizational culture (Hofstede, 2011).
According to Hofstede’s and
Trompeneaars’ Model, there are measurable dimensions for the
society’s culture that can
influence and shape individuals’ values and norms who are the
founders, employees and
customers of the organizations. Values represent the corner
stone and the supreme part of
organizational culture (Hogan and Coote, 2014). But at the
gender level, this performance is
reported to vary largely, despite the many attempts to provide
for equal opportunity. The
explanation could be referred to the discriminatory prevailing
attitude at the human capital
level (Glass and Cook, 2016; Sidani, 2016; Salloum et al., 2016;
Tlaiss and Kauser, 2011;
Employees’
performance of
genders
631
Gneezy et al., 2003). As a result, women still “face a ‘glass
ceiling’ that prevents them from
reaching top level management” (Salloum et al., 2016; Igbaria
and Baroudi, 1995, p. 109).
Women constitute a resource, which is not efficiently used in
organizations, and it is time to
decide how best to organize this human resource. As the
corporate culture constitutes a
boundary for both the employee and the manager that control
and limit their behaviours, the

performance of the employee or the manager is affected by the
extent to which they are
integrated, and to extent to which they fit within that
organization’s culture (Lysons, 2000).
The employees’ success within corporations is measured by
their capability to adjust their
behaviour to fit in the corporate culture and is becoming an
important determinant of the
employee’s satisfaction and productivity (Davis and Landa,
2000). Mgbere (2009) reports
that the relationship between the corporate culture and the
performance is positive. For one,
the performance of a company is highly related to the
company’s culture if it has a strong
culture that is well integrated and based on strong beliefs and
values (Deal and Kennedy,
1983; Denison, 1990; Kotter and Heskett, 1992), and for two,
employees’ job satisfaction is
related to their perception of the own fit with the organizational
culture (Behery and Paton,
2008). But when it comes to study the effect of corporate
culture on economic performance,
Mgbere (2009) cited Siehl and Martin (1990) who report a
modest positive relationship
between these two factors. Moreover, Behery and Paton (2008)
report a positive relation
between the organizational culture and the job satisfaction,
resulting in boosted employee
performance. Furthermore, their study took place in Dubai (non-
Westernized country) to
prove that this Westernized hypothesis is also valid in a non-
Westernized environment, thus
concluding that organizational culture affects organizational
and individual performance.
In addition, Bakar et al. (2008) concluded that there are four

types of corporate cultures.
They are competitive culture, entrepreneurial culture,
bureaucratic culture and consensual
culture. They argued that both the entrepreneurial culture and
the consensual culture
achieve the highest correlations between the other cultures.
However, only entrepreneurial
cultures show a statistical significance on the overall job
performance. Thus, an
organization that strives to improve its employee’s job
performance should inculcate
innovative culture that creates an exciting and dynamic
environment in which
entrepreneurial and ambitious people thrive in this environment.
Furthermore, Yiing and Bin Ahmad (2009) cited in their article
that the organizational
culture plays an important role in generating commitment and
enhancing performance
(Dubey et al., 2017; Lok and Crawford, 2001; Deal and
Kennedy, 1983; Peters et al., 1982), and
he posed some studies that show a strong positive relationship
between the supportive and
innovative cultures and the job satisfaction and commitment,
while the bureaucratic culture
had a negative relationship with the job satisfaction and
commitment (Silverthorne, 2004;
Abdul Rashid et al., 2003; Brewer and Clippard, 2002; Lok and
Crawford, 2001; London et al.,
1999; Krausz et al., 1995; Brewer and Weber, 1994; Brewer,
1993; Trice and Beyer, 1993;
Kratina, 1990; Wallach, 1983).
Pool (2000) argued how some work environments cause stress
for its employees.
Executives may form high levels of stress in carrying out

requirements. This is why they
must be considerate when distributing work assignments within
the prevalent organizational
culture. In addition, accelerating changes must fit the
organization’s culture to reach
successful business goals strategically. This, keeping in mind
that organizational culture is
affected by gender predisposition (Madsen et al., 2005; Goulet
and Singh, 2002; Kirchmeyer,
1995) and incompatible values or interests of individuals leads
to organizational conflict
ending up with the accommodation of the weakest party. Joiner
(2001) also discussed job-
related stress in her article. It is defined as an interactive
imbalance between the individual
and the individual’s work environment (French et al., 1974).
From this, we conclude the
IJOA
26,4
632
necessity of a top-down organizational evolutionary change
starting with a new
organizational culture that commits all members equally to its
body resulting in a win–win
strategy.
2.2 Leadership style
Leading is the art of communicating a clear vision and
empowering employees towards
organizational goals. Mgbere (2009) defines leadership as the
ability to work with a group

of people (employees) to achieve a goal (Northouse, 2015; Fry,
2003; Robbins and Coulter,
2001; Lussier, 1990). He also points to the fact that the
leadership style affects
performance (Sauer, 2011; Fry, 2003; Bycio et al., 1995; Bass
and Avolio, 1990). Although
“no gender differences in leadership style are found” (Engen et
al., 2001, p. 581), in today’s
environment where cultures are changing rapidly due to
globalization, leaders play a
definitive role in helping the corporate entity to adapt to this
new changing culture
(Fiedler, 1996; Hennessey, 1998). Culture is expressed either
implicitly through
communicating information or explicitly through rules and
regulations (Hofstede, 2011).
While there are reports that males score high on individualism
and masculinity, whereas
females score high on power distance and long-term orientation
(Alanezi and Alansari,
2016), evidence from Europe shows that women’s delineation
and critical thinking boosts
creativity and widens the panorama of decision-making
(Christiansen et al., 2016),
leaving a strong impact on female directors’ performance in
China (Liu et al., 2014).
According to Chen (2004), recent organizational crises have
emphasized the need for
leadership and personal commitment, which has become more
critical for organizational
success (Selznick, 2011), irrespective of gender stereotyping
(Engen et al., 2001), while the
leaders’ valuation is in itself highly gender stereotyped (Eagly
et al., 1992). In addition,
women are still underrepresented and less likely to be promoted

for top leadership positions
(Glass and Cook, 2016; Salloum et al., 2016).
Many models of leadership are incorporated in leadership
theories and even if males in
the MENA region have monopolized these models, a further
look among other developed
societies might anticipate in resizing the number of female
leaders in the Arab countries
(Sidani et al., 2015). Sidani (2016) sees that the change can
occur gradually whenever cultural
and institutional factors welcome this fair participation and
unprejudiced opportunities for
working women.
The study of leadership has been developed over the past 100
years (Bass, 2000). The
impact of leadership style on corporate culture and its
challenges to adapt to any new
culture highlights the importance of having a more dynamic
understanding for the role of
organizational leaders and culture in ensuring the organization’s
present and future success
(Ehrhart et al., 2013; Mgbere, 2009).
Furthermore, Cuong and Swierczek (2008) report that leadership
competencies consist of
eight skills, namely, peer, leadership, conflict resolution,
information processing,
unstructured decision-making, resource allocation,
entrepreneurial and introspection.
From the motivation-based leadership theories emerged
transformational leadership
(Liden et al., 2014; Yukl, 1997), transactional leadership
(Piccolo et al., 2012; Bass and Avolio,

1994), path-goal leadership (Fry, 2003; House, 1996; House and
Mitchell, 1974) and
charismatic leadership (Fry, 2003; Conger and Kanungo, 1998;
Shamir et al., 1993; House and
Howell, 1992; House, 1977). Transformational leadership on
one hand is defined in terms of
the leader’s effect on followers, where employees feel trust,
admiration, loyalty and respect
towards the leader (Liden et al., 2014; Yukl, 1997).
Transactional leadership, on the other
hand, emphasizes on the exchange or transaction that takes
place between colleagues and
leaders, and leaders and followers (Bass and Avolio, 1994;
Piccolo et al., 2012). Path goal
Employees’
performance of
genders
633
leadership motivates employees by selecting the appropriate
behaviour for each situation
(supportive, participative or achievement-oriented) and
providing all the employees needs
along their path towards the goal (Fry, 2003; House, 1996;
House andMitchell, 1974). Finally,
charismatic leadership requires certain talents such as the
ability to influence and inspire
others towards ideological goals and moral values where
followers are willing to mitigate
with these values and to go beyond their duties (Fry, 2003;
Conger and Kanungo, 1998;

Shamir et al., 1993; House and Howell, 1992; House, 1977).
Mgbere (2009) notes the complexity of the research on the
relationship between the
corporate culture, leadership style and corporate performance
due to the multiplicity of
cultures to which the organization’s members belong, and this
situation makes the role of
the leader harder and more difficult to define and to relate it
directly to the corporate
performance (Brown et al., 2013). Davis and Landa (2000-2001)
support the existence of a
relationship between the leadership style and performance, and
they refer in their article to
Duxbury and Higgins (1991) research that shows the impact of a
supervisor who follows the
controlling style which results in undermining the employees’
effectiveness, as opposed to
the impact of a supervisor who follows the supportive style and
which results in developing
more effective employees. To positively use the leader’s
position and its impact on
employees’ performance, the leader in the first place should fit
into the organization’s
culture, and his leading style should be adequate to the
circumstances of the organization as
well as to its culture. This combination will empower the
positive relationship between the
leadership style and the performance (Fullan, 2011; Lee, 2008;
Yiing and Bin Ahmad, 2009).
The gender inequality in the number of female upper-level
manager is thus attributed to
“gender connotations” (Cooper Jackson, 2001) and to the lack
of appropriate style of
leadership at the female leaders (Engen et al., 2001). Thereby,
“the more instrumental, task

oriented, autocratic styles are therefore often referred to as
masculine leadership styles and
the interpersonal-oriented, charismatic, and democratic styles as
feminine leadership styles”
(Engen et al., 2001, p. 582). But whether these affect
performance remains to investigate.
2.3 Performance
Employee performance can be defined as the activities that are
formally recognized as part
of the job and that contribute to the organization’s goals
(Borman and Motowidlo, 1997).
There are two dimensions of performance: an action dimension
known as the behavioural
aspect and an outcome dimension known as the performance
aspect (Roe, 1999; Campbell
et al., 1993; Campbell et al., 1990). In this paper, the
behavioural aspect of performance is
considered to be consistent with the work situation and job
specifications, which then turns
into the means of achieving organizational goals and objectives,
that is, the outcome
dimension or the performance aspect.
Employee performance is the building block of an organization,
as the progress of an
organization is a collective effort of all its members (Isaac
Mwita, 2000). The main purpose of
any organization is to maximize productivity, decrease
employee turnover and increase
employee retention (Mowday et al., 2013). Therefore, to reach
organization’s goals, managers
need to focus on factors that affect the performance of
employees at the workplace and hence
increase the productivity (McColl-Kennedy and Anderson,
2002). At the beginning of their

career, males and females show no remarkable disparity in the
level of their performance;
however, with time, gender differences become visible (Van
Den Besselaar and Sanström, 2016;
Tlaiss and Kauser, 2011) when uncontrolled situations such us
discrimination (Mills, 2017),
constricted collaboration, motherhood and cramped conditions
emerge (Larivière et al., 2011).
Yet, gender diversity increases the financial performance of
organizations (Christiansen et al.,
2016). Consequently, the factors that lay the foundation for high
performance must be analysed
IJOA
26,4
634
and addressed meticulously by the organizations to ensure
organizational success, including
bothmain factors; organizational culture and leadership style.
2.4 Effect of organizational culture on performance
Early researchers believed that there is a relationship between
organizational performance. Magee (2002) argues that as
organizational culture is inherently
connected to organizational practices (Rofcanin et al., 2017;
Zain et al., 2009), it is manifested
by the collaborative circumstances between the different units
of the organization (Hofstede,
2011). Therefore, organizational performance relies greatly on
organizational culture. The
fact that attitudes are part of the organizational culture and part

of the employees’
performance will straighten out the relation between
performance. The relation between belief, participation and
performance is associated by the
organizational culture (Debusscher et al., 2017; Dubey et al.,
2017). According to Tseng
(2010), an adhocracy culture has a greater effect than clan and
hierarchy culture on
corporate performance because it creates a comfortable
environment for creativity and
innovation.
According to Slocum and Hellriegel (2009), organizational
culture can boost performance
on a large scale, and the culture of an organization allows the
employees to be acquainted
with both the firm’s history and current methods of operation
(Awadh and Alyahya, 2013;
Zain et al., 2009). Moreover, Kozlowski and Klein (2000) report
that an organization is a
consciously coordinated system where characteristics of
individuals, groups and
organizations interact with each other, and where the effective
interaction among them
highly depends on organizational culture that shapes the
individual performance leading in
most of cases, that high performers are more appreciated and
promoted than low performers
(Cross et al., 2000). Furthermore, the mutual benefit
relationship between an organization
and its employees supports this idea, where we find that all
organizations are thriving to
recruit high performing individuals to meet the organizational
objectives and achieve
competitive advantages. Gender variance in performance result

either from gender quality
differences or gender bias (Van Den Besselaar and Sanström,
2016). Because most of higher
positions and those related to authority and power are still more
dedicated to men (Van Den
Besselaar and Sanström, 2016), rigorous comparison of gender
performance is not always
viable (Abramo et al., 2013). Therefore, employees need
supportive organizational cultures
to promote both genders with similar opportunities (Van Den
Brink et al., 2006) to help them
reach individual and cumulative departmental objectives.
Many researchers consider individual factors (i.e. ability and
effort) to be of great
importance to highlight the link between organizational culture
and employee
performance (Gardner and Schermerhorn, 2004; Schermerhorn
and Nyaw, 1990).
According to Furnham and Gunter (1993), organizational
culture is the internal
integration and coordination between a firm’s operations and its
employees. Internal
integration can be described as the societal interaction of new
members with the existing
ones, creating the boundaries of the organizational feelings of
identity among staff and
commitment to the organization. The shared system, which
forms the basis of
communication and mutual understanding in the organization, is
created and supported
by the culture, and if the organizational culture fails to fulfil
these functions at a
satisfactory level, the culture may have a significant negative
influence on the efficiency
of the employees (Awadh and Alyahya, 2013; Furnham and

Gunter, 1993).
A strong organizational culture supports adaptation and
develops the organization’s
employee performance by motivating employees towards a
shared goal and objective,
although some scholars report a neutral effect (Behery and
Paton, 2008). Nevertheless,
Employees’
performance of
genders
635
coaching, equal opportunities, status, expectations (Kalhoff et
al., 2011) and pay policy based
on employee characteristics and performance, (Austen et al.,
2013) enhance employee
behaviour over the long run (Kalhoff et al., 2011). Finally,
shaping and channelling
employees’ behaviour to that specific direction should be at the
top of both operational and
functional strategies (Daft, 2010). Although organizational
culture has no direct impact on
the financial performance (Yesil and Kaya, 2013), but recently
evaluating the intangible
assets such as employees, systems and culture became part of
the balanced scorecard of
companies that seeks competitive advantage in a dynamic
environment (Awadh and
Alyahya, 2013; Kaplan and Norton, 1996). Starbucks coffee
company, with more than 2,500

worldwide stores, relates its success to employees’ performance
and believes that employees
work best with customers when they are better treated
(Flamholtz and Randle, 1998). A
firm’s mission reflects its ultimate long-term objective, which
is accomplished by conducting
integrated operational and behavioural activities. A firm’s
performance improves if it has a
clear sense of purpose and commitment towards its mission. A
successful and a well-
performing organization defines its organizational goals as the
report card of its
forthcoming (long-term) future (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994;
Mintzberg, 1987; Ohmae, 1982).
Chatman et al. (1998) postulate that organizational culture has a
considerable effect on work
processes and outcomes. Moreover, organizational culture
shapes the way employees
operate and interact with each other in an organization, and
affects their self-perceptions,
post-task assessment and performance (Beyer, 1990). The
cultural model comprises various
norms, beliefs, values, rituals and symbols that govern the
operating style of the people
within a company. The corporate culture holds the workforce
together and provides a
direction for the company. The world is changing, and culture
has to adjust accordingly
(Awadh and Alyahya, 2013; Hofstede, 2011). In times of
change, the biggest challenge for
any organization may be to change its culture, as the employees
are already accustomed to a
certain way of doing their routines (Chatman et al., 1998), and
this brings us to the
irreplaceable role of leadership along with the rehabilitation of
organizational culture

(Awadh and Alyahya, 2013). Thus, the need to study where the
relationship stands and
whether it is gender differentiated.
2.5 The effect of leadership on performance
Leadership is a process based on social influence in which the
leader strives for the
voluntary participation of subordinates to achieve
organizational goals. A leader is a
person who motivates others to act, so as to carry out specified
objectives. According to
Maslow’s theory, motivation depends on the hierarchy of needs
of individuals regardless
of their gender. Organizations need effective leaders, leaders
who understand the
convolutions of the rapidly changing global environment (Kim
and Yoon, 2015;
Finkelstein and Hambrick, 1996). A structured task and a leader
with a good relationship
with the employees are the perfect combination to generate high
effectiveness on the part
of the employees (Boehm et al., 2015).
Leadership styles could be divided into four main types:
autocratic, democratic, laissez-
faire and human relations. An autocratic leader (dictator) is a
leader who has the notion of
controlling all decisions, often outlining the means of how to
achieve targets. Such a leader
uses fear and control to lead employees. Democratic leaders on
the other hand would involve
group members in decision-making activities. The laissez-faire
approach encourages
independence of followers and rarely contributes to the
processes that generate output.
Finally, a human relations leader emphasizes on people more

than he emphasizes on
performance (Skakon et al., 2010; Misumi and Peterson, 1985;
Gastil, 1994).
IJOA
26,4
636
Several studies examined the effect of the different leadership
styles on employee
performance. (Chen, 2004; Fry, (2003). Motivation enhances
performance (Fry, (2003).
Therefore, leader’s gender plays a significant role in fluctuating
performance, as their
capability of interaction and motivation differs (AlAnezi and
Alansari, 2016; Rice et al.,
1979). Moreover, Kaur (1993) reports that most Indian
managers prefer the autocratic
style, and that employees in the observed organizations are
highly committed to their
organizations and are highly satisfied with their jobs, and their
performance is high
(Kaur, 1993). A number of studies carried out in the Arab world
suggest that leadership
in the Arab cultures fosters consultative and participative
tendencies (Alnuaimi, 2013).
According to this study, the influence of Islamic and tribal
values and beliefs on
leadership cannot be denied, as both Islamic and tribal laws
underpin consultation in
all aspects of life (Boussif, 2010). Based on gender’s
performance in working and
conflicts conditions, leadership competencies such as relational

and interpersonal skills
are more likely related to the quality of female leaders, whereas
strategic planning and
decision-making are mainly male’s leadership skills (Almaki et
al., 2016). However, the
various positions held by outstanding female leaders (Irene
Rosenfeld, Indra K. Nooyi,
Drew Gilpin Faust, etc.) can change the equation and consider
culture the key reason
holding back women from leadership positions. Moreover,
scholars highlight the
relationship between leadership and employee job performance
within an organization.
While management by fear can create tensions that might
produce the desired result in
the short term, it is unlikely that success will be sustained,
whereas leaders who create
a trusting open environment where information is shared create
an organization that
can rise to any challenge (Jing and Avery, 2008).
A particular style of leadership may not always motivate good
performance. Varying the
leadership styles according to the different situations is
recommended, and each leader must
be able to know when to exhibit a particular approach and with
whom. No one-leadership
style is ideal for every situation; a leader may have knowledge
and skills to act effectively in
one situation but may not emerge as effective in another
(Goleman et al., 2013). Employees
consider transformational leadership style part of an innovative
culture that provides the
suitable climate for creativity (Kim and Yoon, 2015) and boosts
performance (Boehm et al.,
2015). From the employees’ perspective, what they see leader’s

behaviour builds their
perception of the person-leader, and on this perception, they
build their own feedback,
cooperation level and adjustment to the work environment and
its demands. The essence is
not whether one specific leadership style is better to be applied
than the others, but rather to
test whether the way the leader deals with the employees (style)
reflects in their performance
of their work tasks, taking into account the individual
preferences of leadership styles.
As a result of the above discussion of the reviewed literature, a
gap is identified in the
body of knowledge, where the relationship between
organizational culture and employees’
performance could be both direct and indirect (as mediated by
leadership style). Where most
of the reported studies report one relationship only between
employees’ performance, or on between leadership style and
performance, this paper
investigates both relationship simultaneously, as both direct,
and as mediated by leadership
style. To address this gap, the researchers are suggesting the
following hypotheses to test
(Figure 1):
H1. Organizational culture positively affects employees’
performance.
H2. Leadership style mediates the relationship between
employees’ performance.
Employees’

performance of
genders
637
3. Methodology
This study’s philosophy follows the positivist theory which
underlines observational
information and investigational work to identify noticeable
regularities. It follows the
deductive approach to research aiming at postulating hypotheses
and testing them for the
purpose of amending or modifying available theories. Moreover,
the study uses a survey as
a tool popular among business researchers and respondents as
well, to collect data about the
respondents a leadership style, and relies on data from the
operational records of the
companies surveyed in assessing employees’ performance. This
strategy allows for a faster
and cheaper data collection process than other strategies, while
permitting the selection of
the sample (random or other) to measure for a set number of
variables while controlling for
others. The researchers opted for the use of the survey
technique, choosing a quantitative
approach for their cross-sectional study. The collected data is
then analysed for the purpose
of identifying results, or trends in the observed sample
(Saunders et al., 2009).
For the purpose of this study, a questionnaire is prepared in four
sections. The first

comprises of four demographic questions aimed at capturing the
respondents’ gender, age,
education and tenure, where all the targeted sample is of
employees in the service sector. To
avoid the issue of predictive validity, the researchers used
scales that are already tested and
validated. The second part is composed of 12 measure items that
focus on organizational
culture, and borrowed from a commonly used survey and
adapted for the purpose of this
study (http://implementer.com/implementer/newtools/
orgcultquest.html). The third part of
the questionnaire is made up of six questions on performance
and used to compare results
with actual operational data, and the last part is composed of
ten questions taken from the
Humming Network’s questionnaire for performance assessment
(http://humming.net.au/
questionnaire.pdf). Moreover, and as the purpose of the study is
to assess the impact of
organizational culture (if any) on both leadership style and
performance, as well as the effect
of leadership style on performance, the leadership style
questionnaire targeted the
population of employees in the service sector, as applied in the
field of Lebanon using a
questionnaire developed by Palgrave
(www.palgrave.com/uploadedFiles/Leadership_Style.
pdf) and published by Northouse (2015).
The survey tool was piloted using a small hard copy of the
questionnaire on a group of 37
employees working in two different service firms to assert easy
of understanding, language
simplicity and clarity of job at hand. For the sampling process,
the researchers analysed the

population at hand. The total population is estimated to be
110,000 employees. The
researchers visited 72 firms in total and distributed a total of
550 questionnaires through
email lists received from a network of 40 medium-sized service
companies whose top
management accepted to participate in the study. Then the
researchers visited these firms
again, met with the Human Resources (HR) managers to put in
place the data collection
Figure 1.
Suggested model
IJOA
26,4
638
http://implementer.com/implementer/newtools/
http://humming.net.au/questionnaire.pdf
http://www.palgrave.com/uploadedFiles/Leadership_Style.pdf
process, allowing for confidentiality and anonymity of the data
collected, whereby the
respondents received an email directly from the researchers and
responded on-line. In
selecting the sample, the researchers put a number of criteria.
First, the respondent needed
to have a personal email at work. Second, the respondent should
have an adequate mastery
of the English language to be able to fill the questionnaire.
Finally, for privacy and adequacy

of data collection, the respondents needed to have access to the
internet from their own
private workstation. The respondents received an email directly
from the researchers and
responded anonymously online or through printing their
responses and depositing them in
unmarked envelops in the HR fromwhere the researchers
collected them in person.
The received 407 responses from the 40 firms in different
geographic locations span a
wide coverage of the country (3.7%, of total population). Out of
the received responses, a few
proved to bemissing data; thus, the final number of usable
responses was 400.
The researchers entered the data to SPSS 22 to facilitate data
entry and data cleaning.
Then, a number of statistical tests were run on the data. The
first test was the CFA test run
on the data of Parts 2, 3 and 4 of the questionnaire. The results
show that the questionnaire
is valid as is. Moreover, the KMO results were 0.911, 0.828 and
0.676, respectively, with
Sig = 0.000 for all. Finally, the scale reliability is analysed
through the Cronbach’s alpha test
whose results are 0.842 for OC, 0.546 for leadership style and
0.843 for performance. Second,
analysing the data, the researchers found that age group
distribution of the respondents
who voluntarily contributed to the study is mainly young. In
fact, the first age group (aged
18-25) represents 51.0 per cent of the total sample, whereas
32.0 per cent are 26 to 35 years
old, and 8.5 per cent from the group are 36 to 45 years old, 6.8
per cent are 46 to 55 years and

only 1.8 per cent are older. This is in line with the population
demographics in a country
where the demographic distribution pyramid is wide-based.
Second, the gender of the
respondents is 207 males (51.7 per cent) and 193 females (48.3
per cent), which is close to the
national gender distribution of 46.5 per cent males and 53.5 per
cent females. Third, as for
the educational level of the respondents, the sample is
composed of a majorly educated
group where 61.0 per cent hold a bachelor’s degree (BA/BS);
21.5 per cent hold a masters’
degree and 4.8 per cent hold higher level degrees, leaving only
5.3 per cent with high school
education or less and 7.5 per cent of sophomore, baccalaureate
or technical/vocational
degrees. Finally, the tenure of the respondents as highlighted by
the results received shows
that the majority have less than five years of work experience
with the current organization
(59.0 per cent), 13.8 per cent have 6 to 10 years, 10.8 have 11
to 15 years, 8.3 per cent each
have 16 to 20 and 21 years or more.
4. Results
For analysing the respondents’ replies, the data are used to run
a correlation analysis using
SPSS 22. The results reveal a number of interesting
relationships. First, gender is positively
weakly correlated with tenure, organizational culture and
performance. This means that for
females: tenure is longer (r = 0.258; Sig. = 0.000; p < 0.01);
organizational culture is more
important (r = 0.103; Sig. = 0.000; p< 0.05); and performance
of females is higher (r = 0.258;
Sig. = 0.000; p< 0.05). Second, age is negatively weakly

correlated with gender (r =�0.145;
Sig. = 0.000; p < 0.01) meaning that there are more young
female employees in these firms
than there are males. Moreover, age is positively but weakly
correlated with both
performance (r = 0.138; Sig. = 0.006; p < 0.01) and leadership
style (r = 0.119; Sig. = 0.017;
p< 0.05), which shows that the older employees are more
sensitive to the style of leadership
applied in the organization, and respond with increased
performance on the job. Third,
tenure is positively weakly correlated with organizational
culture (r = 0.133; Sig. = 0.008;
p < 0.01), performance (r = 0.176; Sig. = 0.000; p < 0.01) and
leadership style (r = 0.154;
Employees’
performance of
genders
639
Sig = 0.002; p < 0.01). Fourth, organizational culture is strongly
positively correlated to
performance (r = 0.736; Sig. = 0.000; p< 0.01) but very weakly
to leadership style (r = 0.086;
Sig. = 0.087; p < 0.05). Finally, performance is weakly
positively correlated to leadership
style (r= 0.206; Sig. = 0.000; p< 0.01).
Furthermore, a regression analysis was run to identify the
explanatory power of the
different variables of the suggested model. Using SPSS 22, the

postulated relationships are
tested independently (Figure 2), then using the “Enter”
function, the model was tested. The
results show that organizational culture does affect employees’
performance (R2 = 0.540;
Sig. = 0.000), allowing us to accept the H1. When leadership
style is “Entered” into the
regression, adjusted R2 increases slightly (2 per cent) (from R2
= 0.540 to 0.560, with Sig. =
0.000). This allows us to accept ourH2 in general. The formula
for the straight line equation
is as follows:
F Performanceð Þ ¼ 0:445ð ÞOrganizational Culture þ 0:157ð
ÞLeadership Style � 3:853
Regression analysis is also used, using the Process Macros
technique and Hayes, to
investigate the hypothesis that leadership style mediates the
effect of organizational culture
on employees’ performance (Appendix). Results indicate that
organizational culture is not a
significant predictor leadership style, b = 0.0483; SE = 0.0282;
p = 0.0871, and that
leadership style is a significant predictor of employees’
performance, b = 0.1571***; SE =
0.0364. These results do not fully support the mediation
hypothesis, as organizational
culture is still a significant predictor of employees’
performance after controlling for the
mediator leadership style, b = 0.4455***; SE = 0.0205.
Approximately, 2 per cent of
the variation in the dependent variable (employees’
performance) is accounted for by the
predictor (R2 = 0.0218). The indirect effect is tested using a
bootstrap estimation approach

with 400 samples. These results indicate the indirect coefficient
is not significant, b = 0.0759;
SE = 0.0058, 95 per cent CI = �0.0013 0.0219. Employees’
performance is associated with
approximately 0.168 points higher employees performance
scores as mediated by
Leadership Style.
Moreover, to analyse for gender-related variance in
performance, the researchers ran two
tests. First, a hierarchical multiple regression and, second, a
correlations and linear
regression analysis after performing a data split. First, the
hierarchical multiple regression
is used with the predictor independent variable (organizational
culture) as reported by
Behery and Paton (2008), Lok and Crawford (2001), Deal and
Kennedy (1983) and Peters
et al. (1982). Leadership is entered as a “Next” variable and
performance as a dependent.
Moreover, the demographic variable “Gender” is also entered as
a “Net” variable to test what
Madsen et al. (2005), Goulet and Singh (2002) and Kirchmeyer
(1995) report to be a
predisposition effect. The results of the show that gender’s
effect on the variability of the
Figure 2.
Regression analysis
results
R = 0.736
R2 = 0.541
R = 0.086
R2 = 0.007

Sig. = 0.087
Leadership style
Organiza�onal
culture R = 0.206
R2 = 0.400
Performance
Sig. = 0.000
Sig. = 0.000
IJOA
26,4
640
results is insignificant (R2 = 0.000; Sig. = 0.816); whereas
organizational culture explains
54.2 per cent (R2 = 0.542; Sig. = 0.000) and leadership style
improved variability of the
independent variable by 2 to 56.2 per cent (R2 = 0.562; Sig. =
0.000). Second, the results of the
correlations’ test clearly show the existence of gendered
variances in perceptions and
employees’ beliefs (Tables I and II). In addition to the
demographic variables’ correlation
relationships with the different factors under consideration, OC
is highly correlated to
performance for both genders at slightly different levels
(R2Male = 0.774; Sig. = 0.000; p <
0.01; R2Female = 0.700; Sig. = 0.000; p< 0.01), the same
applies to the correlation between OC

and leadership style (R2Male = 0.039; Sig. = 0.576; R
2
Female = 0.132; Sig. = 0.06); and
performance and leadership style (R2Male = 0.151; Sig. =
0.029; p < 0.01; R
2
Female = 0.257;
Sig. = 0.000; p< 0.01).
Moreover, the regression results of the testing of the model with
data split by gender
resulted in slight variations in the statistical outcome (Figures 3
and 4) and the following
two different formulas of the straight line.
Table I.
Correlation results by
gender
Correlation of variables
Male Female
R2 Significance R2 Significance
Age and tenure 0.646** 0.000 0.441** 0.000
Age and organizational citizenship 0.015 0.836 0.208** 0.004
Age and performance 0.040 0.572 0.287** 0.000
Age and leadership style 0.130 0.061 0.106 0.141
Education and tenure 0.177* 0.011 0.038 0.604
Education and performance �0.0 08 0.911 0.212** 0.003
Tenure and organizational citizenship 0.006 0.936 0.309**
0.000

Tenure and performance 0.055 0.435 0.335** 0.000
Tenure and leadership style 0.072 0.305 0.258** 0.000
Tenure and democratic leadership 0.058 0.407 0.152** 0.035
Tenure and autocratic leadership 0.049 0.480 0.252** 0.000
Organizational citizenship and performance 0.774** 0.000
0.700** 0.000
Organizational citizenship and leadership style 0.039 0.576
0.132 0.068
Performance and leadership style 0.151* 0.029 0.257** 0.000
Notes: *p< 0.05; **p< 0.01
Table II.
Regression results by
gender
Regression R R2 Significance SE F
Male
A OC and Perf 0.774 0.599 0.000 3.129 306.264
B OC and LS 0.039 0.002 0.576 4.523 0.314
C LS and Perf 0.151 0.023 0.029 4.884 4.814
C’ Mediation 0.783 0.614 0.000 3.078 162.078
Female
A OC and Perf 0.700 0.490 0.000 3.806 183.516
B OC and LS 0.132 0.017 0.068 4.837 3.379
C LS and Perf 0.257 0.066 0.000 5.151 13.462
C’ Mediation 0.719 0.517 0.000 3.712 101.883
Employees’
performance of
genders

641
FMale Performanceð Þ ¼ 0:466ð ÞOrganizational Culture
þ 0:133ð ÞLeadership Style � 3:774
FFemale Performanceð Þ ¼ 0:425ð ÞOrganizational Culture
þ 0:183ð ÞLeadership Style � 3:936
The results show that male respondents emphasize more on OC,
while their female
counterparts stress more on leadership style, which allows us to
accept H2, that the
relationship is gender affect.
5. Analysis
The results of the data analysis reveal some important factors
that should be further
highlighted. First, analysing the results for gender, the
relationship between gender and
tenure shows that the female employees have a higher tendency
to remain tenured on the
job. Adding the result that the respondents’ age is negatively
correlated with gender, i.e.
there are more men older in age than women on the job, while
also having more young
women than men. This shows that the job market is accepting
higher level of women in
entry level jobs, whereas the majority of those tenured are men.
Moreover, the relationship
of gender with organizational culture clearly shows that the
female employees embrace
organizational culture to a higher extent and also perform better
than their male
counterparts. The reasons behind this female adaptation to the

organizational culture might
be socially implied, in a majorly paternalistic society, the
manager is a male figure who
plays or fits in the role/figure, enjoying a team of subordinating
employees.
Second, the relationship between age and performance is
positively correlated. As a rule
of thumb, older employees should know the job better due to
their learning curve and work
Figure 4.
Regression analysis
results – female
respondents
R = 0.700
R2 = 0.490
Sig. = 0.000
Sig. = 0.068
Leadership style
Organiza�onal
culture R = 0.257
R2 = 0.066
Sig. = 0.000
Performance
R = 0.132
R2 = 0.017
Figure 3.
Regression analysis

results –male
respondents
R = 0.151
R2 = 0.023
Sig. = 0.029R = 0.774
R2 = 0.599
Sig. = 0.000
R = 0.039
R2 = 0.002
Sig. = 0.576
Leadership style
Organiza�onal
culture
Performance
IJOA
26,4
642
experience, and this is also confirmed by this field exercise.
However, what is an unexpected
result is that older employees are exerting behaviours affected
by the leadership style,
whereas with expectations of maturity and wisdom, one would
expect otherwise. Thus,
senior employees are showing more resistance rather than
adaptability to the leadership

style used their respective leaders. This pushes the researchers
to believe that managers
need to build on this conceptual finding in providing further
training and development of
employees’ skills in addition to an organizational culture of
acceptance, adaptation and
diversity. This unexpected result that older employees are more
affected by their superior’s
leadership style than younger ones raises a question concerning
work experience, social
intelligence andwork environment dynamics that need further
investigation.
Third, the relationship between tenure and organizational
culture traditionally follows
the logic of longer in the company, better adapted to its culture
and better serving as
ambassador for its dissemination. Moreover, the positive
correlation of tenure and
performance at work is no news in the academic field. However,
relating tenure to leadership
style is arguable as managerial practices are rarely cited as a
main or primary reason for
tenure. Despite this, it is to the advantage of the leader to work
with a more coherent and
motivated team, as compared to a group of people who
happened to be there. Managers
should take into consideration this fact when introducing new
leadership and provide the in-
coming leader with a glimpse of historic information on the
team for better readiness and
adaptability on the leader’s side too.
Fourth, a stronger organizational culture of efficiency and
accomplishments, where
management seeks to find reasons to reward pre-approved

standards, or behaviour leads to
better compliance and adaptation to the peer stream of thought
and behaviour. This allows
new-coming staff to blend in faster and giving management the
advantage of a homogeneous
workforce or team that allows for higher work outputs.
Moreover, the leadership style that
encourages a culture of efficiency and accomplishment finds
himself leading a more efficient
team that has a certain zeal towards challenging jobs, and that
naturally ends up providing a
higher performance level.
Fifth, a strong organizational culture typified by a specific
leadership style will affect the
performance of the many who do not champion this same style.
The results of such beliefs
may generate either a less motivated work behaviour with less
performance and zeal or with
employees reaching a plateau at which development and
performance are out of the frame.
Finally, analysing for the gendered effect, the results vary
slightly among the genders in
different dimensions. The differences are attributed to general
gender issues and
behavioural conducts. The introduction of the leadership style
for both males and females
increases fit of the model explaining the effect of OC on
performance by approximately 9
per cent for men and 5 per cent for women.
6. Implications, limitations and conclusions
This study is the result of a thorough scientific process and its
results span across both
academic and practical worlds. Therefore, in the following, we

present a number of
managerial implications, study limitations and suggestions for
future research.
Building on the field study results reported here-above, a
number of implications are
worthy of mention. First, managers should devise coaching and
reward programmes that
are fairly attractive to both genders independently of each other.
These programmes should
take into consideration the gender and age factors to entice
andmotivate younger employees
to perform better. Today’s young members of the work-teams
are better networked, more
informed and ambitious, probably have their different
respective agendas and goals, that
thereby need to be aligned with those of the organization using
tools that are more
Employees’
performance of
genders
643
interactive, flexible and customized. Second, the human
resources function in an
organization, along with its upper management levels, should
put forth plans to strengthen
their organizational culture’s desirable norms, values and
beliefs, using different art-facts,
stories, rituals, routines, events, meetings, newsletter, web sites
or other means, while also

aligning the organizational culture with the company’s vision,
mission, values and long-
term strategic goals. To do so, plans must be carefully
developed and unfolded, using
different targeted diffusion media and support programmes that
can attain the specific
gender/age groups of employees and potential hires. The result
of a pervasive positive
culture is reported in the literature to improve performance and
tenure, and thus warrants
the efforts and costs of such a plan to disseminate the culture to
a higher pervasiveness
level. Third, creating a strong culture in the organization
through unified norms, values and
beliefs, improves both employees’ efficiency and effectiveness,
communication and mutual
understanding. Moreover, it helps mainstream those members of
the team who are either
accidental or from different cultural backgrounds, into a
workable middle-point at which
work-flow and processes improve. This step inherently means
on the other side of the coin,
that the organization may shed or that some employees may
elect to withdraw, creating an
excessive resource leakage beyond the normal attrition rate, and
that the human resources
department should take into account in their recruitment plans
and activities. Fourth,
initiating, building and enhancing a strong culture within an
organizational setting creates a
sense of belonging, a feeling of similarity and unity among
employees, in addition to the core
belief of organizational ownership. This ownership feeling by
itself generates a performance
efficiency as employees begin to associate themselves with their
organization, and their

well-being and future career plans with those of the
organization’s development and well-
being. Therefore, compensation plans with profit sharing or
similar tools may prove to be
efficient. Fifth, a strong organizational culture would also mean
a certain agreed-upon
leadership style, that is probably cascaded down through the
managerial ranks but also a
style that everybody is used to adapt-to and adopt. In the long
run, this will inhibit change,
diversity and independent thinking, thereby generating
managers who only think inside the
box. Sixth, a coupled performance and organizational culture of
efficiency at the workplace,
if not paralleled with a proper leadership style that fosters
positive results, will only result in
partial improvements in the big picture (not exceeding 20.6 per
cent as the study results
show). Therefore, the leader selection process should look into
different techniques and
multi-layers of assessment, including more modern tools, such
as psychometric tests, 360
degrees evaluation, in addition to better leadership preparation
stages in training and
skilling, in personality and role adaptability, decision-making
processes and tools, as well as
efficient communication techniques, all of which may help
facilitate the process and
determine effective roles of genders in the organization.
Seventh, the study’s implications on the academic environment
and body of knowledge
relate to the change in the environment. In fact, and as
witnessed in the literature, leadership
style has been looked at for the past few decades as a major
contributor in affecting

employees’ performance. However, revisiting the leadership
style with a new model and a
sampled new generation of dot.coms and stay-connected
employees, the results of this study
clearly show that this impact is out-grown by another trend that
we suggest to name “The
system trend”, among the new generation of white-collar
employees. Thus, further research is
suggested to investigate what factors do truly matter for this
generation of young adults,
leading to policy changes that are definitely warranted in light
of the above results. The effect
of this system acceptance on the performance of employees
takes us back to the discussion of
open and closed organizational systems and whether one is
better than the other.
IJOA
26,4
644
The study has a number of limitations. First, the sampling
process and sample selection
(convenience) took more effort from the researchers to avoid
falling into sampling bias. The
researchers surveyed employees of companies to which they
have access or contact with a
top manager authority figure or a managing partner, and as
many refused to collaborate or
take part in the study, this increased the cost in both time and
money. Second, electing to use
a specific set of criteria in sampling might have resulted in
eliminating a meaningful different

direction in the results, but it helped preserve the generalization
of the results. Third, the
study only covers the service sectors, which raises questions on
replicability of the study in
other sectors and generalizability of results. Finally, the number
of measure items in the
questionnaire was large; therefore, the researchers’ initial plan
to also assess the personality
trait of respective the respondent’s leader was not done. The
reason for not extending the
personality trait section is the researchers’ fear that respondents
might misunderstand the
survey as being initiated by uppermanagement to assess lower
level managers.
This study opened the door for future research on the
relationship between the ever
present debate on employees’ performance and leadership style,
adding a third dimension,
i.e. organizational culture, at a time when organizational culture
is becoming more unified as
a result of both globalization and standardization, and the
constant strive of organization to
improve efficiency and conflict resolution through managing
teams’ emotional intelligence.
The effect of social media, comments, sharing and venting,
along with a broad unified
education world-wide, is another stream of anticipated future
brick to add in the academic
literature, especially with a growing trend among the new
generation (the Dot Com
generation) of white-collar employees who have a different
perspective to life.
References
Abdul Rashid, Z., Sambasivan, M. and Johari, J. (2003), “The

influence of corporate culture and
organisational commitment on performance”, Journal of
Management Development, Vol. 22
No. 8, pp. 708-728.
Abramo, G., Cicero, T. and D’Angelo, C.A. (2013), “Individual
research performance: a proposal for
comparing apples to oranges”, Journal of Informetrics, Vol. 7
No. 2, pp. 528-539.
AlAnezi, A. and Alansari, B. (2016), “Gender differences in
Hofstede’s cultural dimensions among a
Kuwaiti sample”, European Psychiatry, Vol. 33, pp. S503-S504.
Almaki, S.H., Silong, A.D., Idris, K. and Wahat, W.A. (2016),
“Effective leadership practices of Muslim
women academic leaders”,The Social Sciences, Vol. 11 No. 9,
pp. 2217-2229.
Alnuaimi, S.S. (2013), “Effective leadership in implementing
change in Arab culture: the case of the Abu
Dhabi police”, PhD Dissertation, Manchester Metropolitan
University, May, available at: http://
hdl.handle.net/2173/324755
Austen, S., Jefferson, T. and Preston, A. (2013), “Contrasting
economic analyses of equal renumeration:
the social and community services (SACS) case”, Journal of
Industrial Relations, Vol. 55 No. 1,
pp. 60-79.
Awadh, A.M. and Alyahya, M.S. (2013), “Impact of
organizational culture on employee performance”,
International Review ofManagement and Business Research,
Vol. 2 No. 1, p. 168.

Bakar, R.A., Salleh, A.L. and Ling, L.C. (2008), “How we do
things around here’: implications of
corporate culture on job performance”,The Business Review,
Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 339-344.
Bass, B.M. (2000), “The future of leadership in learning
organizations”, Journal of Leadership Studies,
Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 18-41.
Bass, B.M. and Avolio, B.J. (1990), “The implication of
transactional and transformational leadership
for individual, teams, and organizational development”,
Research in Organizational Behavior,
Vol. 4, pp. 231-272.
Employees’
performance of
genders
645
http://hdl.handle.net/2173/324755
http://hdl.handle.net/2173/324755
Bass, B.M. and Avolio, B.J. (1994), Improving Organizational
Effectiveness through Transformational
Leadership, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Behery, M.H. and Paton, R.A. (2008), “Performance appraisal-
cultural Fit and organizational outcomes
within the UAE”, Education, Business and Society:
Contemporary Middle Eastern Issues, Vol. 1
No. 1, pp. 166-176.

Beyer, S. (1990), “Gender differences in the accuracy of self-
evaluations of performance”, Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 59 No. 5, pp. 960-970.
Boehm, S.A., Dwertmann, D.J., Bruch, H. and Shamir, B.
(2015), “The missing link? Investigating
organizational identity strength and transformational leadership
climate as mechanisms that
connect CEO charisma with firm performance”, The Leadership
Quarterly, Vol. 26 No. 2,
pp. 156-171.
Borman, W.C. and Motowidlo, S.J. (1997), “Task performance
and contextual performance: the meaning
for personnel selection research”,Human Performance, Vol. 10
No. 2, pp. 99-109.
Boussif, D. (2010), “Decision-making styles of Arab executives:
insights from Tunisia”,
Communications of the IBIMA, Vol. 2010, pp. 1-10.
Brewer, M.B. (1993), “Social identity, distinctiveness, and in-
group homogeneity”, Social Cognition,
Vol. 11 No. 1, pp. 150-164.
Brewer, E.W. and Clippard, L.F. (2002), “Burnout and job
satisfaction among student support services
personnel”, Human Resource Development Quarterly, Vol. 13
No. 2, pp. 169-186, doi: 10.1002/
hrdq.1022.
Brewer, M.B. and Weber, J.G. (1994), “Self-evaluation effects
of interpersonal versus intergroup social
comparison”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
Vol. 66 No. 2, pp. 268-275.

Brown, H.E., Pearson, N., Braithwaite, R.E., Brown, W.J. and
Biddle, S.J. (2013), “Physical activity
interventions and depression in children and adolescents”,
Sports Medicine (Auckland, N.Z.),
Vol. 43 No. 3, pp. 195-206.
Bycio, P., Hackett, R.D. andAllen, J.S. (1995), “Further
assessments of Bass’s (1985) conceptualization of
transactional and transformational leadership”, Journal of
Applied Psychology, Vol. 80 No. 4,
pp. 468-478, available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-
9010.80.4.468
Campbell, J.P., McCloy, R.A., Oppler, S.H. and Sager, C.E.
(1993), “A theory of performance”, in Schmitt,
N. and Borman,W.C. (Eds ),Employee Selection, Jossey-Bass,
New York.
Campbell, J.P., McHenry, J.J. and Wise, L.L. (1990), “Modeling
job performance in a population of jobs”,
Personnel Psychology, Vol. 43 No. 2, pp. 313-575.
Chatman, J.A., Polzer, J.T., Barsade, S.G. and Neale, M.A.
(1998), “Being different yet feeling similar: the
influence of demographic composition and organizational
culture on work processes and
outcomes”,Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 43 No. 4, pp.
749-780.
Chen, L.Y. (2004), “Examining the effect of organization
culture and leadership behaviors on
organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and job
performance at small and Middle-sized
firms of Taiwan”, Journal of American Academy of Business,
Vol. 5 Nos 1/2, pp. 432-438.

Christiansen, L., Lin, H., Pereira, J., Topalova, P.B. and Turk,
R. (2016), “Gender diversity in senior
positions and firm performance: evidence from Europe”, IMF
Working Papers, Vol. 16 No. 50,
available at: SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2759759
Cooper Jackson, J. (2001), “Women middle managers’
perception of the glass ceiling”, Women in
Management Review, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 30-41.
Cross, S.E., Bacon, P.L. and Morris, M.L. (2000), “The
relational-interdependent self-construal and
relationships”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
Vol. 78 No. 4, pp. 791-808.
Cuong, D.M. and Swierczek, F.W. (2008), “Corporate culture,
leadership competencies, job satisfaction,
job commitment, and job performance: a comparison of
companies in Vietnam and Thailand”,
Journal of American Academy of Business, Vol. 13 No. l, pp.
159-165.
IJOA
26,4
646
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1022
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1022
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.80.4.468
https://ssrn.com/abstract=2759759
Daft, R.L. (2010),Organizational Theory and Design,
SouthWestern Cengage Learning, Boston.

Davis, T. and Landa, M.J. (2000), “Changing dynamics: how
workforce culture can boost corporate
performance”, CMAManagement, Vol. 74 No. 10, pp. 26-29.
Deal, T.E. and Kennedy, A.A. (1983), “Culture: a new look
through old lenses”, Journal of Applied
Behavioral Science, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 498-505.
Debusscher, J., Hofmans, J. and DeFruyt, F. (2017), “The
multiple face(t)s of state
conscientiousness: predicting task performance and
organizational citizenship behavior”,
Journal of Research in Personality, Vol. 69, pp. 78-85, available
at: doi.org/10.1016/j.
jrp.2016.06.009
Denison, D.R. (1990), Corporate Culture and Organizational
Effectiveness, JohnWiley & Sons, Oxford.
Dubey, R., Gunasekaran, A., Helo, P., Papadopoulos, T.,
Childe, S.J. and Sahay, B.S. (2017), “Explaining
the impact of reconfigurable manufacturing systems on
environmental performance: the role of
top management and organizational culture”, Journal of Cleaner
Production, Vol. 141,
doi: 10.1016/jclepro.2016.09.035.
Duxbury, L.E. and Higgins, C.A. (1991), “Gender differences in
work-family conflict”, Journal of Applied
Psychology, Vol. 76 No. 1, pp. 60-74.
Eagly, A.H., Makhijani, M.G. and Klonsky, B.G. (1992),
“Gender and the evaluation of leaders: a Meta-
analysis”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 3-22.

Ehrhart, M.G., Schneider, B. and Macey, W.H. (2013),
Organizational Climate and Culture: An
Introduction to Theory, Research, and Practice, Routledge,
London.
Engen, M.L., Leeden, R. and Willemsen, T.M. (2001), “Gender,
context and leadership styles: a field
study”, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology,
Vol. 74 No. 5, pp. 581-598.
Fiedler, F.E. (1996), “Research on leadership selection and
training: one view of the future”,
Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 41 No. 2, pp. 241-250.
Finkelstein, S. and Hambrick, D.C. (1996), Strategic
Leadership: Top Executives and Their Effects on
Organizations, West Publishing Company, Eagan.
Flamholtz, E.G. and Randle, Y. (1998), Changing the Game:
Organizational Transformations of the
First, Second, and Third Kinds, Oxford University Press,
Oxford.
French, J.R., Rodgers, W. and Cobb, S. (1974), “Adjustment as
person-environment fit”, Coping and
Adaptation, Basic Books, New York, pp. 316-333.
Fry, L.W. (2003), “Toward a theory of spiritual leadership”,
The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 14 No. 6,
pp. 693-727.
Fullan, M. (2011), The Six Secrets of Change: What the Best
Leaders Do to Help Their Organizations
Survive and Thrive, JohnWiley & Sons, San Francisco.
Furnham, A. and Gunter, B. (1993), Corporate Assessment:

Auditing & Company Personality,
Routledge, London.
Gardner, W.L. and Schermerhorn, J.R. Jr (2004), “unleashing
individual potential: Performance gains
through positive organizational behavior and authentic
leadership”, Organizational Dynamics,
Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 270-281.
Gastil, J. (1994), “A Meta-analytic review of the productivity
and satisfaction of democratic and
autocratic leadership”, Small Group Research, Vol. 25 No. 3,
pp. 384-410.
Glass, C. and Cook, A. (2016), “Leading at the top:
Understanding women’s challenges above the glass
ceiling”,The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 51-63.
Gneezy, U., Niederle, M. and Rustichini, A. (2003),
“Performance in competitive environments: gender
differences”,The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 118 No.
3, pp. 1049-1074.
Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. and McKee, A. (2013), Primal
Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional
Intelligence, Harvard Business Press, Boston.
Employees’
performance of
genders
647
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2016.06.009
http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2016.06.009

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/jclepro.2016.09.035
Goulet, L.R. and Singh, P. (2002), “Career commitment: a
reexamination and an extension”, Journal of
Vocational Behavior, Vol. 61 No. 1, pp. 73-91.
Hamel, G. and Prahalad, C.K. (1994),Competing for the Future,
Harvard Business School Press, Boston,MA.
Hennessey, J.T. Jr (1998), “Reinventing government: does
leadership make the difference?”, Public
Administration Review, Vol. 58 No. 6, pp. 522-532.
Hofstede, G. (2011), “Dimensionalising cultures: the Hofstede
model in context”, Online Readings in
Psychology and Culture, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 1-26.
Hogan, S.J. and Coote, L.V. (2014), “Organizational culture,
innovation, and performance: a test of
schein’s model”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 67 No. 8,
pp. 1609-1621.
Isaac Mwita, J. (2000), “Performance management model: a
systems-based approach to public service
quality”, International Journal of Public SectorManagement,
Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 19-37.
Igbaria, M. and Baroudi, J.J. (1995), “The impact of job
performance evaluations on career advancement
prospects: an examination of gender differences in the IS
workplace”, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 19
No. 1, pp. 107-123.
Jing, F.F. and Avery, G.C. (2008), “Missing links in
understanding the relationship between leadership

and organizational performance”, International Business &
Economics Research Journal (IBER)),
Vol. 7 No. 5, pp. 67-78.
Joiner, T.A. (2001), “The influence of national culture and
organizational culture alignment on job stress
and performance: evidence from Greece”, Journal of Managerial
Psychology, Vol. 16 No. 3,
pp. 229-242, doi: 10.1108/02683940110385776.
Kalhoff, W., Younts, C.W. and Troyar, L. (2011), “Do others’
views of us transfer to new groups and
tasks? An expectation states approach”, Social Psychology
Quarterly, Vol. 74 No. 3, pp. 267-290.
Kaplan, R.S. and Norton, D.P. (1996), Using the Balanced
Scorecard as a Strategic Management System,
Harvard Business School Press, Brighton.
Kaur, R. (1993), “Managerial styles in the public sector”, Indian
Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 28
No. 4, pp. 363-368.
Kim, S. and Yoon, G. (2015), “An innovation-driven culture in
local government: do senior manager’s
transformational leadership and the climate for creativity
matter?”, Public Personnel
Management, Vol. 44 No. 2, pp. 147-168.
Kirchmeyer, C. (1995), “Managing the work-nonwork boundary:
an assessment of organizational
responses”,Human Relations, Vol. 48 No. 5, pp. 515-536.
Kotter, J.P. and Heskett, J.L. (1992), Corporate Culture and
Performance, The Free Press, New York.
Kozlowski, S.W.J. and Klein, K.J. (2000), “Amultilevel

approach to theory and research in organizations:
Contextual, temporal, and emergent processes”, in Klein, K.J. &
Kozlowski, S.W.J. (Eds),
Multilevel Theory, Research and Methods in Organizations:
Foundations, Extensions, and New
Directions, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, pp. 3-90.
Kratina, S.H. (1990), “Organizational culture and head nurse
leadership: the relationship to nurses’ job
satisfaction and turnover in hospital settings”, Doctoral
dissertation, Georgia State University-
College of Education, Georgia.
Krausz, M., Brandwein, T. and Fox, S. (1995), “Work attitudes
and emotional responses of permanent,
voluntary, and involuntary temporary-help employees: an
exploratory study”, Applied
Psychology, Vol. 44 No. 3, pp. 217-232.
Larivière, V., Vignola-Gagné, E., Villeneuve, C., Gelinas, P.
and Gingras, Y. (2011), “Sex differences in
research funding, productivity and impact: an analysis of
Quebec university professors”,
Scientometrics, Vol. 87 No. 3, pp. 483-498.
Lee, H.Y. (2008), “The association between organizational
culture and leadership behaviour and
organizational commitment, job satisfaction and employee
performance-a Malaysian perspective”
Doctoral dissertation, University ofMalaya, Kuala Lumpur.
IJOA
26,4
648

http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02683940110385776
Liden, R.C., Wayne, S.J., Liao, C. and Meuser, J.D. (2014),
“Servant leadership and serving culture:
influence on individual and unit performance”, Academy of
Management Journal, Vol. 57 No. 5,
pp. 1434-1452.
Liu, Y., Wei, Z. and Xie, F. (2014), “Dowomen directors
improve firm performance in China?”, Journal of
Corporate Finance, Vol. 28, pp. 169-184.
Lok, P. and Crawford, J. (2001), “Antecedents of organizational
commitment and the mediating role of
job satisfaction”, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 16
No. 8, pp. 594-613.
London, M., Larsen, H.H. and Thisted, L.N. (1999),
“Relationships between feedback and self-
development”,Group&OrganizationManagement, Vol. 24 No. 1,
pp. 5-27.
Lussier, R.N. (1990), Human Relations in Organizations: A
Skill-Building Approach, Irwin Professional
Publishing, Burr Ridge.
Lysons, K. (2000), “Concerning corporate culture”, The British
Journal of Administrative Management,
No. 34, pp. 1-4.
McColl-Kennedy, J.R. and Anderson, R.D. (2002), “Impact of
leadership style and emotions on
subordinate performance”,The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 13
No. 5, pp. 545-559.

Madsen, S.R., Miller, D. and John, C.R. (2005), “Readiness for
organizational change: do organizational
commitment and social relationships in the workplace make a
difference?”, Human Resource
Development Quarterly, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 213-233.
Magee, K.C. (2002), “The impact of organizational culture on
the implementation of performance
management”, Doctoral dissertation, Available from
Dissertations and Theses database (UMI
No. 3047909).
Mgbere, O. (2009), “Exploring the relationship between
organizational culture, leadership styles and
corporate performance: an overview”, Journal of Strategic
Management Education, Vol. 5 Nos 3/4,
pp. 187-201.
Mills, A.J. (2017), “Studying the gendering of organizational
culture over time: concerns,
issues, and strategies”, in Mills, A.J. (Ed.), Insights and
Research on the Study of Gender
and Intersectionality in International Airline Cultures, Emerald
Pubishing, Bingley,
pp. 71-91.
Mintzberg, H. (1987), Crafting Strategy, Harvard Business
School Press, Boston, MA, pp. 66-75.
Misumi, J. and Peterson, M.F. (1985), “The performance-
maintenance (PM) theory of leadership:
review of a Japanese research program”, Administrative Science
Quarterly, Vol. 30 No. 2,
pp. 198-223.

Mowday, R.T., Porter, L.W. and Steers, R.M. (2013), Employee
– Organization Linkages: The Psychology
of Commitment, Absenteeism, and Turnover, Academic Press,
New York.
Northouse, P.G. (2015), Leadership: Theory and Practice, Sage
Publications, Los Angeles.
Ohmae, K. (1982), The Mind of the Strategist: The Art of
Japanese Business, McGraw-Hill Professional,
Boston.
Peters, T.J., Waterman, R.H. and Jones, I. (1982), In Search of
Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-
Run Companies, Harper Business, NewYork.
Piccolo, R.F., Bono, J.E., Heinitz, K., Rowold, J., Duehr, E. and
Judge, T.A. (2012), “The relative impact of
complementary leader behaviors: which matter most?”, The
Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 23 No. 3,
pp. 567-581.
Pool, S.W. (2000), “Organizational culture and its relationship
between job tension in measuring
outcomes among business executives”, Journal of Management
Development, Vol. 19 No. 1,
pp. 32-49, doi: 10.1108/02621710010308144.
Rice, R.W., Richer, L.S. and Vitters, A.G. (1979), The Impact
of Male and Female Leaders on the Group
Performance, Morale, and Perceptions of West Point Cadets,
State Univ of New York At Buffalo,
New York.
Employees’
performance of

genders
649
Roe, R.A. (1999), “Work performance: a multiple regulation
perspective”, Vol. 14, pp. 231-336.
International Review of Industrial and Organizational
Psychology, (January),
Rofcanin, Y., Las Heras, M. and Bakker, A.B. (2017), “Family
supportive supervisor behaviors and
organizational culture: effects on work engagement and
performance”, Journal of Occupational
Health Psychology, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 207-217, available at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000036
Salloum, C., Azzi, G., Mercier-Suissa, C. and Khalil, S. (2016),
“The rise of women and their impact on
firms’ performance”, International Journal of Entrepreneurship
and Small Business, Vol. 27
Nos 2/3, pp. 213-246.
Sauer, S.J. (2011), “Taking the reins: the effects of new leader
status and leadership style on team
performance”,The Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 96 No.
3, pp. 574-587.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2009), Research
Methods in Business, 5th ed., Pearson
Education Limited, Edinburgh Gate.
Schermerhorn, J.R. and Nyaw, M.K. (1990), “Managerial

leadership in Chinese industrial enterprises”,
International Studies of Management & Organization, Vol. 20
Nos 1/2, pp. 9-21.
Sidani, Y.M. (2016), “Working women in Arab countries: a case
for cautious optimism”, Handbook on
Well-Being ofWorkingWomen, Springer, New York, pp. 689-
701.
Siehl, C. and Martin, J. (1990), “Organizational culture: a key
to financial performance?”, in Schneider, B.
(Ed.),Organizational Climate and Culture, Jossey-Bass, San
Francisco, p. 241-281.
Skakon, J., Nielsen, K., Borg, V. and Guzman, J. (2010), “Are
leaders’ well-being, behaviours and style
associated with the affective well-being of their employees? A
systematic review of three
decades of research”,Work & Stress, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 107-
139.
Selznick, P. (2011), Leadership in Administration: A
Sociological Interpretation, Quid Pro Books, New
Orleans, Louisiana.
Silverthorne, C. (2004), “The impact of organizational culture
and person-organization fit on
organizational commitment and job satisfaction in Taiwan”,
Leadership & Organization
Development Journal, Vol. 25 No. 7, pp. 592-599.
Slocum, J.W. and Hellriegel, D. (2009), Principles of
Organizational Behavior, South-Western Cengage
Learning, Mason, OH.
Tlaiss, H. and Kauser, S. (2011), “The impact of gender, family,

and work on the career advancement of
Lebanese women managers”, Gender in Management: An
International Journal, Vol. 26 No. 1,
pp. 8-36.
Trice, H.M. and Beyer, J.M. (1993),The Cultures ofWork
Organizations, Prentice-Hall, New York.
Tseng, S.M. (2010), “The correlation between organizational
culture and knowledge conversion on
corporate performance”, Journal of KnowledgeManagement,
Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 269-284.
Van Den Besselaar, P. and Sanström, U. (2016), “Gender
differences in research performance and its
impact on careers: a longitudinal case study”, Scientometrics,
Vol. 106 No. 1, pp. 143-162,
available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1775-3
Van den Brink, M., Brouns, M. and Waslander, S. (2006), “Does
excellence have a gender? A national
research study on recruitment and selection procedures for
professorial appointments in the
netherlands”, Employee Relations, Vol. 28 No. 6, pp. 523-539.
Wallach, E.J. (1983), “Individuals and organizations: the
cultural match”, Training & Development
Journal, Vol. 37 No. 2, pp. 28-36.
Yesil, S. and Kaya, A. (2013), “The effect of organizational
culture on firm financial performance: evidence
from a developing country”, Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, Vol. 81, pp. 428-437.
Yiing, L.H. and Bin Ahmad, K.Z. (2009), “The moderating
effects of organizational culture on the

relationships between leadership behaviour and organizational
commitment and between
organizational commitment and job satisfaction and
performance”, Leadership & Organization
Development Journal, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 53-86, doi:
10.1108/01437730910927106.
IJOA
26,4
650
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000036
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1775-3
Yukl, G. (1997), “Effective leadership behavior: a new
taxonomy and model” Eastern Academy of
Management International Conference,Dublin, (June),
Zain, Z.M., Ishak, R. and Ghani, E.K. (2009), “The influence of
corporate culture on organisational
commitment: a study on a Malaysian listed company”, European
Journal of Economics, Finance
and Administrative Sciences, Vol. 17 No. 17, pp. 16-26.
Websites
http://implementer.com/implementer/newtools/orgcultquest.html
(accessed 25 April 2015).
http://humming.net.au/questionnaire.pdf (accessed 25 April
2015).
www.palgrave.com/uploadedFiles/Leadership_Style.pdf
(accessed 25 April 2015).

Further reading
Alvesson, M. (2012),Understanding Organizational Culture,
Sage, New York.
Bigliardi, B., Ivo Dormio, A., Galati, F. and Schiuma, G.
(2012), “The impact of organizational culture on
the job satisfaction of knowledge workers”,Vine, Vol. 42 No. 1,
pp. 36-51.
Cummings, T. and Worley, C. (2014), Organization
Development and Change, Cengage Learning,
Melbourne.
Fullan, M. (2014), Leading in A Culture of Change Personal
Action Guide and Workbook, John Wiley &
Sons, San Francisco.
Klein, K.J. and Kozlowski, S.W. (2000), Multilevel Theory,
Research, and Methods in Organizations:
Foundations, Extensions, and New Directions, Jossey-Bass, San
Francisco.
Rauch, A., Wiklund, J., Lumpkin, G.T. and Frese, M. (2009),
“Entrepreneurial orientation and business
performance: an assessment of past research and suggestions for
the future”, Entrepreneurship
Theory and Practice, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 761-787.
Robbins, S. and Coulter, M. (2015),Management, 14th ed.,
Pearson Higher Education, Boston.
Robbins, S., Judge, T.A., Millett, B. and Boyle, M. (2013),
Organisational Behaviour, Pearson Higher
Education AU, New Jersey.
Ruiz, C.E., Wang, J. and Hamlin, R.G. (2013), “What makes

managers effective in Mexico?”, Leadership
& Organization Development Journal, Vol. 34 No. 2, pp. 130-
146.
Trompenaars, A. (1993), “The seven cultures of capitalism”,
Value Systems of Creating Wealth in the
United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Sweden, and
the Netherlands, Currency
Doubleday, New York.
Corresponding author
Bassem E. Maamari can be contacted at: [email protected]
For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please
visit our website:
www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm
Or contact us for further details: [email protected]
Employees’
performance of
genders
651
http://implementer.com/implementer/newtools/orgcultquest.html
mailto:[email protected]
Reproduced with permission of copyright owner. Further
reproduction prohibited without permission.
How organizational culture and leadership style affect
employees’ performance of genders1. Introduction2. Literature
review2.1 Organizational culture2.2 Leadership style2.3
Performance2.4 Effect of organizational culture on
performance2.5 The effect of leadership on performance3.

Methodology4. Results5. Analysis6. Implications, limitations
and conclusionsReferences
M I N D , B R A I N , A N D E D U C A T I O N
Inquiry-Based Stress Reduction
Meditation Technique for
Teacher Burnout:
A Qualitative Study
Lia Schnaider-Levi1, Inbal Mitnik1, Keren Zafrani2, Zehavit
Goldman3, and Shahar Lev-Ari1,4
ABSTRACT— An inquiry-based intervention has been
found to have a positive effect on burnout and mental
well-being parameters among teachers. The aim of the
current study was to qualitatively evaluate the effect of the
inquiry-based stress reduction (IBSR) meditation technique
on the participants. Semi-structured interviews were con-
ducted before and after the IBSR intervention and were
analyzed using the interpretative phenomenological analy-
sis method. Before the intervention, the teachers described
emotional overload caused by two main reasons: (1) multi-
ple stressful interactions with students, parents, colleagues,
and the educational system, and (2) the ideological load
of their profession—trying to fulfill high expectations of
performance and the manifesting educational values. Fol-
lowing the intervention, the teachers described a sense of
centeredness and a greater ability to accept reality. They
reported improvements in setting boundaries, thought
flexibility, and self-awareness. These improvements assisted
them in coping with the complex and dynamic nature of
their profession. These positive effects suggest that IBSR is
an effective technique in reducing teachers’ burnout and
promoting mental well-being.

1Department of Health Promotion, School of Public Health,
Sackler
Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
2Begin High School
3Blich High School
4Center of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, Tel Aviv
Medical
Center
Address correspondence to Shahar Lev-Ari, Department of
Health
Promotion, School of Public Health, Sackler Faculty of
Medicine, Tel
Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel; e-mail:
[email protected]
Burnout is defined as a response to a chronic emotional
strain due to dealing extensively with other human beings,
particularly when having to deal with recurring problems as
well as reduced coping resources (Maslach, 2003; Maslach,
Jackson, & Leiter, 1996). Its components are emotional
exhaustion, defined as a lack of mental resources due to an
emotional overload; depersonalization, defined as an alien-
ated and negative attitude toward the surroundings; and
decreased personal accomplishment, defined as reduced abil-
ity to accomplish desirable results due to lack of external or
internal resources (Awa, Plaumann, & Walter, 2010; Emery &
Vandenberg, 2010; Friedman, 1993; Maslach, 2003; Maslach
et al., 1996). Burnout has been researched intensively in the
field of education, and various studies have described its
prevalence among teachers (Brackenreed, 2011; De Heus &
Diekstra, 1999; Friedman, 2000; Honkonen et al., 2006; Luk,
Chan, Cheong, & Ko, 2009; Schaufeli & Buunk, 2002), as well
as its significant personal and social implications, such as low
level of performance, reduced commitment to teaching, high
turnover (Friedman, 1993; Gold & Roth, 1993; Melamed,

Shirom, Toker, Berliner, & Shapira, 2006; Sorek, Tal, & Paz,
2004), and physical morbidity (Ahola, Väänänen, Koskinen,
Kouvonen, & Shirom, 2010; Bauer et al., 2006; Honkonen
et al., 2006; Melamed et al., 2006; Shirom, Toker, Melamed,
Berliner, & Shapira, 2013).
Teachers need to maintain high levels of mental
well-being in order to fit social expectations, professional
expectations, and their own expectations (Awa et al., 2010;
Pillay, Goddard, & Wilss, 2005). The optimal state of mental
health, which is best described as “mental well-being,”
related to health, optimism, contentment, hope, and hap-
piness, is when an individual fulfills his/her capabilities
and functions well under standard pressures of life so that
he/she can be productive and effective and can contribute to
society (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; World Health
Volume 11—Number 2 © 2017 The Authors Journal
Compilation © 2017 International 75
Mind, Brain, and Education Society and Wiley Periodicals Inc.
IBSR Meditation for Burnout Among Teachers
Organization, 2004). Promoting psychological well-being
focuses on the individual’s positive and optimal functioning
(Bolier et al., 2013; Keyes, 2007). Theorists have defined
the nature of positive psychological functioning in a variety
of ways; however, there is consensus around six common
factors that need to be addressed in order to avoid mental
weariness, frustration, anxiety, nervousness, depression,
emotional exhaustion, and psychosomatic problems (Keyes,
2007; Ryff, 1989, 1995; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009; Tylee &
Wallace, 2009; World Health Organization, 2004). These
are self-acceptance, positive and reciprocal relationships

with others, autonomy in thought and action (the ability to
resist social pressure and to regulate behavior and thoughts
according to personal standards), environmental mastery
and competence (the ability to manage complex external
surroundings, to choose or create contexts suitable to per-
sonal needs and values), purpose in life, and personal growth
and development.
The umbrella term of well-being promotion includes sev-
eral types of intervention, including approaches such as the
psycho-behavioral methods used in the corporate business
world (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy, coaching), posi-
tive psychology intervention (PPI) methods (e.g., practical
gratitude, art therapy, music therapy), and mindfulness tech-
niques (e.g., meditation, breathing practice; NCCAM, 2010;
Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009; Tylee & Wallace, 2009).
Mindfulness-based interventions are designed to enhance
the mind’s capacity to be aware of the present moment and
to accept one’s current experiences without judgment or
elaboration (Bishop et al., 2004; Kabat-Zinn, 1994). With-
out compelling the suppression or alteration of emotions,
mindfulness enhancement enables the individual to have
greater control of thoughts and emotions while dismiss-
ing old habits and automatic reactions (Chambers, Gullone,
& Allen, 2009). Research has demonstrated that different
forms of meditation can enhance well-being across diverse
populations within (and beyond) the education sector. For
example, student educators were taught simple meditation
using sound as a focusing tool, and practiced it for 45 min
per session, four times. Questionnaires filled by the par-
ticipants who practiced this meditation have shown a sig-
nificant reduction in their stress symptoms in the posttest
measurements when compared to the control group in the
domains of emotional, gastronomic distress, and behavioral
manifestations (Elder, Nidich, Moriarty, & Nidich, 2014;

Emery & Vandenberg, 2010; Kemeny et al., 2012; Ospina
et al., 2008; Winzelberg & Luskin, 1999). Practicing tran-
scendental meditation was reportedly effective on psycho-
logical measures, such as stress and exhaustion, among spe-
cial education teachers in the United States (Elder et al.,
2014). Mindfulness practice of one and a half hours once a
week during 10 weeks among teachers in Spain significantly
enhanced well-being measures and the effective functioning
of teachers in stressful situations; positive effects persisted
4 months following the conclusion of the intervention pro-
gram (Franco, Manas, Cangas, Moreno, & Gallego, 2010).
The ability to acknowledge and consider the emotions of
others was shown to improve among intervention recipients
during an intensive study of U.S. teachers receiving mind-
fulness training combined with emotional adjustment. The
participants also showed a decrease in blood pressure in con-
junction with increases in mindfulness practice (Gold et al.,
2009). A study conducted in Germany involving the prac-
tice of breathing techniques showed participating teachers
demonstrated an improvement in 9 out of 11 functional and
emotional measures (Loew, Götz, Hornung, & Tritt, 2009).
An intervention involving the practice of mindfulness-based
stress reduction (MBSR) and the practice of tai chi was stud-
ied in a school in Boston after being recommended and
results showed it to be an effective technique for increasing
peace of mind and improving the quality of sleep, focus, and
well-being measures (Wall, 2005).
A direct link has been established between mindfulness-
based techniques and enhanced brain activity in the frontal
cortex areas that are responsible for focusing attention and
positive prosocial emotional states, such as empathy, com-
munication, and socialization (Davidson & McEwen, 2012;
Goleman & Gurin, 1993). Davidson and McEwen (2012)

described emotional capabilities, self-inspection, and mind-
fulness as dynamic, acquired, and adaptive processes, which
can be enhanced in the same manner as other skills in the
fields of music, mathematics, and sports. Their study showed
structural and functional changes in the brain as a result of
cognitive therapy and training certain forms of meditation.
Practicing mindfulness or meditation enables the indi-
vidual to be less reactive to negative experiences and more
focused on positive aspects as the consequence of enhancing
the activities of specific brain areas (Davidson, 1992; Lutz,
Slagter, Dunne, & Davidson, 2008).
Taken as a whole, such studies demonstrate that, across
multiple contexts and countries, well-being promotion tech-
niques based on mindfulness can be used beneficially among
teachers. However, broader and longer term research is
still needed in order to establish the effectiveness of these
techniques in burnout-related exhaustion prevention and
treatment.
Inquiry-Based Stress Reduction
Inquiry-based stress reduction (IBSR) is a meditation
technique developed by Byron Katie in 1986. Its aim is to
identify the thoughts that cause stress and suffering in a
systematic and comprehensive way, and to meditatively
“investigate” them by a series of questions and turnarounds.
This technique does not require any intellectual, religious,
or spiritual preparation, but rather a will to deepen and
76 Volume 11—Number 2
Lia Schnaider-Levi et al.

reach self-awareness (Katie & Mitchell, 2003). It has been
practiced by many individuals worldwide (Landau et al.,
2014; Lev-Ari, Zilcha-Mano, Rivo, & Geva, 2013). Its effec-
tiveness was demonstrated on various psychological scales
among cancer patients and cancer survivors. IBSR was
also tested in a nonclinical population and it was shown to
be effective in improving scales of depression and anxiety
(Leufke, Zilcha-Mano, Feld, & Lev-Ari, 2013). A constant
evaluation of current efforts and an examination of new
efforts are required in order to maintain and develop mental
well-being of teachers in the education system. System-
atic and individual means must be combined in order to
effectively treat exhaustion problems among teachers, with
emphasis on mental health promotion (Flook, Goldberg,
Pinger, Bonus, & Davidson, 2013). IBSR is classified as a
meditation technique based on mindfulness and is there-
fore applied as a mental well-being promotion technique.
However, to the best of our knowledge, its effectiveness
has not been tested among teachers in particular (Leufke
et al., 2013). We hypothesized that IBSR has the potential of
reducing exhaustion levels and increasing well-being levels
among teachers. This would be consistent with the benefits
seen from other types of mindfulness programs.
METHODS
Recruitment and Participants
The current study is the qualitative part of a controlled trial
designed to statistically and qualitatively assess the effects of
IBSR on burnout and well-being levels among teachers. The
study was carried out at a high school in a large city in Israel.
All the teachers on its staff were eligible to participate in the
study if they agreed to sign an informed consent form and
had no previous experience with the IBSR technique. The
study was carried out with the support of the school prin-
cipal and was approved by the Israeli Ministry of Education

(MOE).
An advertisement for recruiting teachers to participate in
the study was published on the teachers’ billboard (at school
and online). In addition, the invitation was announced dur-
ing a teachers’ meeting. Teachers who were willing to par-
ticipate met the main researcher at the school and were
informed about study objectives and procedures. The first
27 teachers to sign the consent form were included in the
12-week IBSR intervention group in order to ensure a full
group. The rest of the teachers (n = 27) were included in
the control group. To reduce dropout rates from the control
group, those who continued through until the end were told
they would receive an IBSR kit (a book and a CD) at the end
of the study. The assignment procedure was fully detailed in
the advertisement.
The intervention arm (n = 27) included two groups who
met on different days of the week. All the participants
(n = 54) completed four psychological questionnaires before
and after the intervention. Before the intervention, all partic-
ipants of one of the intervention groups (n = 11) were con-
tacted by telephone and were informed about the qualitative
part of the research. All of those teachers agreed to partici-
pate. This led to a smaller sample appropriate for the analysis
method chosen for this research (interpretive phenomeno-
logical analysis; Smith & Osborn, 2003) as a relatively small
sample size of between 6 and 12 is sufficient to arrive at
conclusions (Baker & Edwards, 2014). Two teachers did not
participate in the first interview due to a busy schedule and
one teacher joined the intervention group one day before
the beginning of the workshop, leaving insufficient time to
complete the interview. A third teacher did not complete the
second interview due to a busy schedule. The total number
of subjects who completed all components of the qualitative
study were eight.

The participants of this study, all high school teachers in
the same school, held different positions. The smaller sample
is shown in Table 1.
Intervention Method
The first stage of the IBSR technique is to systematically
identify the thoughts that cause stress and suffering, and
to record the specific thoughts about various stressful sit-
uations by using the Judge Your Neighbor worksheet (see
the appendix). The next stage is an inquiry of the stressful
thoughts by a series of questions and turnarounds. Partici-
pants choose the main thoughts they had written down on
the worksheet and investigate them by four guided ques-
tions: (1) Is it true? (2) Can I absolutely know that it is
true? (3) How do I react when I believe that thought? (4)
Who would I be without the thought? This self-investigation
enables the individuals to examine their emotional and phys-
ical responses during stressful situations. This stage is med-
itative, and the participants are guided to be in a state of
witnessing awareness, in which they observe the thoughts
that come into mind without trying to control or direct them
(Katie & Mitchell, 2003). In the turnarounds, the participants
experience a revised interpretation of reality. For example, if
the original thought was “My pupils don’t like me,” possi-
ble turnarounds can be “I don’t like my pupils” (turnaround
to the other), “I don’t like myself” (turnaround to myself ), or
“My pupils do like me” (turnaround to the opposite). The par-
ticipants are guided to find three genuine examples in which
the turnaround is as true as the original thought. By doing
so, they can understand that they do not have to automati-
cally believe the stressful thoughts, but can choose different
interpretations of reality (Katie & Mitchell, 2003).
Volume 11—Number 2 77

Table 1
Sample Group
Pseudonym Age Educational field Years of experience
Interviews completed
(Before and after the intervention)
Rosette 48 Math, special education homeroom teacher 7 Before
+ After
Hen 45 English 12 Before + After
Yehudit 56 English 15 Before + After
Tamar 40 Arabic 10 After
Yaela 42 Physics 8 Before + After
Keren 45 Literature, homeroom teacher 18 Before + After
Ricky 42 Drama 11 Before + After
Paula 38 History, homeroom teacher 13 Before + After
Shira 44 English, homeroom teacher 9 Before + After
Neriya 35 Bible teacher 6 Before
Shaked 39 Educational counselor 10 Before
The IBSR intervention lasted 12 weeks and included
weekly group meetings (3.5 hr/meeting) and weekly indi-
vidual sessions with a facilitator by telephone (1 hr/session).
All the sessions were standardized according to a train-
ing manual, and each session was assessed afterwards for
maintaining consistency during the program. The workshop
was adapted specifically to homeroom teachers. The group
forum training was designed to address teaching-related
issues, such as self-esteem as a teacher, the student–teacher
relationship, work under noise and pressure, professional
development, and others. More personal issues were

addressed in the individual sessions on the telephone with
the facilitators. Participants were included in the final
study analysis if they had been present in at least 75%
of the group meetings and completed 50% of the home
practice. All of the participants complied with these basic
terms.
Data Collection
The data were collected from semi-structured interviews
which were conducted during the 2 weeks before and after
the intervention, and each interview lasted for 1 hr. The goal
of a semi-structured interview is to create an open dialogue
between the interviewer and the interviewee, and to pro-
vide the opportunity for people to tell their story openly and
freely with minimal interference (Smith & Osborn, 2003). At
the first interview, the participants were asked the follow-
ing questions: “Can you describe your everyday experiences
at school? What is your main motivation in teaching? What
is important for you? What are your main difficulties? How
do you cope with them?” In order to estimate their expec-
tations from the workshop, they were also asked: “What
benefits do you wish to achieve from the intervention?” At
the second interview, they were asked to describe their gen-
eral impressions: “Please tell me about your experience in
the workshop.” Elaboration or clarification was requested as
needed. The interviews were conducted and recorded by one
of the researchers. The recordings were then transcribed by
an objective third party who issued the textual interviews
used in the research while ensuring that personal informa-
tion remained confidential.
Data Analysis
The interviews were analyzed using the interpretative phe-
nomenological analysis method (Smith & Osborn, 2003).
This method aims to investigate people’s experiences from

a subjective point of view, while emphasizing the way they
make sense of their personal and social world. It includes
several phases. In the first phase of this study’s analysis, two
of the researchers (the interviewer and the medical psychol-
ogist) interpreted the transcripts. Each transcript was care-
fully read several times, significant topics were marked, and
attention was focused on language and the use of key words
or metaphors. In the next phase, the main topics of each
interview were identified and conceptualized into themes, as
expressed by specific phrases that aimed to reflect the mean-
ing of the text. Analytical or theoretical connections between
the themes composed the superordinate themes.
RESULTS
The results of the analysis show the interview data provide
a rich description of teachers’ reflections about the effects
of the 12-week IBSR intervention on the individual teacher
with an emphasis on the development of subsequent abili-
ties to cope with the unique challenges of their profession.
The results are separated into three parts: (1) themes that
were revealed before the intervention; (2) themes that were
revealed after the intervention; (3) the limitation of the work-
shop, as described by some of the participants. Parts 1 and
2 consider the description of the psychological state and
the outcome behaviors of the participants in the classroom,
in the school environment and at home, and provide some
interpretation based on other published literature.

Main Themes: Abstract
Before the intervention, the teachers described multiple
social interactions as being part of their daily routine.
Despite the positive and supportive relations with their
colleagues, they also described an emotional overload and
difficulty in dealing with the complicated reality. Moreover,
they expressed a sense of frustration due to their unful-
filled expectations and the gap between their professional
ideology and the daily reality. After practicing the IBSR,
teachers described two main experiences—a more centered
and focused self and a greater ability to accept reality. The
workshop’s structured and systematic format was suitable
in this context, and it was described by them as being highly
beneficial. Details of teachers’ responses—before, during,
and after the intervention— are presented in three separate
panels over the next few pages.
Pre-Intervention Interview Results
Analysis of the interview data collected prior to delivery
of the intervention revealed two superordinate themes,
as described in Figure 1. They represent the complex
and stressful dynamic of the profession as detailed by
the teachers. The participants’ names and data remained
confidential.
Multiple Relationships
The teachers described various interactions and dynamics as
part of their daily work routine with colleagues, pupils, and the
pupils’
parents. These relationships were described as personal and
having an emotional involvement, rather than professional.
Relations with colleagues and school management: support and
understanding.
Paula “There are a couple of teachers, who are much more than
friends. … it’s relaxing, it helps. … You are not

alone.”
Rosette “We have a great staff, supportive. … Advice from a
colleague is worth a lot … the cooperation is great.”
Yehudit “She (the principal) is very nice. … I can always tell
her how I feel.”
Yaela “The principal and the staff are great and supportive … it
feels like a family.”
Interactions with pupils and parents were usually described as
highly demanding and intensive, with considerable emotional
involvement that made it challenging to set clear boundaries.
Yehudit “Spoiled kids … unable to postpone gratification …
unable to deal with difficulties. … Sometimes
parents tell you, teach him, that is your job. … I tell them let’s
do it together, I can’t do it without you.”
Tamar “I beg them to stop disrupting the class. … it is very
difficult. … I sometimes tell them to please be quiet,
I want to speak … that is so insulting. … I teach them properly,
they are always ready for tests … but
sometimes it is very difficult to control them.”
Ricki “I constantly cope with boundaries issues … pupils text
me during weekends and holidays … it’s
difficult for me to set any boundaries. … There is a conflict
between the need to be available for them
and the need to be with my family.”
Keren “If a parent calls you in the evening, how can you not
answer him!? I cannot do that, it concerns children,
not computers and papers. I had pupils who tried to commit
suicide. Others ran away from home …
how can I ignore that!?”
Rosette “I need to work harder on setting boundaries … they are

not so clear … I need to be more assertive.”
Fig. 1. Main themes before and after the IBSR intervention.
After the intervention, the teachers detailed various tech-
nical aspects about the workshop that enable them to expe-
rience the emotional process, such as the group format
and the weekly phones calls with the facilitators. They all
emphasized the importance of the practical tools given
to them during the workshop (e.g., the “three types of
business,” the four questions). Given the teachers’ compli-
cated and chaotic experiences and their lack of emotional
resources, their need for a systematic and focused practice is
understandable:
The intervention was very systematic from the
beginning. … It is a systematic process, which repeats
itself. … I like it a lot. (Shira)
Very clear rules were set, and suddenly you realize it
works if you are consistent. (Paula)
Expectations vs. Reality
Positive attitude toward the profession was noted by most of the
teachers. This included ideological reasons for choosing this
profession
and a positive perception regarding a teacher’s contribution and
role.
Rosette “Teaching is a way of life. It’s a great privilege. … The
pupils’ success is our success. … It’s like therapy, you touch

people’s lives.”
Hen “I wanted to pass on my knowledge. … It’s a childhood
dream. I had a geography teacher, whom I appreciated a lot, the
way she
taught, her caring and interest.”
Yehudit “Each teacher is an educator. … Not just preparing
pupils to the final exams. … You need empathy, love for
children. …
Understanding their uniqueness. … They will learn only if you
create a personal contract with them.”
Overload: Their daily routine as teachers was described as
highly demanding and stressful.
Yaela “There is a lot of stress, many things to do … How can I
function with all these tasks?!”
Keren “When you enter the class you have to be focused. …
with 40 pupils. … You have to be extra-focused and
concentrated, to
ignore your personal problems. … You always have stuff on
your mind. … You don’t rest even at home. … No rest.”
Paula “You need a lot of energy. … You work many hours and
it is natural to be burned out. … The work is very difficult. …
A
stranger won’t understand it. … All my friends have nine-to-
five desk jobs. The only noise they hear is the air conditioner …
while I haven’t eaten anything the whole day.”
Frustration: The busy schedule, full of tasks and commitments,
limited their ability to deal with the meaningful educational
issues. This
gap between their ideology and personal expectations vs. their
daily routine was experienced as a source of frustration and
exhaustion.

Hen “I have many ideas … but it is difficult to accomplish
them. … Time is so limited. … I start my day, from one lesson
to the
other. … I hardly have time to go to the bathroom. … There is
so little energy available for new ideas … you can accomplish
only 10 percent of them.”
Ricki “All the bureaucracy. … I don’t do what I am supposed to
do. … I am working so hard … I am exhausted … they expect
me to
achieve goals.”
Keren “I was very motivated … I did so many things. … (Now)
I wake up every morning and I don’t want to go to work. … I
wish the
day will be over as quickly as possible.”
Yehudit “I don’t want things to concern me … to affect me. … I
want to deal with my own business and not to get hurt … it will
make
things much easier for me.”
After the Intervention
After the workshop, two super ordinate themes emerged, which
represented a more focused and structured perspective toward
their
profession and its unique aspects, as described by the teachers
(Figure 1), accepting reality and centeredness.
Accepting reality—increased awareness:—The teachers
described an increased awareness of their reactions and
perceptions of reality.
This awareness helped them accept reality as is and avoid futile
attempts to change or confront it, thereby reducing their level of

frustration and stress. The teachers experienced a higher level
of satisfaction with themselves as well as with their
surroundings.
Yaela “The workshop helped me to stop arguing with reality. …
Today I truly understand how to love what exists and there is a
lot to
love! … The bad is always there, you just need to focus less on
it … , when I don’t argue and accept myself … it is like going
out of jail in some ways.”
Neriya “When [pupils] talk—I don’t immediately freak out. You
know what I mean? Until now every little twit drove me crazy.
But now
I say it’s okay, it’s okay for them to talk, so what if they are
talking, keep teaching.”
Shaked “The workshop helped me to focus my awareness on
various situations … not to automatically complain but to
understand
when there is a genuine pain that I need to work on so it won’t
hurt anymore … for example, when it is difficult for my
children, it hurts me physically … so I tell myself that I need to
think about the situation differently.”
Shira “It [the intervention] confirmed that I am on the right
track and that is important. … In the complexity of teaching,
you need to
adjust yourself … it confirmed that my instincts are correct.”
Hen “One thought terribly bothered me. I sat down and devoted
some time to it. I actually took the ‘Judge Your Neighbor’ sheet
and
applied The Work. Things I’m familiar with, I use the
turnarounds on. Others which I’m not, like when I’m in a
midday

overload, I tell myself to pay attention to bad feelings and take
them on an inquiry.”
Accepting reality—flexible thinking The participants described
their improved ability to interpret and perceive various
situations in a
more flexible manner, with no rigid assumptions or emotional
involvement. This was achieved mainly by the technique of the
turnaround, which enabled the participants to acknowledge the
subjectivity of their thoughts and beliefs.
Shaked “Many times during stress … we have a thought that
causes us to get stuck and it (the turnarounds) was very easy. …
Now I
turn the situation to myself or to the other, and it releases
something in your way of thinking … it is important for me that
the house will be clean, so my son does not have to do the
dishes. … It changed the way I act in my house, with my
children
and with my husband.”
Yehudit “I understand that children are sitting in front of me in
the classroom, not adults … and so my expectations should be
different. … I don’t need to judge them according to my values;
they are in a different place than me, so I need to treat them
differently.”
Paula “Mainly doubting your thoughts, instead of blaming
someone else. Asking the questions, and the turnarounds,
creates doubts

and takes you elsewhere. Neutralizes all kinds of variables:
when you are in the middle of a storm, you are certain it is
intentional and devious, and then when you turn it around, you
realize—wait, I contribute to this situation as well!”
Centeredness: The teachers described a more focused and
centered self, which helped them to deal better with the various
relationships
and dynamics in their daily routine. This experience was
different from the former experience of splits and complexity,
which was
described by them before the intervention. During the workshop
they were trained to set emotional boundaries in various daily
interactions, in particular, the technique of “the three types of
businesses,” which was described as highly practical and
helpful.
Ricki “We checked whose ‘business’ were they, and it was clear
that they were the pupil’s. … I was frustrated that I cannot help
her,
but another teacher helped me understand that I am dealing with
her business. … I could not help her because I was too
emotionally involved … setting boundaries was what she needed
the most.”
Rosette “For me it was a problem that lasted for years … and
then things surfaced here during the workshop. Being very
clear, set
boundaries, speak assertively. I left with a large toolbox.
Sometimes I feel we are kind of slaves of our thoughts. … ”
Yehudit “It really changed the way I act in the classroom … my
pupils’ behavior affects me much less, which is a significant
benefit for
me. … I respond less to their behavior … emotionally. … Once
if there was noise, if they didn’t listen … I used to get so

upset and scream. … Now I don’t get nervous and aggressive.
… Three months ago, I was crazy, bitter, nervous. … I used to
react very intuitively … very aggressively. … Now I take my
time. … I am more relaxed and I think. … I explore it my way.”
Yaela “The thing that affected me the most was the issue of the
‘business.’ … Many times you discover you are not dealing with
your
own ‘business.’ … You deal with those of others and you
neglect your own. … This workshop can help teachers to avoid
misunderstandings with pupils … to reduce conflicts … using
the four simple questions we learned. … Investigating our
thoughts as teachers can reduce stressful situations in teaching.
… I am much more attentive, I try to understand what the
other person wants.”
Limitations of the Workshop
Although the teachers were satisfied with the intervention,
they described several limitations of the workshop. First,
most of them were skeptical about their ability to practice the
technique without regular group meetings. They expressed a
need to integrate it into their routine. Second, some teachers
were concerned about the exposure of personal issues in
front of their colleagues, with whom they have an ongoing
professional relationship.
DISCUSSION
Before the intervention, the interviews revealed a state of
emotional overload and exhaustion among the participants.
This finding was described in previous studies as a charac-
teristic of teaching and as a source of emotional stress for
teachers (Sorek et al., 2004). A study by Friedman (2000)
demonstrated that unaccomplished expectations and shat-
tered dreams have a significant role in the process of burnout
among teachers. After the intervention, the positive effects

described above can be evaluated by the theoretical frame-
work of psychological well-being (Keyes, 2007; Ryff, 1989,
1995; Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009; Tylee & Wallace, 2009;
World Health Organization, 2004). This model includes
six dimensions of wellness, manifested in the results of
the study as follows. (1) Self-acceptance, demonstrated in
the current study by the teachers having reported higher
levels of self-awareness and a more peaceful inner self
after the intervention, as well as by acknowledging their
abilities as well as accepting their weaknesses. (2) positive
and reciprocal relationships with others, expressed as the
capability of empathy, affection, and intimacy. The teach-
ers described better interactions with their surroundings
after the intervention due to their enhanced ability to set
boundaries with less emotional involvement and by hav-
ing a more flexible attitude. In addition, the positive and
close relationships that were formed with the rest of the
participants helped the teachers to feel more acknowledged
and appreciated, which improved their daily interactions
at work. (3) Autonomy in thoughts and action, demon-
strated by the ability to resist social pressure and to regulate
behavior and thoughts by personal standards. The improved
ability to set boundaries and sustain centered, self-helped
teachers maintain their personal standards and values with
less pressure from external surroundings. (4) Environmental
mastery and competence, which translated into the ability
to manage complex external surroundings and to choose
or create contexts suitable to personal needs and values.
The teachers’ increased ability to set boundaries with a
more flexible position improved their ability to perform
in the classroom and handle interpersonal dynamics. (5)
Purpose in life, which replaced ideology and meaning as
significant and inherent features of their profession by
personal values and goals, and redefined them as a current
resource of meaning and fulfillment. (6) Personal growth

and development, as defined by feelings of realizing one’s
potential and openness to new experiences. The meditative
process of the intervention focused on personal aspects
and helped the teachers to acknowledge their abilities and
inner strength, thereby initiating a process of personal
development.
Limitations of the Study
We are aware of several limitations of this study. The partici-
pants were all from a single high school in Israel. It evaluated
only the short-term effects of a short mindfulness interven-
tion. The data were collected by conducting two personal
interviews with the researcher, which may have had an addi-
tional effect on the participants’ responses. It included only
one IBSR group from the two intervention groups. How-
ever, the group was selected randomly which minimizes the
risk of bias. In addition, as described in the Results section,
the teachers themselves described several limitations of the
workshop, such as the need for regular practice as an integral
part of their work and their ambivalence about its implemen-
tation in a professional setting with colleagues.
To conclude, the current qualitative study demonstrated
the positive effects of the IBSR intervention on unique
aspects related to teaching. These results should be fur-
ther evaluated in large-scale studies with longer follow-ups
in order to widen the understanding of the technique’s
potential efficacy as a tool for improving well-being among
teachers.

Acknowledgment—We thank Esther Eshkol for editorial
assistance.
REFERENCES
Ahola, K., Väänänen, A., Koskinen, A., Kouvonen, A., &
Shirom,
A. (2010). Burnout as a predictor of all-cause mortality among
industrial employees: A 10-year prospective register-linkage
study. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 69(1), 51–57.
Awa, W. L., Plaumann, M., & Walter, U. (2010). Burnout
prevention:
A review of intervention programs. Patient Education and
Counseling, 78, 184–190.
Baker, S.E., & Edwards, R. 2014. How many qualitative
interviews
is enough? (National Centre for Research Methods Review
Paper). Retrieved from http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/2273/4/
how_many_interviews.pdf
Bauer, J., Stamm, A., Virnich, K., Wissing, K., Müller, U.,
Wirsching,
M., & Schaarschmidt, U. (2006). Correlation between burnout
syndrome and psychological and psychosomatic symptoms
among teachers. International Archives of Occupational and
Environmental Health, 79(3), 199–204.
Bishop, S. R., Lau, M., Shapiro, S., Carlson, L., Anderson, N.
D.,
Carmody, J., … Devins, G. (2004). Mindfulness: A proposed
operational definition. Clinical Psychology: Science and Prac-
tice, 11(3), 230–241.

Bolier, L., Haverman, M., Westerhof, G. J., Riper, H., Smit, F.,
&
Bohlmeijer, E. (2013). Positive psychology interventions: A
meta-analysis of randomized controlled studies. BMC Public
Health, 13(119), 1–20.
Brackenreed, D. (2011). Inclusive education: Identifying teach-
ers’ strategies for coping with perceived stressors in inclusive
classrooms. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration
and Policy, 122, 16–22.
Chambers, R., Gullone, E., & Allen, N. B. (2009). Mindful
emotion
regulation: An integrative review. Clinical Psychology Review,
29, 560–572.
Davidson, R. J. (1992). Anterior cerebral asymmetry and the
nature
of emotion. Brain and Cognition, 20(1), 125–151.
Davidson, R. J., & McEwen, B. S. (2012). Social influences on
neu-
roplasticity: Stress and interventions to promote well-being.
Nature Neuroscience, 15, 689–694.
De Heus, P., & Diekstra, R. (1999). Do teachers burn out more
easily? A comparison of teachers with other social professions
on work stress and burnout symptoms. In R. Vandenberghe
& A. M. Huberman (Eds.), Understanding and preventing
teacher burnout: A sourcebook of international research and
practice (pp. 269–284). New York, NY: Cambridge University
Press.
Elder, C., Nidich, S., Moriarty, F., & Nidich, R. (2014). Effect
of

transcendental meditation on employee stress, depression,
and burnout: A randomized controlled study. The Permanente
Journal, 18(1), 19–23.
Emery, D. W., & Vandenberg, B. (2010). Special education
teacher
burnout and ACT. International Journal of Special Education,
25(3), 119–131.
Flook, L., Goldberg, B., Pinger, L., Bonus, K., & Davidson, R.
J.
(2013). Mindfulness for teachers: A pilot study to assess effects
on stress, burnout, and teaching efficacy. Mind, Brain, and
Education, 7, 182–195.
Franco, C., Manas, I., Cangas, A. J., Moreno, E., & Gallego, J.
(2010). Reducing teachers’ psychological distress through a
mindfulness training program. Spanish Journal of Psychology,
13, 655–666.
Friedman, I. (1993). Burnout in teachers: The concept and its
unique core meaning. Educational and Psychological Mea-
surement, 53, 1035–1044.
Friedman, I. A. (2000). Burnout in teachers: Shattered dreams
of impeccable professional performance. Journal of Clinical
Psychology, 56, 595–606.
Gold, E., Smith, A., Hopper, I., Herne, D., Tansey, G., &
Hulland,
C. (2009). Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) for
primary school teachers. Journal of Child and Family Studies,
19, 184–189. doi:10.1007/s10826-009-9344-0
Gold, Y., & Roth, A. R. (1993). Teachers managing stress and
pre-

venting burnout: The professional health solution. New York,
NY: Psychology Press.
Goleman, D., & Gurin, J. (Eds.). (1993). What is mind/body
medicine? In D. Goleman & J. Gurin (Eds.), Mind/body
medicine: How to use your mind for better health. Yonkers,
NY: Consumer Reports Books.
Honkonen, T., Ahola, K., Pertovaara, M., Isometsä, E., Kalimo,
R.,
Nykyri, E., … Lönnqvist, J. (2006). The association between
burnout and physical illness in the general population: Results
from the Finnish Health 2000 study. Journal of Psychosomatic
Research, 61(1), 59–66.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go, there you are:
Mindfulness
meditation in everyday life. New York, NY: Hyperion.
http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/2273/4/how_many_interviews.pdf
http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/2273/4/how_many_interviews.pdf
Katie, B., with Mitchell, S. (2003). Loving what is: Four
questions
that can change your life. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press.
Kemeny, M. E., Foltz, C., Cavanagh, J. F., Cullen, M., Giese-
Davis,
J., Jennings, P., … Ekman, P. (2012). Contemplative/emotion
training reduces negative emotional behavior and promotes
prosocial responses. Emotion, 12, 338–350. doi:10.1037/

a0026118.
Keyes, C. L. (2007). Promoting and protecting mental health as
flourishing: A complementary strategy for improving national
mental health. American Psychologist, 62, 95–108.
Landau, C., Lev-Ari, S., Cohen-Mansfield, J., Tillinger, E.,
Geva,
R., Mitnik, I., & Friedman, E. (2014). Randomized controlled
trial of the inquiry-based stress reduction (IBSR) technique for
BRCA1/2 mutation carriers. Psycho-Oncology, 24, 726–731.
doi:10.1002/pon.3703
Leufke, R., Zilcha-Mano, S., Feld, A., & Lev-Ari, S. (2013).
Effects of
“The Work” meditation on psychological symptoms. Journal of
Alternative Complementary Therapy, 19, 147–152.
Lev-Ari, S., Zilcha-Mano, S., Rivo, L., & Geva, R. (2013).
Prospec-
tive pilot clinical trial of an inquiry-based stress reduction
(IBSR) program for survivors of breast cancer. European Jour-
nal of Integrative Medicine, 258, 487–494.
Loew, T., Götz, K., Hornung, R., & Tritt, K. (2009). AFA
breathing
therapy to prevent burnout for teachers. Forschende Komple-
mentärmedizin, 16(3), 174–179.
Luk, A. L., Chan, B. P. S., Cheong, S. W., & Ko, S. K. K.
(2009).
An exploration of the burnout situation on teachers in two
schools in Macau. Social Indicators Research, 95, 489–502.
doi:10.1007/s11205-009-9533-7
Lutz, A., Slagter, H. A., Dunne, J., & Davidson, R. J. (2008).

Atten-
tion regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cog-
nitive Sciences, 12(4), 163–169.
Maslach, C. (2003). Job burnout, new directions in research and
intervention. Current Directions in Psychological Science,
12(5), 189–192.
Maslach, C., Jackson, S. E., & Leiter, M. P. (1996). Maslach
burnout
inventory manual (3rd ed.). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psy-
chologists Press.
Melamed, S., Shirom, A., Toker, S., Berliner, S., & Shapira, I.
(2006).
Burnout and risk of cardiovascular disease: Evidence, possible
causal paths, and promising research directions. Psychological
Bulletin, 132, 327–353.
National Center for Alternative and Complementary Medicine
(NCCAM). (2010). NCCAM Publication No. D347. Retrieved
from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/whatiscam/
Ospina, M. B., Bond, K., Karkhaneh, M., Buscemi, N., Dryden,
D. M., Barnes, V., … Shannahoff-Khalsa, D. B. A. (2008).
Clinical trials of meditation practices in health care: Charac-
teristics and quality. Journal of Alternative and Complemen-
tary Medicine, 14, 1199–1213. doi:10.1089/acm.2008.0307.
Pillay, H., Goddard, R., & Wilss, L. (2005). Well-being,
burnout and
competence: Implications for teachers. Australian Journal of
Teacher Education, 30(2), 22–33.
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it?

Explorations on
the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personal-
ity and Social Psychology, 57, 1069–1081.
Ryff, C. D. (1995). Psychological well-being in adult life.
Current
Directions in Psychological Science, 4, 99–104.
Schaufeli, W. B., & Buunk, B. P. (2002). Burnout: An overview
of 25
years of research and theorizing. In M. J. J. Schabracq, A. M.
Winnubst, & C. L. Cooper (Eds.), The handbook of work and
health psychology (pp. 383–425). Chichester, England: John
Wiley.
Seligman, M. E. P., & Csiikszentmialayi, M. (2000). Positive
psychol-
ogy: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55, 5–14.
Shirom, A., Toker, S., Melamed, S., Berliner, S., & Shapira, I.
(2013).
Burnout and vigor as predictors of the incidence of hyperlipi-
demia among healthy employees. Applied Psychology: Health
and Well-Being, 5(1), 79–98.
Sin, N. L., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2009). Enhancing well-being
and alle-
viating depressive symptoms with positive psychology inter-
ventions: A practice-friendly meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical
Smith, J. A., & Osborn, M. (2003). Interpretive phenomenologi-
cal analysis. In J. A. Smith (Ed.), Qualitative psychology (pp.
56–57). London, England: Sage.
Sorek, Z., Tal, H., & Paz, D. (2004). Overload in teachers’ work

leads
to a decrease in quality time and personal attention for pupils.
A position paper for the promotion of an education plan. The
Israeli Teachers Union in (in Hebrew).
Tylee, A., & Wallace, A. (2009). Mental health promotion. In L.
Gask, H. Lester, T. Kendrick, & R. Peveler (Eds.), Primary
care mental health (pp. 351–365). London, England: The Royal
College of Psychiatrists.
Wall, R. B. (2005). Tai chi and mindfulness-based stress
reduction in
a Boston public middle school. Journal of Pediatric Health
Care, 19(4), 230–237.
Winzelberg, A. J., & Luskin, F. M. (1999). The effect of a
meditation
training in stress levels in secondary school teachers. Stress
Medicine, 15(2), 69–77.
World Health Organization. (2004). Promoting mental health:
Concepts, emerging evidence, practice. Summary report.
Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. Retrieved
from http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/42940
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/whatiscam/
http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/42940
APPENDIX: JUDGE-YOUR-NEIGHBOR WORKSHEET*
*Permission has been obtained for use of copyrighted material.

Copyright of Mind, Brain & Education is the property of Wiley-
Blackwell and its content
may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a
listserv without the copyright
holder's express written permission. However, users may print,
download, or email articles for
individual use.
Qualitative Articles:
Lim, J., Hepworth, J., & Bogossian, F. (2011). A qualitative
analysis of stress, uplifts and coping in the personal and
professional lives of Singaporean nurses. Journal of Advanced
Nursing, 67(5), 1022–1033. https://doi-
org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2010.05572.x
Lia, S., Inbal, M., Keren, Z., Zehavit, G., & Shahar, L. ( 2017).
Inquiry-based stress reduction meditation technique for teacher
burnout: A qualitative study. Mind, Brain, and Education , 75-
82.
(this has already been completed)
Quantitative Article:
Maamari, B. E., & Saheb, A. (2018). How organizational culture
and leadership style affect employees’ performance of genders.
International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 26(4), 630–
651. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1108/IJOA-04-
2017-1151
(Has already been completed)
Jenny, G. J., Brauchli, R., Inauen, A., Füllemann, D., Fridrich,
A., & Bauer, G. F. (2015). Process and outcome evaluation of
an organizational level stress management intervention in

Switzerland. Health Promotion International, 30(3), 573–585.
https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1093/heapro/dat091
Mixed Methods:
Rumbold, J. L., Fletcher, D., & Daniels, K. (2018). Using a
mixed method audit to inform organizational stress management
interventions in sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 35,
27–38. https://doi-
org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2017.10.010
Antoni, C. H., Baeten, X., Perkins, S. J., Shaw, J. D., &
Vartiainen, M. (2017). Reward management: Linking employee
motivation and organizational performance. Journal of
Personnel Psychology, 16(2), 57–60. https://doi-
org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1027/1866-5888/a000187
O R I G I N A L R E S E A R C H
A qualitative analysis of stress, uplifts and coping in the
personal
and professional lives of Singaporean nurses
Joanne Lim, Julie Hepworth & Fiona Bogossian
Accepted for publication 4 December 2010
Correspondence to J. Lim:
e-mail: [email protected]
Joanne Lim BA (Psychology) MSocSci

(Health Practice)
Research Fellow
School of Nursing and Midwifery, The
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Julie Hepworth BA (Hons) PhD CPsychol
(BPS)
Postgraduate Research Coordinator
Fiona Bogossian BAppSci MPH PhD
Director of Research
L I M J . , H E P W O R T H J . & B O G O S S I A N F . ( 2 0 1
1 )L I M J . , H E P W O R T H J . & B O G O S S I A N F . ( 2
0 1 1 ) A qualitative analysis of stress,
uplifts and coping in the personal and professional lives of
Singaporean nurses.
Journal of Advanced Nursing 67(5), 1022–1033. doi:
10.1111/j.1365-2648.2010.

05572.x
Abstract
Aim. This paper is a report of a descriptive study of nurses’
experiences of daily
stress and coping.
Background. Much of the research on stress in nursing is
quantitative and has
focused on only work stressors. Moreover, few studies have
examined the uplifting
side of living and the role it may play in moderating stress. A
theoretical framework
on stress and coping, ‘hassles’ and ‘uplifts’ was used to
examine nurses’ experiences
across their personal and professional lives from a qualitative
perspective.
Methods. A purposive sample of Singaporean hospital nurses (n
= 23) identified
using a snowball sampling technique, participated in two sets of
email interviews in
2009. The qualitative data were analysed using thematic
analysis.
Results. Three themes were identified as constituting daily
hassles: (i) time pres-

sures, (ii) nature of nursing work and (iii) multiple roles.
Uplifts were expressed in
relation to one main theme of feeling good extending across
nurses’ personal and
professional lives. Three themes were identified as ways of
coping: (i) taking time
out, (ii) seeking emotional support and (iii) belief systems.
Conclusion. The interaction between personal and professional
life plays a major
role in Singaporean nurses’ experiences of stress and coping.
However, stress may be
ameliorated through effective management and strong familial
support. Nurses and
employers are recommended to use uplifts and identify ways of
coping to minimize
attrition and contribute to the development of a healthy
workforce.
Keywords: coping, interviews, nurses, nursing, qualitative,
Singapore, stress
Introduction
Stress is widespread in the nursing profession with common
stressors such as work overload and dealing with death and
dying (Lambert et al. 2004, Sveinsdottir et al. 2006, Verhae-

ghe et al. 2008). For Singaporean nurses, major stressors are
related to work including shortage of staff, high work
demands and conflict at work (Lim et al. 2010). However,
research to date has focused on work-related stressors
without considering the contribution of family and social
stressors in everyday living. These daily experiences of
stressors are measured as ‘hassles’ within Lazarus and
1022 � 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
J A N JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING
Folkman’s (1984, 1987) theoretical framework on stress and
coping. On the other hand, daily experiences that bring joy
and happiness are measured as ‘uplifts’ and are believed to
predict positive affect (Kanner et al. 1981). Research has also
overlooked the existence of uplifting situations that may ease
stressful experiences (Lavee & Ben-Ari 2008).
In terms of coping, Singaporean nurses frequently use
problem orientation skills, seeking social support and relax-

ation techniques (Lim et al. 2010). As Folkman and Lazarus
(1988) state, seeking social support can be both an emotion-
focused and a problem-focused strategy. This research seeks
to explore daily hassles and uplifts faced by nurses and to
understand nursing stress and coping strategies using Lazarus
and Folkman’s (1984, 1987) transactional model of stress
and coping.
Background
There are two main approaches to the measurement of
stress: the life events (Rahe et al. 1964, Holmes & Rahe
1967, Rahe 1978) and the daily hassles (Kanner et al. 1981,
Lazarus 1984, Lazarus & Folkman 1989). The life events
approach concentrates on traumatic events such as the
death of significant others and job loss, while the daily
hassles approach emphasizes the influence of everyday living
from daily hassles and life events. This study employed
Lazarus’s concept of daily hassles that are appraised as
salient and harmful or threatening to the endorser’s well

being (Lazarus 1984). On the other hand, daily uplifts are
experiences and conditions of daily living that have been
appraised as salient and are positive or favourable. Kanner
et al. (1981) stated that uplifts are likely to play an
important role in coping and may buffer the presumed
adverse effects of hassles.
Lazarus (1966, 1999) was a pioneer in stress and coping
research and the transactional model developed by Lazarus
and Folkman (1984) is a benchmark for the measurement of
stress and coping that is widely employed in research (see
Machleit et al. 2005, Lavee & Ben-Ari 2008). The model
integrates stress, appraisal and coping theories with a central
focus on individual responses to psychologically stressful
situations and/or environments. According to Lazarus (1984,
p. 19), stress is; ‘any situation in which internal and/or
external demands are appraised as taxing or exceeding the
adaptive or coping resources of an individual’. Coping refers
to the person’s cognitive and behavioural efforts to manage

those taxing demands of the person–environment interaction
(Folkman et al. 1986a).
Accordingly, stress in nursing would be represented in
terms of the presence of disruptive environmental factors,
such as excessive workload or demands from patients, the
appraisal of these factors as potentially threatening by the
nurse and the secondary appraisal of the nurse’s availability
of coping resources. If the demands exceed the nurse’s coping
resources, which may include personality factors and the
availability of social support, there may be negative conse-
quences.
Stress and coping instruments typically have a quantitative
focus and some have been revised in response to criticism of
their weak psychometric properties, unstable factor struc-
tures and lack of cross-validation (De Ridder 1997, Maybery
& Graham 2001, Maybery et al. 2002). Additionally, these
instruments suffer from low internal inconsistency, a lack of
test–retest reliability and inadequate research on construct

and predictive validity (Steed 1998, Hahn & Smith 1999,
Folkman & Moskowitz 2004). Therefore, a qualitative
methodological approach was considered important to
explore nurses’ experiences of stress and coping beyond
traditional stress and coping measurements. Additionally, by
drawing on Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) theoretical
framework, it was possible to conduct a study that described
nurses’ stress together with uplifts and coping strategies
across their personal and professional lives whereby a much
fuller picture of stress could be described.
The Study
Aim/s
The aim of the study was to describe nurses’ experiences of
daily stress and coping.
Design
This research builds on a previous quantitative study (Lim
et al. forthcoming) that employed Lazarus and Folkman’s
(1989) Hassles and Uplifts Scale and Folkman and Lazarus’s

(1988) Ways of Coping Questionnaires to examine stress and
coping strategies in Queensland and Singaporean nurses.
However, the response rate for Singaporean nurses (19Æ5%)
was lower than Queensland nurses (30%; Lim et al. forth-
coming) and may be attributed to disinterest in surveys in
Asian cultures (Harzing 1997, King 2006). Consequently, a
qualitative approach was adopted to explore further the
Singaporean nurses’ experiences of daily hassles and uplifts
and their coping strategies. A postpositivist paradigm
informed the qualitative methodology because the purpose
of the research was to obtain a snapshot of the day-to-day
reality of these nurses in order to gain an understanding
of their subjective experiences (Guba & Lincoln 1994).
JAN: ORIGINAL RESEARCH Stress and coping of Singaporean
nurses
� 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1023
Therefore, the interview data were treated as examples of

participants’ everyday experiences.
Sample/participants
A purposive sample of Singaporean nurses was identified using
a snowball sampling approach (Atkinson & Flint 2001)
whereby the initial participants identify potential additional
participants through their networks who will provide ‘infor-
mation-rich’ cases. The snowball sampling approach began
with the lead author obtaining permission from two nurses in
Singapore to assist with recruitment. To encourage participa-
tion, we included the incentive of entering all participants’
email addresses into a lucky draw to win a S$100 shopping
voucher. To prevent study emails being treated as spam, the
subject field included study details. Recruitment commenced
in May 2009 and was completed by November 2009. As the
snowballing progressed, twenty-three nurses were recruited
and participated in the first interview. With the exception of
two, all the nurses participated in the second interview, and no
reason was given for non-participation. The sample size was

determined by the ‘saturation’ of interview content (Pope et al.
2000), and by this, we mean that when no new information
was being given in the interviews, the sampling ceased.
Data collection
As one of the key aims of qualitative research is to understand
phenomena from the participants’ viewpoint (Wilkinson
et al. 2004), the semi-structured interview was selected to
collect data about nurses’ experiences of stress and coping.
Data were collected in 2009 via open-ended questions sent to
participants by email; a method justified by evidence (Choi
2008) that Singaporeans prefer email communication. Email
interviews have several advantages including their time and
cost efficiency, and enable researchers to access a diverse
population (Meho 2006). Additionally, asynchronous com-
munication maintains participants’ anonymity, while they
have the freedom of self-disclosure (Opdenakker 2006). In
this study, participants were required to answer the questions
asynchronously by replying to initial prompts. The interview

schedule for the first set of interviews was informed by
previous quantitative research (Lim et al. forthcoming) that
identified nurses’ experiences of stress, and required a
qualitative approach to clarify nurses’ daily experiences of
stress and coping. The lead researcher (JL) sent follow-up
emails in order to clarify the participants’ meaning of any
specific use of language/concepts (see Table 1).
The second interview was developed using questions
formulated from the responses from the first interview in
order to explore further the stress, uplifts and coping (see
Table 2).
Each participant’s interview data were saved as an
individual word document, stored on the first author’s secure
computer and all interviews were later printed and analysed
individually as well as across the set of interviews.
Ethical considerations
A university ethics committee approved the study stating that
the project complied with the provision contained in the

National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research
and complied with the regulations governing experimentation
Table 1 Interview schedule for first interview
1a. Can you tell me about your everyday hassles?
1b. Research has indicated that Asian nurses experience ‘too
many
responsibilities’, ‘problems getting along with fellow workers’,
and ‘job dissatisfactions’, ‘troubling thoughts about the future’,
‘not getting enough sleep’ and ‘not having enough time’ as
major
hassles. Can you talk about your own experiences in these
areas?
2a. Can you tell me what makes you feel uplifted?
2b. Research has indicated that Asian nurses experience
laughing,
relating well with friends and meeting your responsibilities. Can
you talk about your own experiences in these areas?
3a. If you are stressed, what do you do to cope?
3b. Research has indicated that Asian nurses seek support from
their
friends and families. Can you talk about this in terms of your

own experience?
4. Could you please give me your approximate age (under 30;
31 or
older)?
Table 2 Interview schedule for second interview
1. Could you tell me what ‘being lucky’ means to you? Do you
think
that the hassles or uplifts you experienced are influenced by
luck?
If so, please describe an example.
2. Some people have told me that ‘no disturbances from
superiors/
relatives’ means a lot to them. Can you please describe an
example
or time when you were disturbed by relatives or superiors?
3. People have talked about having ‘too many responsibilities’
as
being stressful. Can you please describe what it means to you to
be
for example, a good worker, good mother, good wife, good
daughter and good daughter-in-law.

4. What is ‘money’ to you? Does having or not having money
have
any impact on you (good and bad ways)?
5. Do you go shopping as a means of stress relief? When you
make
the purchase, how do you feel and how long does this feeling
last
for?
6. When you are stressed with a particular issue, what do you do
to
help you manage the situation?
7. If you could change anything in the world to make it less
stressful
for you, what three things would you do?
J. Lim et al.
on humans. The participant information sheet was emailed to
each nurse individually and included clear statements about
the voluntary nature of study participation and that they
were free to leave the study at any time, and that confiden-

tiality would be maintained. It was also made clear to
participants that study participation was not in any way
linked to their employment. Participants were also sent
written consent forms by email and they returned signed
forms to the lead researcher (JL) by email.
Data analysis
The interview transcripts were initially analysed by the lead
researcher (JL) as data were being collected whereby she
noted prominent features in each transcript. Subsequently,
individual interviews were systematically analysed using
thematic analysis based on Pope et al.’s (2000) five stages
of analysis: (1) familiarization – transcripts were read and re-
read several times in order to list key ideas and recurrent
themes, (2) Identifying a thematic framework – identify key
issues and preliminary topics and constant comparison of
data to establish analytical categories, (3) Indexing – refine
and reduce categories into broader themes, (4) Charting –
rearrange data according to the thematic framework where

they relate and (5) Mapping and interpretation – define
concepts and find associations between themes to provide
explanations for the findings.
The purpose of thematic analysis is to represent directly an
individual’s point of view through descriptions of experi-
ences, beliefs and perceptions (Luborsky 1994). By drawing
on Pope et al.’s approach, it was possible to identify key
themes and sub-themes in the first instance and refine these
after multiple readings of the transcripts and through
consultation with co-researchers.
Validity and reliability/rigour
In order to maximize the validity of the analytic interpreta-
tions, two of the researchers independently analysed the
individual interview transcripts and the identification of
themes and sub-themes across the interviews. This approach
was taken to both sets of interviews. When inconsistent
interpretations arose between the researchers, they were
referred to the third researcher for discussion until a

consensus was reached. The systematic approach to the
analysis provides additional rigour to the study. The trans-
parency of the research design and analysis contributes to the
establishment of an ‘audit trail’, which documents the steps
and decisions undertaken from the transcripts of raw data
through to the final interpretation (Wolf 2003).
Results
Sample
The purposive sample comprised of 23 Singaporean female
nurses aged between 22 and 55 years (see Table 3 for
demographic characteristics). The majority of participants
worked full-time, had been employed for a minimum of at
least 2–5 years and worked in the similar nursing setting of
restructured hospitals in Singapore, which are government
owned, privately managed and may or may not have attached
private clinics. The majority of nurses in this study were
single and did not have children.
Summary of the theoretical framework and major themes

The study findings were interpreted in relation to Lazarus and
Folkman’s (1984, 1987) transactional model of stress and
coping. Seven main themes about stress, uplifts and coping
were identified together with 23 subthemes (see Table 4).
Illustrative quotes are reported verbatim.
Sources of stress
Three themes were identified from the data: (i) time pressures,
(ii) nature of nursing work and (iii) multiple roles.
Theme 1: Time pressures
Nurses experienced considerable time pressures, which they
expressed in relation to five sub-themes: (1) the work
Table 3 Demographic characteristics of Singaporean nurses
(n = 23)
n %
Hospital setting
Public 3 13Æ1
Private 5 21Æ7
Restructured 15 65Æ2
Employment status

Full-time 23 100
Part-time 0 0
Years of experience
Less than 1 1 4Æ3
2–5 16 69Æ6
More than 6 6 26Æ1
Marital status
Single 12 52Æ2
Married 11 47Æ8
No. of children
0 16 69Æ6
1–2 6 26Æ1
>3 1 4Æ3
nurses
commute, (2) too many patients, (3) workflow, (4) col-
leagues’ disrupting work and (5) work/home responsibilities.
Nurses’ commute to work was perceived to be an
unpleasant but unavoidable part of everyday life as Susan

states: I hate the morning darkness, crowded buses and
among other things...I hate the hassles of having to wake up
early...[sigh]...’.For Susan, and for some of the other nurses,
this commute added a significant length of time to their
working day, which had an impact on both their personal
and professional lives.
A heavy patient load also contributed to time pressures
resulting in nurses not having enough time to carry out all the
tasks required by patients. Yasmin states: ‘Too many patients
to handle in a day and the time scheduled for each patient is
limited.’ The pressure on nurses was amplified when col-
leagues such as doctors, nurse researchers or interpreters
interrupted their patient schedule:
[a hassle is when]When work does not flow well due to the
overlook
of other departments or mistake in workflow because it’ll cause
interruption in work and cause delays. (Hebe)
Doctors coming in late for consultation which will then hold
back the

clinic session and angry patients demanding a reason for seeing
Doctors later than their appointment time. (Betty)
As well as managing a changing appointment schedule,
nurses dealt with an emotional backlash from patients.
For those nurses who had family commitments as mothers
and daughters, the significance of time pressures was height-
ened because they had to fulfil work and home responsibil-
ities and meet family expectations. Xania and Ally describe
their breadth of duties:
I have so many things to do in a day. Work is already hard and
got to
take care of family too. Going to work every morning, getting
my
children ready for school and dropping them off, getting to
work on
time, picking my children from school. (Xania)
We have so many things to do everyday, going to work,
fulfilling
work duties, rush home to fulfil home duties, cook, clean,
prepare for
the next day. Time is always not enough. (Ally)

Theme 2: Nature of nursing work
The nature of nursing work included five sub-themes (1) too
many responsibilities, (2) workload, (3) working relation-
ships, (4) lack of recognition and (5) demanding patients and
relatives.
Jessie describes multiple nursing responsibilities and how
they become burdensome:
I am facing too many responsibilities at work. I have to manage
a
pool of patients on hand, monthly and quarterly reports to
submit to
three different departments, supervise my juniors at work, and
teach
2 new staffs at work.
With the shortage of staff, nurses were also expected to fulfil
non-nursing responsibilities:
We bear too much responsibilities because not only are we
nursing
the patients, we have PR to do, service recovery etc. Plus we
have

individual assignments in the ward and I’m in charge of the
pharmaceutical section. (Julia)
The workload was very heavy due to the shortage of staff. The
staff
nurses had to be in charged of everything, from the patients’
food to
the different procedures the patients are suppose to go for that
day….
be responsible for any mistakes done by the junior nurses who
were
in the same team. (Hebe)
They also identified the importance that their work relation-
ships had for efficiency and their morale:
Table 4 Main and sub-themes for stress, uplifts and way of
coping
Main themes Sub-themes
Sources of
stress
Time Travelling to work
Too many patients
Workflow

Doctors late for appointments
Work/home responsibilities
Nature of
nursing work
Too many responsibilities
Demanding patients and relatives
Workload
Working relationships
Lack of recognition
Multiple roles Work
Personal
Sources of
uplifts
Feeling good Professionally
Appreciation of the nurse:
patients’ gratitude and
pay increments
Good, reliable

relationships at work
Patient’s health improving
Personally
Personal activities
Money
Laughing
Good social relationships
Ways of
coping
Taking time out Breaks at work
Rest and relax
Shopping
Seek emotional
support
Family – Husband
Colleagues
Belief systems Role of luck
Fatalistic thinking

Spiritual interventions
J. Lim et al.
Getting along with workers is a big issue at my workplace.
People
just seem to be backstabbing and playing politics all the time.
(Ally)
Poor teamwork with superior. I have a unapproachable superior,
whom will look for us to help her to do her work and yet when
we
need help, she is no where to be found. And when she see that
we are
busy, she’ll ask us to do documentation audit which can be done
on
some other day when there is lesser patients. Not promoted even
though promotion long due. (Casy)
Nurses complained of a lack of recognition and advancement
at work in spite of performing well:
We had to do OT everyday and were not appreciated by our
managers. Little recognition was given to the staff. (Hebe)

Job dissatisfactions – they include no recognition from the
organi-
zation and career advancement. (Tanya)
I have been working for 2 year and not able to upgrade yet.
(Lisa)
Amid nurses’ anxieties and worries, patients and/or relatives
could be particularly demanding:
Finicky relatives make for a nurse’s nightmare especially those
wealthy relatives. Some come in large numbers and they
monitor
your every movement. They expect us to take care of the patient
as
though she is the only patient in the ward. (Jemma)
Theme 3: Multiple roles
Multiple roles were also a source of hassle across nurses’
personal and professional lives. In the extract below, Rachel
describes the multiple roles that nurses in the hospital setting
have to fulfil:
Nurses have too much patient load and extended roles to play
especially in the ward. A senior staff are required to be in

numerous
projects work, infection control officer of the area, prepares
schedule
for students, roster for staff, giving talks and seminars,
preceptoring,
acting nurse manager, ordering requisites and handling PR
[public
relations] case or students which can be very hectic. (Rachel)
Additionally, in their personal lives, nurses had to meet the
Singaporean cultural expectations of them as daughters,
parents and/or spouses. Ally illustrates how these expecta-
tions can be overbearing and stressful for women:
This is like the worst kind of stress that we are all facing now
especially for Chinese. People always see in women, wife-
material,
mother-material….. I have to be a good wife, a good daughter,
and
an extremely good daughter-in-law. I have to also excel in my
work
in order to impress my in-laws and make my parents proud. I
have
to do my best in everything, from taking care of my family and
my

in-laws, to earning good money to prove that I’m good and
smart. I
really hate it why we must impress others and put all sort of
stress
on ourselves. … we still need to take care of ourselves, be
pretty
and look good so that our husbands will not strayed. Somehow I
have to do everything perfectly …. I don’t like it that I have to
please people that I don’t like just because I have to do it. It’s
ridiculous. (Ally)
Sources of uplifts
One main theme was identified as being the source of uplifts,
‘feeling good’ across nurses’ personal and professional lives.
Theme 1: Feeling good
For these nurses, feeling good in the professional arena meant
that they experienced uplifts through being appreciated,
having reliable working relationships and patients’ health
improvements:
It can be just a ‘thank you’ from a patient that you had attended
to
which means that they appreciate your service. (Yasmin)

When receive compliments from patients and manager. When
we
hear that there will be bonus or increment, it will definitely
enlighten
our day! (Jolene)
With heavy workloads, nurses commented how important
collegial work was to resolve everyday situations and that
positive working relationships lightened nurses’ mood:
I feel great when work problems are solved and when we have
good
teamwork at the office. (Whitney)
So far I’ve been lucky in that we’ve got good team mates and
nurses
in outpatient here are supportive and fun to talk to so however
bad
days we had, we managed to get by quite happily... (Betty)
Improvements in patients’ health were a major uplift at work
as Jemma describes:
There is no better uplift than to see your patients cured (as in
successful surgery/treatment) and discharged from hospital.
This

piece of news brings a bright and broad smile on them. They
will be
so grateful for all the care and attention rendered by nurses
during
their stay. (Jemma)
In terms of feeling good personally, nurses experienced uplifts
through leisure activities, having disposable income, laughing
with their friends and social relationships that relieved stress.
Watching drama series that I like. Playing games on internet.
Cooking for my friends. Shopping. (Ally)
If I am really stressed out with my work, I will call my friends
to go
out for a drink, go clubbing, to de-stress..If time allow, will go
spa,….
Now I enrolled into yoga class and guess it also help to de-
stress and
uplift my feelings and I think it work well. (Jolene)
nurses

Money is everything to me... Of course having money have
impact on
me in goods way. For me I see money as an uplift... I can buy
what I
want which also help the economy. haha.. I can buy what I need
and
no need to keep bothering other people to lend me... (Yoko)
Another way in which nurses’ relieved stress at work was
through humour and laughing together:
Laughter helps to lift up the ever building tension at work and a
stress
reliever whether or not you manage to clear your work to meet
datelines. (Rachel)
Sharing a joke and laughing is evidence of enjoying one’s work.
Friendship is very important because nurses rely on one another
to
uplift their day and their work for obvious reasons. Stating it
clearly
and crudely, we are dealing with the sick and the terminal. So at
times sharing a light moment with fellow colleagues makes a
great

difference to the kind of job we are doing. Otherwise the day
will be
night and the night will be nightmare. (Jemma)
Nurses in this study also enjoyed spending time and relating
well with friends and family for companionship and
support:
Having good time with friends and family, like eating out, nice
food and entertainment. Just hanging out with my partner.
Relating
well with friends help me feel better in the day as there are
common grounds between us and you know that you are not
alone.
(Ally)
Ways of coping
When nurses talked about coping, their responses included
three themes: (i) taking time out, (ii) seeking emotional
support and (iii) belief systems.
Theme 1: Taking time out
Taking time out through short breaks at work, snack breaks,
rest and relaxing activities helped nurses to cope.

We have this locker that are stashed with lots of snacks and
goodies
that most of us will snack on in between cases in the OT. This
help us
to relief hunger as well as stress. (Yvette)
Out of the working environment, nurses relaxed by
listening to music, meditation and going to the spa.
Sleeping was also a common way for nurses to get away
from stress. An additional common coping strategy among
nurses was taking time out to go shopping as Ally describes
below:
Shopping and not thinking about it, just switch off and relax.
Shopping to relieve stress for me is to shop simply anything I
like. It’s
a very bad habit to use shopping to de-stress but I love
shopping. …
Somehow all your troubles are gone. But when the bills arrived,
that’s
when the pain sets in…. every time I feel stressed up, I still
revert to
shopping. (Ally)

Theme 2: Seek emotional support
For these nurses, family members, husbands and other nurses
were all sources of emotional support:
If I find I’m being too stress, I will talk things out with my
parents and
siblings when I asked them out for dinner or over my lunch
time.
Usually to ask them for their opinions or feedback cause
sometimes
when I’m too stress I can’t think so by asking them they may
give me
a better solutions to act upon or I just want their moral support.
(Rachel)
Husband plays an important role in my life..whenever I have
trouble
and problem, I will talk to him and seek for his support and
encouragement. (Jolene)
As nurses we need to shoulder pain and sadness together. I once
get
scolded by a patient though it has really nothing to do with me
at all!

I seek comfort by sharing my ordeal with my team. Some
showed
their anger, some showed their sympathy, some even vengeful.
So it’s
touching to know that you are really not alone and that as
nurses,
every one of us is the same. And we know will support each
other
through thick and thin of life. (Susan)
Theme 3: Belief systems
Nurses also drew on individual belief systems in terms of the
role of luck, fatalistic thinking and spiritual interventions to
cope with stress. By drawing on luck, nurses were able to
make sense of the changing patterns of their work, both good
and bad, and saw themselves as part of a larger context over
which they had less control.
Yes, anything that happens from day to day is all depends on
luck.
For instance, if you are lucky everything will go well and
smoothly
throughout the day and anything crop up there will always be a

miracle or guiding angel to help you. (Jolene)
I believe some things happened for a reason. For e.g. when
something
bad happens, I always say it is bad luck. Maybe not doing well
at
work, I blamed it on bad luck. Bad relationships with work
colleagues can be considered bad luck as well. (Ally)
Nurses attributed hassles and uplifts to being an inevitable
part of life, and as the main reason for why they had to accept
the societal norms.
Obviously too many responsibilities will consequently result in
being
stressful. The responsibilities that we assume in life as a person
in
different roles inadvertently translate into stress marks. This is
life
and life is about being responsible. (Jemma)
J. Lim et al.
It is normal that we are expected to be a good wife and mum.

This is
the role of woman. I have to always meet the expectation of the
society. (Xania)
Religion also played an important role in nurses’ coping
especially when they believed that either they did not have
another source of support or that the only real power was
through spiritual intervention:
Think it through, ask people around me who can help. If not,
I’ll ask
for divine intervention. (Esther)
There’s no one I can talk to openly except God. (Xania)
Discussion
Study limitations
This study has two main limitations: sampling and the use of
email interviews. First, because snowball sampling relies on
the initial contacts to identify additional research partici-
pants, it may have attracted a homogenous group. While
collecting data from similar information-rich cases is valu-
able, subsequent research may explore stress and coping in a

more diverse sample. Second, internet filters may have
screened recruitment emails and the potential exists for the
lucky draw to have been treated as junk mail. There were two
losses in the second interview, so data from the initial
interview could not be confirmed further with these individ-
uals. A possible threat to authenticity in email interviews may
occur if the participant was unable or unwilling to elaborate
on an answer that was not clear in the original submission
(Hamilton & Bowers 2006). Possible explanations for the
lack of completion of the second interview could include time
pressures, not checking emails frequently, or feeling that they
had nothing more to add to initial response. As Bampton and
Cowton (2002) have noted, participants may also choose not
to commit to an interview process with the possibility of
unpredictability and insecurity.
The three themes of stress showed that Singaporean nurses
experienced stress in areas across their personal and profes-
sional lives and contrasts with previous work-focused studies

(e.g. Boey et al. 1997 and Chan et al. 2000). Despite the
widespread availability of domestic help in Singapore (Barr
2000), nurses found juggling home and work duties
burdensome. To some extent, this paradox is explained by
the expectation on Singaporean women to be actively
involved in domestic responsibilities (Lim et al. 2003). This
is in contrast with Winwood et al. (2006)’s findings that
domestic responsibilities were not related to fatigue and
recovery but shift work was the main casual factor for long-
term stress and fatigue in a sample of Australian nurses.
Boey et al. (1997) also found that family demands were least
stressful for the nurses; however, they were the most
significant when related to anxiety, depression and a sense
of inadequacy.
Time pressures were a prominent hassle among nurses
especially the work commute. Most Singapore hospitals are
not located by public transport particularly with the Mass
Rapid Transit (MRT) rail system, which is the major form of

transport (Statistics Singapore 2006). Even when located near
MRT stations, it often requires a walk of at least 15 minutes
and can be inconvenient or dangerous for nurses working
early morning or late shifts. This would require nurses to take
buses and interchange with either another bus or train before
they arrive at their workplace with an average journey time of
51 minutes (Statistics Singapore 2006). In order to minimize
travelling hassles, hospitals may consider providing shuttle
bus services at specific train stations to eliminate this stressor.
Employers may also consider providing transport subsidies
for nurses working shifts.
Singaporean nurses described good working relationships,
particularly with their nursing colleagues, but doctors and
administrative staff complicated their work. This finding is
similar to Boey et al.’s (1997) research that also reported
interpersonal conflicts to be one of the work stressors
reported by Singaporean nurses. A possible explanation for
this could be the lack of communication across positions in

the Asian community where the working culture is hierar-
chical and power-centred (King 2006). In-service pro-
grammes targeting interpersonal relationships may help by
promoting better communication, formation of work groups
and frequent discussions between healthcare personnel.
Interpersonal relationships could also become stressful
when patients and/or relatives were demanding. Similar to
Lateef et al. (2001) and Yang et al. (2001, 2002), they
frequently experienced patient-related difficulties and aggres-
sive patient behaviour. Consumers often have high expecta-
tions of hospitals, however, service quality in Singapore is
found to be generally below expectations (Lim & Tang
2000). Finding fault and complaining about everything are
part of the Kiasu values many Singaporeans possess (King
2006, Barr & Skrbis 2008). Therefore, nurses were in the
forefront of complaints and/or unpleasant behaviour from
health consumers who were dissatisfied with their care.
Nurses also experienced stress about job security, which is

consistent with previous research (Chan & Morrison 2000,
Tan & Tan 2004). These studies showed that Singaporean
nurses experienced a high level of work stress, job dissatis-
faction and insecurity. Concern about future job prospects
and security is common in Singapore as employees often
nurses
complain of low pay and high workload (Sullivan &
Gunasekaran 1994).
The cultural expectation that Singaporean women will
fulfil multiple roles at home and work was a major source of
stress. Singaporeans are socialized to be multi-faceted indi-
viduals, and expected to perform at optimum in all aspects in
order to succeed (Singapore21 2003). Apart from the many
roles at home and work, nurses are expected to excel in these
roles (see Quah 1998).

The findings on psychological and social stress experienced
by Singaporean nurses need to be addressed accordingly as
Winwood and Lushington (2006) reported psychological
work demands to have an adverse impact on nurses’ sleep
quality and to impair recovery from work strain, which may
result in serious maladaptive stress outcomes.
In terms of uplifts, nurses enjoyed feeling good personally
and professionally. At work, nurses appreciated patients’
gratitude for their health care and recognition by hospital
management through promotion and pay increments. Nurses
also valued good working relationships, in line with Lateef
et al.’s (2001) findings where 92Æ4% of nurses felt that having
good relationship was the most important factor at work.
Personally, nurses enjoyed participating in individual and
social leisure activities in their spare time. Activities such as
surfing Internet, watching films, visiting spas and undergoing
facials were all uplifting for these nurses. According to Kau
et al. (2004), Singaporeans rely on leisure and play to feel

socially connected with people and to achieve a balance in
their lives. Laughter was also a source of an uplift, which is
often seen as a stress-coping method (Iwasaki et al. 2005).
In nurses’ personal and professional lives, money was an
important uplift confirming the findings by Lim et al.
(forthcoming) where Singaporean nurses reported uplifts
such as ‘having enough money’ and ‘getting money the
unexpected ways’. This is not surprising as Singapore has
long been characterized as a ‘money-faced’ society where
money matters most to many Singaporeans (Perera 1996).
The three themes about coping strategies showed that
nurses relied heavily on taking time out, emotional support
and personal beliefs. They valued resting and relaxing by
taking short breaks at work, practising meditation, listening
to music and going for short walks, which is similar to those
strategies reported in previous research (Boey et al. 1997).
Nurses in this study also engaged in shopping for stress relief.
Iwasaki et al. (2005) noted feeling recharged or rejuvenated

through leisure was significant for women juggling family/
home demands and work responsibilities.
Seeking social support was a common strategy among
nurses, although in this study, they sought emotional rather
than instrumental support from their families and colleagues.
Singaporeans are very family oriented, which helps them feel
appreciated and treasured and they often turn to family for
help or advice (Kau et al. 2004). Studies by Boey (1998,
1999) ascertained that family support plays an important,
positive role in managing Singaporean nurses’ stress. It is
interesting to note that Singaporean nurses did not receive
sufficient instrumental or emotional support from the work-
place.
Singaporean nurses also coped by drawing on their own
personal beliefs whether these were formal religious or
cultural beliefs, and commonly attributed events to luck.
Similarly, a study conducted with Singaporean medical staff
showed that superstitious beliefs were widespread in daily life

especially with the aim of attracting good luck and avoiding
bad luck in the working environment (Lim et al. 2007).
What is already known about this topic
• Nurses experience work-related stressors such as work
overload, shortage of staff and dealing with death and
dying.
• Past research has overlooked the contribution of family
and social stressors on nurses’ overall experiences of
stress and coping.
• Nurses use problem orientation and social support,
particularly family support, as coping strategies.
What this paper adds
• An expanded understanding of how stress and coping
are experienced by Singaporean nurses in their personal
and professional lives.
• Uplifts may have a moderating effect on nurses’
experiences of stressors.
• Emotional support is crucial in nurses’ coping of
stressors in their personal and professional lives.
Implications for practice and/or policy
• Individuals and employers should focus on the
resolution of work and family conflicts to strengthen

nurses’ morale and minimize specific stressful
experiences.
• Nurses’ daily stress may be reduced through the
identification and recognition of possible uplifts in
everyday living that ameliorate unpleasant experiences.
• Workplace and individual interventions that promote
effective coping strategies may contribute to the
prevention of workforce attrition.
J. Lim et al.
Singaporean nurses in this study also sought spiritual
interventions to help them get through difficult situations,
although at times they chose to do nothing because of a belief
in fatalism. Instead of actively confronting the problem,
Singaporean nurses may well feel better by drawing on
spirituality to help regulate their emotions.
This study is unique in that it employed a qualitative
research design using email interviews to describe Singapo-

rean nurses’ experiences of stress and coping, how these
manifest across both nurses’ personal and professional lives.
Furthermore, the study included an exploration of the
uplifting aspects of daily living that may counteract the
detrimental effects of everyday stress. In terms of methods,
several measures were undertaken to maximize participation
such as incentivizing and clearly communicating the intent of
emails in the subject heading. Having the first researcher from
the same cultural background also helps in the understanding
of cultural differences and the development and conduct of
meaningful research (Suh et al. 2009).
The Internet and other social networking tools are emerg-
ing mechanisms for participant recruitment and data collec-
tion worldwide (Dillman et al. 2009, Suarez-Balcazar et al.
2009). Given the cultural behaviours of Singaporeans with
respect to research participation (Fang 2001, Teo 2001), this
method may be more suited to studies of Asian cultural
groups. Research on Asian populations should use culturally

appropriate research methods recognizing that cultural
behaviours play an important role in the decision to partic-
ipate in research. Further research should also explore
Singaporeans’ preference for research methods including
postal surveys, and face-to-face, telephone and e-interviews.
Conclusion
In contrast with existing research on nurses and work-related
stress, this study concludes that experiences of stress across
both personal and professional lives are a major concern for
these Singaporean nurses. By drawing on Lazarus and
Folkman’s (1984, 1987) transactional model of stress and
coping, we were able to explore a broader range of what
constitutes stress and its alleviation including uplifts and
coping strategies.
It is recommended that hospital management considers the
exposure to a broader range of stressors than just work-
related stress. Hospital management should address these in
work practices such as identifying uplifts in performance

planning. They should also focus on building stronger
rapport by providing social networking opportunities where
nurses can find emotional support from peers and supervi-
sors. It is anticipated that implementing these recommenda-
tions allows retention of quality nurses and promotes a
healthier workplace.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding
agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Conflict of interest
No conflict of interest has been declared by the authors.
Author contributions
JL, JH & FB were responsible for the study conception and
design. JL performed the data collection. JL & JH per-
formed the data analysis. JL was responsible for the drafting
of the manuscript. JH & FB made critical revisions to the
paper for important intellectual content. JH & FB supervised
the study.

References
Atkinson R. & Flint J. (2001) Accessing hidden and hard-to-
reach
populations: snowball research strategies. Social Research
Update
33. Retrieved from http: //sru.soc.survey.ac.uk/SRU33.pdf on 19
January 2009.
Bampton R. & Cowton C.J. (2002) The E-Interview. Forum
Quali-
tative Social Research 3(2), Art. 9.
Barr M.D. (2000) Lee Kuan Yew and the ‘‘Asian Values’’
debate.
Asian Studies Review 24(3), 309–334.
Barr M.D. & Skrbis Z. (2008) Constructing Singapore: Elitism,
Ethnicity and the Nation-Building Project. Nordic Institute of
Asian Studies, Denmark.
Boey K.W. (1998) Coping and family relationships in stress
resis-
tance: a study of job satisfaction of nurses in Singapore.
Interna-
tional Journal of Nursing Studies 35, 353–361.

Boey K.W. (1999) Distressed and stress resistant nurses. Issues
in
Mental Health Nursing 19, 33–54.
Boey K.W., Chan K.B., Ko Y.C., Goh L.G. & Lim G.C. (1997)
Work
stress and psychological well-being among the nursing
profession.
Singapore Medical Journal 38(6), 256–260.
Chan E.Y. & Morrison P. (2000) Factors influencing the
retention
and turnover intentions of registered nurses in a Singapore
hospi-
tal. Nursing and Health Sciences 2, 113–121.
Chan K.B., Lai G., Ko Y.C. & Boey K.W. (2000) Work stress
among
six professional groups: the Singapore experience. Social
Science
and Medicine 50, 1415–1432.
Choi A. (2008) Internet in Singapore: findings from a national
sur-
vey. Observatorio 6, 151–168.
De Ridder D. (1997) What is wrong with coping assessment? A

review of conceptual and methodological issues. Psychology
and
Health 12(3), 417–431.
nurses
Dillman D.A., Smyth J. & Christian L.M. (eds) (2009) Internet,
Mail
and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method. John
Wiley Co, New Jersey.
Fang Y. (2001) Turnover propensity and its causes among
Singapore
nurses: an empirical study. International Journal of Human
Resource Management 12(5), 859–871.
Folkman S. & Lazarus R.S. (1988) Ways of Coping
Questionnaire:
Sampler Set, Manual, Test Booklet, Scoring Key. Consulting
Psy-
chologists Press, Redwood City.
Folkman S. & Moskowitz J.T. (2004) Coping: pitfalls and

promise.
Annual Review of Psychology 55, 745–773.
Folkman S., Lazarus R.S., Dunkel-Schetter C., DeLongis A. &
Gruen
R.J. (1986a) Dynamics of a stressful encounter: cognitive
apprai-
sal, coping and encounter outcomes. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology 50, 992–1003.
Guba E.G. & Lincoln Y.S. (eds) (1994) Competing Paradigms in
Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, California.
Hahn S.E. & Smith C.S. (1999) Daily hassles and chronic
stressors:
conceptual and measurement issues. Stress Medicine 15, 89–
101.
Hamilton R.J. & Bowers B.J. (2006) Internet recruitment and
email
interviews in qualitative studies. Qualitative Health Research
16,
821–835.
Harzing A.-W. (1997) Response rates in International Mail
Surveys:
Results of a 22-Country Study. International Business Review

6(6),
641–665.
Holmes T.H. & Rahe R.H. (1967) The Social Readjustment
Rating
Scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 11, 213–218.
Iwasaki Y., Mackay K. & Mactavish J. (2005) Gender-based
analogues
of coping with stress among professional managers: leisure
coping
and non-leisure coping. Journal of Leisure Research 37(1), 1–
28.
Kanner A.D., Coyne J.C., Schaefer C. & Lazarus R.S. (1981)
Com-
parisons of two modes of stress measurement: daily hassles and
uplifts versus major life events. Journal of Behavioural
Medicine 4,
1–23.
Kau A.K., Jung K., Tambyah S.K. & Tan S.J. (2004)
Understanding
Singaporeans: Values, Lifestyles, Aspirations and Consumption
Behaviours. World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.,
Singapore.

King R. (2006) The Singapore Miracle: Myth and Reality.
Insight
Press, Western Australia.
Lambert V.A., Lambert C.E., Itano J., Inouye J., Kim S.,
Kuniviktikul
W., Sitthimongkil Y., Pongthavornkamol K., Gasemgitvattana
S.
& Ito M. (2004) Cross-cultural comparison of workplace
stressors,
ways of coping and demographic characteristics as predictors of
physical and mental health among hospital nurses in Japan,
Thailand, South Korea and the USA (Hawaii). International
Journal of Nursing Studies 41, 671–684.
Lateef F., Ng A. & Anantharaman V. (2001) Stress among
nurses in the
emergency department. Singapore Nursing Journal 28(1), 22–
26.
Lavee Y. & Ben-Ari A. (2008) The association of daily hassles
and
uplifts with family and life satisfaction: does cultural
orientation
make a difference? American Journal of Community Psychology

41, 89–98.
Lazarus R.S. (1966) Psychological Stress and the Coping
Process.
McGraw-Hill, New York.
Lazarus R.S. (1984) Puzzles in the study of daily hassles.
Journal of
Behavioural Medicine 7(4), 375–389.
Lazarus R.S. (1999) Stress and Emotion: A New Synthesis. Free
Association Books, London.
Lazarus R.S. & Folkman S. (1984) Stress, Appraisal and
Coping.
Springer-Verlag, New York.
Lazarus R.S. & Folkman S. (1987) Transactional theory and
research
on emotions and coping. European Journal of Personality 1,
141–
169.
Lazarus R.S. & Folkman S. (1989) Hassles and Uplifts Scale
Sampler
Set. Mind Garden, USA.
Lim P.C. & Tang N.K.H. (2000) A study of patients’
expectations

and satisfaction in Singapore hospitals. International Journal of
Health Care Quality Assurance 13(7), 290.
Lim V.K.G., Teo T.S.H. & Loo G.L. (2003) Sex, financial
hardship
and locus of control: an empirical study of attitudes towards
money among Singaporean Chinese. Personality and Individual
Differences 34, 411–429.
Lim E., Oh V., Quek A.M. & Seet R.C. (2007) Take a bao if you
are
not superstitious. Annals Academy of Medicine Singapore 36,
217–
220.
Lim J., Bogossian F. & Ahern K. (2010) Stress and coping in
Singaporean nurses: a literature review. Nursing and Health
Sciences 12, 251–258.
Lim J., Bogossian F., Ahern K. & Kellett S. (forthcoming)
Compar-
ison of daily stress in Queensland and Singaporean Nurses.
Research in Nursing and Health.
Luborsky M.R. (ed.) (1994) The Identification and Analysis of

Themes and Patterns. Sage, USA.
Machleit K.A., Meyer T. & Eroglu S.A. (2005) Evaluating the
nature
of hassles and uplifts in the retail shopping context. Journal of
Business Research 58, 655–663.
Maybery D.J. & Graham D. (2001) Hassles and uplifts:
including
interpersonal events. Stress and Health 17, 91–104.
Maybery D., Maybery M., Bresnan R., Croft B., Graham R.,
Macaulay J., McQualter S., Mitchell E., Sherwell K. & Szakacs
E. (2002) Responding to daily event questionnaires: the
influence
of the order of hassle and uplift scales. Stress and Health 18,
19–26.
Meho L.I. (2006) E-mail interviewing in qualitative research: a
methodological discussion. Journal of the American Society for
Infromation Science and Techonology 57(10), 1284–1295.
Opdenakker R. (2006) Advantages and disadvantages of four
inter-
view techniques in qualitative research. Forum Qualitative

Social
Research 7(4), Art. 11, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-
fqs0604118.
Perera A. (1996) The Simple Guide to Customs and Etiquette in
Singapore. Global Books Ltd, England.
Pope C., Ziebland S. & Mays N. (2000) Qualitative research in
health care: analysing qualitative data. British Medical Journal
320, 114–116.
Quah S.R. (1998) Family in Singapore: Sociological
Perspectives, 2nd
edn. Times Academic Press, Singapore.
Rahe R.H. (1978) Life change measurement clarification.
Psycho-
somatic Medicine 40, 95–98.
Rahe R.H., Meyer M., Smith M., Kjaer G. & Holmes T.H.
(1964)
Social stress and illness onset. Journal of Psychosomatic
Research
8, 35–44.
Singapore21 (2003) Singapore 21: Together We Make the
Difference.

Singapore Government, Singapore.
Statistics Singapore (2006) General Household Survey,
Statistical
Release 2: Transport Overseas Travel, Households and Housing
J. Lim et al.
Characteristics. Department of Statistics, Ministry of Trade and
Industry, Singapore.
Steed L.G. (1998) A critique of coping scales. Australian
Psychologist
33(3), 193–202.
Suarez-Balcazar Y., Balcazar F.E. & Taylor-Ritzler T. (2009)
Using
the Internet to conduct research with culturally diverse popula-
tions: challenges and opportunities. Cultural Diversity and
Ethnic
Minority Psychology 15, 96–104.
Suh E.E., Kagan S. & Strumpf N. (2009) Cultural competence in
qualitative interview methods with Asian immigrants. Journal of

Transcultural Nursing 20, 194–201.
Sullivan G. & Gunasekaran S. (1994) Motivations of migrants
from
Singapore to Australia. Field report series no. 28. Institute of
Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.
Sveinsdottir H., Biering P. & Ramel A. (2006) Occupational
stress,
job satisfaction, and working environment among Icelandic
nurses:
A cross-sectional questionnaire survey. International Journal of
Nursing Studies 43, 875–889.
Tan K.K. & Tan K.A. (2004) How do nurses perceive nursing in
Singapore? Singapore Nursing Journal 31(1), 30–44.
Teo T.S.H. (2001) Demographic and motivation variables
associated
with Internet usage activities. Internet Research: Electronic
Net-
working Applications and Policy 11(2), 125–137.
Verhaeghe R., Vlerick P., Backer G.D., Maele G.V. & Gemmel
P.
(2008) Recurrent changes in the work environment, job

resources
and distress among nurses: a comparative cross-sectional
survey.
International Journal of Nursing Studies 45, 382–392.
Wilkinson S., Joffe H. & Yardley L. (eds) (2004) Qualitative
Data
Collection: Interviews and Focus Groups. Sage, London.
Winwood P.C. & Lushington K. (2006) Disentangling the
effects
of psychological and physical work demands on sleep, recovery
and maladaptive chronic stress outcomes within a large sample
of Australian nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing 56(6), 679–
689.
Winwood P.C., Winefield A.H. & Lushington K. (2006) Work-
re-
lated fatigue and recovery: the contribution of age, domestic
responsibilities and shiftwork. Journal of Advanced Nursing
56(4),
438–449.
Wolf Z.R. (2003) Exploring the audit trail for qualitative
investiga-

tions. Nurse Educator 28(4), 175–178.
Yang Y., Koh D., Ng V., Lee C.Y., Chan G., Dong F. & Chia
S.E.
(2001) Salivary cortisol levels and work-related stress among
emergency department nurses. Journal of Occupational and
Environmental Medicine 43, 1011–1018.
Yang Y., Koh D., Ng V., Lee C.Y., Chan G., Dong F., Goh
S.H.,
Anantharaman V. & Chia S.E. (2002) Self perceived work
related
stress and the relation with salivary IgA and Iysozyme among
emergency department nurses. Journal of Occupational and
Environmental Medicine 59(12), 836–841.
The Journal of Advanced Nursing (JAN) is an international,
peer-reviewed, scientific journal. JAN contributes to the
advancement of
evidence-based nursing, midwifery and health care by
disseminating high quality research and scholarship of
contemporary relevance
and with potential to advance knowledge for practice,
education, management or policy. JAN publishes research
reviews, original
research reports and methodological and theoretical papers.

For further information, please visit JAN on the Wiley Online
Library website: www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jan
Reasons to publish your work in JAN:
• High-impact forum: the world’s most cited nursing journal and
with an Impact Factor of 1Æ518 – ranked 9th of 70 in the 2010
Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Report (Social Science –
Nursing). JAN has been in the top ten every year for a decade.
• Most read nursing journal in the world: over 3 million articles
downloaded online per year and accessible in over 7,000
libraries
worldwide (including over 4,000 in developing countries with
free or low cost access).
• Fast and easy online submission: online submission at
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jan.
• Positive publishing experience: rapid double-blind peer review
with constructive feedback.
• Early View: rapid online publication (with doi for referencing)
for accepted articles in final form, and fully citable.
• Faster print publication than most competitor journals: as
quickly as four months after acceptance, rarely longer than
seven months.
• Online Open: the option to pay to make your article freely and
openly accessible to non-subscribers upon publication on Wiley
Online Library, as well as the option to deposit the article in
your own or your funding agency’s preferred archive (e.g.
PubMed).
nurses

Process and outcome evaluation of an organizational-
level stress management intervention in Switzerland
GREGOR J. JENNY1,2*, REBECCA BRAUCHLI1,2, ALICE
INAUEN1,2,
DÉSIRÉE FÜLLEMANN2, ANNEMARIE FRIDRICH2 and
GEORG F. BAUER1,2
1Center for Organizational and Occupational Sciences,
Research Group Public and Organizational Health,
ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland and 2Institute of Social and
Preventive Medicine, Division of Public and
Organizational Health, University of Zurich, Hirschengraben
84, CH-8001 Zürich, Switzerland
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
SUMMARY
This field study evaluates the process and outcome of an or-
ganizational-level stress management intervention (SMI) in
eight companies, taking into account the lessons learned
from previous evaluation research. It utilizes the RE-AIM
evaluation framework to capture the Reach and Adoption of
the intervention in the companies, the appraisal of the
Implementation process and the project’s Effectiveness and
Maintenance with a range of qualitative and quantitative
methods. It applies an adapted research design in the context
of a field study involving entire organizations, retrospectively
assigning study participants to comparison groups. The
results of a longitudinal analysis (n ¼ 1400) showed that the
SMI had a positive impact on the participants’ job demands
and resources, when controlled for baseline levels.

Qualitative data analysis revealed that the companies had
built capacities for ongoing health promotion and showed
what issues must be borne in mind when implementing such
projects. The study also showed that participation in such
interventions alone does not suffice to achieve the desired
impact, but that the individual participants’ appraisal of the
intervention and the collective involvement of the teams must
be further researched to fully understand how change occurs.
Key words: evaluation; health promotion programs;
occupational stress; organizational change
INTRODUCTION
A stressful working environment has been acknowl-
edged as an emergent health issue (European
Agency for Safety and Health at Work, 2010).
Much evidence has been accumulated on the link
between adverse psychosocial working condi-
tions and a number of health and business out-
comes (Bond et al., 2006), calling for stress
management interventions (SMIs). To be effect-
ive, SMI should target both individual and or-
ganizational levels, considering the needs and
capacities of both employees and the organiza-
tion (Nielsen et al., 2010). Expanding SMI to the
organizational-level represents an advance from
single-measure interventions to a dynamic pro-
cess of organizational change, ultimately enab-
ling companies to manage health themselves.
Further, the exclusive focus on stressors has been
expanded, including job resources as a factor that
mitigates the pathogenic effects of stressors
while unfolding a distinct motivational potential
(Bauer and Jenny, 2012). Simultaneously, such

SMI are not limited to employees with a high
risk of disease and long-term sickness for whom
intensive and behavior-tailored programs are
derived. They target the overall working popula-
tion with an average health distribution, aiming
to preserve and enhance their health status. In
this context, SMI follow a salutogenic approach
Health Promotion International, Vol. 30 No. 3
doi:10.1093/heapro/dat091
# The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. All
rights reserved.
For Permissions, please email: [email protected]
Advance Access published 6 January, 2014
573
D
ow
nloaded from
https://academ
ic.oup.com
/heapro/article-abstract/30/3/573/623719 by guest on 02 A
ugust 2019
aiming at strengthening resources and slowly but
steadily building a sustainable health-promoting
working environment. The literature on the

effectiveness of SMI shows that employees
benefit from individual-level SMI (Richardson
and Rothstein, 2008). However, there is still a
lack of studies evaluating the effects of
organizational-level interventions and the results
of the few existing ones vary (LaMontagne et al.,
2007). A systematic review by Bambra et al.
(Bambra et al., 2007) found that some of the par-
ticipatory organizational-level interventions
improved employee health problems such as
general complaints, emotional exhaustion and
musculoskeletal disorders by increasing job
control. Bond et al. (Bond et al., 2006) also found
significant effects of organizational-level inter-
ventions on business outcomes (i.e. decreased
absenteeism, lower staff turnover, better object-
ive and subjective performance ratings). In sum,
organizational-level interventions have the po-
tential to produce positive effects, but they
appear to show diverse and partially contradict-
ing results in terms of the combination of inter-
vention elements and effect magnitudes over a
range of outcomes. This is attributed to the het-
erogeneity of the studies in terms of sample sizes,
time lags, intervention components, effect mea-
sures, study context, etc. [cf. (Biron et al., 2012)].
Further, the dynamics of change in organizations
limit the ecological validity of predefined inter-
ventions implemented under controlled condi-
tions in pre-assigned intervention and control
groups. Moreover, such research is often limited
to short follow-up periods such as 3 – 12 months
(Zapf et al., 1996), leaving long-term effects
as well as the routinization of the interventions
unnoticed [cf. (Taris and Kompier, 2003)]. As
SMI are interventions into complex social

systems, Kompier and Kristensen (Kompier and
Kristensen, 2000) acknowledge that most SMI
studies require non-traditional research designs.
Semmer (Semmer, 2006) argues in favor of chan-
ging the focus from outcome variables to work
characteristics as determinants of health and well-
being, and notes that more detailed analyses and
documentation of context and process factors in-
fluencing intervention success are needed, rather
than simply criticizing (supposedly) poor designs.
This view is also echoed and advanced by Nielsen
and Randall (Nielsen and Randall, 2012), who
include information on the intervention process
as a relevant moderating variable explaining the
variance in the effectiveness of the intervention.
Randall et al. (Randall et al., 2005) argued that
measurement of the intervention process can be
used to adapt and shape the design of the effect-
iveness evaluation: Intervention exposure and ap-
praisal serve to retrospectively assign employees
to intervention and control groups and thus
support quantitative outcome evaluations where
controlled quasi-experimentation is not possible
(Randall et al., 2005). If such ‘less-than-optimal’
designs are applied, then strong theoretical inter-
vention evaluation frameworks (Chen, 1990) and
mixed methods (Leech and Onwuegbuzie, 2009)
should be used to capture the intervention
context and process in order to plausibly attribute
observed effects to the implemented intervention
and cross-validate the results.
Aim and scope of the present study
The main purpose of the present study is to evalu-

ate the process and outcome of an organizational-
level SMI in the field, consisting of several inter-
vention elements and involving entire companies.
Building on the lessons learned from previous re-
search as described above, this study captures the
process of implementation with both qualitative
and quantitative methods, includes both job
demands and resources as proximate outcomes,
and utilizes the criteria of the well-established
RE-AIM evaluation framework (Glasgow et al.,
2003). This framework emphasizes not only the
effectiveness and maintenance of intervention
projects, but also their reach, adoption and imple-
mentation quality. Further, this study applies an
adapted research design, retrospectively assigning
study participants to comparison groups (Randall
et al., 2005). The research questions addressed by
this study are as follows (see Figure 1): (i) To what
extent were the single intervention elements
adopted by the company units? To what extent
were the company employees reached? (ii) Were
the single intervention elements appraised favor-
ably by the participants? How are the different
facets of the appraisal related to each other (i.e.
outcome expectancies, coherence, company fit
and voluntariness of participation)? (iii) Was the
overall intervention assessed favorably in retro-
spect? Does this retrospective impact assessment
relate to longitudinal changes in job resources and
demands? (iv) To what extent is the retrospective
impact assessment related to the reach within
company units? (v) What factors facilitated or
hindered the overall implementation process, and
was maintenance of the SMI assured?
574 G. J. Jenny et al.

D
ow
nloaded from
ic.oup.com
ugust 2019
METHOD
Implementation of the SMI
The SMI was implemented in eight medium-
sized and large companies in diverse sectors (in-
dustrial production companies, a food processing
company, a public administration service and hos-
pitals) and two language regions of Switzerland
from 2008 to 2010. The company employee
numbers in the year 2008 ranged from 323 to 1050
(M ¼ 589). These companies responded to a
broad project call by the initiators and funding
body (see Acknowledgements) and committed
themselves to the program. Figure 1 illustrates the
implementation steps covering a period of 3 years.
The program started with a kickoff meeting with
top management, ensuring backup from the top
decision-makers. Internal project leaders were
appointed and a steering group was established,
designed to bring in the employees’ perspective
and support the implementation of the program.

A baseline employee survey was conducted in
mid-2008, followed by an intermediate survey in
2009 (not shown in Figure 1) and a final survey at
the end of 2010. Results were immediately and
automatically fed back to individual participants
in the form of a ‘traffic-light’ display and detailed
percentile ranks with regard to benchmark values,
including tips on the highlighted topic. One-day
courses plus a half-day refresher course �6
months later were provided by external consul-
tants, targeting (i) employees, (ii) managers and
(iii) teams. (i) Employee-level stress management
courses conveyed basic knowledge and training on
stress, stress appraisal, coping strategies and cog-
nitive restructuring, building up motivation and
planning the transfer to daily work – life. These
courses built on scientific evidence as well as prac-
titioner manuals (Kaluza, 2004). (ii) Managerial-
level courses on health-promoting leadership
showed how to integrate a health perspective into
everyday leadership routines. Participants learnt
how to recognize psychosocial health issues at
work, receiving information and being trained in
groups on the handling and reflection of their
survey results. They then developed concrete
steps and deepened their knowledge on a particu-
lar issue, such as teamwork, communication and
information skills, feedback, work design (focus-
ing on participation and resources), social
support, delegation of tasks and/or change. (iii)
Team-level working groups (health circles/team
reflections) were designed as workshops for teams
to address their job demands, resources and
Fig. 1: Illustration of the implementation steps aligned with the

evaluation methods and research questions (RQ).
Evaluation of an organizational-level SMI 575
D
ow
nloaded from
ic.oup.com
ugust 2019
potential individual- and organizational-level
solutions, building on participatory reflection,
discourse and group work (Schröer and Sochert,
2000). During the intervention period, regular
communication measures were applied, and infor-
mation events held on the progress of the project
as well as on topics such as work – life balance.
Participants took part in the intervention during
working hours. Participation in employee-level
courses was mandatory for those teams with high
levels of job demands. The companies also obliged
their managers to participate in managerial-level
courses (the hierarchical level defined by the com-
panies themselves). Since the baseline and follow-
up analyses in the companies were more intensive
and thus costly in this intervention study than in
case of routine SMI, the companies received them
at no charge. However, to assure their commitment
to the intervention, the companies had to pay for

all courses and workshops.
Evaluation research design
The present study utilized the criteria of the
RE-AIM evaluation framework (for detailed in-
formation see Glasgow et al., 2003). These criteria
were originally developed to evaluate the public
health impact of health-promoting interventions
and have found widespread application in these
communities, as documented on www.re-aim.org:
Reach captures the rate of participation and repre-
sentativeness of participants, Effectiveness mea-
sures the desired changes in indicators and
consistency of changes, Adoption captures the pro-
portion and representativeness of the participating
companies or units, Implementation assesses the
extent to which interventions were delivered as
intended and Maintenance assesses the extent to
which the interventions are sustained in enterprises
and individuals. Figure 1 illustrates the evaluation
design in line with the implementation steps.
Following a mixed methods approach (Leech and
Onwuegbuzie, 2009), qualitative and quantitative
measurements were applied to capture the effect-
iveness of the project as well as the overall imple-
mentation process and the implementation of
single intervention elements. With regard to the ef-
fectiveness outcome, the main focus was placed on
work characteristics as determinants of health and
the proximate target of the SMI, as suggested by
Semmer [Semmer, 2006; see also (Bauer and
Jenny, 2012)]. For this purpose, a job resources/
demands-ratio (R/D-ratio) was computed, i.e. an
integrated measure dividing job resources by job

demands reflecting the synergetic effects of posi-
tive and negative aspects of the job [cf. (Schaufeli
et al., 2009)]: Two standardized factor scores of job
demands and resources were computed using a
regression-based method and transformation to
positive values. The factors were derived from
S-Tool measures (see below for details), which
were selected and tested for company invariance,
i.e. their factorial structure and correlation with
health outcomes were similar for all companies
(Brauchli et al., 2013; Brauchli et al., manuscript
submitted). Regression-to-the-mean phenomena
and differential effects attributable to a variance in
baseline levels (Flaxman and Bond, 2010) were
accounted for by separately studying effects in sub-
groups and controlling for baseline levels.
Data sources
A key instrument for quantitative data collection
was a newly developed online employee survey
called S-Tool completed by participants at three
measurement points. S-Tool was developed by
the University of Berne (Chair N. Semmer) in
collaboration with consultants and Health Pro-
motion Switzerland and consists of scientifically
reliable and valid scales measuring job demands,
resources, well-being and health (for in-depth
details on the selected scales utilized, see Brauchli
et al., 2013, Brauchli et al., manuscript submitted).
Short evaluation questionnaires were distributed at
refresher sessions of the employee- and managerial-
level courses. These questionnaires were discussed
with fellow researchers and the external consultants
during experience-exchange groups and were pre-
tested with a convenience sample of 15 employees

for comprehensibility, content validity and rele-
vance of the items. Qualitative data were collected
via structured face-to-face interviews with key
persons (led by the consultants), telephone inter-
views with line managers and group discussions
with the steering group members (both led by the
evaluation researchers) at the beginning and end of
the project.
Sample
Eight companies comprising a total of 58 units
participated in the study. The company units
were made up of self-defined subsystems within
the companies, i.e. clusters of teams departmen-
talized according to the respective organizational
charts. The baseline employee survey carried out
in 2008 yielded a sample of 3532 participants (re-
sponse rate: 71%). Follow-up surveys in 2009
D
ow
nloaded from
ic.oup.com
ugust 2019
www.re-aim.org
www.re-aim.org
www.re-aim.org

www.re-aim.org
(n ¼ 3193; 63%) and 2010 (n ¼ 2496; 50%)
yielded fewer participants. The panel of employ-
ees who took part in both the baseline and final
surveys (n ¼ 1530) consisted of 520 women
(34.0%) and 1010 men (66.0%), with an average
baseline age of 39.6 years (SD ¼ 10.5). Of these,
51.7% had a higher education (college or univer-
sity), 33.1% held a leadership function and mean
organizational tenure was 9.6 years (SD ¼ 9.3).
Logistic regression analyses were applied to test
whether participation in the final survey was pre-
dicted by demographic and study variables,
assessed at the baseline. The results showed that
men (OR ¼ 0.74, p , 0.001) and participants with
a leadership function (OR ¼ 0.65, p , 0.001) had a
lower drop-out rate. Additionally, participants with
better job resources (OR ¼ 0.79, p , 0.001)
remained longer on the panel. It can therefore be
concluded that attrition does not constitute a
severe problem, although there is a minor selective
drop-out rate with respect to gender, managerial
position and job resources. The qualitative data are
based on a sample of 5 – 20 key persons in each
company for structured face-to-face interviews, 5 –
10 group discussion members and 5 – 8 line man-
agers in each company for structured telephone
interviews. The interview partners were selected by
the consultants and the internal project leaders,
who consisted of employees with a leading function
from each company unit. Group discussion
members consisted of the members of the steering
group, acting as a ‘sounding board’ for employee
perspectives and the implementation process.

Measures
Research question 1: To assess both adoption and
reach, participation rates were calculated by using
self-reports in the intermediate and final employ-
ee survey, and participation lists were distributed
during employee- and managerial-level courses as
well as team-level working groups. The calcula-
tion was based on average company sizes from
2008 to 2010, since company size and structure
varied over time. Research question 2: To evaluate
the implementation of the single intervention ele-
ments, participants of employee and managerial-
level courses rated (a) their outcome expectancies
with two items on the anticipated impact of the
course on the company and themselves, (b) the
course’s coherence with three items on its com-
prehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness
and (c) its company fit with two items on per-
ceived company investment in health promotion
and culture on a seven-point Likert-scale.
Additionally, a single item on the voluntariness of
participation was assessed (‘yes, more or less,
no’). Research question 3: In the final employee
survey, a five-item scale with good internal con-
sistency (Cronbach’s a ¼ 0.88) was included,
retrospectively assessing the impact of the overall
intervention with its combined intervention ele-
ments, irrespective of individual participation in
courses (Fridrich et al., manuscript in preparation;
see also Randall et al., 2005, Nielsen and Randall,
2012; Fridrich et al., 2013). The scale was intro-
duced by giving a short reminder of the project and
its activities (see Note to Figure 3 for items).

Retrospective impact assessment was linked to the
R/D ratio as the proximate effectiveness outcome.
Job resources were covered by the following scales:
Supportive leadership (Udris and Rimann, 1999;
five items, a ¼ 0.82), interpersonal fairness of man-
agers (Colquitt, 2001; four items, a ¼ 0.81),
manager and peer support (Frese, 1989; two single
items), manager and peer appreciation
(Jacobshagen et al., 2005; two single items), task
identity (Udris and Rimann, 1999; single item) and
job control (Semmer et al., 1995; six items, a ¼
0.87). Job demands were covered by the following
scales: Time pressure and work interruption
(Semmer et al., 1995; both four items, a ¼ 0.83),
qualitative overload (Udris and Rimann, 1999;
three items, a ¼ 0.78), and uncertainty at work
(Semmer et al., 1995; four items, a ¼ 0.75).
Research question 4: To analyze the relationship
between the retrospective impact assessment and
the reach within company units, mean levels of indi-
vidual retrospective impact assessment were com-
puted for each unit. Research question 5: To
evaluate the overall implementation and mainten-
ance, 10 factors of successful change processes
(Gerkhardt and Frey, 2006) were used to structure
the qualitative data collection. Gerkhardt and Frey
(Gerkhardt and Frey, 2006) conducted a review of
several studies on relevant factors of change pro-
cesses, such as that of Kotter (Kotter, 1995), deriv-
ing a set of success factors of change processes in
organizations. These factors were used to systemat-
ically condense the qualitative data broadly assessed
with open questions on, (a) the implementation
context, i.e. individual and organizational resources,
readiness for change, attitudes towards stress and
health promotion, similar parallel activities in the

companies, etc., (b) the implementation process, i.e.
communication, cooperation, participation, mea-
sures developed, leadership involvement, etc. and
(c), the outcomes, i.e. change in job resources and
D
ow
nloaded from
ic.oup.com
ugust 2019
demands including leadership behavior as well as
awareness of stress and coping with it. The consul-
tants who conducted the interviews were equipped
and trained with the same interview materials
and guidelines. Maintenance was qualitatively eval-
uated as a change in organizational capacities for
health promotion, i.e. structural, strategic and cul-
tural facets of the organization that support both
salutogenic working processes and targeted health-
promoting activities.
Data analysis
Characteristics of (non-)participants with respect
to demographic and study variables were tested
via t-/x2 analyses. Outcome expectancies were

analyzed in relation to the course coherence, fit and
the voluntariness of participation. Retrospective
impact assessment was split into two groups based
on a mid-scale cutoff value, i.e. low/medium impact
versus high impact, and used as a grouping variable
for the longitudinal analysis of changes in the R/D
ratio (repeated General Linear Model). To account
for regression-to-the-mean phenomena and differ-
ential effects attributable to baseline values, the
analysis was separately carried out for groups with
unfavorable, favorable and very favorable R/D
ratios at the baseline measurement. Further, as
described above, mean values of retrospective
impact assessment were computed on a unit level
to compare subgroups of units with high (þ1 SD)
and low (21 SD) impact assessments with regard
to the reach of intervention elements in their units.
All quantitative analyses were performed with
SPSS 19. The qualitative analysis of the overall im-
plementation process collected in the face-to-face
and telephone interviews as well as the group dis-
cussions was systematically aggregated on the basis
of factors of successful change processes derived by
Gerkhardt and Frey (Gerkhardt and Frey, 2006), as
mentioned above. Priority was given to the qualita-
tive data collected by the evaluators and this was
cross-checked against the data collected by the con-
sultants. The changes in organizational capacities
for health promotion with regard to project main-
tenance are described in qualitative terms.
RESULTS
Adoption by units and individual reach of single
intervention elements

Fifty-six of the 58 company units adopted at least
one of the intervention elements. Eight-four
percent of the units adopted employee-level
courses, 95% managerial-level courses and 91%
team-level working groups. Individual reach
(average of company means) was 19% for
employee-level courses, 88% for managerial-
level courses and 34% for team-level working
groups. Moreover, 16% attended supplemental
information events, while 20 and 9%, respective-
ly, took part in additional training or private
courses. In regard to representativeness, partici-
pants in the employee-level courses had notably
higher demands at baseline, t(1298) ¼ 23.68,
p , 0.001, compared with the non-participants.
This can be explained partly by the selection of
participants on the basis of an unfavorable job
resources/demands profile of the corresponding
teams. Participants in managerial-level courses
did not differ from non-participating managers
in regard to job demands and resources. This can
again be explained partly by the obligation to
attend these courses, and thus by the high partici-
pation rate. However, participating managers
had higher job tenure, t(566) ¼ 24.11, p , 0.001,
and were older, t(570) ¼ 25.74, p , 0.001, than
non-participants. Small differences were also seen
for team-level working groups, where the partici-
pants only had a higher level of education, x2(4) ¼
84.28, p , 0.001, compared with non-participants.
Participation rates in the employee surveys, which
are considered as an important project element
relevant to change (Inauen et al., 2011), are
described in the sample section. They showed high
reach at the beginning (71%), however, decreasing

to 50% at the end of the project.
Appraisal of courses and relationship with facets
of appraisal
Coherence of both employee- and managerial-
level courses were rated high (M ¼ 6.12/6.11,
SD ¼ 0.84/0.76, n ¼ 506/366). Company fit was
rated lower with M ¼ 5.29/5.30 (SD ¼ 1.13/1.25,
n ¼ 444/354) and outcome expectancies with
M ¼ 4.91/4.92 (SD ¼ 1.12/1.04, n ¼ 499/373).
Thirty-three percent of participants in employee-
level courses (n ¼ 505) and 48.1% of participants
in managerial-level courses (n ¼ 368) indicated
voluntary participation. Comparisons of groups of
employees with low versus high outcome expect-
ancies (tertiles) indicated that for employee-level
courses, 82% of the participants with low ratings
participated (more or less) involuntarily in the
workshop, compared with 48% in the group
with high ratings, x2(2) ¼ 59.57, p , 0.001. This
pattern could also be seen for managerial-level
D
ow
nloaded from
ic.oup.com
ugust 2019

courses, x2(2) ¼ 8.16, p � 0.05. In both employee-
and managerial-level courses, the two groups with
low and high outcome expectancies also differed
in their ratings of company fit, t(313) ¼ 25.34,
p , 0.001, and t(237) ¼ 26.94, p , 0.001, respect-
ively, and coherence of courses, t(358) ¼ 28.37,
p , 0.001, and t(249) ¼ 26.59, p , 0.001, respect-
ively. This means that participants with high
outcome expectancies also perceived a better
company fit of measures as well as a higher coher-
ence of course contents.
Retrospective impact assessment and related
longitudinal changes in the R/D-ratio
In the total panel sample (n ¼ 1400), 24.9% of the
respondents (average of company means) attribu-
ted a high impact to the overall intervention with
its combined intervention elements. Related longi-
tudinal changes in the R/D-ratio for employees
and managers were split according to their initial
R/D-ratio, resulting in six panels as displayed in
Figure 2. Over the course of time, both employees
and managers with an unfavorable baseline
R/D-ratio (Panels 3 and 6 in Figure 2) attributing a
high impact to the project at follow-up improved
their situation to a favorable R/D-ratio compared
with the low/medium impact group, with
F(1,239) ¼ 12.49, p , 0.001, for employees and
F(1,143) ¼ 12.62, p ¼ 0.001, for managers. Those
with a favorable baseline R/D-ratio (Panels 2 and
5 in Figure 2) attributing a high impact to the
project at follow-up also showed an improvement
in their R/D ratio, for employees F(1,206) ¼ 5.71,

p ¼ 0.018, and managers F(1,115) ¼ 3.49, p ¼ 0.064.
Those with a very favorable baseline R/D-ratio
(Panels 1 and 4 in Figure 2) attributing a high
impact to the project at follow-up could maintain
their situation in regard to the R/D-ratio, whereas
it deteriorated for the comparison group that
attributed a low/medium impact to the project,
for employees F(1,319) ¼ 8.96, p ¼ 0.003, and
managers F(1,162) ¼ 0.71, p ¼ 0.400, respectively.
From this, one can conclude that consistent im-
provement or maintenance in the R/D-ratio may
be observed over a 2-year period for those who
retrospectively attributed a high impact to the
project at the final follow-up survey, with the excep-
tion of managers with a very favorable R/D-ratio.
Relation of reach within units to mean levels
of retrospective impact assessment
Company units with a high mean level of retro-
spective impact assessment (þ1 SD, n ¼ 10)
compared with units with a low mean level (21
SD, n ¼ 11) differed significantly in their reach
of intervention elements (see Figure 3): units
with a high mean level revealed four times
higher reach (78 versus 18%) of team-level
working groups, t(19) ¼ 5.60, p , 0.001, three
times higher reach (32 versus 11%) of employee-
level courses, t(19) ¼ 3.19, p ¼ 0.005, two times
higher reach (25 versus 12%) of presentations,
t(19) ¼ 1.71, p ¼ 0.104, but no differences in
reach of managerial-level courses and private or
other courses.
Assessment of the overall implementation

and maintenance
The following issues emerged as relevant for the
majority of the companies from the qualitative
data collected through the interviews and group
discussions (structured according to Gerkhardt
and Frey, 2006; see Methods). (Factor 1) Compre-
hensive diagnosis: The employee survey domi-
nated perceptions of the project to a great extent,
generating visibility in regard to job demands and
resources. Automated feedback and personal tips
were appreciated, stimulating discussion and
change, especially at the beginning of the project.
The participants saw it as a sign of respect that
they were asked to express their views and opi-
nions. However, especially with managers, the
survey also raised fears and discomfort, as poor—
or even excessively good—results of their respect-
ive teams could potentially lead to sanctions or
stigmatization. Lastly, it proved difficult to inter-
pret changes in the results of the three survey
waves without the help of the consultants and
qualitative information on the overall organiza-
tional dynamics. (Factor 2) Definition of goals/
vision: The project was considered a long-term in-
vestment with initially broad goals, although
some of the companies already had specific health
management policies and actions in place.
Employee expectations were relatively vague, to
some extent raising expectations which could not
be met and thus leading to perceptions that the
effort involved was too high. (Factor 3) Shared
problem awareness: The importance of health
and stress to organizations was largely recog-
nized—also with regard to older workers—and
awareness of manager behavior and health was

particularly raised and firmly established.
However, there was no general consensus on the
priority of this issue: thus hospital physicians
showed little interest in the subject and in
D
ow
nloaded from
ic.oup.com
ugust 2019
production units, ergonomics and safety was
viewed by some as being more important than
stress. Conflicts arose where employees were laid
off, job insecurity was at its height, and more
work was demanded with fewer resources, so that
the stress management project was dismissed as a
farce or marketing exercise. (Factor 4) Guiding
coalition and drivers: The majority of companies
showed strong commitment by their senior man-
agement and firm anchoring of the project. In
some companies, implementation was disrupted
by changes at executive level, and especially in in-
ternal project management, which was a critical
driving force. In any case, managers played a
central role in the project: Where managers faced
up to the results (even critical ones), engaged in

dialogue and pursued changes with their team
while receiving support and direction from their
superiors, the process could unfold. The steering
group could facilitate this process if it was well-
anchored in the company, had the necessary
resources and autonomy, and consisted of people
with influence and credibility. (Factor 5)
Communication: Primarily, existing communica-
tion channels were utilized to draw attention to
the project. As communication was especially
intense prior to the employee surveys, the project
tended to be particularly associated with this
broad survey. When electronic media was used,
there was a risk that information would be lost in
the flood of e-mails. Owing to company-specific
adaptations to the project as well as parallel
change projects, the SMI did not have a distinct-
ive, recognizable profile in all companies. (Factor
6) Time management: Employees reacted sensi-
tively to delays between the employee survey and
subsequent action. The survey results also lost sig-
nificance rapidly in companies that were simultan-
eously undergoing extensive restructuring.
(Factor 7) Project organization and responsibil-
ities: The steering group enabled employees to
contribute opinions and ideas from different
Fig. 2: Change in R/D-ratio (estimated marginal means)
separated for baseline-level R/D ratios for employees/
managers.
D
ow

nloaded from
ic.oup.com
ugust 2019
company sites and units as well as to provide
frank feedback. Coordination of project activities
required considerable effort by internal project
management and collaboration with other stake-
holders such as Human Resources, Health and
Safety, etc. As expected, high time pressures led
to requests to reduce the length of courses, low
problem awareness led to a refusal to participate,
and a shortage of funds led to cancellation of
courses. Depending on company culture and the
type of issues to be discussed, bringing people to-
gether at one table helped to build bridges
between rival departments. (Factor 8) Providing
resources and helping people to help themselves:
Existing structures were used, and working time
was made available by management. Because
managers in some companies were obliged to
report on their team’s results, they were forced to
engage personally with the vocabulary and inter-
pretation, rather than having this done for them
by consultants. Finally, the project offered all
employees who completed the survey an oppor-
tunity for self-reflection with the aid of tips and
benchmarks. (Factor 9) Quick wins and motiv-
ation: Various incentives and giveaways such as

mugs with the project logo were provided to mo-
tivate employees to participate in the employee
surveys. However, it was argued that too little was
done for those with good results, i.e. in the form
of advice about how to maintain their situation.
(Factor 10) Process flexibility: The opportunity to
adapt the implementation process to the company
was welcomed. Even so, the project was some-
times felt to be insufficiently flexible, the hospitals
in particular would have liked more specific solu-
tions to their working environment. Likewise,
all-day courses were perceived as too long for the
production units, and special solutions had to be
developed for field services. Maintenance: The
project raised awareness in all branches, and espe-
cially in the industrial sector, of the links between
psychosocial working conditions and health, and
in particular of the impact of manager behavior
on employee health, recognizing the strategic im-
portance of the subject. For example, manage-
ment forums were established where younger
and older managers could interact, leadership
issues were systematically developed, managers
took part in retreats, and coaching services were
used. Furthermore, formal changes were made to
Fig. 3: Reach of intervention elements within company units
(incl. standard deviation) for units with low and
high mean levels of retrospective impact assessment.
D
ow

nloaded from
ic.oup.com
ugust 2019
structures: e.g. team meetings with adapted
agendas evolved, work was more consciously
organized and planned with respect to job
demands, resources and health, roles were clari-
fied and rules of communication were developed.
Direct, smaller changes were made in infrastruc-
ture (e.g. relaxation rooms) and traditional health-
promoting activities (e.g. Nordic walking groups)
were introduced or expanded. Among the more
informal changes, greater transparency and open-
ness were reported, influencing emotional dimen-
sions and corporate climate—which is a
precondition for talking openly about stress,
burnout and psychosocial issues in general and
about leadership problems—supported by team
events such as after-work drinks and barbecues,
regular communal lunch breaks or cross-unit
events promoting mutual appreciation and collab-
oration. By creating positions for people in charge
of health promotion issues and continuing the
steering group, health circles and team reflection
sessions, the project’s elements were formally em-
bedded in corporate structures. At a strategic
level, the project’s elements were either embed-
ded in related areas of responsibility (e.g.
Environment, Health and Safety), or combined

with other optimization processes that targeted
employee commitment and productivity. The em-
bedding process also called for ongoing monitor-
ing and controlling: since the employee survey is a
very comprehensive instrument designed for
in-depth analysis conducted every 2 – 3-years,
some companies introduced their own short-term
‘barometers’ and health checks, although not
always systematically. As a result, these compan-
ies developed changes in their self-observation
and self-reflection processes and activities.
DISCUSSION
The main purpose of the present study was to
evaluate the process and outcome of an
organizational-level SMI in the field with both
qualitative and quantitative methods. It utilized
the RE-AIM evaluation framework (Glasgow
et al., 2003), based on a ratio of job resources and
demands as the proximate outcome (R/D-ratio),
and applied an adapted research design, retro-
spectively assigning study participants to com-
parison groups (Randall et al., 2005). First, the
study analyzed the adoption and reach of the inter-
vention elements. The project was designed to
leave no one ‘untouched’, and succeeded in this
aim: people participated in employee-, managerial-
and/or team-level courses or working groups and
surveys in nearly all company units, thus guaran-
teeing a high adoption of the project at unit level.
However, as the second research question revealed,
participation in the implementation process was
not enough: comprehensible and manageable
courses considered to fit the corporate strategy and

culture were correlated with high outcome expecta-
tions at the time of the course [cf. (Nielsen and
Randall, 2012)]. Also, voluntariness of participa-
tion correlated with high outcome expectations,
raising the question of how to motivate people who
needed the courses but lacked interest in them.
Next, a quarter of the employees responding to the
surveys retrospectively attributed a high impact to
the overall intervention (third research question), a
factor consistently related to longitudinal changes
in the R/D ratio controlled for initial baseline
values. Furthermore, the fourth research question
showed that company units with high mean levels
of retrospective impact assessment also displayed a
much greater reach of team-level working groups
compared with units with low mean levels. This
result suggests that team-level working groups
are an important, if not a central, intervention
element: within these working groups, teams
engaged in a participatory, health-oriented problem-
solving process which also builds or strengthens
interpersonal relations [cf. (Karanika-Murray
and Biron, 2013)]. Thus, when researching the ef-
fectiveness of such participatory, organizational-
level SMI, we have to consider that change
occurs within teams and is not limited to ‘partici-
pants’, but extends to all team members. The
overall qualitative analyses of the implementa-
tion process (fifth research question) showed
that successful implementation requires perse-
verance, strong coalitions, constant fine-tuning
and support (but also obligation), as well as sys-
tematic training and reflection, until the company
has established its own health-promoting routines
[cf. (Ipsen and Andersen, 2013)]. The project pro-
vided support not only for employees with a high

risk of disease, but for the broader workforce,
whose members already cope more or less suc-
cessfully with their day-to-day work. The S-Tool
survey was part of this support process: it created
visibility and thus the grounds for the manageabil-
ity of stress. The issues surveyed were largely per-
ceived as legitimate and relevant to all branches
(Inauen et al., 2011). In particular, the process
also raised awareness for the role of job resources
with regard to both stress buffering and distinct
D
ow
nloaded from
ic.oup.com
ugust 2019
motivational potential, and the importance of
strengthening and/or maintaining these resources
by applying corresponding measures [cf.
(Salanova et al., 2012)]. This further raises the
issue of gain and loss cycles: employees with high
job resources can use them to further strengthen
their health and resources, whereas those whose
situation is already difficult may suffer a vicious
cycle of poor health leading to poorer mobiliza-
tion of resources, in turn leading to even worse

health [cf. (Hakanen et al., 2008)]. The question
also arises as to whether anyone experienced
‘losses’ as a result of the project, for instance
those who were laid off due to repeated poor
results of employee surveys, were stigmatized or
experienced negative team dynamics as a result of
the project. There is considerable reluctance in
the field of health promotion to discuss this ques-
tion, as workplace health promotion is often asso-
ciated with the notion of ‘win – win’. Finally, the
project was conducted at a time of unstable polit-
ical and economic conditions which jeopardize
the implementation of SMI. Most of the compan-
ies were coping with intensive environmental
change during the time of project implementa-
tion: the industrial sector faced a global economic
crisis, forcing them to restructure, lay off staff,
introduce management changes and short-time
work, thus inducing considerable insecurity for
employees as well as the SMI project. Nevertheless,
the project helped to initiate and permanently
anchor health-oriented optimization processes in
some corporate strategies, structures and cultures,
enabling these companies to perceive and develop
their health capacities.
Strengths
This study applied multiple methods and the
well-established RE-AIM framework to capture
and analyze both the implementation process
and effectiveness of the project. In doing so, it
yielded both qualitative and quantitative results
relating to the dynamics of SMI projects that
can be used for future project design. These
plausible and consistent results generated on the

levels of individuals, units and companies have
high external validity, as they were generated in
the field of heterogeneous companies, depicting
near-to-real-life change processes implemented
by consultants.
Limitations
The most obvious limitation in terms of trad-
itional study designs is the lack of pre-assigned
intervention and control groups for quantitative
longitudinal analysis. This was addressed with an
adapted study design and by using an evaluation
framework providing consistent information from
multiple sources gathered to produce an overall
picture. The study’s results suggest that change
occurs within teams and may therefore not be
limited to participants of single intervention
courses. As regards this dynamic participatory
change process triggered by organizational-level
SMI, the roles of affective and cognitive process
appraisals and outcome expectancies also need to
be elaborated in greater theoretical and empirical
depth, and corresponding measures need to be
further developed and validated. This will help to
address the problems of the invisibility of the dy-
namics released by a combination of intervention
elements in teams and units, as the sheer impossi-
bility of capturing these dynamics by quantitative
methods remains unaddressed. Accordingly,
future research will have to devise manageable
approaches that link limited quantities of process
data on adoption, reach and implementation
directly to a longitudinal effectiveness analysis.
Finally, researchers should explore how selective
drop-outs impact both the change process and the

study results, as we observed that men, employees
with better resources and leaders dropped out less
frequently from the panel.
CONCLUSIONS
The future dissemination of organizational-level
SMI requires the key success factors for im-
plementation as well as the potential impact to
be studied. To utilize and understand the full dy-
namics of health-oriented change processes
under real-life conditions, we need to involve
entire organizations in our research. The present
study showed that such research is feasible if it
builds on a clear intervention and evaluation
framework which structures the collection and
analysis of rich qualitative and quantitative data.
With regard to the implementation process, for
example, the facets of course appraisal showed
meaningful interrelations, opening possibilities
for quality assurance in future implementations
of organizational-level SMI. In evaluating the
D
ow
nloaded from
ic.oup.com
ugust 2019

effectiveness, for example, the adaptive study
design retrospectively split employees into two
groups, depending on whether they attributed a
high or a medium/low impact to the project, a split
which consistently related to longitudinal 2-year
changes in the R/D ratio used as the proximate
outcome. Using this indicator instead of grouping
employees into participants/non-participants might
address an issue of misclassification, as participa-
tion alone does not assure a positive impact:
organizational-level SMI triggers changes in
groups, from which non-participants also potential-
ly benefit.
As regards the practical implementation of
SMI, this study showed that organizational-level
SMI requires considerable perseverance to
develop awareness and change in the broader
workforce, with a healthy profile on average,
through surveys, empowerment courses and par-
ticipatory team workshops. Although short-term
activities can reach narrowly defined risk groups,
the development of sustainable health-promoting
organizational structures, strategies and cultures
requires a broadened time frame as well as a focus
on both job demands and resources. This invest-
ment can be optimized by reducing the scope and
frequency of surveys, developing a readiness for
change and coherent change patterns by involving
managers and employees in the course planning,
and integrating training, working groups and dis-
cussion forums into the daily (team) work. This
integration and involvement in the intervention
design could enhance outcome expectancies

through a better perceived fit between the project
and the organizational structure, strategy and
culture, especially in sectors such as healthcare
and manufacturing with less flexible working sche-
dules. Finally, such a continuous health-oriented
optimization process should be equipped with
tools for long- and short-term observation, as well
as to support reflection and action relating to job
resources, demands and health.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by Health Promotion
Switzerland and the Swiss Assurance Association,
who launched and financed the SWiNG project.
The following consulting firms implemented this
project: IfA (Institute for occupational medicine),
iafob (Institute for work research and organiza-
tional consultancy) and vivit AG. The Winterthur
Institute for Health Economics was assigned to
perform ROI calculations on the basis of the
present study.
REFERENCES
Bambra, C., Egan, M., Thomas, S., Petticrew, M. and
Whitehead, M. (2007) The psychosocial and health
effects of workplace reorganisation. 2. A systematic
review of task restructuring interventions. Journal of
Epidemiology and Community Health, 61, 1028 – 1037.
Bauer, G. F. and Jenny, G. J. (2012) Moving towards posi-
tive organisational health: challenges and a proposal for a
research model of organisational health development. In
Houdmont, J., Leka, S. and Sinclair, R. (eds),

Occupational Health Psychology: European Perspectives
on Research, Education and Practice. Wiley-Blackwell,
Oxford, UK, pp. 126 – 145.
Biron, C., Karanika-Murray, M. and Cooper, C. L. (2012)
Organizational interventions for stress and well-being—
an overview. In Biron, C., Karanika-Murray, M. and
Cooper, C. J. (eds), Organizational Stress and Well-Being
Interventions: Addressing Process and Context.
Routledge, London, pp. 1 – 17.
Bond, F. W., Flaxman, P. E. and Loivette, S. (2006) A
Business Case for the Management Standards for Stress.
HSE Books, Sudbury.
Brauchli, R., Schaufeli, W. B., Jenny, G. J., Füllemann, D.
and Bauer, G. F. (2013) Disentangling stability and
change in job resources, job demands, and employee well-
being—a three-wave study on the Job-Demands
Resources model. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83,
117 – 129.
Chen, H. T. (1990) Theory-Driven Evaluations. Sage,
Newbury Park, CA.
Colquitt, J. A. (2001) On the dimensionality of organiza-
tional justice: a construct validation of a measure. Journal
of Applied Psychology, 86, 386 – 400.
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. (2010)
ESENER—European Survey of Enterprises on New and
Emerging Risks. European Union, Luxembourg.
Flaxman, P. E. and Bond, F. W. (2010) Worksite stress man-
agement training: moderated effects and clinical signifi-
cance. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 15,

347 – 358.
Frese, M. (1989) Gütekriterien der Operationalisierung von
sozialer Unterstützung am Arbeitsplatz. Zeitschrift für
Arbeitswissenschaften, 43, 112 – 121.
Fridrich, A., Jenny, G. J. and Bauer, G.F. (2013) Appraisal
of Single Intervention Elements of a Comprehensive
Stress-Management Intervention at the Workplace.
Presentation at the APA Work, Stress and Health
Conference, May 16 – 19, Los Angeles, CA.
Gerkhardt, M. and Frey, D. (2006) Erfolgsfaktoren und psy-
chologische Hintergründe in Veränderungsprozessen:
Entwicklung eines integrativen psychologischen Modells
[Success factors and psychological backgrounds of change
processes: development of an integrative psychological
model.]. OrganisationsEntwicklung, 25, 48 – 59.
Glasgow, R. E., Lichtenstein, E. and Marcus, A. C. (2003)
Why don’t we see more translation of health promo-
tion research to practice? Rethinking the efficacy-to-
effectiveness transition. American Journal of Public Health,
93, 1261 – 1267.
D
ow
nloaded from
ic.oup.com

ugust 2019
Hakanen, J. J., Perhoniemi, R. and Toppinen-Tanner, S.
(2008) Positive gain spirals at work: from job resources
to work engagement, personal initiative and work-unit
innovativeness. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 73,
78 – 91.
Inauen, A., Jenny, G. J. and Bauer, G. F. (2011) Design
principles for data- and change-oriented organisational
analysis in workplace and other setting-based health pro-
motion. Health Promotion International, 27, 275 – 283.
Ipsen, Ch. and Andersen, V. (2013) A multi-level and par-
ticipatory model for prevention of work-related stress in
knowledge work. In Bauer, G. F. and Jenny, G. J. (eds),
Salutogenic Organizations and Change. The Concepts
Behind Organizational Health Intervention Research.
Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 127 – 148.
Jacobshagen, N., Amstad, F. T., Semmer, N. K. and Kuster,
M. (2005) Work-Family-Balance im Topmanagement
[Work-family balance in top management]. Zeitschrift für
Arbeits-und Organisationspsychologie, 49, 208 – 219.
Kaluza, G. (2004) Stressbewältigung: Trainingsmanual zur
Psychologischen Gesundheitsförderung. [Coping with
Stress: Training Manual for Psychological Heallth
Promotion]. Springer, Berlin.
Karanika-Murray, M. and Biron, C. (2013) The nature of
change in organizational health interventions: some
observations and propositions. In Bauer, G. F. and Jenny,
G. J. (eds), Salutogenic Organizations and Change. The

Concepts Behind Organizational Health Intervention
Research. Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 239 – 258.
Kompier, M. A. J. and Kristensen, T. (2000) Organisational
work stress interventions in a theoretical, methodological
and practical context. In Dunham, J. (ed), Stress in the
Workplace: Past, Present and Future. Whurr Publishers,
London, pp. 164 – 190.
Kotter, J. P. (1995) Leading change—why transformation
efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, 73, 59 – 67.
LaMontagne, A. D., Keegel, T., Louie, A. M., Ostry, A. and
Landsbergis, P. A. (2007) A systematic review of the
Job-stress intervention evaluation literature, 1990 – 2005.
International Journal of Occupational and Environmental
Health, 13, 268 – 280.
Leech, N. L. and Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2009) A typology of
mixed methods research designs. Quality & Quantity, 43,
265 – 275.
Nielsen, K. and Randall, R. (2012) The importance of em-
ployee participation and perceptions of changes in
procedures in a teamworking intervention. Work &
Stress, 26, 91 – 111.
Nielsen, K., Taris, T. W. and Cox, T. (2010) The future of or-
ganizational interventions: addressing the challenges of
today’s organizations. Work & Stress, 24, 219 – 233.
Randall, R., Griffiths, A. and Cox, T. (2005) Evaluating or-
ganizational stress-management interventions using
adapted study designs. European Journal of Work and
Organizational Psychology, 14, 23 – 41.

Richardson, K. M. and Rothstein, H. R. (2008) Effects of oc-
cupational stress management intervention programs: a
meta-analysis. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology,
13, 69– 93.
Salanova, M., Llorens, S., Cifre, E. and Martı́nez, I. M.
(2012) We need a hero! Towards a validation of the
healthy & resilient organization (HERO) model. Group
& Organization Management, 37, 785 – 822.
Schaufeli, W. B., Bakker, A. B. and Van Rhenen, W. (2009)
How changes in job demands and resources predict
burnout, work engagement, and sickness absenteeism.
Journal of Organizational Behavior, 30, 893 – 917.
Schröer, A. and Sochert, R. (2000) Health Promotion
Circles at the Workplace. A New Approach to Workplace
Health Promotion. BKK, Essen.
Semmer, N. K. (2006) Job stress interventions and the or-
ganization of work. Scandinavian Journal of Work
Environment & Health, 32, 515 – 527.
Semmer, N. K., Zapf, D. and Dunckel, H. (1995) Assessing
stress at work: a framework and an instrument. In Svane,
O. and Johansen, C. (eds), Work and Health: Scientific
Basis of Progress in the Working Environment. Office for
Official Publications of the European Communities,
Luxembourg, pp. 105 – 113.
Taris, T. and Kompier, M. (2003) Challenges of longitudinal
designs in occupational health psychology. Scandinavian
Journal of Work, Environment, and Health, 29, 1 – 4.
Udris, I. and Rimann, M. (1999) SAA und SALSA: Zwei

Fragebogen zur subjektiven Arbeitsanalyse [SAA and
SALSA: two questionnaires for subjective work analysis].
In Dunckel, H. (ed), Handbuch Psychologischer
Arbeitsanalyseverfahren. Ein Praxisorientierter Überblick.
vdf Hochschulverlag, Zürich, pp. 397 – 419.
Zapf, D., Dormann, C. and Frese, M. (1996) Longitudinal
studies in organizational stress research: a review of the
literature with reference to methodological issues.
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1, 145 – 169.
D
ow
nloaded from
ic.oup.com
ugust 2019
<<
/ASCII85EncodePages false
/AllowTransparency false
/AutoPositionEPSFiles true
/AutoRotatePages /PageByPage
/Binding /Left
/CalGrayProfile ()
/CalRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1)
/CalCMYKProfile (U.S. Web Coated 050SWOP051 v2)
/sRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1)
/CannotEmbedFontPolicy /Warning
/CompatibilityLevel 1.5

/CompressObjects /Off
/CompressPages true
/ConvertImagesToIndexed true
/PassThroughJPEGImages false
/CreateJobTicket false
/DefaultRenderingIntent /Default
/DetectBlends true
/DetectCurves 0.1000
/ColorConversionStrategy /LeaveColorUnchanged
/DoThumbnails false
/EmbedAllFonts true
/EmbedOpenType false
/ParseICCProfilesInComments true
/EmbedJobOptions true
/DSCReportingLevel 0
/EmitDSCWarnings false
/EndPage -1
/ImageMemory 524288
/LockDistillerParams false
/MaxSubsetPct 100
/Optimize true
/OPM 1
/ParseDSCComments true
/ParseDSCCommentsForDocInfo false
/PreserveCopyPage true
/PreserveDICMYKValues true
/PreserveEPSInfo true
/PreserveFlatness true
/PreserveHalftoneInfo false
/PreserveOPIComments true
/PreserveOverprintSettings false
/StartPage 1
/SubsetFonts true
/TransferFunctionInfo /Preserve
/UCRandBGInfo /Remove
/UsePrologue false

/ColorSettingsFile ()
/AlwaysEmbed [ true
]
/NeverEmbed [ true
/Courier
/Courier-Bold
/Courier-BoldOblique
/Courier-Oblique
/Helvetica
/Helvetica-Bold
/Helvetica-BoldOblique
/Helvetica-Oblique
/Symbol
/Times-Bold
/Times-BoldItalic
/Times-Italic
/Times-Roman
/ZapfDingbats
]
/AntiAliasColorImages false
/CropColorImages true
/ColorImageMinResolution 150
/ColorImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK
/DownsampleColorImages true
/ColorImageDownsampleType /Bicubic
/ColorImageResolution 175
/ColorImageDepth -1
/ColorImageMinDownsampleDepth 1
/ColorImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50286
/EncodeColorImages true
/ColorImageFilter /DCTEncode
/AutoFilterColorImages false
/ColorImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG2000
/ColorACSImageDict <<
/QFactor 0.40
/HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1]

>>
/ColorImageDict <<
/QFactor 0.40
>>
/JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict <<
/TileWidth 256
/TileHeight 256
/Quality 20
>>
/JPEG2000ColorImageDict <<
/TileWidth 256
/TileHeight 256
/Quality 15
>>
/AntiAliasGrayImages false
/CropGrayImages true
/GrayImageMinResolution 150
/GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK
/DownsampleGrayImages true
/GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic
/GrayImageResolution 175
/GrayImageDepth -1
/GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth 2
/GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50286
/EncodeGrayImages true
/GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode
/AutoFilterGrayImages false
/GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG2000
/GrayACSImageDict <<
/QFactor 0.40
>>
/GrayImageDict <<
/QFactor 0.40

>>
/JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict <<
/TileWidth 256
/TileHeight 256
/Quality 20
>>
/JPEG2000GrayImageDict <<
/TileWidth 256
/TileHeight 256
/Quality 15
>>
/AntiAliasMonoImages true
/CropMonoImages true
/MonoImageMinResolution 1200
/MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK
/DownsampleMonoImages true
/MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic
/MonoImageResolution 175
/MonoImageDepth 4
/MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50286
/EncodeMonoImages true
/MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode
/MonoImageDict <<
/K -1
>>
/AllowPSXObjects true
/CheckCompliance [
/None
]
/PDFX1aCheck false
/PDFX3Check false
/PDFXCompliantPDFOnly false
/PDFXNoTrimBoxError true
/PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [
0.00000
0.00000

0.00000
0.00000
]
/PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true
/PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [
0.00000
0.00000
0.00000
0.00000
]
/PDFXOutputIntentProfile (None)
/PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier ()
/PDFXOutputCondition ()
/PDFXRegistryName ()
/PDFXTrapped /False
/CreateJDFFile false
/Description <<
/ENU ()
>>
>> setdistillerparams
<<
/HWResolution [600 600]
/PageSize [612.000 792.000]
>> setpagedevice
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Psychology of Sport & Exercise
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psychsport

Using a mixed method audit to inform organizational stress
management
interventions in sport
James L. Rumbolda,∗ , David Fletcherb, Kevin Danielsc
a Academy of Sport and Physical Activity, Sheffield Hallam
University, United Kingdom
b School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough
University, United Kingdom
c Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia, United
Kingdom
A R T I C L E I N F O
Keywords:
Appraisals
Emotions
Coping
Individual-level
Organizational-level
Team building
A B S T R A C T
Objectives: The purposes of this study were twofold: to conduct
a mixed method organizational-level stress audit
within a sport organization and to explore recommendations for
organizational stress management.
Design and method: Semi-structured interviews, focus groups
and surveys were conducted with 47 participants
(professional sportsmen, coaches, sport science support and
administrative staff) who represented a professional
sport organization. Content analysis was employed to analyze
the data.
Results and conclusions: The findings indicated a wide range of

organizational stressors (e.g., cultural and
academy issues), appraisals and coping behaviors (e.g.,
emotion-focused behaviors), and stressor outcomes (e.g.,
emotional responses) for sport performers. Content analysis and
survey data supported the categorization of
stress management recommendations at both an individual-
(e.g., coping education) and organizational-level
(e.g., improving communication channels) for particular target
groups (e.g., players, staff, team). The identifi-
cation of stress audit factors and recommendations have
important implications for the optimization of orga-
nizational functioning within professional sport. Consistent with
organizational psychology research, applied
considerations for mixed method and multi-level intervention
approaches are discussed.
1. Introduction
The growing body of literature concerning organizational stress
suggests that it may be a critical factor in determining well-
being and
performance development in sport (Fletcher & Arnold, 2017).
Based on
a transactional conceptualization (Lazarus, 1991; McGrath,
1976), or-
ganizational stress has been defined as “an ongoing transaction
between
an individual and the environmental demands associated
primarily and
directly with the organization within which he or she is
operating”
(Fletcher, Hanton, & Mellalieu, 2006, p. 329). For young
athletes as-
piring to develop within professional sport, they are typically
required
to manage a range of environmental demands within their sport

orga-
nization, such as training load, logistics, poor team cohesion,
and the
prospect of being released (Arnold & Fletcher, 2012; Fletcher,
Hanton,
Mellalieu, & Neil, 2012). The management of these
organizational
stressors is important for reducing the negative spillover that
may occur
between ongoing exposure to organizational (e.g., leadership
styles,
selection), performance (e.g., opponents, social evaluation), and
per-
sonal stressors (e.g., parental expectations, romantic
relationships);
which collectively may be detrimental to well-being (Duong,
Tuckey,
Hayward, & Boyd, 2015). For those performers operating in
sport or-
ganizations, the successful management of organizational stress
may
not only facilitate the maximization of well-being and
performance
development at an individual-level, but it is also likely to
support the
effective functioning of teams and institutions at an
organizational-level
(Wagstaff, Fletcher, & Hanton, 2012). Despite this,
organizational stress
management interventions, which aim to improve the
psychosocial
environment and enhance the well-being of personnel (Nielsen,
Randall, Holten, & Rial González, 2010) are currently limited
in sport
psychology research (Rumbold, Fletcher, & Daniels, 2012).

This limited
evidence-base is problematic for advancing sport psychologists’
knowledge of how best to develop effective organizational
stress man-
agement interventions.
According to the organizational psychology literature, one of
the
key ingredients for increasing the likelihood of effective stress
man-
agement interventions in organizations is the systematic and
careful
assessment of stress processes prior to intervention development
(Bowling, Beehr, & Grebner, 2012). To reliably understand the
context
of organizational stress as a means to inform appropriate stress
man-
agement initiatives, it is necessary to conduct an organizational-
level
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2017.10.010
Received 9 March 2017; Received in revised form 2 October
2017; Accepted 28 October 2017
∗ Corresponding author. Academy of Sport and Physical
Activity, Sheffield Hallam University, Collegiate Crescent,
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S10 2BP, United Kingdom.
E-mail address: [email protected] (J.L. Rumbold).
Psychology of Sport & Exercise 35 (2018) 27–38
Available online 07 November 2017
1469-0292/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
T

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/14690292
https://www.elsevier.com/locate/psychsport
mailto:[email protected]
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2017.10.010
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1016/j.psychsport.
2017.10.010&domain=pdf
stress audit; one that is able to identify the individual and group
needs
of those operating in organizations (Nielsen et al., 2010), so
that in-
itiatives can be developed to modify environmental demands
and/or a
person's resources. A stress audit is traditionally a generic term
which
describes a number of approaches which aim to identify
potential en-
vironmental demands (i.e., stressors), assess which have the
greatest
negative impact and identify any individuals, and groups who
are most
at risk (Rick, Briner, Daniels, Perryman, & Guppy, 2001).
Although
there have been a range of measures that have been adopted for
au-
diting stressors in organizations (e.g., Biron, Ivers, Brun, &
Cooper,
2006), it has long been acknowledged that a comprehensive
audit,
based on a transactional stress conceptualization (Lazarus,
1991),
should reflect the sequence of events and stress processes that
occur

across individuals in transacting with their environment
(McGrath,
1976). In this way, it is believed that an organizational-level
stress audit
should identify key organizational stressors, appraisal and
coping
strategies, stressor outcomes, at risk groups, and attitudes
towards
available options for stress management (Dewe, O'Driscoll, &
Cooper,
2010).
Qualitative research has previously explored a plethora of
organi-
zational stressors that are encountered by sport performers.
From a
research synthesis of 34 studies, Arnold and Fletcher (2012)
identified
640 distinct stressors that were labelled hierarchically in to the
fol-
lowing categories: leadership and personnel, cultural and team,
logis-
tical and environmental, and performance and personal issues. A
host of
these stressors have been linked to the identification of threat
and harm
appraisals (e.g., Didymus & Fletcher, 2012), negative emotional
re-
sponses (e.g., Fletcher, Hanton, & Wagstaff, 2012), and the
enactment
of different coping behaviors (e.g., Didymus & Fletcher, 2014).
These
findings have also been complemented by quantitative research
that has
shown relationships between athletes' perceptions of
developmental,

team, and cultural stressors within sport organizations and
negative
affect (Arnold, Fletcher, & Daniels, 2017). Although the
findings from
both methods have enabled the identification of organizational
stress
processes in sport and some of their relationships, it is posited
that these
methods in isolation may limit our ability to confidently
develop tai-
lored stress management programs for individuals and groups
who
operate in culturally rich organizations (Nielsen et al., 2010). In
this
regard, the adoption of mixed methods may facilitate a
pragmatic stress
auditing approach for developing stress management programs
for
specific organizations (Bowling et al., 2012).
One of the key benefits of conducting a mixed method stress
audit is
to triangulate understanding of attitudes from individuals and
groups
whose organizational roles may differ (Mazzola, Schonfeld, &
Spector,
2011). This is vital for establishing common stressful incidents
for
specific individuals and target groups in an organization
(Bowling et al.,
2012). In addition, by incorporating methods such as focus
groups,
individuals may be empowered to collaboratively discuss their
needs
with other organizational members (Kohler & Munz, 2006).
This is ad-

vantageous in developing stress management interventions at an
in-
dividual- and organizational-level, as members will have both
in-
dividual and collective attitudes, preferences and motives.
Furthermore, participatory methods, which treat members as
active
agents of change and encourage the commitment of
management, are
necessary (but not sufficient) conditions for successful
organizational
interventions (Daniels, Gedikli, Watson, Semkina, & Vaughn,
2017).
This approach motivates groups to identify common issues and
design
solutions. Without the participation of various personnel, a
tailored
program for tackling organizational stress cannot be
appropriately de-
signed (Elo, Ervasti, Kuosma, & Mattila, 2008).
To combat the challenges of gaining as many perspectives and
re-
commendations from organizational members as possible,
researchers
have called for greater use of mixed methods (Elo et al., 2008;
Mazzola
et al., 2011; Nielsen et al., 2010) to facilitate triangulation and
com-
plementarity of findings (Greene, 2008; Moran, Matthews, &
Kirby,
2011). This is important for exploring the existence of common
organizational stress processes and intervention
recommendations that
may not be easily achieved from the sole adoption of

quantitative or
qualitative methods. Moreover, the incorporation of qualitative
with
quantitative methods allows for understanding of contextual
issues and
what matters to individuals in their own language (Daniels et
al., 2017;
Nielsen, Abildgaard, & Daniels, 2014). According to Bowling et
al.
(2012, p. 79), “research should give more attention to
developing
techniques used to diagnose the need for stress interventions”.
The
current research seeks to address some of the conceptual
challenges of
stress audit models previously used to inform the development
of or-
ganizational programs. By adopting a mixed method, the study
at-
tempts to understand sport performers' experiences of
organizational
stress in greater depth from the perspective of various members
(e.g.,
sport performers, coaches, staff). This approach aims to explore
the
contextual and cultural complexities that are not explicitly
evident in
current organizational stress audit models.
Taking these points together, the primary purpose of this study
was
to conduct a mixed method organizational stress audit of
competitive
performers who operate within a sport organization. A
secondary pur-
pose was to identify stress management recommendations for

perfor-
mers and teams operating in this organization. The exploration
of or-
ganizational stress processes and recommendations may
facilitate the
future tailoring of both individual- and organizational-level
initiatives.
This study makes a unique conceptual contribution to auditing
orga-
nizational stress, by offering a mixed method framework from
which
organizational interventions in sport can be advanced.
2. Method
2.1. Research design
A mixed method design was adopted for serving the following
philosophical aims. Firstly, the authors believe that it is
important to
integrate techniques that can more thoroughly investigate a
phenom-
enon of interest (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2011, p. 286). Gaining
multiple
sources of information from various individuals (e.g., sport
performers,
staff) is fundamental for exploring the convergence and
divergence (cf.
Greene, 2008) of organizational stress experiences for sport
performers.
Furthermore, the researchers sought to educate and modify an
organi-
zation's current practices regarding stress management. In doing
so, it
was necessary to represent the democratic values and
recommendations

of organizational members, to progress towards participatory
action in
the future. To achieve this purpose, the study was founded on a
prag-
matist perspective with a critical realist ontology (Teddlie &
Tashakkori, 2009) whilst employing methods that parallel
under-
standing of stress in organizations (Lazarus, 1991).
2.2. Participants and procedure
The organizational sample (N = 47) consisted of staff (head
coach,
assistant coach, sport science support, and administrative staff;
n = 7)
and a male professional rugby union academy playing squad (n
= 40).
The ages of staff and rugby players ranged from 22 to 56 years
(M = 36.71, SD = 11.35) and 15–19 years (M = 17.13, SD =
0.97)
respectively. The largely male sample (i.e., 98% male)
represented
multiple job roles of individuals who operated on a full-time
basis in
this professional rugby union academy. The participating
organization
was selected due to the successful profile of the organization,
the
consistently high level of competition that the players and team
oper-
ated at, and due to its close proximity to the senior professional
team's
training facilities. The purpose of this academy was to recruit,
develop
and support professional youth players' transition in to the
senior team.

Following institutional ethical approval, managers and head
coaches of
sport organizations in the United Kingdom were initially
contacted by
email and informed of the purposes and requirements of the
research
being conducted. Once consent was provided by the manager of
the
J.L. Rumbold et al. Psychology of Sport & Exercise 35 (2018)
27–38
28
sport organization and its members, a concurrent triangulation
mixed
methods design was followed, such that qualitative and
quantitative
stress audit data were collected concurrently (Creswell & Piano
Clark,
2011). Data collection began prior to the beginning of pre-
season
training. This represented a period whereby most of the playing
squad
had not returned from the previous end of season break. At this
time,
interviews and surveys were completed with staff (n = 7) and
key
players (n = 6) from the playing squad who had returned early
for pre-
season conditioning. Key players were identified by the head
coach and
assistant coach as individuals who demonstrate leadership and
have

considerable input in to the team's functioning and
development. The
benefit of this approach was that exclusive participation was
gained
from key subgroups and decision makers who operate in distinct
roles,
and, hold an influence in planning an organizational-level
intervention
(Bachiochi & Weiner, 2004).
Once the remaining players had returned for pre-season
training, it
was identified that the squad was characterized as three sub-
groups
(e.g., under-17, under-18, and under-19 age groups). Sub-groups
are
important for delimiting future intervention programs to those
most at
risk of organizational strain (Bradley & Sutherland, 1994). The
ex-
istence of organizational stressors and outcomes may also be
apparent
for specific players who share similar needs (Briner &
Reynolds, 1999).
Thus, to promote discussion on the common issues that sub-
groups
experience (Krueger & Casey, 2009), three focus groups with
survey
data collection were steered with the remaining participants (n =
34).
The focus group approach contrasts that to previous research on
orga-
nizational stress in sport, which has often utilized face-to-face
inter-
views or diary methods (e.g., Didymus & Fletcher, 2012;
Fletcher,

Hanton, Mellalieu et al., 2012). The benefit of conducting focus
groups
in organizational settings is that team members who are familiar
with
one another are able to openly share ideas and discuss sensitive
issues
like stress in a comfortable and relaxed setting (Liamputtong,
2011).
In comparison to one-to-one interviews or diary methods, focus
groups enable cultural insights in to the sources of individual
and group
behaviors (Morgan, 1996). This is highly relevant when
exploring the
social and contextual complexities of organizational stress
(Daniels,
Harris, & Briner, 2004). In organizational contexts, focus
groups have
proven beneficial in understanding and identifying
recommendations to
tackle barriers to well-being and productivity. Moreover, focus
groups
can help to determine which recommendations are easiest to
adopt and
easiest for organizations to enforce (Krueger & Casey, 2009, p.
12). In-
terviews, focus groups and survey data collection were
conducted face-
to-face by the first author. Before the completion of each
interview and
survey, participants were given written and verbal information
as to the
purposes and outcomes of the study. Following assurances of
voluntary
participation, anonymity, and the freedom to withdraw at any
stage,

participants had the opportunity to ask questions before
completing an
informed consent form.
Interview guide. A semi-structured interview guide was initially
used to facilitate each session. Each interview and focus group
took
place in a private meeting room at the training ground of the
organi-
zation. The interview guide was generated from a range of
sources. In
line with previous stress audits that have been conducted in
organiza-
tional psychology (e.g., Biron et al., 2006; Rick et al., 2001),
the main
components of the stress audit included: an exploration of
organiza-
tional stressors, appraisals and coping behaviors, stress
outcomes, and
stress management recommendations. In addition, question
content
was devised based on relevant research conducted in sport
(Arnold & Fletcher, 2012; Fletcher et al., 2006) and
organizational
psychology (Dewe et al., 2010). Prior to beginning interviews,
partici-
pants were verbally informed that they will be asked about
players'
experiences of the academy environment and how they
perceived var-
ious issues that occurred. This included providing examples of
organi-
zational stressors (e.g., the training environment, player and
staff re-
lationships) using Arnold and Fletcher (2012) taxonomic
classification.

The interview guide began with introductory questions (e.g.,
Could you
tell me about something that has happened within the academy
re-
cently which has gone well?). These questions intended to build
rapport
and provide time for the participants to consider the area in
question
(Silverman, 2014). The main questions explored players'
exposure to
organizational stressors in their environment and suggestions
for im-
proving organizational functioning and performance. Where
relevant,
probes were offered to consider how the players attempted to
appraise
or cope with any issues that arose (e.g., What did you tend to
think
about when these issues occurred?/How did you deal with that
at the
time?), and any potential outcomes that occurred (e.g., How did
you
feel about these demands at the time?/What effect did that
have?). The
same probes were reworded for coaches and staff, to allow for
their
perspective on players' experiences of organizational stress.
Finally, all
participants were encouraged to summarize their views and
elaborate
on any relevant issues. The first author then clarified the
participants'
intervention recommendations for specific target groups and
requested
feedback on the interview process.

Prior to the interviews being conducted, the guide was piloted
with
an amateur athlete who operated in a separate organization.
Subsequently, several questions were reworded to enhance their
clarity
(Silverman, 2014). Additional questions were also integrated
after
several themes emerged from attending a meeting at the sport
organi-
zation (cf. Liamputtong, 2011). These themes related to
communica-
tion, social support, decision making and time management. The
in-
terviews and focus groups ranged from 52 to 96 min (M =
69.30,
SD = 11.86) and 63–79 min in duration (M = 71.90 min, SD =
8.16)
respectively.
Stress management survey. At the end of each interview,
players
and staff were asked to complete a short stress management
survey
(Bradley & Sutherland, 1994) which had been adapted for the
sport
organization. This served the purpose of triangulating
individuals' in-
terview responses and evaluating their readiness for developing
stress
management programs (Nielsen, 2013). The survey presented a
list of
14 possible intervention programs, which included the
following:
building confidence; improved social support; managing
emotions po-

sitively; problem solving; relaxation training; team building;
and team
performance appraisal systems. To outline what was meant by
each
survey term, examples of psychological intervention techniques
asso-
ciated with each option were offered to the participants. Players
and
staff were then asked to select one of three responses
(yes/no/don't
know) to each of the following four statements: (1) I feel I
would per-
sonally benefit from; (2) I would personally participate in; (3) I
feel that
the academy would benefit from; and (4) I would recommend
the
academy to participate in. The survey list was generated from a
pre-
interview staff meeting and the stress management literature in
sport
(for a review, see Rumbold et al., 2012). Participants were also
en-
couraged to suggest additional programs that may have emerged
from
the interviews and focus groups.
2.3. Data analysis
Content analysis was deemed the most appropriate for
interpreting
the data for several reasons. Firstly, it allows the exploration of
inter-
view transcripts and survey responses for recurrent instances in
relation
to the research questions (Silverman, 2014). Secondly, it is
suitable for

exploring common organizational processes from both interview
and
focus group data (e.g., Bachiochi & Weiner, 2004). Thirdly, due
to the
multi-method nature of data collection, a method of analysis
was re-
quired to yield a ‘typology’ (Creswell & Piano Clark, 2011) that
could
triangulate and supplement the interpretation of findings from
the in-
terview and survey data (Greene, 2008; Teddlie & Tashakkori,
2009).
During the initial stages, the first author immersed himself in
the data
by adopting a reflective approach. This involved re-reading
post-in-
terview notes that had been taken at the time of interviewing,
listening
to each of the interview recordings to gain clarification of
participant
tones and meanings, and reading and re-reading the written
transcripts
27–38
29
whilst noting initial ideas. Following this, segments of quotes
that re-
presented similar meanings were inductively coded as raw-data
themes.
Raw-data codes which represented common themes were
grouped into

lower-order themes. These lower-order themes were then
clustered into
higher-order themes. In light of established organizational
stress fra-
meworks (e.g., Arnold & Fletcher, 2012; Dewe et al., 2010;
Fletcher,
Hanton, Mellalieu et al., 2012), the majority of higher-order
themes
were deductively clustered into general dimensions.
2.4. Research quality and rigor
Integrative mixed method research requires a strong audit trail
and
reflexive stance to be presented (Bergman, 2011). In line with
Teddlie
and Tashakkori (2009) criteria for evaluating inference quality,
a
variety of steps were taken to maximize the design quality and
inter-
pretive rigor. Design quality refers to the extent to which
appropriate
procedures have been conducted to answer the research
question(s). In
this way, the study design was deemed suitable for answering
the
purpose(s) of the research. Since the function of the research
was to
develop a tailored organizational intervention, it was critical to
trian-
gulate participants' stress management recommendations with
players'
experiences of organizational stress. The authors were
cognizant of
implementing design components with the fidelity to capture
partici-

pants' perceptions of organizational stress processes and
attitudes to-
wards stress management. In this way, the first author was
diligent in
devoting significant time and thoroughness in conducting the
inter-
views, focus groups and completion of surveys. A self-reflexive
diary
was completed throughout the data collection and the first
author en-
gaged critical friends in discussions during the data collection
of in-
terviews, focus groups and surveys. These critical friends
provided a
sounding board to encourage reflexivity and challenge the
construction
of knowledge and interpretations made. By gathering multiple
types of
qualitative and quantitative data, we engaged dialogically with
para-
digm differences (Greene, 2008) to generate a more contextual
under-
standing of organizational issues.
Interpretive rigor refers to how interpretations have been made
in
relation to the results obtained (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009).
We at-
tempted to adhere to interpretive consistency by closely relating
a large
dataset of organizational stress processes in sport performers
with
participant recommendations for future stress management
interven-
tions. These stress processes and recommendations were
interpreted on

the basis of a large organizational sample (N = 47), and, were
con-
sistent with relevant theories and frameworks in this area (Dewe
et al.,
2010; Fletcher et al., 2006; Lazarus, 1991). Regarding the
latter, the
conceptual contribution to organizational stress audit research
should
also be considered, along with the extent to which the research
is
heuristically and practically significant for empowering
organizational
members to engage in action or change. We present a multi-
vocality of
quotations from different participants, to enable readers to
consider
whether they reach similar conclusions. Interpretive conclusions
are
also evident where staff perceptions complement players'
experiences of
organizational stress. Interpretive distinctiveness was achieved
by de-
briefing participants through presentation and discussion of the
find-
ings to assess participants' agreements with the inferences
made. In-
tegrative efficacy was achieved by comparing the inferences
made
regarding players' experiences of organizational stress with the
con-
clusions made in relation to player and staff intervention re-
commendations. Finally, in considering the interpretive
correspon-
dence of the research, we feel that the inferences made align to
the
purposes of conducting a stress audit of sport performers

operating in a
sport organization and exploring intervention recommendations.
3. Results and discussion
A total of 645 raw data themes emerged from the qualitative
tran-
scripts, which were inductively abstracted into 186 lower-order
themes
and 76 higher-order themes. These higher-order themes then
formed 14
general dimensions which were deductively categorized in to
the fol-
lowing components of the organizational-level stress audit:
organiza-
tional stressors, cognitive appraisals and coping behaviors,
organiza-
tional stressor outcomes, and stress management
recommendations.
Tables 1–3 illustrate the higher-order themes and general
dimensions of
each stress audit component. Example lower-order themes are
also
provided for each higher-order theme. In addition, Table 4
displays
participants' survey responses in relation to offering
recommendations
for stress management programs. In view of the quantity and
wide
ranging themes to emerge from the stress audit, space precludes
an
exploration of all themes and their complexity. Therefore, a
selection of
quotes are provided and discussed in relation to relevant
literature.

3.1. Organizational stressors
Consistent with a synthesis of organizational stressors in sport
per-
formers (Arnold & Fletcher, 2012), the four general dimensions
of or-
ganizational stressors were: leadership and personnel issues,
cultural
and academy issues, logistical and environmental issues, and
perfor-
mance and personal issues.
Leadership and personnel issues. Leadership and personnel is-
sues, which were the most frequently cited organizational
stressors for
players, consisted of the stressors that were related to the
direction and
support of the organization. The higher-order themes within this
di-
mension were: external expectations, feedback, referees,
retention, support
staff, coach behaviors, and the coaches' personality and
attitudes. Within
external expectations, “coaches' expectations” for players to
conform to
the organization's core values (e.g., work hard, learn quickly)
was
regularly cited as a key stressor for first year players: “I think
the big
thing I noticed [when starting at the academy] was you had to
learn
quickly, the culture of the club as well. I think the coaches are
big on
setting that culture, just coming in, working hard, no excuses
about a

thing” (Player 6). “I think the expectation to develop quickly
makes
them [players] stressed sometimes and they need to be able to
just
enjoy it a bit more … instead of it just being drudgery, hard
work, hard
work you know (Staff 6)".
Within feedback, a common issue that contributed to a range of
stressor outcomes was “receiving negative feedback” from
others. The
following quote (Player 3) illustrates how negative feedback
can be
harmful for decision making and team morale, and, how game
reviews
may help to manage feedback:
At half time, the coaches scream and shout but it doesn't help if
they
pick out [blame] individuals because the individuals are just
going
to think about that [making mistakes] the next time they go out.
Every decision the players make … Like, [a coach] was just
saying
“All forwards played really well. Backs were ****” … Like,
yeah,
have a scream and shout, kick a few bottles around but then talk
about the game properly … I think people after that game were
pretty dejected for a couple of weeks.
Cultural and academy issues. Cultural and academy issues com-
prised the stressors that were associated with the atmosphere
and be-
havioral norms in the organization. The higher-order themes
within this
dimension were: academy atmosphere, communication, cultural

norms,
players’ personality and attitudes, and roles. Within academy
atmosphere,
one commonly cited raw data theme related to player year group
“cliques in the squad”. The emergence of this theme supports
previous
research which has identified cliques as a common
organizational
stressor encountered by sport performers (Fletcher, Hanton,
Mellalieu
et al., 2012). However, the specific structure of the current
organization
also gave rise to “academy hierarchies”, which are less reported
in the
extant literature. Hierarchies were visible throughout the
institution, as
there were structured divisions between an academy and senior
team
organization. Within the academy, the playing squad was
divided in to
three sub-groups based on birth year. As the following quote
illustrates
27–38
30
Table 1
Organizational stressors encountered by professional academy
players.
Lower-order themes (examples only) Higher-order themes
General Dimension

Coaches’ expectations External expectations
Leadership and Personnel
Issues
Receiving negative feedback Feedback
Poor referee decisions Referees
Job uncertainty Retention
Ambiguous injury diagnoses Support staff
Conflicting coaching styles Coach behaviors
Unapproachable coaches The coaches’ personality
and attitudes
Academy hierarchies Academy atmosphere
Cultural and
Academy Issues
Poor communication between players Communication
Culture of Intimidation Cultural norms
Hostile teammates Players’ personality and
Attitudes
Role ambiguity Roles

Lack of individual development
sessions
Training environment
Logistical and
Environmental issues
Fluctuating game preparation Competition environment
Inadequate changing rooms Facilities and equipment
Fierce competition for selection Selection
Long away game journeys Travel
Moving to the academy to train Academy transitions
Performance and
Personal Issues
Balancing academy and education Work-life interface
Lack of food preparation Diet and recovery
Isolation from being injured Player injury
Lack of finances Finances
27–38
31

Table 2
Cognitive appraisals and coping behaviors of professional
academy players.
General Dimension
Player threat appraisals of making the
transition to professional rugby
Threat appraisals
Cognitive appraisals
Benefit appraisals of the academy
training program
Benefit appraisals
Challenge appraisals of player injury Challenge appraisals
Harm appraisals of negative feedback Harm appraisals
Working harder due to feedback Increased effort
Problem-focused
coping
Instructional support from teammates Informational support
Practicing ‘what if scenarios’ Planning

Talking to teammates to solve issues Talking to teammates
Working on changing technique Changing behavior
noitartnecnocdesaercnIgnisucoF
Encouragement from teammates Receiving encouragement
Emotion-focused
coping
Talking to teammates for support Seeking social support
noitazilausiVyregamI
Creating tasks to prevent boredom Creating tasks
Listening to music Relaxation
klat-fleSklat-fleS
Accepting selection decisions Acceptance
Rationalizing negative feedback Self-rationalization
Reappraisal-focused
coping Re-evaluating injury with
physiotherapists
Rationalizing with others
Avoiding conflict Behavioral avoidance
Avoidance coping

Trying to forget mistakes Blocking
Player denial over injury Denial
Drinking alcohol prior to being
released by the academy
Substance abuse
27–38
32
from a group of second year players, hierarchies and cliques in
the
squad were closely associated with a “culture of intimidation”;
seen by
many as a reason for poor communication between players:
They [first year players] need to be brought down a peg (Player
25)
… Yea, they think they're all big timers (Player 24) … They
don't
ever speak to anyone else (Player 26). I think that's the same
with
the third year [players] (Player 25) … I think they'll [first year
players] calm down when we [second year players] start the
‘contact
game’ [physical intimidation] with them (Player 23) [group
laughter].
Logistical and environmental issues. Logistical and environ-

mental issues encapsulated the stressors that were associated
with the
organization's management of training and competition. The
higher
order themes within this dimension were: training environment,
compe-
tition environment, facilities and equipment, selection, and
travel. The most
cited themes were identified within training environment, which
in-
cluded a “lack of individual development sessions” and “high
training
intensity”. Whilst training environment is a regularly
encountered
stressor for professional sport performers (Kristiansen, Murphy,
&
Roberts, 2012; Nicholls, Backhouse, Polman, & McKenna,
2009), one
explanation in this specific organizational context is that there
is a daily
coach expectation for players to demonstrate their skill
improvement in
training, to improve their chances of being selected to the senior
pro-
fessional team. Within facilities and equipment, a number of
players cited
“inadequate changing rooms” as a potential reason for poor
commu-
nication between players during training and competition. The
fol-
lowing quote (Player 2) demonstrates how “inadequate changing
rooms” may negatively impact on communication between
players:
I think something that is quite bad is our changing rooms.
You've got

a first year changing room, a second year changing room, a
third
year changing room and there's no one [squad] together … it's
very
much three separate changing rooms … It comes to a game
situation
where a first year needs to tell a third year something or vice
versa
and they're hesitant to say it.
Performance and personal issues. Performance and personal
issues
consisted of the stressors relating to a player's professional
career and
personal development. The higher-order themes within this
dimension
were: academy transitions, work-life interface, diet and
recovery, player injury,
and finances. Within academy transitions, “moving to the
academy to train”,
“transition to a higher standard of rugby”, and “transition to a
higher
training intensity” were seen to be key issues that were believed
to ad-
vance or compromise a player's career development. These
themes are
consistent with research highlighting the non-elite to elite
transition as a
key stressor for sport performers (Arnold & Fletcher, 2012). In
the current
study, academy transitions provided a richer account for why
“cliques in the
squad”, “high training intensity” and “fierce competition for
selection”
may be common issues. Player 1 describes the difficulties a

player can face
when moving to the academy to train:
It was a shock to the system to be honest … I mean there were
times,
like I was waking up in the morning thinking, "do I really want
to be
here?" Quite a lot. I mean I'm not playing rugby [not being
selected],
you've just moved away from home, moved to a new place so
sometimes my motivation levels were really, really low. Some
games
[game days], like Saturday mornings in November when its
abso-
lutely pissing it down [heavy rain] and you've got to get two
buses in
to town, two more buses to the academy at six o'clock in the
morning, and you're not playing [not being selected]. It does get
you
down when you've moved away from home to be here.
Table 3
Organizational stressor outcomes experienced by professional
academy players.
General Dimension
snoitomeevitageNregnA
Emotional outcomes
snoitomeevitisoPtnemeticxE
Reduced confidence Confidence
Intrapersonal

outcomes
noitavitom-eDdetavitom-eD
Reduced concentration Concentration
Players being unable to make
appropriate decisions
Decision making
peelSpeelsfokcaL
Reduced team communication Communication
Performance-related
outcomes
Making mistakes Individual performance
Reduced team performance Team performance
Players being released Retention
27–38
33
3.2. Cognitive appraisals and coping behaviors

The general dimensions for cognitive appraisals and coping
beha-
viors were: cognitive appraisals, problem-focused coping,
emotion-fo-
cused coping, reappraisal-focused coping, and avoidance
coping.
Cognitive appraisals. Cognitive appraisals consisted of the
primary
appraisals of organizational stressors that players encountered.
These
primary appraisals reflected players' evaluations of the personal
sig-
nificance of stressors in relation to the attainment of personal
goals or
well-being (Lazarus, 1991). The higher-order themes in this
dimension
were: threat appraisals, benefit appraisals, challenge appraisals,
and harm
appraisals. It was apparent that players typically developed
threat ap-
praisals of various organizational stressors. Although sport
performers
may appraise events as challenging (Didymus & Fletcher,
2012), our
results support the finding that organizational stressors are
typically
appraised by sport performers as preventing the attainment of
goals or
positive well-being (Didymus & Fletcher, 2014). Specifically, it
was
perceived that players felt threatened by “making the transition
to
professional rugby”, “negative feedback”, “asking for advice”,
“job
uncertainty”, “academy hierarchies”, “unfriendly teammates”,

and
“competition for playing positions”. The following quotes from
players
and staff illustrate players' typical threat appraisals of players
due to
competition for positions: “Who are these other lads?” … you're
thinking, “Oh he's going to take my position”, you're talking
about it for
weeks (Player 37) … If anyone comes in at your position you're
going to
think **** [feel threatened] (Player 32). There is definitely a
positional
threat for the players. “If he's going to be my threat [for
selection] then
I'm going to make sure I knock him down and keep him down as
long as
possible” (Staff 6).
Problem-focused coping. Problem-focused coping consisted of
the
behaviors that were elicited to resolve stressors. It was evident
that
some players used a range of behaviors and drew on resources,
such as
social support, to achieve coping functions, such as problem
solving.
This supports research which has conceptualized coping
behaviors and
functions as interrelated (Daniels, Beesley, Wimalasiri, &
Cheyne, 2013;
for a review, see; Skinner, Edge, Altman, & Sherwood, 2003).
The
higher-order themes within problem-focused coping were:
increased
effort, informational support, planning, talking to teammates,
changing

behavior, and increased concentration. One player (Player 3)
explained
how planning through “practicing what if scenarios” in training
was
effective in dealing with opponents in games:
We [the playing team] knew we had a good line out [during the
game] because we had some good [training] sessions drilling the
line out in a [practice] game environment … I think those
sessions
were good because when we played [club], they needed a drop
goal
to win and they had about 8 scrums. It was just the mentality [of
working hard]. I think me and [teammate] hit 55 scrums one
after
the other, in one [training] session … stuff like that is good and
players will know what they can do [under pressure].
Emotion-focused coping. Emotion-focused coping captured the
most frequently cited behaviors that were used by players to
manage or
express their emotions. The higher-order themes were: receiving
en-
couragement, seeking social support, visualization, creating
tasks, relaxa-
tion, self-talk, and acceptance. The most common themes
related to re-
ceiving encouragement, which consisted of “encouragement
from
teammates”, “encouragement from staff”, and “encouragement
from
house parents”. Receiving emotional support from teammates
and
coaches is a common resource used to cope in organizations
(Kristiansen et al., 2012). This is because social support offsets
the

negative effect of stressors on well-being (Cohen, Sherrod, &
Clark,
1986). From the focus groups, it emerged that more experienced
players offered encouragement to help players manage their
emotions:
I think I got [received] that [encouragement] actually, when I
was a
first year (Player 37). Yeah, in our first year [at the
organization]
there were a lot of third years [players] for us to [receive] get
help
from. Like, if you looked nervous they would sit down and say
“don't
worry, you'll be fine, you're here for a reason, they [the
coaches]
wouldn't have chosen you otherwise” (Player 34).
Reappraisal-focused coping. Reappraisal-focused coping con-
sisted of the behaviors that were used by players to reappraise
the re-
levance and importance of organizational stressors. The higher-
order
themes were self-rationalization and rationalizing with others.
Rationalizing with others appeared to reflect a coping resource
that was
rarely adopted by players. Moreover, the professional academy
players
in this study appeared to lack the confidence to seek support
from staff
and teammates to help rationalize particular stressors. In light
of these
findings, sport performers in this organization may benefit from
the
development of greater support seeking behaviors to promote

colla-
boratively reappraising organizational demands. The following
quote
illustrates the influence of rationalizing with physiotherapists to
help a
player (Player 1) re-appraise the significance of an injury:
I had a small stress fracture in my left foot … for the first week
I
didn't really manage it very well … Then you kind of get your
head
around it and think that this could work in a positive way and
that's
due to [the support of] the coaches and physiotherapy team.
They
kind of put it into your mind all the positives you're going to
get out
of being injured at this time.
Avoidance coping. Avoidance coping consisted of the behaviors
that were used to actively avoid solving problems or managing
emo-
tions. The higher-order themes were: behavioral avoidance,
blocking,
denial, and substance abuse. Although the function of avoidance
coping
is believed to be maladaptive for long-term well-being, it could
be
adaptive in the short-term (Kristiansen et al., 2012); however,
this may
depend on the behaviors enacted to fulfill this coping function
(Skinner
et al., 2003). Although a limited number of themes were cited,
academy
staff reported a range of avoidance behaviors commonly
displayed by

players, such as “lying to avoid conflict”, “denial over incurring
an
injury” and “drinking alcohol to disengage from having their
profes-
sional contract terminated”.
3.3. Organizational stressor outcomes
Organizational stressor outcomes refer to the symptoms of
exposure
to demands. The four general dimensions were: emotional
responses,
intrapersonal outcomes, and performance -related outcomes.
Emotional responses. Emotional responses consisted of a wide
range of negative emotions and positive emotions. The most
highly cited
lower-order themes were “anxiety”, “anger”, and “fatigue”. This
finding
is consistent with previous research that has explored emotional
re-
sponses to organizational-related demands in elite (Arnold &
Fletcher,
2015; Arnold et al., 2017; Fletcher, Hanton, & Wagstaff, 2012)
and
professional sport performers (Nicholls et al., 2009). This can
be ex-
plained in so far that anxiety and anger represent a basic set of
states by
which threat and harm appraisals are commonly associated
(Lazarus,
1999). From the interviews, it was evident that the academy had
bred a
culture of fear amongst the players, with anxiety being a typical
re-
sponse to “receiving negative feedback from others” and the

formation
of “academy hierarchies”. In addition, players typically
experienced
intense anxiety from selection stressors such as “call ups [to the
senior
squad] at short notice”: “All of a sudden you need to be on the
bench for
the first [senior] team and then you've got 5 or 6 days to learn
all of the
calls [tactics] and you think ******* hell” (Player 6).
Intrapersonal outcomes. Intrapersonal outcomes consisted of the
organizational stressor outcomes that were associated with a
player's
cognitive functioning. The higher-order themes were:
confidence, de-
motivation, concentration, decision making, and sleep. Both
players and
staff suggested that “reduced confidence” is experienced
primarily by
first year players, who are attempting to adapt to academy
transitions
27–38
34
(e.g., “moving to the academy to train”) and cultural norms
(e.g., “ne-
gative motivational climate”). In some cases, it was
acknowledged that
intrapersonal outcomes were often a result of negative
emotional re-

sponses to specific stressors. The following quote by a coach
(Staff 6)
illustrates the collective consequences of a negative
motivational cli-
mate, which can lead to heightened levels of anxiety and
reduced
confidence for players:
We've got two small guys and the motivation [from a coach] is
constantly, “You're too small for this game, I don't know why
you're
here, you might as well go home now” … the lads [players] just
cower like this [shy away] and don't say anything back … So
that's
why when it comes to situations which need somebody to be
con-
fident and speak up they won't do it because they fear they'll
just get
ridiculed. When things have been shouted at them on the
touchline
you can see it [in their body language], just like, “oh ****”,
heads
down, it really affects them, they won't turn around and say,
“Okay,
I made a **** up [a mistake] but I'll put it right”, in response to
“You're ******* coming off if you do that again! [shouting]”.
Performance-related outcomes. The higher-order themes within
this general dimension were: communication, individual
performance,
team performance, and retention. Within individual
performance, “reduced
skill development” was considered a consequence from training-
related
stressors, such as a “lack of individualized sessions” and
“longer

training sessions”. In addition, players spoke of making
technical and
tactical errors in training due to a fear of receiving further
negative
feedback from coaches. Players and staff also felt that the
organization
could consider reducing the longer duration of some training
sessions,
which are often counterproductive to concentration and skill
develop-
ment: “I saw it several times last year … I've done 45 min
[coaching],
it's been quality intense stuff but [coach] does another 45 min
on line
outs and scrums. The lads are just exhausted and it's
counterproductive
[for skill development]" (Staff 3). “Rather than doing an hour
and a half
session, do two 45 min sessions where it's just detail … Really
intense …
And then you're not [fatigued], because towards the end of
sessions,
you get really tired and then your concentration goes” (Player
2).
3.4. Stress management recommendations
In line with organizational stress management frameworks
(Dewe
et al., 2010; Richardson & Rothstein, 2008), participants
provided a
series of organizational-level and individual-level
recommendations to
maximize sport performers' well-being and performance
development.
Fig. 1 illustrates the target groups by which stress management

in-
itiatives were recommended throughout the organization.
Higher-order
themes are presented for each target group, along with example
lower-
order themes. To corroborate these interview responses, stress
man-
agement survey recommendations were also completed at the
end of
each interview (see Table 4). These survey responses reflected
the
average proportion of players and staff that believed them and
the or-
ganization would benefit from and participate in particular
stress
management programs to facilitate players' ability to manage
organi-
zational stress in the future.
Organizational-level recommendations. Organizational-level in-
terventions are typically developed to remove or modify
specific or-
ganizational characteristics that individuals and groups
encounter, such
as stressors (Dewe et al., 2010).The fourteen higher-order
themes
within organizational-level recommendations were:
communication
channels; facilities management; work appraisals; talent
development; game
reviews; game preparation; reflective practice; team cohesion;
time man-
agement; training structure; team goal setting; team problem
solving; and,
professionalism. Within these themes, the most frequently

suggested
recommendations were to: organize more team socials for all
academy
players and staff to attend, integrate more regular team analysis
of
games, involving all academy players and coaching staff;
incorporate
varied training sessions involving the commitment of all
academy
players and staff; and, encourage communication between the
players
and all academy and senior team staff. These initiatives were
con-
sidered important due to the aforesaid stressors relating to poor
com-
munication between players and members of the organization,
high
training intensities, fatigue, the existence of academy
hierarchies, and,
cliques in the playing squad. The need to address these stressors
was
supported by a series of survey recommendations (see Table 4).
In
particular, team building was suggested by many of the academy
players (n = 39, 98%) and supported by some staff (n = 3, 42%).
Moreover, building confidence was cited by players (n = 32,
81%) and
staff (n = 4, 61%) as a program that they believed academy
players
would all benefit from and participate in as an academy.
Problem sol-
ving at a group and individual-level was also suggested by
players
(n = 30, 76%), with 4 out of 7 staff believing that players would
benefit
from this program.

Individual-level recommendations. Individual-level
interventions
are typically developed to enable individuals to better appraise,
re-
spond and cope with organizational stressors (Dewe et al.,
2010). The
seven higher-order themes within this dimension were: senior
first team
exposure; mentoring; coping; goal setting; trust; coach
feedback; and, par-
ental education. Within these higher-order themes, the most
commonly
cited lower-order recommendations were to: modify negative
appraisals
for first and second year players, encourage problem solving
and de-
cision making to first year players, raise coach awareness of
providing
Table 4
Survey recommendations for organizational stress management.
I feel I would personally
benefit from …
I would personally
participate in …
I feel that the academy would
benefit from …
I would recommend the academy
to use …
Team building 38P, 2S 40P, 4S 40P, 3S 39P, 4S

Building confidence 28P, 3S 34P, 4S 34P, 5S 34P, 5S
Coping with pressures 26P, 1S 32P, 4S 35P, 5S 31P, 5S
Problem solving 28P, 4S 28P, 5S 33P, 4S 32P, 4S
Relaxation training 29P, 3S 32P, 4S 32P, 4S 26P, 4S
Team performance appraisals 29P, 1S 28P, 5S 33P, 4S 28P, 4S
Time management 26P, 1S 29P, 4S 32P, 4S 28P, 4S
Assertiveness training 25P, 3S 28P, 4S 33P, 3S 28P, 3S
Managing emotions positively 24P, 4S 29P, 5S 30P, 4S 24P, 3S
Psychology rehabilitation for injured
players
25P, 2S 29P, 3S 30P, 4S 26P, 4S
Challenging stressful thinking 24P, 3S 28P, 5S 31P, 3S 25P, 3S
Self-regulating teams 25P, 1S 28P, 3S 28P, 2S 25P, 2S
Improved social support 21P, 1S 23P, 4S 30P, 2S 25P, 3S
Resolving conflict 18P, 3S 24P, 4S 26P, 3S 23P, 3S
Note. N = 47, P = the number of recommendations from
academy players (n = 40); S = the number of recommendations
from academy staff (n = 7).
27–38
35
varying methods of feedback to players, and optimize
confidence for
first year players. The education of coping efficacy for less
experienced
players was deemed particularly important. This was explained
in so far
that first year players, who are making an amateur to

professional sport
transition, often perceive their environment to be intimidating.
More-
over, it was suggested that players struggle to cope with high
training
intensities and receiving negative feedback. The survey data
also in-
dicated that players (78%) and staff (100%) believed that
players would
benefit from coping education.
One noticeable incongruence between the interview and survey
recommendations obtained was players' need for improved
social sup-
port. From the survey data, 24 out of 40 players (60%) and 2 out
of 7
staff (29%) felt that players would benefit from improved social
support. However, the interview and focus group data suggested
that
some players already seek and receive different forms of
support from
teammates and staff. A recommendation from staff suggested
improving
social support could be achieved by raising coach awareness of
feed-
back methods and educating parents on methods of support.
Conversely, one member of staff (Staff 5) argued the following:
“This
academy is like no other academy in the country in the different
levels
of support provided to players”. From the interviews and survey
re-
sponses it was also apparent that staff were keen to support the
design
and delivery of stress management programs for their players,

but were
less interested in participating in any of these programs
alongside the
players. This is an important applied consideration for the
development
of organizational programs, since the effectiveness of such
initiatives
Fig. 1. Organizational- and individual-level stress management
recommendations.
27–38
36
may be largely dependent on the evidence of key decision
makers'
readiness for change, support for and engagement in the
programs
(Nielsen, 2013).
4. General discussion
The primary purpose of this study was to undertake a mixed
method
organizational stress audit of competitive performers who
operate in a
sport organization. A secondary purpose was to identify future
stress
management recommendations to maximize performers' well-
being and
performance development. Informed by a transactional stress
approach

(Dewe et al., 2010; Lazarus, 1991, 1999), the findings reveal a
number
of common organizational stressors encountered by sport
performers
who operate in this sport institution. These findings support the
iden-
tification of themes identified in sport performers across a range
of
competitive levels (Arnold & Fletcher, 2012; Kristiansen et al.,
2012;
Nicholls et al., 2009). In this organizational context, many
stressors
(e.g., training demands) were often a by-product of
encountering other
demands (e.g., academy transitions). Moreover, a culture of
intimida-
tion and a negative motivational climate were linked to
commonly
developed appraisals and coping behaviors. In line with stress
theory
(Lazarus, 1999), these player appraisals and coping behaviors
were
related to emotional, intrapersonal and performance outcomes.
A wide range of stress management recommendations were also
identified for specific groups in this organization, with the aim
of di-
rectly or indirectly helping sport performers to better manage
their
experiences of organizational stress in the future. An
overarching
message was that players, and to some degree staff, would take
part in
individual- and organizational-level stress management
programs. At an
individual-level, player coping efficacy is important, as the

behaviors
used to achieve coping functions may be adaptive for well-being
in
specific contexts, but maladaptive in others (Daniels et al.,
2013;
Skinner et al., 2003). This is sensible given the mission of the
current
organization, which is to retain academy players who
demonstrate an
ability to cope with professional sport and its demands. At an
organi-
zational-level, it was perceived that the institution should
integrate
initiatives to enhance team cohesion and communication
channels, vary
training stimulus, and to incorporate reviews of competitive
games.
Such organizational-level programs are believed to be the most
proac-
tive solution to managing stress (Dewe et al., 2010), as they aim
to
prevent player strain from occurring by modifying structures
and en-
vironmental conditions (cf. Briner & Reynolds, 1999). Although
support
for their efficacy has been equivocal (Richardson & Rothstein,
2008),
participatory stress audits are arguably a prerequisite for
effective in-
terventions, as the sport performers who may benefit from such
pro-
grams are also those recommending their creation (cf. Nielsen
et al.,
2010).
A strength of the current stress audit was the sample size (N =

47)
and sampling of varying organizational members. This was
important to
illustrate how players' stress experience may also be perceived
by staff
and jointly developed by common player attitudes, cultural
norms,
contagion, and managed by a range of coping resources. Despite
these
strengths, the sample sizes for some of the focus groups (i.e., n
= 15)
was considered a limitation, which could have compromised an
ap-
propriate level of participant contribution. Further, the data
yielded
from large focus group samples may not have enabled
individuals to
represent their views as clearly as individual interviews might.
Although we were mindful of adhering to focus group
guidelines for
organizational research (Bachiochi & Weiner, 2004), the
specific con-
text determined that we had to complete interviews at times that
were
most convenient to the organization. It is possible that the
development
of steering groups comprising a mixture of sport performers and
staff
could have been applied to identify clearly agreed motives for
tackling
sport performers' experiences of organizational stress. However,
given
the identification of potentially threatening cultural norms,
steering
groups may have been counterproductive. In the current study,

con-
ducting focus groups with player sub-groups was necessary for
deli-
miting future interventions to groups who may be most at risk
of strain
(Bradley & Sutherland, 1994). We acknowledge that the
analysis of
group experiences makes it problematic to assess the coping
effective-
ness of particular stressors for specific performers. We
therefore re-
commend mixed-method assessments to further inform
intervention
development and refinement.
The findings from this study suggest that organizational stress
management in sport is an area worthy of future research. While
at-
tempting to advance the conceptual framework and methods
used to
understand organizational stress, we concur that “research
should give
more attention to developing techniques used to diagnose the
need for
stress interventions” (Bowling et al., 2012, p. 79). As the
current study
indicates, not all stressors are maladaptive for sport performers'
well-
being and performance. Researchers considering a mixed
method ap-
proach to stress auditing could consider a longitudinal
examination,
using a combination of regular steering group meetings,
interviews,
diaries, observations, and surveys. A blend of these approaches
will

likely result in greater exposure to the organizational
environment and
may capture an accurate reality of day-to-day functioning.
Compre-
hensive audits such as the aforesaid may be more time
consuming for
organizations. Yet, the benefits of conducting a detailed,
participative,
and proactive approach to stress management are likely to
outweigh the
time taken and the relatively minimal cost that could be
incurred to
improve the well-being and performance of sport performers
(cf.
Briner & Reynolds, 1999).
There are a number of practical challenges when conducting
applied research in sport organizations. In conducting stress
audits
that are theoretically founded (e.g., Lazarus, 1991),
psychologists
should identify the stress processes and common issues that
need
solving for those individuals (e.g., players) and groups (e.g.,
sub-
group teams) who need the most support (Bowling et al., 2012;
Nielsen et al., 2010). This is vital for prioritizing whether
organi-
zational-, individual-level interventions, or an amalgamation of
the
two is necessary (Giga, Cooper, & Faragher, 2003).
Organizational-
level programs may be the priority for modifying organizational
stressors, such as cultural norms. Where stressors cannot be
removed
or reduced, individual-level programs such as modifying

cognitive
appraisals are also appropriate for facilitating well-being
(Richardson & Rothstein, 2008). In reality, studying sport
perfor-
mers' organizational experiences and recommendations for
inter-
vention development in context is not straightforward,
particularly
when there may be incongruence between performers and key
sta-
keholders as to the main issues that need prioritizing. In this
regard,
sport psychologists have a challenging but important role in en-
couraging stakeholders to provide support for the necessary
inter-
ventions to be designed and implemented. Without such
commit-
ment, it is likely that sport performers will perceive a lack of
interest
on the part of stakeholders in their well-being. This may subse-
quently lead to negative performer perceptions of the
organizational
climate in which they operate (cf. Dewe et al., 2010).
In conclusion, this stress audit makes a conceptual contribution
by
unearthing contextual (e.g., non-normative transitions) and
cultural
complexities (e.g., political hierarchies) that are not explicitly
evident
in the organizational psychology models used to inform
interventions.
Organizational interventions which aim to modify the stressors
en-
countered, or reduce their impact on performers' well-being, are
more

likely to be effective if a stress audit is rigorously adopted and
in-
tegrated in an organization's overall management strategy.
Although
some challenges exist for undertaking an audit, the prevention
and
management of stress should be a joint responsibility between
sport
performers and stakeholders (Dewe et al., 2010; Fletcher et al.,
2006);
one that may hold great promise for optimizing well-being,
perfor-
mance, and organizational productivity.
27–38
37
References
Arnold, R., & Fletcher, D. (2012). A research synthesis and
taxonomic classification of the
organizational stressors encountered by sport performers.
Journal of Sport & Exercise
Arnold, R., & Fletcher, D. (2015). Confirmatory factor analysis
of the sport emotion
questionnaire in organizational environments. Journal of Sports
Sciences, 33,
169–179. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2014955520.
Arnold, R., Fletcher, D., & Daniels, K. (2017). Organisational

stressors, coping, and out-
comes in competitive sport. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(7),
694–703. http://dx.doi.
org/10.1080/02640414.2016.1184299.
Bachiochi, P. D., & Weiner, S. P. (2004). Qualitative data
collection and analysis. In S. G.
Rogelberg (Ed.). Handbook of research methods in industrial
and organizational psy-
chology (pp. 161–183). Malden, MA: Blackwell publishing.
Bergman, M. M. (2011). The good, the bad and the ugly in
mixed methods research and
design. Journal of Mixed Methods, 5, 271–275.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/
1558689811433236.
Biron, C., Ivers, H., Brun, J.-P., & Cooper, C. L. (2006). Risk
assessment of occupational
stress: Extensions of the Clarke and Cooper approach. Health,
Risk & Society, 8,
417–429. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13698570601008222.
Bowling, N. A., Beehr, T. A., & Grebner, S. (2012). Combating
stress in organizations. In
G. P. Hodgkinson, & J. K. Ford (Eds.). International review of
industrial and organiza-
tional psychology (pp. 65–87). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons,
Ltd.
Bradley, J. R., & Sutherland, V. (1994). Stress management in
the workplace: Taking
employee's views into account. Employee Counselling Today, 6,
4–9.
Briner, R. B., & Reynolds, S. (1999). The costs, benefits, and

limitations of organizational
level stress interventions. Journal of Organizational Behavior,
20, 647–664.
Cohen, S., Sherrod, D. R., & Clark, M. S. (1986). Social skills
and the stress-protective role
of social support. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
50, 963–973.
Creswell, J. W., & Piano Clark, V. L. (2011). Designing and
conducting mixed methods re-
search. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Daniels, K., Beesley, N., Wimalasiri, V., & Cheyne, A. (2013).
Problem solving and well-
being: Exploring the instrumental role of job control and social
support. Journal of
Management, 39, 1016–1043.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206311430262.
Daniels, K., Gedikli, C., Watson, D., Semkina, A., & Vaughn,
O. (2017). Job design, em-
ployment practices and well-being: A systematic review of
intervention studies.
Ergonomics, 60, 1177–1196.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2017.1303085.
Daniels, K., Harris, C., & Briner, R. B. (2004). Linking work
conditions to unpleasant
affect: Cognition, categorisation and goals. Journal of
Occupational and Organizational
Dewe, P. J., O'Driscoll, M. P., & Cooper, C. L. (2010). Coping
with work stress: A review and

critique. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Didymus, F. F., & Fletcher, D. (2012). Getting to the heart of
the matter: A diary study of
swimmers' appraisals of organizational stressors. Journal of
Sports Sciences, 30,
1375–1385. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2012.709263.
Didymus, F. F., & Fletcher, D. (2014). Swimmers' experiences
of organizational stress:
Exploring the role of cognitive appraisal and coping strategies.
Journal of Clinical
Sport Psychology, 8, 159–183.
Duong, D., Tuckey, M. R., Hayward, R. M., & Boyd, C. M.
(2015). Work-family conflict:
The importance of differentiating between different facets of
job characteristics.
Work & Stress, 29, 230–245.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2015.1074629.
Elo, A. L., Ervasti, J., Kuosma, E., & Mattila, P. (2008).
Evaluation of an organizational
stress management program in a municipal public works
organization. Journal of
Occupational Health Psychology, 13, 10–23.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.13.
1.10.
Fletcher, D., & Arnold, R. (2017). Stress in sport: The role of
the organizational en-
vironment. In C. R. D. Wagstaff (Ed.). An organizational
psychology of sport: Key issues
and practical applications (pp. 83–100). London, UK:
Routledge.

Fletcher, D., Hanton, S., & Mellalieu, S. D. (2006). An
organizational stress review:
Conceptual and theoretical issues in competitive sport. In S.
Hanton, & S. D. Mellalieu
(Eds.). Literature reviews in sport psychology (pp. 321–373).
Hauppauge, NY: Nova.
Fletcher, D., Hanton, S., Mellalieu, S. D., & Neil, R. (2012a). A
conceptual framework of
organizational stressors in sport performers. Scandinavian
Journal of Medicine and
Science in Sports, 22, 545–557.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.
01242.x.
Fletcher, D., Hanton, S., & Wagstaff, C. R. D. (2012b).
Performers' responses to stressors
encountered in sport organizations. Journal of Sports Sciences,
30, 349–358. http://dx.
doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2011.633545.
Giga, S. I., Cooper, C. L., & Faragher, B. (2003). The
development of a framework for a
comprehensive approach to stress management interventions at
work. International
Journal of Stress Management, 10, 280–296.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1072-5245.
10.4.280.
Greene, J. C. (2008). Is mixed methods social inquiry a
distinctive methodology? Journal
of Mixed Methods Research, 2, 7–22.
Kohler, J. M., & Munz, D. C. (2006). Combining individual and

organizational stress in-
terventions: An organizational development approach.
Consulting Psychology Journal:
Practice and Research, 58, 1–12.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1065-9293.58.1.1.
Kristiansen, E., Murphy, D., & Roberts, G. (2012).
Organizational stress and coping in U.S.
professional soccer. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 24,
org/10.1080/10413200.2011.614319.
Krueger, R. A., & Casey, M. A. (2009). Focus groups: A
practical guide for applied research
(4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Psychological stress in the workplace. In
P. L. Perrewé (Vol. Ed.),
Handbook on job stress: Vol. 6, (pp. 1–13). [special issue].
Journal of Social Behavior
and Personality.
Lazarus, R. S. (1999). Stress and emotion: A new synthesis.
New York, NY: Springer.
Liamputtong, P. (2011). Focus group methodology: Principles
and practice. London: Sage.
Mazzola, J. J., Schonfeld, I. S., & Spector, P. E. (2011). What
qualitative research has
taught us about occupational stress. Stress and Health, 27, 93–
110.
McGrath, J. E. (1976). Stress and behavior in organizations. In
M. D. Dunnette (Ed.).
Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp.
1351–1395). Chicago: Rand

McNally.
Moran, A. P., Matthews, J. J., & Kirby, K. (2011). Whatever
happened to the third
paradigm? Exploring mixed methods research designs in sport
and exercise psy-
chology. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 3,
org/10.1080/2159676X.2011.607843.
Morgan, D. L. (1996). Focus groups. Annual Review of
Sociology, 22, 129–152.
Nicholls, A. R., Backhouse, S. H., Polman, R. C. J., &
McKenna, J. (2009). Stressors and
affective states among professional rugby union players.
Scandinavian Journal of
Medicine & Science in Sports, 19, 121–128.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0838.
2007.00757.x.
Nielsen, K. (2013). Review article: How can we make
organizational interventions work?
Employees and line managers as actively crafting interventions.
Human Relations, 66,
1029–1050. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726713477164.
Nielsen, K., Abildgaard, J.,S., & Daniels, K. (2014). Putting
context into organizational
intervention design: Using tailored questionnaires to measure
initiatives for worker
well-being. Human Relations, 67, 1537–1560.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/
0018726714525974.
Nielsen, K., Randall, R., Holten, A., & Rial González, E.

(2010). Conducting organiza-
tional-level occupational health interventions: What works?
Work & Stress, 24,
234–259. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2010.515393.
Richardson, K. M., & Rothstein, H. R. (2008). Effects of
occupational stress management
intervention programs: A meta-analysis. Journal of
Occupational Health Psychology,
13, 69–93. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.13.1.69.
Rick, J., Briner, R. B., Daniels, K., Perryman, S., & Guppy, A.
(2001). A critical review of
psychosocial hazards measures. Norwich: HSE Books.
Rumbold, J. L., Fletcher, D., & Daniels, K. (2012). A
systematic review of stress man-
agement interventions with sport performers. Sport, Exercise, &
Performance
Psychology, 1, 173–193. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0026628.
Silverman, D. (2014). Interpreting qualitative data. London:
Sage.
Skinner, E. A., Edge, K., Altman, J., & Sherwood, H. (2003).
Searching for the structure of
coping: A review and critique of category systems for
classifying ways of coping.
Psychological Bulletin, 129, 216–269.
Teddlie, C., & Tashakkori, A. (2009). Foundations of mixed
methods research: Integrating
quantitative and qualitative approaches in the social and
behavioral sciences. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.

Teddlie, C., & Tashakkori, A. (2011). Mixed methods research:
Contemporary issues in an
emerging field. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.). The
SAGE handbook of quali-
tative research (pp. 285–299). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Wagstaff, C. R. D., Fletcher, D., & Hanton, S. (2012).
Exploring emotion abilities and
regulation strategies in sport organizations. Sport, Exercise, and
Performance
27–38
38
http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1469-0292(17)30152-8/sref1
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2014955520
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2016.1184299

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01242.x

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2011.607843
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2011.607843
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0026628
http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1469-0292(17)30152-8/sref47Using
a mixed method audit to inform organizational stress
management interventions in sportIntroductionMethodResearch

designParticipants and procedureData analysisResearch quality
and rigorResults and discussionOrganizational
stressorsCognitive appraisals and coping
behaviorsOrganizational stressor outcomesStress management
recommendationsGeneral discussionReferences
Editorial
Reward Management
Linking Employee Motivation and Organizational
Performance
Conny H. Antoni,1 Xavier Baeten,2 Stephen J. Perkins,3 Jason
D. Shaw,4
and Matti Vartiainen5
1 Work and Organizational Psychology, Department of
Psychology, University of Trier, Germany
2 Department Entrepreneurship, Governance and Strategy Area,
Vlerick Business School, Belgium
3 Global Policy Institute, London Metropolitan University, UK
4 Faculty of Business, Department of Management and
Marketing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong,
China
5 Work Psychology and Leadership, Department of Industrial
Engineering and Management, School of Science, Aalto
University, Finland
Companies invest enormous financial resources in reward
systems and practices to attract, retain, and motivate
employees and thereby ensure and improve individual,
team, and organizational effectiveness. Organizational

rewards comprise financial and nonfinancial rewards, such
as appreciation, job security, and promotion. Financial
rewards, also called tangible rewards, include direct forms
(such as fixed and variable pay and share ownership) as
well as indirect and/or deferred forms (such as benefits
and perquisites). Fixed or base pay refers to the amount
of money one receives in return for fulfilling one’s job
requirements, the job’s grade, or the skill or competence
level required to perform the tasks. Variable pay (such as
cash bonuses and commissions as forms of short-term
incentives, or stocks or stock options as forms of long-term
incentives) depends, for example, on individual, team,
and/or company performance or outcomes, and is based
on quantitative and/or qualitative criteria. Benefits (such
as pension plans or health programs) and perquisites (such
as onsite fitness centers, medical care or health facilities,
and company cars), among other forms, are indirect finan-
cial rewards (Milkovich, Newman, & Gerhart, 2016). Both
qualitative reviews (Gerhart & Fang, 2014; Shaw & Gupta,
2015) and meta-analytic studies (Cerasoli, Nicklin, & Ford,
2014; Garbers & Konradt, 2014; Jenkins, Mitra, Gupta, &
Shaw, 1998) have shown that extrinsic rewards (such as
financial incentives) can improve employee motivation
and performance and shape employee health (Giles,
Robalino, McColl, Sniehotta, & Adams, 2014) and safety
behavior (Mattson, Torbiörn, & Hellgren, 2014). However,
empirical evidence regarding under which conditions
particular rewards are most effective or lead to unintended
consequences is still scarce. In short, compensation and
incentive systems remain one of the most under-researched
areas in personnel psychology and human resource
management (Gupta & Shaw, 2015).
This state of affairs poses risks. Reward management
approaches may waste both money and effort, and may

be ineffective in attracting, retaining, and motivating target
personnel, if not grounded in a base of evidence. Added to
this, in the face of the recent financial crisis and of serious
cases of employee and company unethical behavior,
company’s financial incentives, especially bonus and pay-
for-performance (pfp) systems, have been widely criticized
for their detrimental effects on individuals, companies, and
society (Larcker, Ormazabal, Tayan, & Taylor, 2014). These
examples of the dark sides of incentives highlight the
importance of reward management research, not only from
a human resources management (HRM) but also from a
societal perspective. They also illustrate the need to
understand the underlying mediating and moderating
mechanisms linking reward systems and practices to indi-
vidual, team, and organizational behavior and outcomes.
This special issue contributes to the research on reward
management by focusing on the contextual effects of
financial rewards on employee motivation, behavior, and
performance, and by analyzing the mediating mechanisms
of different types of financial and nonfinancial rewards.
The four studies included in this special issue address
different issues of reward management research and take
different theoretical perspectives. The first two studies
analyze the interaction effects of financial incentives and
� 2017 Hogrefe Publishing Journal of Personnel Psychology
(2017), 16(2), 57–60
DOI: 10.1027/1866-5888/a000187
Th
is
d
oc

um
en
t i
s c
op
yr
ig
ht
ed
b
y
th
e A
m
er
ic
an
P
sy
ch
ol
og
ic
al

A
ss
oc
ia
tio
n
or
o
ne
o
f i
ts
a
lli
ed
p
ub
lis
he
rs
.
Th
is
a

rti
cl
e
is
in
te
nd
ed
so
le
ly
fo
r t
he
p
er
so
na
l u
se
o
f t
he
in

di
vi
du
al
u
se
r a
nd
is
n
ot
to
b
e
di
ss
em
in
at
ed
b
ro
ad
ly

.
individual factors, such as employee perceptions of dis-
tributive justice, and then how individual competitiveness
moderates the effects of pay-for-performance (pfp) on
employee motivation, behavior, and performance. These
studies show which and how intended or unintended conse-
quences of pfp occur. The other two studies differentiate
the effects of tangible and intangible rewards on employee
turnover and risk taking; they disentangle underlying
mediating and moderating mechanisms by comparing the
effects of benefits and perquisites, and of esteem, security,
and promotion as nonfinancial rewards. In the following
passages, we present a short overview of these four papers
before we discuss their contribution and their implications
for further research.
One of the most discussed unintended consequences of
financial rewards has been the assumed erosion of intrinsic
motivation, also called the crowding-out or undermining
effect of extrinsic incentives. This effect is suggested by
proponents of the cognitive evaluation theory and is
primarily based on findings in nonwork settings or with child
samples, or in situations where rewards have been
suspended without explanation (e.g., Deci, Koestner, &
Ryan, 1999; Weibel, Rost, & Osterloh, 2010). In contrast,
the findings of primary and meta-analytic studies typically
do not show a crowding-out effect of extrinsic incentives
(Gerhart & Fang, 2014), and rather demonstrate that intrin-
sic motivation increases in the presence of financial incen-
tives (Giles et al., 2014). As a consequence, research has
started to reconcile these conflicting findings with the
assumptions of cognitive evaluation and self-determination
theories. Thibault Landry and colleagues (2017) contribute

to this research by analyzing whether financial incentive
systems can satisfy employees’ need for autonomy and com-
petence (when bonuses are fairly distributed, thus strength-
ening autonomy and motivation) and finally improve work
performance. They conducted three field studies: one
cross-sectional field study in Greece using a diverse sample
of professions, and two longitudinal studies in Canada with
samples of high-tech workers and financial advisors who
received performance-contingent annual bonuses. Findings
of all three studies show that distributive justice moderates
the relationship between financial incentives and autonomy
need satisfaction. In two of the three studies, distributive
justice also moderated the relation between financial incen-
tives and competence need satisfaction. Enhancing and
buffering effects of distributive justice on the relation
between financial incentives and need satisfaction vary
across studies depending on the positive or negative
relationship between financial incentives and competence
and autonomy need satisfaction. By and large, study find-
ings support the hypothesis that financial incentive sys-
tems can satisfy employees’ need for autonomy and
competence, when bonuses are fairly distributed. In these
cases, bonuses strengthen autonomous motivation and
ultimately improve work performance. Thus, compensation
plans using financial incentives such as annual bonuses can
be effective, when rewards are distributed fairly. However,
the varying positive or negative relation between financial
incentives and need satisfaction across studies also indicates
that other variables might influence how financial incentives
are perceived.
Another often discussed potential unintended effect of
financial incentives has been that individual pfp decreases
cooperation and might even increase deviant behavior,
such as harming others or sabotage (Gerhart & Fang,

2014). Gläser, van Gils, and Van Quaquebeke (2017)
contribute to this debate and show, with varying study
designs, that the degree of individual trait and state com-
petitiveness can influence how employees perceive pfp
and react to it with deviant behavior. Their results are
based on three studies. In the first cross-sectional study,
employees from different German organizations receiving
performance-contingent annual lump-sum bonuses partici-
pated online. Then, two online experiments were done with
participants from digital panel studies and Amazon
Mechanical Turk taking part in competitive dice games,
where in one study only the winner was rewarded, while
in the other study every player was able to win the bonus.
Their findings indicate that pfp programs can increase
employees’ interpersonal deviance, that is, active harming
behavior toward coworkers, when employees are high in
individual competitiveness, that is, have a strong desire
for interpersonal comparison and wish to be better than
others. No significant relationship between pfp size and
interpersonal deviance was found for participants low in
trait or state competitiveness.
While the first two studies in this issue focus on
moderating effects of pfp, the following two studies address
the differential effects and mediating mechanisms of indi-
rect forms of pay and of nonfinancial incentives on turnover
and risk taking. Particularly in highly competitive labor
markets, such as the information and communications
technology (ICT) sector, companies not only offer attractive
salaries, but also benefits (such as pension and private
medical insurance plans) and, more recently, even perqui-
sites (such as an onsite fitness center, medical care facili-
ties, or paid meals) to make employees feel that they are
valued. In turn, this is assumed to lead to better retention
of key employees and a reduction in unwanted turnover
(Fortune, 2016). These indirect forms of pay can be quite

costly and research on the comparative effects of benefits
and perquisites on turnover is still scarce. Renaud, Morin,
and Béchard (2017) contribute to this topic by comparing
the longitudinal impact of perquisites and traditional bene-
fit packages on the intention to stay and by analyzing the
mediating role of affective organizational commitment.
58 Editorial
Journal of Personnel Psychology (2017), 16(2), 57–60 � 2017
Hogrefe Publishing
Th
is
d
oc
um
en
t i
s c
op
yr
ig
ht
ed
b
y
th

e A
m
er
ic
an
P
sy
ch
ol
og
ic
al
A
ss
oc
ia
tio
n
or
o
ne
o
f i
ts

a
lli
ed
p
ub
lis
he
rs
.
Th
is
a
rti
cl
e
is
in
te
nd
ed
so
le
ly
fo

r t
he
p
er
so
na
l u
se
o
f t
he
in
di
vi
du
al
u
se
r a
nd
is
n
ot
to

b
e
di
ss
em
in
at
ed
b
ro
ad
ly
.
In a longitudinal online study with three points of measure-
ment (after 6, 12, and 18 months of participants being with
the company), new employees of a Canadian company in
the ICT sector reported their satisfaction with the provided
perquisites and benefits, their affective organizational
commitment, and their intention to stay as an indicator of
employee turnover. Study findings indicate that satisfaction
with traditional benefits has a stronger direct impact
on intention to stay than satisfaction with perquisites.
Furthermore, when benefits and perquisites are analyzed
separately, affective organizational commitment partially
mediates the effect of satisfaction with traditional benefits
on the intention to stay, while it fully mediates the effect
of satisfaction with perquisites on the intention to stay.

Business scandals (e.g., the Enron scandal and
bankruptcy in 2001, and the bankruptcy of Lehman
Brothers in 2008, which triggered the global financial
crisis) have moved the ethical and financial risk taking of
employees and managers as well as the effects of incentives
to the fore in both academic and public debates. Risk
management research has shown that age and financial
and ethical risk taking are related. Ceschi, Costantini,
Dickert, and Sartori (2017) contribute to this by analyzing
whether perceived nonfinancial rewards moderate and
mediate this relationship. They compare the moderating
effects of esteem, security, and promotion rewards on the
relationship between age and financial and ethical risk
taking among managers of Italian companies. They show
that age and risk taking are negatively related, that is, young
managers report taking more financial and ethical risks than
senior managers. Moderation analyses indicate an interac-
tion effect of job promotion rewards and age: Low chances
for job promotion seem to be a key factor for young
managers’ decisions to take financial risks, whereas no rela-
tion between age and risk taking was found when high
chances of job promotion were perceived. Findings also
indicate that job security and promotions partially mediate
the relationship between age and ethical risk taking.
In sum, the findings presented in this special issue provide
at least four contributions to our understanding of the
moderating conditions and mediating processes of the
impact of financial and nonfinancial rewards on employee
motivation, behavior, and performance. First, distributive
justice perceptions can moderate the effects of financial
rewards. When performance-contingent annual bonuses
are perceived as distributed fairly, they can satisfy employ-
ees’ need for autonomy and competence, and thus
strengthen autonomous motivation and, in turn, work

performance. Identifying these moderating and mediating
processes adds to our understanding of why crowding-out
effects of extrinsic rewards do not occur. It also clarifies
the validity of the assumptions of cognitive evaluation and
self-determination theories. Second, competitiveness as an
individual characteristic can influence how employees
perceive and react to pfp with deviant behavior. When
employees have a strong desire for interpersonal compar-
ison and wish to be better than others, that is, are highly
competitive, pfp programs can increase employees’
interpersonal deviance, that is, active harming behavior
toward coworkers.
Third, companies can achieve a stronger effect on inten-
tion to stay with offering benefits (e.g., private medical
insurance plans) than perquisites (e.g., onsite medical care
facilities). Employees’ satisfaction with benefits seems to
increase their intention to stay both directly and indirectly
via enhancing affective organizational commitment,
whereas satisfaction with perquisites seems to have only
an indirect effect via commitment. Fourth, young managers
report more financial and ethical risk taking than senior
managers. Young managers’ financial risk taking seems to
depend on their perceived chances of job promotion, as
no relation between age and risk taking was found when
high chances of job promotion were perceived.
We hope that this special issue stimulates further longitu-
dinal, mixed-methods, and multilevel research to compare
the effects of specific reward types and practices on
employeemotivation and on individual, team, and organiza-
tional outcomes. There is a need to analyze the underlying
mediating mechanisms and to identify individual, team, or
organizational level variables moderating these relation-
ships. The four studies in this issue address only a few of

the open research questions highlighted in our call for
papers, and other issues could be added. Furthermore, the
studies in this issue focus only on the individual level of
analysis. Questions on how team or organizational level
variables, such as work structure, leadership behavior,
organizational culture, and corporate strategy, influence
the relationship between specific reward types or combina-
tions of different reward types and reward outcomes are
open to further investigation. Thus, future research has
the challenge to address multi- and cross-level effects of
organizational rewards and individual, team, and organiza-
tional level contingencies. Until now, empirically-basedmul-
tilevel rewardmanagement research has been the exception
(e.g., Trevor &Wazeter, 2006). However, recent conceptual
papers on multilevel approaches to the effects of pay
variation (Conroy, Gupta, Shaw, & Park, 2014) or team
pay-for-performance (Conroy & Gupta, 2016) offer promis-
ing models to guide subsequent empirical investigations.
References
Cerasoli, C. P., Nicklin, J. M., & Ford, M. T. (2014). Intrinsic
motivation and extrinsic incentives jointly predict perfor-
mance: A 40-year meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 140,
980–1008. doi: 10.1037/a0035661
Editorial 59
� 2017 Hogrefe Publishing Journal of Personnel Psychology
(2017), 16(2), 57–60
Th
is
d
oc

.
Ceschi, A., Costantini, A., Dickert, S., & Sartori, R. (2017).
The
impact of occupational rewards on risk taking among
managers. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 16, 105–112.
doi: 10.1027/1866-5888/a000184
Conroy, S. A., & Gupta, N. (2016). Team pay-for-performance:
The
devil is in the details. Group & Organization Management, 41,
32–65. doi: 10.1177/1059601115607746
Conroy, S. A., Gupta, N., Shaw, J. D., & Park, T. Y. (2014). A
multilevel approach to the effects of pay variation. Research
in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 32, 1–64.
doi: 10.1108/S0742-730120140000032001
Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. M. (1999). A meta-
analytic
review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic
rewards on intrinsic motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 125,
627–668. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.125.6.627
Fortune. (2016). 100 best companies to work for. Retrieved
from
http://fortune.com/best-companies/google-alphabet-1/
Garbers, Y., & Konradt, U. (2014). The effect of financial
incentives
on performance: A quantitative review of individual and team-
based financial incentives. Journal of Occupational and Orga-
nizational Psychology, 87, 102–137. doi: 10.1111/joop.12039

Gerhart, B., & Fang, M. (2014). Pay for (individual)
performance:
Issues, claims, evidence and the role of sorting effects. Human
Resource Management Review, 24, 41–52. doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.
2013.08.010
Giles, E. L., Robalino, S., McColl, E., Sniehotta, F. F., &
Adams, J.
(2014). The effectiveness of financial incentives for health
behaviour change: Systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS
One, 9, e90347. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0090347
Gläser, D., van Gils, S., & Van Quaquebeke, N. (2017). Pay-
for-
performance and interpersonal deviance: Competitiveness as
the match that lights the fire. Journal of Personnel Psychology,
16, 78–91. doi: 10.1027/1866-5888/a000181
Gupta, N., & Shaw, J. D. (2015). Employee compensation: The
neglected area of HRM research. Human Resource Manage-
ment Review, 24, 1–4. doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2013.08.007
Jenkins, G. D. Jr., Mitra, A., Gupta, N., & Shaw, J. D. (1998).
Are
financial incentives related to performance? A meta-analytic
review of empirical research. Journal of Applied Psychology,
83,
777–787. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.83.5.777
Larcker, D. F., Ormazabal, G., Tayan, B., & Taylor, D. J. (2014,
September). Follow the money: Compensation, risk, and the
financial crisis. Rock Center for Corporate Governance at
Stanford University. Closer Look Series: Topics, Issues and
Controversies in Corporate Governance No. CGRP-43; Stanford

University Graduate School of Business Research Paper No.
14-34. Retrieved from https://ssrn.com/abstract=2493398.
doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2493398
Mattson, M., Torbiörn, I., & Hellgren, J. (2014). Effects of staff
bonus systems on safety behaviors. Human Resource Manage-
ment Review, 24, 17–30. doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2013.08.012
Milkovich, G., Newman, J., & Gerhart, B. (2016).
Compensation
(12th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Renaud, S., Morin, L., & Béchard, A. (2017). Traditional
benefits
versus perquisites: A longitudinal test of their differential
impact on employee turnover. Journal of Personnel Psychology,
16, 92–104. doi: 10.1027/1866-5888/a000180
Shaw, J. D., & Gupta, N. (2015). Let the evidence speak again!
Financial incentives are more effective than we thought.
Human Resource Management Journal, 25, 281–293.
doi: 10.1111/1748-8583.12080
Thibault Landry, A., Gagné, M., Forest, J., Guerrero, S.,
Séguin, M.,
& Papachristopoulos, K. (2017). The relation between financial
incentives, motivation, and performance: An integrative SDT-
based investigation. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 16,
61–77. doi: 10.1027/1866-5888/a000182
Trevor, C. O., & Wazeter, D. L. (2006). A contingent view of
reactions to objective pay conditions: Interdependence among
pay structure characteristics and pay relative to internal and
external referents. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91,
1260–1275. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.91.6.1260

Weibel, A., Rost, K., & Osterloh, M. (2010). Pay for
performance in
the public sector – Benefits and (hidden) costs. Journal
of Public Administration Research and Theory, 20, 387–412.
doi: 10.1093/jopart/mup009
Published online June 29, 2017
Conny H. Antoni
Work and Organizational Psychology
Department of Psychology
University of Trier
54286 Trier
Germany
[email protected]
60 Editorial
Journal of Personnel Psychology (2017), 16(2), 57–60 � 2017
Hogrefe Publishing
Th
is
d
oc
um
en
t i
s c
op
yr
ig

ht
ed
b
y
th
e A
m
er
ic
an
P
sy
ch
ol
og
ic
al
A
ss
oc
ia
tio
n
or

o
ne
o
f i
ts
a
lli
ed
p
ub
lis
he
rs
.
Th
is
a
rti
cl
e
is
in
te
nd

ed
so
le
ly
fo
r t
he
p
er
so
na
l u
se
o
f t
he
in
di
vi
du
al
u
se
r a

nd
is
n
ot
to
b
e
di
ss
em
in
at
ed
b
ro
ad
ly
.

Week 5 WorksheetDirections For this assignment complete the work sh.docx

More Related Content

Similar to Week 5 WorksheetDirections For this assignment complete the work sh.docx(20)

More from helzerpatrina(20)

Recently uploaded(20)

Week 5 WorksheetDirections For this assignment complete the work sh.docx