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1 – 10 of over 3000This work sheds new light on the roles of gender, age and expatriation type—self-initiated expatriate (SIE) vs. assigned expatriate (AE)—by applying the transactional theory of…
Abstract
Purpose
This work sheds new light on the roles of gender, age and expatriation type—self-initiated expatriate (SIE) vs. assigned expatriate (AE)—by applying the transactional theory of stress and coping (and a validated measurement tool) to the expatriation experience.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on quantitative data from 448 expatriates, the authors examined the coping mechanisms (cognitions and actions) employed by senior and younger expatriates, females and males and SIE and AEs when they face hardships while working abroad.
Findings
Younger expatriates display less active problem-solving coping, planning, and restraint and consume more alcohol and drugs. Female expatriates express their emotions and use social support more than their male counterparts. SIEs rely on emotional social support more than AEs.
Practical implications
Recognizing that individual repertoires of responses to expatriate challenges are bounded by personal characteristics—such as age, gender, and expatriation type—should improve efforts to support expatriates. This research suggests that expatriate support should be tailored. It offers indications on who needs what.
Originality/value
This work provides a fresh perspective and new insights into classic topics (age, gender, and expatriation type). Individuals react differently abroad. They have different resources and face different demands (to a certain extent) that lead to different coping reactions. Older people manage their emotions better, and female expatriates and SIEs gather and use support; these abilities are assets abroad.
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Tripti Singh, Allen C. Johnston, John D'Arcy and Peter D. Harms
The impact of stress on personal and work-related outcomes has been studied in the information systems (IS) literature across several professions. However, the cybersecurity…
Abstract
Purpose
The impact of stress on personal and work-related outcomes has been studied in the information systems (IS) literature across several professions. However, the cybersecurity profession has received little attention despite numerous reports suggesting stress is a leading cause of various adverse professional outcomes. Cybersecurity professionals work in a constantly changing adversarial threat landscape, are focused on enforcement rather than compliance, and are required to adhere to ever-changing industry mandates – a work environment that is stressful and has been likened to a war zone. Hence, this literature review aims to reveal gaps and trends in the current extant general workplace and IS-specific stress literature and illuminate potentially fruitful paths for future research focused on stress among cybersecurity professionals.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the systematic literature review process (Okoli and Schabram, 2010), the authors examined the current IS research that studies stress in organizations. A disciplinary corpus was generated from IS journals and conferences encompassing 30 years. The authors analyzed 293 articles from 21 journals and six conferences to retain 77 articles and four conference proceedings for literature review.
Findings
The findings reveal four key research opportunities. First, the demands experienced by cybersecurity professionals are distinct from the demands experienced by regular information technology (IT) professionals. Second, it is crucial to identify the appraisal process that cybersecurity professionals follow in assessing security demands. Third, there are many stress responses from cybersecurity professionals, not just negative responses. Fourth, future research should focus on stress-related outcomes such as employee productivity, job satisfaction, job turnover, etc., and not only security compliance among cybersecurity professionals.
Originality/value
This study is the first to provide a systematic synthesis of the IS stress literature to reveal gaps, trends and opportunities for future research focused on stress among cybersecurity professionals. The study presents several novel trends and research opportunities. It contends that the demands experienced by cybersecurity professionals are distinct from those experienced by regular IT professionals and scholars should seek to identify the key characteristics of these demands that influence their appraisal process. Also, there are many stress responses, not just negative responses, deserving increased attention and future research should focus on unexplored stress-related outcomes for cybersecurity professionals.
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Vita Glorieux, Salvatore Lo Bue and Martin Euwema
Crisis services personnel are frequently deployed around the globe under highly demanding conditions. This raises the need to better understand the deployment process and more…
Abstract
Purpose
Crisis services personnel are frequently deployed around the globe under highly demanding conditions. This raises the need to better understand the deployment process and more especially, sustainable reintegration after deployment. Despite recent research efforts, the study of the post-deployment stage, more specifically the reintegration process, remains fragmented and limited. To address these limitations, this review aims at (1) describing how reintegration is conceptualised and measured in the existing literature, (2) identifying what dimensions are associated with the reintegration process and (3) identifying what we know about the process of reintegration in terms of timing and phases.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) protocol, the authors identified 5,859 documents across several scientific databases published between 1995 and 2021. Based on predefined eligibility criteria, 104 documents were yielded.
Findings
Research has primarily focused on descriptive studies of negative individual and interpersonal outcomes after deployment. However, this review indicates that reintegration is dynamic, multi-sector, multidimensional and dual. Each of its phases and dimensions is associated with distinct challenges.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research that investigates reintegration among different crisis services and provides an integrative social-ecological framework that identifies the different dimensions and challenges of this process.
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Johanna Czamanski-Cohen, Orly Sarid, Julie Cwikel, Eliahu Levitas and Iris Har-Vardi
Coping and communication strategies affect how one perceives potentially stressful life events, such as infertility. Cognitive behavioral interventions (CBI) can reduce the…
Abstract
Purpose
Coping and communication strategies affect how one perceives potentially stressful life events, such as infertility. Cognitive behavioral interventions (CBI) can reduce the distress related to undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of CBI on the coping and communication skills as well as perceived stress and depressive symptoms of women undergoing IVF treatment. The authors also explored the relationship between coping strategies and pregnancy rates.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a randomized controlled trial of CBI in 50 women undergoing IVF (NCT00685282).
Findings
The authors found that CBI was associated with reductions in active-confrontive coping among over 50 percent of participants, which was also found to be positively related to depressive symptoms. Furthermore, high meaning-based coping at baseline and high-avoidant coping at the end of IVF treatment were associated with increased pregnancy rates.
Research limitations/implications
CBI can be helpful in reducing the perceived stress of women undergoing IVF; however, the adaptiveness of individual coping skills and communication skills vary. Since different coping strategies seem to be of benefit at different time points, further studies might benefit from the examination of engaging in context-dependent coping strategies.
Practical implications
Integrating mental health care on infertility units may assist in reducing the stress and thus quality of care in women undergoing IVF. Mental health care can be tailored to meet the individual needs of infertility patients based on their preferred coping strategies and communication style. Further research is needed to examine the cost benefit of reducing perceived stress in fertility patients.
Social implications
Infertility is a social and medical problem that has vast implications on the mental health of individuals. Providing support along with practical tools for stress reduction and improved coping and communication can result in reduced stress and improved coping.
Originality/value
This paper examined the effect of a cognitive behavioral intervention on the coping strategies and communication skills of women undergoing IVF and can contribute to our understanding of the value of integrating mental health and medical care.
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Jan Riezebos and Babette Huisman
Teachers of primary education experience high levels of stress but lack rational coping strategies to reduce their work stress. The paper develops a value stream mapping for…
Abstract
Purpose
Teachers of primary education experience high levels of stress but lack rational coping strategies to reduce their work stress. The paper develops a value stream mapping for education approach and examines its use as a rational coping strategy for teams of teachers and other employees to overcome work-related stressors.
Design/methodology/approach
The research process consists of two phases. First, a value stream mapping approach for education is developed, based on literature research. Next, the approach is validated in an action research study to reduce work stress of teachers in educational services. The processes that have been selected by the teachers relate to coping with increased variety, long and uncertain throughput times and unclear specifications.
Findings
Value stream mapping for education (VSM4EDU) is a well-structured improvement method based on principles of visualization, participation and process thinking, which helps teachers without background in lean thinking to analyse their processes. Using this method has enabled the team to develop rational coping strategies to reduce their work-related stress.
Research limitations/implications
VSM4EDU has been validated using action research at a single school, which implicates deep insight, but further testing at other schools is welcome. Moreover, VSM4EDU has not been used to develop a future state map.
Practical implications
Value stream mapping is useful in educational settings as long as the educational context is respected in the approach.
Social implications
VSM4EDU empowers teachers and helps to develop co-operation in teams.
Originality/value
The validation of value stream mapping for education is well-documented and original.
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Amir Hossein Qezelbash, Sarasadat Makian and Rasoul Shahabi Sorman Abadi
This paper aims to examine tourists' behavioral changes in response to health crises, this study examines the individual's uncertainty and adaptability to the challenges using…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine tourists' behavioral changes in response to health crises, this study examines the individual's uncertainty and adaptability to the challenges using behavioral coping strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
The study combines the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and protection motivation theory. Using the PLS-SEM technique, this study examines the relationship between the destination's competitive profits and travel intention of Iranian tourists in the post-Covid-19 pandemic.
Findings
The social-support coping (Instrumental) does not incorporate tourists' adaptive behaviors. Vulnerable vaccination significantly affects the extremeness of an individual's problem-focused coping, which affects tourist's adaptive behaviors in crisis time, indicating the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccination on travel intention.
Research limitations/implications
The findings may assist tourism authorities and planners develop unique tourism products and services based on tourist behavior following the health crises.
Originality/value
This study contributes to development of the TPB method, indicating that visa exemption and competitive profits of a destination would motivate travel intention existing inefficacy of local government and its negative background, reshaping and thus influencing changing behavior.
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Dorothy Ai-wan Yen, Benedetta Cappellini, Jane Denise Hendy and Ming-Yao Jen
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe challenges to ethnic minorities in the UK. While the experiences of migrants are both complex and varied depending on individuals' social…
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe challenges to ethnic minorities in the UK. While the experiences of migrants are both complex and varied depending on individuals' social class, race, cultural proximity to the host country and acculturation levels, more in-depth studies are necessary to fully understand how COVID-19 affects specific migrant groups and their health. Taiwanese migrants were selected because they are an understudied group. Also, there were widespread differences in pandemic management between the UK and Taiwan, making this group an ideal case for understanding how their acculturation journey can be disrupted by a crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative data were collected at two different time points, at the start of the UK pandemic (March/April 2020) and six months on (October/November 2020), to explore migrant coping experiences over time. Theoretically, the authors apply acculturation theory through the lens of coping, while discussing health-consumption practices, as empirical evidence.
Findings
Before the outbreak of the pandemic, participants worked hard to achieve high levels of integration in the UK. The pandemic changed this; participants faced unexpected changes in the UK’s sociocultural structures. They were forced to exercise the layered and complex “coping with coping” in a hostile host environment that signalled their new marginalised status. They faced impossible choices, from catching a life-threatening disease to being seen as overly cautious. Such experience, over time, challenged their integration to the host country, resulting in a loss of faith in the UK’s health system, consequently increasing separation from the host culture and society.
Research limitations/implications
It is important to note that the Taiwanese sample recruited through Facebook community groups is biased and has a high level of homogeneity. These participants were well-integrated, middle-class migrants who were highly educated, relatively resourceful and active on social media. More studies are needed to fully understand the impact on well-being and acculturation of migrants from different cultural, contextual and social backgrounds. This being the case, the authors can speculate that migrants with less resource are likely to have found the pandemic experience even more challenging. More studies are needed to fully understand migrant experience from different backgrounds.
Practical implications
Public health policymakers are advised to dedicate more resources to understand migrants' experiences in the host country. In particular, this paper has shown how separation, especially if embraced temporarily, is not necessarily a negative outcome to be corrected with specific policies. It can be strategically adopted by migrants as a way of defending their health and well-being from an increasingly hostile environment. Migrants' home country experience provides vicarious learning opportunities to acquire good practices. Their voices should be encouraged rather than in favour of a surprising orthodox and rather singular approach in the discussion of public health management.
Social implications
The paper has clear public health policy implications. Firstly, public health policymakers are advised to dedicate more resources to understand migrants' experiences in the host country. Acknowledging migrants' voice is a critical first step to contribute to the development of a fair and inclusive society. Secondly, to retain skilful migrants and avoid a future brain-drain, policymakers are advised to advance existing infrastructure to provide more incentives to support and retain migrant talents in the post-pandemic recovery phase.
Originality/value
This paper reveals how a group of previously well-integrated migrants had to exercise “coping with coping” during the COVID crisis. This experience, over time, challenged their integration to the host country, resulting in a loss of faith in the UK’s health system, consequently increasing separation from the host culture and society. It contributes to the understanding of acculturation by showing how a such crisis can significantly disrupt migrants' acculturation journey, challenging them to re-acculturate and reconsider their identity stance. It shows how separation was indeed a good option for migrants for protecting their well-being from a newly hostile host environment.
Wilaiwan Saengniam and Chanokporn Jitpanya
The purpose of this paper is to describe the quality of life (QOL) and to examine factors predicting the QOL among the demographic characteristics, injury severity, effect on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the quality of life (QOL) and to examine factors predicting the QOL among the demographic characteristics, injury severity, effect on work, pain intensity, disability point, coping and resilience factors, in Thai patients following multiple injuries.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional research design was used. A total of multiple 106 trauma patients were obtained by simple random sampling. The patients were between 18 and 59 years of age, and had visited an outpatient clinic at one of three randomly selected tertiary hospitals in Metropolitan Bangkok, Thailand. Dependent variable was QOL measured by Trauma Outcome Profile (TOP) questionnaire. Independent variables were demographic and illness-related factors collected from patients’ medical records, coping measured by the Jalowiec Coping Scale, pain measured by the Chronic Pain Grade questionnaire (CPGQ) and resilience measured by the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis.
Findings
Except for satisfaction, the other nine dimensions of the QOL in patients following traumatic injuries were poor. Pain intensity was the most influential factor predicting the QOL, but the patient’s resilience, emotional coping and disability points were also able to predict the QOL.
Originality/value
The TOP, CPGQ and CD-RISC-10 were translated into Thai and used in the current study for the first time. The results of the study revealed that the pain intensity, and the patient’s resilience and coping influenced the QOL more than other factors, such as the demographic data and injury severity.
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Jessie Koen, Jasmine T.H. Low and Annelies Van Vianen
While job insecurity generally impedes performance, there may be circumstances under which it can prompt performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine a specific situation…
Abstract
Purpose
While job insecurity generally impedes performance, there may be circumstances under which it can prompt performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine a specific situation (reorganization) in which job insecurity may prompt task and contextual performance. The authors propose that performance can represent a job preservation strategy, to which employees may only resort when supervisor-issued ratings of performance are instrumental toward securing one’s job. The authors hypothesize that because of this instrumentality, job insecurity will motivate employees’ performance only when they have low intrinsic motivation, and only when they perceive high distributive justice.
Design/methodology/approach
In a survey study among 103 permanent employees of a company in reorganization, the authors assessed perceived job insecurity, intrinsic motivation and perceived distributive justice. Supervisors rated employees’ overall performance (task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors).
Findings
Multilevel analyses showed that job insecurity was only positively related to supervisor-rated overall performance among employees with low intrinsic motivation and, unexpectedly, among employees who experienced low distributive justice. Results were cross-validated using employees’ self-rated performance, replicating the findings on distributive justice but not the findings on intrinsic motivation.
Research limitations/implications
The results can inform future research on the specific situations in which job insecurity may prompt job preservation efforts, and call for research to uncover the mechanisms underlying employees’ negative and positive responses to job insecurity. The results and associated implications of this study are largely based on conceptual evidence. In addition, the cross-sectional design warrants precaution about drawing causal inferences from the data.
Originality/value
By combining insights from coping responses and threat foci, this study advances the understanding of when and why job insecurity may prompt performance.
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Katarzyna Ślebarska, Aneta Stremska and Grzegorz Kowalski
Self-employment is considered one of the responses to precarious employment, particularly among those who lost jobs during an economic crisis. Although starting a new business is…
Abstract
Purpose
Self-employment is considered one of the responses to precarious employment, particularly among those who lost jobs during an economic crisis. Although starting a new business is widely available, operating new ventures remains challenging. This article aims to explore the premises of self-employment success, namely self-employment intention and proactive coping as crucial predictors of further performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors recruited participants among initially unemployed individuals who participated in the entrepreneurial program aimed at creating self-employment. Since entrepreneurs are expected to have specific personal characteristics important for performance, the authors assessed proactive coping as the key factor for self-employment intention.
Findings
The results depicted proactive coping as crucial in performing own ventures in the long run, which suggests that self-employment intention may change over time.
Practical implications
Proactive coping is particularly appropriate for self-employed at any stage of the entrepreneurial process because it maintains the intention to perform own business. Thus, the findings underline the need for proactive coping training for entrepreneurs, particularly those previously unemployed.
Originality/value
As the self-employment intention may differ in time, the importance of being proactive in operating small businesses increases.
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