M.A. (Psychology) / Interest has grown over the past decade in the study of stress and more recently in the development and Implement at Ion of primary prevention programmes for various forms of stress related illnesses. Such programmes hold great promise for reducing , illness reactions in combination with, or, as an alternative to pharmacological medication. None of these programmes have been conducted amongst a sample of South African black blue-collar workers and it is important that these procedures are tested in order to evaluate their efficacy for specific cultural contexts. In this dissertation, an extensive review of the literature on the various models of stress is included as well as a proposed model for South African blue-collar workers. The stressors inherent in the lives of the sample population are also discussed. The sample consisted of sixty six male black blue-collar workers between the ages of twenty five and fifty five employed in the milling industry. Over a period of six weeks the effects on work-related stress of five different treatment regimes consisting of the following are evaluated: just lying down, relaxation tape, placebo, Royl 6 (vitamin B) and Panado (paracetamol). sUbjects completed the Job-related tension questionnaire and the Anxiety-stress questionnaire upon commencement of treatment and two weeks after' they had concluded treatment. An analysis of variance and a multivariate analysis of variance showed that there was no significant difference in the levels of work-related stress at the post-measurement stage of assessment.' This indicates that none of the five treatment regimes had any affect on the work-related stress levels of the subjects...

M.A. (Social Sciences) / Presently a fine balance between South Africa's politics and the industrial situation exists. The South African political focus was aimed at fulfilling the clamouring of America and Europe, and not tailored for the South Africa situation that asks for reciprocity. This immediate way of handling the South Africa political field, has resulted in the industry being at the receiving end of the country's political controversies. What we find in the industry is a total distortion of white male managers occupying 88.2% of all the middle and senior positions, whilst 75% of the South African population consist out of blacks. A very poor representation of African managers is thus visible in the industry that asks for change, reformation and renewal. These changes that are required, will have to take place within a limited accelerated time span, which might be revolutionary rather than evolutionary. Limited research has been done on coping during stressful situations (Feldman & Brett, 1983; Latack, 1986; Burke & Belcourt, 1974; Newton & Keenan, 1985 and Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). The research that had been implemented was taxonomic (Burke & Belcourt in Newton & Keenan, 1985:108). This scientific research is about the stress management and coping skills of Afrocentric and Eurocentric middle managers. These managers are employed by Eskom which implies a working milieu that has been exposed to reorganisation, structural changes and rationalisation. An important component of .this research, is that the Eurocentric middle managers are being compared with the Afrocentric middle managers regarding their work and life circumstances and coping skills one or two months before South Africa's very first democratic election that took place on the 27th April 1994. It was important to assess the climate within Eskom as an organisation regarding the white versus the black managers just before a third world democratisation.