With the onset of globalization, the economic contexts and working conditions within many countries are changing, presenting new challenges' for governments, organizations, and workers. Amid these challenges, concerns about personal finances are prevalent among employees and detrimental to workers' health, well-being, and families. Research on how this financial stress affects employees at work is lacking. In this thesis, I propose an appraisal-based model of financial stress whereby actual income and expenses are related to perceptions of income adequacy to afford wants and needs. These adequacy perceptions are, in turn, related to financial strain, representing a heightened negative affective state regarding one's financial situation. I hypothesize that, through a drain in emotional resources, financial strain will negatively predict life satisfaction by potentially inhibiting participation in healthy, enjoyable behaviors. I argue that this drain in emotional resources will also inhibit successful task performance and restrict participation in discretionary citizenship behaviors. Data from two working samples provide support for the hypothesized financial stress model and establish preliminary evidence of construct validity for new financial stress scales. In a prospective investigation, financial strain fully mediated the effects of income adequacy on subsequent life satisfaction, but was not related to job performance. Instead, perceived income adequacy to afford wants had a direct negative relationship with both task performance and citizenship behaviors at work, while income adequacy to afford needs had a positive direct effect on organizational citizenship behaviors. This work resolves many conceptual inconsistencies about financial stress in the literature, and contributes to the understanding of how income perceptions and financial stress might influence psychological resources and work motivation. This work has important implications for how organizations manage employees who may be experiencing low income adequacy and high financial strain. Finally, there are several meaningful opportunities for future research that would substantially build upon existing theory and evidence in this new area of financial stress and work.

The relationship between occupational stress and burnout was investigated through a meta-analysis of 81 studies and 364 correlations. Occupational stress was measured by role conflict, role ambiguity, workload, cumulative role stress, job specific stress/stressors, and work setting characteristics. Burnout was measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory, 1981 and 1986 versions, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment components of burnout, measures of tedium, and the Staff Burnout Scale for Health Professionals. Thirty occupations in human and non-human service organizations throughout four publication periods were examined. Results indicated occupational stress strongly predicts burnout in non-human service organizations like industry and manufacturing as well as the human services. Job specific stressors most strongly predict burnout across organization types and occupation. Occupational stress predicts emotional exhaustion and depersonalization more than perceptions of reduced personal accomplishment. The findings support the use of transactional models of stress which consider occupational context as a precipitator of burnout, especially emotional exhaustion.

Psychology of Education / D. Ed. (Sielkundige Opvoedkunde)

I hereby certify that this dissertation is my own unaided work. It has been submitted exclusively to the University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Industrial Psychology). / Despite the increasing concerns regarding the levels of stress expenenced by teachers, and the potential resultant effects of this stress, relatively little is known about the potential effects of coping strategies and perceived social support in coping with teacher stressors. This study aimed to investigate whether both general and specific ways of coping (namely, problem focused, emotion-focused and escape-avoidance coping) heve the potential to moderate the relationship between stressors and strain experienced by individuals within the teaching profession. Furthermore, attempts were made to establish which of these types of coping strategies are most effective for coping with the typical stressors faced by teaching professionals. Similarty, this study investigated whether perceived social support has the potential to moderate the stressor-strain relationships experienced by teachers, and examined which types of social support (namely. perceived social support from famify, friends, supervisors, or colleagues) have the potential to effectively moderate this relationship. The data were collected using questionnaires, which were distributed amongst seventeen elementary schools within the Gauteng region, The sample for this study consisted of 188 English-speaking,elementary school teachers, employed on a full-time basis. Moderated multiple linear regressions were carried out in order to investigate whether coping strategies and social support have the potential to moderate the stressor-strain relationships, and analyses of variance were used to determine which of the three ways of coping (that is, problem-focused, emotion-focused, or escape-avoidance coping) has the potential to be the most effective for coping with teacher stressors. Generally, the use of coping strategies was found to Significantly moderate the investigated stressor-strain relationships of teachers, while the potential of specific ways of coping to moderate particular stressor-strain relationships appears to be specific to the situation. Similar results were found with regards to perceived social support. Problem-focused coping strategies were generally found to be the most effective method for coping with a range of teacher stressors. but its efficacy was also found to be situation-dependent. / Andrew Chakane 2018

Stress is considered as one of those factors that has an influence on the performance of employees negatively or positively which also affects the organization as a whole. Many employees have started to consider stress as an important issue to look at. This study investigated the employees' perceptions of stress and its effect on their productivity. We mainly compared branches in different countries (Cameroon and Nigeria) using employees from a mutual bank “Ecobank” to find out their different perceptions in relation to stress. The study was conducted with six (6) interviewees, three (3) from Nigeria and three (3) from Cameroon. From other similar studies, we have not been able to see a comparison of employees' perception between two countries and this helped us to be able to recognize a research gap. The study was done using a qualitative method which helps us to know the perceptions of employees regarding stress and its effect on productivity from both Cameroon and Nigeria. The interview was conducted with employees from different departments and different roles. The interview was a big help for us getting a broader understanding of how employees perceive stress. A thematic network and discussion was developed in order for us to interpret the results of our findings. We were able to develop 5 themes which are performance, role conflict, role ambiguity, work demand and resource constraints and with this we were able to do a comparison to find out what the employees from different countries perceive in regards to stress. We were also able to give some suggestions for further studies which one of them is based on gender differences. The results from our findings showed that workload, pressure to meet deadlines, lack of knowledge, multiple tasks, unclear responsibilities, lack of resources were the perceptions contributing to stress.

Bibliography: pages 80-86. / The aim of the present study was to test a model of stress and to examine whether the theoretical construct of sense of coherence (SOC) moderated the relationship between stressors and health-related and work-related outcomes. This construct of SOC was identified by an Israeli medical sociologist, Antonovsky. He maintained that the current focus of research on stress is largely pathogenic in nature. He suggested that it would be of value to shift research more towards that which identifies the origins of health. He consequently developed the term "salutogenesis", which requires people to focus on those factors which promote well-being. He also argued that people are not either sick or well, but rather are located on a continuum between health-ease/dis-ease. With respect to their health, persons will find themselves somewhere along this continuum, where they may shift between the two positions. He then suggests that certain factors contribute to facilitating the movement along this continuum. These factors together form a construct which he calls the SOC. The SOC is comprised of core components. He hypothesizes that someone with a strong SOC is likely to make better sense of the world around him/her, thereby engendering resilience towards the impinging stressors. The person with a weak SOC is likely to capitulate to these stressors · more readily and by succumbing to them is going to increase the likelihood that (s)he will move to the dis-ease end of the continuum. This study attempted to investigate the following research questions, namely, whether (1) the stressors were related to the stress outcomes, (2) the SOC was related to the stressors and outcomes, and (3) the SOC moderated the relationships between stressors and outcomes. In the present study the subjects were drawn from all data processing professionals in a large financial organisation. The respondents (~ = 194) replied to a questionnaire which contained scales which measured a variety of job-related stressors, an SOC scale as well as job-related and health-related outcome variables. Intercorrelations between the stressor, moderator and outcome variables were calculated. Other statistical procedures that were utilized were subgroup analyses and the moderated multiple regression analyses. Partial support for all three research questions was obtained. Four of the six stressors were found to correlate significantly with somatic complaints, thereby suggesting that stressors result in persons feeling the results of stress and reporting them physically. The SOC was found to relate to some of the stressors and outcome variables. This would lend partial support to an interpretation of the SOC as having a main effect relationship to stressor and outcome variables. In the subgroup analyses the results showed that out of a possible 54 relationships, the SOC moderated in only seven of them that the moderated multiple regression (MMR) analyses showed out of 54 possible relationships, the SOC moderated in 12 of them health-related variables. Furthermore, the SOC moderated between six outcome variables and six work-related outcomes. These findings then partially support research question 3, which examined whether the SOC would moderate relationships between stressors and outcome variables. This study was concluded by a discussion of the findings, its implications, and the limitations of this research.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Clinical Psychology) in the Department of Psychology University of Zululand, South Africa, 2005. / HIV/AIDS has reached alarming proportions in South Africa, with many people's lives being affected. This research project looked more closely at caregivers involved in HIV/AIDS work, examining their stress levels and their psychological well-being. A yoga intervention program was implemented with a sample of caregivers at the Holy Cross Hospice, Emoyeni, in Zululand. The effectiveness of the program was evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative measures. Overall, this yoga intervention program was effective with many of the caregivers reporting noted improvements in their stress levels and psychological well-being.

Dissertation submitted for partial fulfillment for the degree Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, 2002. / This study examines the distribution of the behavioural dimensions measured by the Style Analysis Instrument. Research previously conducted in the USA is compared with the South African data collected. The distribution of the dimensions, Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance (DISC) in the South African genders and the Afrikaans, Black, English and Indian population groups is investigated. Data were collected from three organisations that process the Style Analysis questionnaires, and analysed to ascertain significant differences between the various groups, and correlations between the various behavioural dimensions. Significant differences were found between the USA sample and the SA sample, while lesser differences were found within the SA subgroups. Based on the research of Warburton and Suiter, which established that a disparity between the Adapted Style, i.e. the behavioural style of the individual in the workplace, and the Natural Style, i.e. the inherent behavioural style of the individual, is a predictor of stress in the workplace, an investigation was conducted to discover which South African gender or population group experiences the most stress in the workplace. Overall, the female gender and the Black population group manifest the highest stress indicators within the South African context.

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Ph.D in Community Psychology at the University of Zululand, 2003. / The ministry is regarded by many as one of the most stressful vocations. Researchers highlight the need for clergy self care as a strategy in the management of stress and the prevention of burnout. This research study documents the design, implementation and evaluation of a clergy stress management programme as a health promotion intervention. A series of one day workshops was facilitated amongst forty five ministers from various denominations selected by their membership of the ministers fraternals in Stanger, Richards Bay, Tongaat and Secunda communities. The effectiveness of the clergy stress management programme was evaluated using a phenomenological approach. There was unanimous report of high satisfaction levels related to clergy experience of the workshops. The most common themes reported by participants were that the workshop provided them with an opportunity for personal empowerment in that it challenged some of their faulty thinking about ministry life and calling, encouraged personal insight for new behaviour, improved their knowledge of stress and gave them practical tools to manage personal stress. The stress management intervention was also described as an opportunity for renewal and restoration. This study confirms the need for holistic health promotion interventions amongst the clergy as an important group of helping professionals.

For the past 3 decades, police officers have been diagnosed with various stress-induced health problems. Police officers are at a greater risk of various environmental health problems due to the stressful nature of their profession. While there is abundant research that explores the relationship between high stress occupations and environmental health, researchers have yet to sufficiently explore the relationships between police officers' job stress and job performance. The purpose of this correlational study was to use Cohen & McKay's conceptualization of the stress-buffering hypothesis to explore whether police officers' physical exercise moderated the negative impact of job stress on their job performance. Data were collected through an online survey administered to police officers from 2 metropolitan police departments in the United States, and data were analyzed using a hierarchical regression procedure. Findings indicted that approximately 80% of the variance in police officers' job performance is explained by job stress, indicating a negative relationship between police officers' job stress and job performance. The findings also indicated that police officers' physical exercise was positively related to their job performance. Positive social change implications stemming from study may include recommendations to police department leadership to emphasize the importance of moderating occupational stress through exercise as a method to improve their job performance. These efforts may contribute to improved public safety outcomes in communities in the United States.