Interpersonal Stressors within the Organizations: Vertical and Horizontal Sources
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Chou, Jia-Kuei
Abstract
Under the circumstances of emphasizing life quality of workplace and workers’ physical and mental health, “stress” obviously is the inevitable problem in the work life. Past researches’ foci of occupational stress are workload, role stress, situational demands and so on, viewing work itself as the central source of occupational stress, ignoring the field of “human” issue of workers themselves. In the Chinese situation of highlighting power distance and role, the members’ interactional styles are dominated by the unequal vertical relationship and dyad roles. However, the stressful incidents resulted from interpersonal interaction aren’t further examined all the time. Therefore, this study collects the interpersonal stressful incidents within the organizations by Critical Incident Technique, so as to explore the constitutions of interpersonal stressors, the difference between vertical and horizontal stressors and the effects caused by different positions. This study retrieves 299 effective surveys with 160 ones corresponding to the research definition, including 284 descriptive interpersonal incidents. Here are the findings: (1) Interpersonal stressors include six dimensions: political behaviors, negative communication, harmony-threatening behaviors, emotional disequilibrium, egocentricity and going-beyond-boundary. (2) There’s some distinction between vertical and horizontal stressors: the relative power distance between supervisors and subordinates is the core of interpersonal stress, and the interpersonal stress between colleagues is in relation to competition and cooperation. (3) “negative communication” and “emotional disequilibrium” are significantly predicted by the supervisors, “political behaviors” and “harmony-threatening behaviors” are significantly predicted by colleagues, and “egocentricity” and “going-beyond-boundary” are not influenced by the sources. (4) Workers through different positions all perceive much “political behaviors”, “negative communication” and “harmony-threatening behaviors”. Senior managers mainly perceive “harmony-threatening behaviors”, however, first line managers and low-positioned employees mainly perceive “political behaviors”. Besides, first line managers respond numerous “egocentricity”. Finally, contributions and limitations are discussed, and suggestions are provided for future studies and managerial implications.
Subjects
occupational stress
power distance
role (norm)
interpersonal interaction
interpersonal stressors
vertical and horizontal stressors
position
SDGs
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