The Responses of Male and Female Managers to Workplace Stress and Downsizing

As part of a longitudinal study examining the impact of downsizing on worker health, we interviewed managers and employees to identify possible questions for a data collection survey. This paper presents observation summaries of qualitative interviews with 19 managers from a large manufacturing organization. Participants were asked semi-structured questions on health behaviors, stress coping strategies, alcohol and substance use, job stress, and work overload with latitude to digress as different issues emerged. Responses from female managers and male managers revealed differences in judgments about work motivators, stressors, and coping strategies. For example, female managers displayed a greater tendency to use alcohol as a coping mechanism in response to stressful conditions. Gender differences also emerged regarding impressions of the treatment of women in the workplace. Men viewed relationships between genders as significantly improved from ten to twenty years ago. Women noted improvements over the same time frame, but gave numerous examples where men continue to dismiss the contributions of female workers. Insight into motivations underlying commonly identified stressors and coping methods for both women and men offers direction for future data collection efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR