Do your employees use the right stress coping strategies

This study investigates the efficacy of coping strategies commonly used in the workplace to alleviatestress. The strategies included: seeking assistance, self assistance, group intervention, avoidance andchanging beliefs. Data were gathered from a large-scale questionnaire survey of employees within fouremployment sectors in Taiwan (N =662). Five key findings were revealed: 1. the efficacy of coping strategieswas not universal; instead efficacy depended upon employee gender, educational level and interactionsbetween strategies. 2. The nature of the stressor was a useful indicator of efficacy, i.e. whether stress wasameliorated by the strategy employed, was catalyst dependent. 3. Stress reduction was not an inevitableconsequence of using more than one form of stress coping strategy. 4. Self assistance was the most commonand most effective strategy and avoidance the least. 5. Combining self assistance and group interventionstrategies resulted in lower levels of perceived stress. The findings serve to augment the body of literaturepertaining to stress related coping mechanisms in the workplace. The implications that these findings havefor organisational management and personnel practices are discussed