Coping with Stress: Public Welfare Supervisors Doing Their Best

This study examines the coping mechanisms used by public welfare supervisors to deal with organizational stress. The findings, based on a qualitative study, indicate that the 14 supervisors examined employed two different coping categories which differ with regard to (a) their focus, (b) the source of stress, (c) the target person who is meant to benefit from them, and (d) the specific coping mechanisms. The first category is basically problem-focused, and serves the purpose of buffering subordinates from policy-ambiguity. The second category is essentially emotion-focused, and aims at buffering supervisors from stressful expectations of management and peers.

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