Confronting the threat of organizational downsizing: Coping and health

There is a paucity of empirical research concerning the role of coping processes and health-related outcomes for individuals confronting organizational downsizing. This research was concerned with the effects of downsizing on health and was framed within the theoretical model of coping and health proposed by Lazarus and Folkman (1984, 1987). An examination of the effects of monitoring and blunting coping styles, coping resources (i.e., situational efficacy beliefs, perceived control, perceived organizational support, health behaviours), coping responses, and stress appraisals (i.e., job insecurity and job role stress) on psychological and physical health, as well as on organizational affective well-being was conducted using a sample (n = 224) of federal government employees during the second year of a 3-year downsizing threat. Statistical analyses controlled for the influence of demographic variables (age, gender, tenure, job classification) and Negative Affectivity (NA). The demographic control variables did not significantly contribute to variance explained in health outcomes. NA was a powerful predictor of health reports. Negative appraisals of work-related factors (i.e., job role stress appraisals comprised of role conflict, ambiguity and overload) contributed significantly to explained variance in physical health outcomes, whereas organizational affective well-being (i.e., job satisfaction, affective commitment) was significantly influenced by both job insecurity and job role stress appraisal measures. Coping was not consistently related to either physical or psychological health outcomes. Organizational coping resources, such as Perceived Organizational Support (POS), and coping by seeking information regarding the specifics of downsizing were found to demonstrate significant and independent effects on organizational affective well-being. The results demonstrate the importance of controlling for NA in the measurement of coping, work-related stress appraisal and health and organizational outcomes in a downsizing environment and suggest that measurement of (or control for) NA is a necessary requisite for all future studies concerned with specific stressors and health. The results demonstrate the significant influence of job role stress appraisals on physical health reports, as well as the significant influence of downsizing stress appraisal variables, POS and information seeking coping on organizational affective well-being outcomes independent of NA.