Human Relations

The social construct of leadership is viewed as a myth that functions to reinforce existing social beliefs and structures about the necessity of hierarchy and leaders in organizations. The dynamics of the leadership myth in terms of its consequences for alienation characterized by intellectual and emotional deskilling is discussed. A trend toward massive deskilling on a societal scale is viewed as indicated by the current emergence of magical wishes for omnipotent leaders demonstrating a sense of helplessness and despair in being able to personally initiate and create less alienating social forms for the workplace. The types of experimentation required for refraining socially constructed meanings of leadership are explored, with emphasis placed on the role of heightened awareness of covert and undiscussable power and authority dynamics in an organizational context.

This paper discusses occupational stress literature in terms of the movement from looking for job-related causes towards considering individual sources of stress such as dispositions and neuroticism. It goes on to consider this by a detailed examination of the personal meanings of job stress for one individual manager in psychodynamic psychotherapy. It outlines the ways in which measured job perceptions and satisfactions became more positive as symptoms decreased. The study supports the argument for some individually-related causes of stress but also shows how therapy and counseling can change perceptions, rather than treating them as dispositional and unchangeable.

Researchers agree that the measurement of stressors and coping in occupational stress research should reflect new approaches and offer alternative frameworks if the different dynamics to the stress process are to be more adequately explored. This research adopted a methodology which reflected the presumed transactional nature of the appraisal process. How individuals appraise, give meaning to, and cope was explored by combining qualitative and quantitative data. Individuals, it seems, can describe the meanings they give to events and how they cope with them. The understanding that can be derived when alternative methodologies are used must lead to a refinement of traditional measurement strategies and a more fruitful avenue for future research.

Of critical importance in the applications of quality of life theory and measurement to clinical situations is the need to know how the different components of quality of life relate to each other and what these relationships mean. To answer this question, the present study reanalyzes data collected 6 months after surgery on 469 patients with cardiovascular problems. The data were factor analyzed and five factors were extracted, namely, Symptoms of Illness, Neurological Dysfunction, Interpersonal Relationships, Morale, and Socioeconomic Status. Because the factor scores derived from these five factors intercorrelated, we were able to hypothesize causal models suggesting how the factors might affect each other. Two competing models were tested against the data using LISREL. A crucial difference between the two models was that in one, Symptoms lowered Morale whereas in the other, low Morale aggravated Symptoms, i.e., a psychosomatic effect. The first model fitted the data very well in contrast to the second model which did not fit the data at all. The authors consider the implications of the first model for improving quality of life in cardiac patients.

Recently, the topic of expatriate cross-cultural adjustment has received increased scholarly attention; however, adjustment after an international assignment (repatriation adjustment) has received relatively little systematic investigation. This study examined the relationship of managers' expectations with repatriation adjustment and job performance. In general, managers whose job and nonwork expectations were met reported higher levels of repatriation adjustment and job performance than those whose expectations were either underor overmet. Both research and practical implications are discussed.

The relationship between individual employee performance and absenteeism was examined using data from 46 articles. Meta-analyses (cf. Hunter & Schmidt, 1990) revealed a modest but significant tendency for frequently absent employees to be poor performers on many rating and non-rating indices. Importantly though, the associated credibility intervals were wide, and statistical artifacts did not account for all the variance among the studies. Several alternative theoretical mechanisms were identified, e.g., supervisor annoyance with frequent absences, employee disposition toward delinquency, progressive withdrawal, and stress coping, that could account for the remaining variation.