COPING RESOURCES, COPING STRATEGIES AND ADJUSTMENT TO ORGANIZATIONAL-CHANGE - DIRECT OR BUFFERING EFFECTS

This study examined the effects of personal and social resources, copi ng strategies and appraised stress on employees' levels of anxiety and depression. In relation to the effects of resources and coping strate gies, two different models were tested. The main effects model propose s that, irrespective of the level of stress, coping resources and copi ng strategies have direct effects on well-being. In contrast, the buff ering model predicts that the buffering effects of coping resources ad strategies are only evident at high levels of stress. One hundred law yers completed a structured self-administered questionnaire that measu red their personal and social resources, use of problem-focused and em otion-focused coping strategies, and appraisals of the stressfulness o f the situation. Results revealed generally strong support for the mai n effects model in the prediction of employee levels of anxiety and de pression. Lower levels of anxiety were linked to judgements of lower l evels of organizational change, greater self-confidence, greater inter nality of control beliefs and less use of emotion-focused coping strat egies. Lower levels of depression in employees were also Linked to jud gements of lower levels of organizational change, greater use of resou rces and less appraised stress. There was only limited support for the buffering effects model. Due to the small size of the sample, the fin dings need to be explored further in other contexts.