AStudyOfHealthcareEmployeesOpinionsAboutStress.docVIP

A Study of HealthCare Employees’ Opinions about Stress Patterns in the UAE Belal Barhem Abu Dhabi University, College of Business Administration Hassan Younies UAE University, College of Business and Economics This study aims to investigate workplace stress and its related patterns (sources, patient’s interaction, and coping strategies) among health care employees in the UAE. A sample of 175 respondents from different health organizations in the public and private sectors of health care in the UAE participated in the study. The results show significant relationships between role ambiguity and age and between role conflict and age and marital status. The patients as a source of workplace stress constitute the only factor related to the nature of the job and to income. The correlation and regression analysis for coping strategies revealed that self-knowledge as a coping strategy related significantly to the nature of the job and the years of experience. Wide interests were affected significantly by age, marital status and the nature of the job; and flexibility and being active and productive similarly related significantly to the type of organization. KEY WORDS: UAE, work stress, health care Introduction Workplace stress is a continual problem facing managers at all levels in all types of organization. It generates increasing public and media concern and its cost at work is significantly increasing. Although stress is inherent in life (Modern Business Report, 1975) and human behavior (Auerbach and Gramling, 1998), workplace stress is not confined to the workplace, but it is frequently brought home as well (Doby and Caplan, 1995). Increasingly, employers, trade unions, and health and safety representatives at work are finding guidance on the nature and causes of the problem and on the organizational requirements relating to its prevention and control. A number of factors have to be considered in the study of stress, for example, the multidimensionality of the natur