Acta Universitatis Danubius. Œconomica, Vol 8, No 1 (2012)

Abstract

Abstract.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the importance of coping strategies on the perception of occupational stress and staff satisfaction with the organization within a stressful environment like that of a military-type of organization. In the theoretical part of this study we have addressed the following issues: organizational usefulness of personal coping strategies in human resource streamlining process, the role of individual characteristics in coping development and the manner of designing / strategic use of the coping. The main objectives of this research are: 1) analyze the perception on occupational stress in the military employees depending in their coping skills development and 2) assess the impact of coping upon staff satisfaction with the organization. For this study we have used 60 subjects (executives in the same department) and organized them into two groups of 30 subjects each. For the first group we have held for one whole week daily training and coaching sessions on coping strategy design and application. Two weeks after the last training session, subjects of both groups were assessed by means of the occupational stress indicator, which has been adapted to the purpose and the environment covered by this research, with observations collected and analyzed in terms of frequency and correlation for each group. The comparative analysis of the observations obtained from the two study groups (trained and untrained) has revealed that the use of coping strategies will lower the intensity of personal and occupational stress while increasing satisfaction with the organization, leading to increased ability of the staff to concentrate and act. The study of coping skills in an occupational environment characterized by diversity of activities, extremely high expectations and the large size of the organization enables the formulation of conclusions regarding the influence of personal coping strategies on demanding and highly professionalized organizational environments.