New Management Systems and the Ambiguous Nature of Resources: A Qualitative Study about Healthcare Middle Managers

Abstract

was first defined in the 1950s by the psychologist Hans Selye and is characterised by a high psychological and physical burden, which can become a problem when an individual's resources are no longer able to compensate for the burden and re-establish balance. The resources that an individual uses to manage activates compensatory mechanisms to help it respond to these demands. If the stress lasts, however, the body's resources begin to be depleted and can no longer fully meet its needsa process of exhaustion begins and the stress becomes detrimental to the individual's health.This understanding of stress leads to two potential types of action to stem the phenomenon. The first strategy involves attempting to do something about the actual cause of the stress, i.e. the context or the specific elements that result in the overload of demands that create the stress: workload, emotional weight, financial problems, and so on. The second strategy, on the other hand, focuses on the individual and his or her capacity to respond to stress in a positive manner, i.e. by mobilising the relevant resources. The research presented here uses Demerouti's Job Demand-Resources Model (JD-R Model) to understand the dynamics of what happens with these resources. We attempt to show how S. Hobfoll's thoughts on resources provide an valuable complement to Demerouti's model with respect to identifying all the various facets of the complex problem of stress. This will be particularly interesting in a management system that is itself a powerful generator of stress. REVIEW ARTICLE