TITLE:
Coping Mechanisms to Mitigate Occupational Stress by Women in Accra Metropolis
AUTHORS:
Charity Odumale Roberts, Kwasi Sarfo, Isaac Nyarko Kwakye
KEYWORDS:
Stress, Occupation, Relational-Coping, Recreation, Coping, Music
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.9 No.6,
June
23,
2021
ABSTRACT: Everyone experiences stress in different life situations. In particular,
occupational stress affects the performance of employees positively or negatively
depending on their perception and the personality traits. This paper addresses
how women in managerial positions in the Accra Metropolis manage the occupational
stresses they experience in the discharge of their duties. The convenient
purposive sampling technique was used to select 10 females from 150 women in managerial positions in government
institutions in the Accra Metropolis. A structured interview guide based on
Occupational Stress Inventory-Revised OSI-R was used to collect data from the 10 women and analysed using factor analysis. The study
revealed that respondents managed their stresses by employing recreation,
social support, and self-care. Even
though, some of the women unknowingly adopted rationalization or
rational-cognitive defence mechanisms to cope with the stresses they
experience, none of them used popular stress reducing techniques such as yoga
and physical exercise to cope with their stresses. The resilience of these women coupled with the formulation and
implementation of formidable policies, provision of conducive working
environment and the requisite resources by employers will go a long way to
alleviate the women’s stresses while promoting their good health and
productivity. This research paper
addresses the strategies adopted by Ghanaian women in managerial position to
manage their stresses and proposes that individual differences and religiosity
of persons should be taken into consideration when counselling people on stress
management.