Exploring the relationships between appraisals of stressful encounters and the associated emotions in a work setting

Abstract

Exploring work stress using a transactional perspective requires researchers to consider not just the role of appraisal of a stressful encounter but also the relationship of this appraisal with emotions. This research sets out to explore the appraisal-emotion relationship in a work setting. Using data from 174 civic administrators from New Zealand, sequential tree analysis (which presents patterns in a system of hierarchical ordering) was used to create the pattern of appraisals of stress associated with each of three emotions: anger, anxiety and frustration. The results suggest that if we are to advance our understanding of the appraisal-emotion relationship then future research needs to explore what common characteristics bind together and help shape appraisal patterns, whether some appraisals are more complex than others, and whether some appraisals are more potent than others. The results also raise the question of how best such relationships should be investigated in order to understand the nature of a stressful encounter. In the future, work stress researchers may wish to consider the utility of more context-sensitive measures such as appraisals.