Employee stress litigation: The UK experience

This paper considers the extent to which stress-induced illness can be regarded as a personal injury that could give rise to civil action for damages against employers in the UK. It outlines the results of a brief survey of personal injury solicitors, which indicates that claims are already being initiated by employees who allege they have suffered a stress-induced illness. The potential for claims within industrial tribunal cases that have already been decided is also examined. Consideration is given to the hurdles that litigants will have to surmount, such as proving that their condition was in fact caused by some feature of their working conditions, showing that it was foreseeable that they would suffer a stress-based injury, and demonstrating that their employer was in some way at fault. This leads to a questioning of what employers can do to protect themselves from such claims, or at least defend them successfully. The paper points out that success is likely to depend heavily upon the quality of expert medical opinion, and also upon policy conditions that may influence those adjudicating on such cases. It is concluded that the cost of losing claims may be significant, and that employees who ignore the warning signs do so at their peril.     

The Uniqueness of the Child–Father Attachment Relationship: Fathers' Sensitive and Challenging Play as a Pivotal Variable in a 16-year Longitudinal Study

This longitudinal study of forty‐four families explored fathers’ as compared to mothers’ specific contribution to their children's attachment representation at ages 6, 10, and 16 years. In toddlerhood, fathers’ and mothers’ play sensitivity was evaluated with a new assessment, the sensitive and challenging interactive play scale (SCIP). Fathers’ SCIP scores were predicted by fathers’ caregiving quality during the first year, were highly consistent across 4 years, and were closely linked to the fathers’ own internal working model of attachment. Qualities of attachment as assessed in the Strange Situation to both parents were antecedents for children's attachment security in the Separation Anxiety Test at age 6. Fathers’ play sensitivity and infant–mother quality of attachment predicted children's internal working model of attachment at age 10, but not vice versa. Dimensions of adolescents’ attachment representations were predicted by fathers’ play sensitivity only. The results confirmed our main assumption that fathers’ play sensitivity is a better predictor of the child's long‐term attachment representation than the early infant–father security of attachment. The ecological validity of measuring fathers’ sensitive and challenging interactive play behavior as compared to infant proximity seeking in times of distress is highlighted. Findings are discussed with respect to a wider view on attachment in that both parents shape their children's psychological security but each in his or her unique way.     

Life-threatening disability in adolescence: Adjusting to a limited future

This paper describes a medical social worker's efforts over one and a half years to help a client adjust to a neurological disorder. Prior to social work services, the young woman had never discussed her disability, which began in adolescence, with anyone outside the family, and communication within the family was seriously compromised by their perception of disability as a stigma. Lacking the opportunity to mourn the loss of her physical abilities, she became isolated and depressed, and acted out aggressive thoughts and fantasies within the family system. Social work intervention helped the client to re-work the original trauma of diagnosis, which led to the development of a healthier defensive structure and new coping mechanisms.     

Determinants of perceived occupational stress among Chinese offshore oil workers

This is the first comprehensive study to explore the determinants of perceived sources of occupational stress among workers in the rapidly expanding Chinese offshore oil industry. In this study we surveyed 561 Chinese workers in a state-owned oil company using a questionnaire that measured occupational stress and Type A personality behaviour (TABP), social support and other socio-demographic data. Occupational stress was assessed by the Occupational Stress Scale, adapted from the questionnaire developed in previous studies (Cooper & Sutherland, 1987; Sutherland & Cooper, 1996). Using factor analyses, we identified nine sources of stress: 'interface between job and family/social life'; 'career and achievement'; 'safety'; 'management problems and relationship with workmates'; 'physical environment of workplace'; 'living environment'; 'managerial role'; 'ergonomics'; and 'organizational structure'. We performed hierarchical regression analyses on each source of stress with variables reflecting socio-demographic characteristics, TABP and social support. Better-educated workers perceived more stress from the interface between their job and family or social life and career achievement, but less stress from ergonomics. Type A workers perceived more stress from career achievement and the living environment. Social support was significantly associated with four sources of stress. Workers with different job titles perceived stress from different sources. Our findings imply that, in the stress management of offshore oil workers, different strategies and methods could be applied to different occupational groups, and to workers with different personalities and socio-demographic characteristics.     

Parents,Perceptions and Belonging: Exploring Flexible Working among UK Fathers and Mothers

This paper advances knowledge regarding how fathers and mothers perceive and experience flexible working opportunities. It does this through applying the theoretical concept ‘belonging’ to ‘Parsonian’ classifications of parenting and work. In so doing it makes transparent the misconceptions and inequities which exist among parents and their organizational environments. Focusing initially on a qualitative study of fathers’ experience of working flexibly, the paper shows how fathers felt marginalized from the possibilities of flexible work due to line managers’ assumptions that men belonged to an ‘instrumental’ economic provider group. The paper contributes a new angle to debate by articulating how fathers perceived employed mothers as belonging to an ‘expressive’ child‐oriented group, with privileged access to flexibility. However, drawing upon a study of maternity and flexible work we query fathers’ assumptions that flexibility was easily available to mothers, suggesting that fathers’ perceptions of maternal privilege were misconceived. While mothers were categorized as belonging within an ‘expressive’ group associated with childcare, they were nevertheless discouraged from accessing flexibility. Inequities between women and men (with regard to flexibility) thus appeared to be less significant than fathers supposed.     

Firm size and board diversity

This study seeks to understand the relation between firm size and supervisory board composition. Specifically, we ask if and how firm size influences occupational and international background diversity in supervisory boards. Relying on resource dependence theory and theories of organizational behavior, we hypothesize that board diversity with respect to directors’ occupational background will increase with firm size, while the relation between firm size and board diversity with respect to directors’ international background will be concave. Using archival data for supervisory board members of 151 German firms listed in the German stock exchange indices DAX, MDAX, SDAX and TecDAX for the business year 2005, we find empirical support for our hypotheses: Both, occupational and international background diversity increase with increasing firm size, but international background diversity does so at decreasing rates.     

The role of social support when giving up drug abuse: a female perspective

This article contains a presentation and analysis of the results from two qualitative studies, which examined female drug abusers' everyday lives and the social support available to them within their close relationships. Both studies concerned women who were participating in work-training or treatment programmes and who were in the process of giving up drug abuse. The two main questions concerned the supply of social support from the women's social networks and whether the amount of support available or lack of support had any impact on the exit process. Social support within different relationships of the women's social networks is presented, as well as different types of professional social support and treatment. The results in relation to previous research about female drug abusers and social support from gender and class perspectives are discussed. Conclusions about three important factors when creating a new life after drug abuse are drawn.