組織中的人際壓力源：垂直與水平來源之探討

Abstract

在當今重視工作生活品質和員工身心健康的情形下，「壓力」顯然是職場生活中必須面臨的問題。過去研究對職場壓力的關注點無非在工作負荷量的多寡、工作角色壓力、環境要求等困擾上，將工作本身視為職場壓力的核心來源，卻忽略了員工本身這一塊「人」的議題，在強調權力差距和角色規範的華人情境中，組織成員的互動方式受到上下不對等關係與對偶角色所支配著，然而，源於人際互動的壓力事件始終沒有得到進一步檢視。因此，本研究採關鍵事例法蒐集組織中的人際互動壓力事件，以探討人際壓力源本質、垂直─水平壓力源的差異與不同職級所造成的效果。本研究跨不同產業與部門收得299份有效問卷，符合本研究定義的問卷佔160份，含人際描述事例284則。研究結果發現：(1)人際壓力源包含六個向度，分別是政治行為、負向口語、危諧之舉、情緒失衡、考量自我和逾越分際；(2)垂直與水平壓力源的內涵有所區隔：主管─部屬關係的相對權力差距為人際壓力的核心，而同事之間的人際壓力則與競爭─合作有關；(3)「負向口語」和「情緒失衡」受到來源為上司的顯著預測，「政治行為」和「危諧之舉」受到來源為同事的顯著預測，而「考量自我」和「逾越分際」較不受來源對象的影響；(4)不同職級者皆感受到頗多的「政治行為」、「負向口語」和「危諧之舉」，中高階主管主要感受到「危諧之舉」，基層主管和低階職員主要感受到「政治行為」，另外，基層主管反應為數不少的「考量自我」。最後，說明本研究的研究貢獻與限制，並對未來研究方向與管理實務的意涵提供些許建議。

Under the circumstances of emphasizing life quality of workplace and workers’ physical and mental health, “stress” obviously is the inevitable problem in the work life. Past researches’ foci of occupational stress are workload, role stress, situational demands and so on, viewing work itself as the central source of occupational stress, ignoring the field of “human” issue of workers themselves. In the Chinese situation of highlighting power distance and role, the members’ interactional styles are dominated by the unequal vertical relationship and dyad roles. However, the stressful incidents resulted from interpersonal interaction aren’t further examined all the time. Therefore, this study collects the interpersonal stressful incidents within the organizations by Critical Incident Technique, so as to explore the constitutions of interpersonal stressors, the difference between vertical and horizontal stressors and the effects caused by different positions. This study retrieves 299 effective surveys with 160 ones corresponding to the research definition, including 284 descriptive interpersonal incidents. Here are the findings: (1) Interpersonal stressors include six dimensions: political behaviors, negative communication, harmony-threatening behaviors, emotional disequilibrium, egocentricity and going-beyond-boundary. (2) There’s some distinction between vertical and horizontal stressors: the relative power distance between supervisors and subordinates is the core of interpersonal stress, and the interpersonal stress between colleagues is in relation to competition and cooperation. (3) “negative communication” and “emotional disequilibrium” are significantly predicted by the supervisors, “political behaviors” and “harmony-threatening behaviors” are significantly predicted by colleagues, and “egocentricity” and “going-beyond-boundary” are not influenced by the sources. (4) Workers through different positions all perceive much “political behaviors”, “negative communication” and “harmony-threatening behaviors”. Senior managers mainly perceive “harmony-threatening behaviors”, however, first line managers and low-positioned employees mainly perceive “political behaviors”. Besides, first line managers respond numerous “egocentricity”. Finally, contributions and limitations are discussed, and suggestions are provided for future studies and managerial implications.