Dealing with Stressful Work Events: Insights for Managers and Employees

Stressful work events are a daily reality for workers. Given its prevalence, understanding how workers deal with stressful work events is both theoretically and practically imperative to “putting the worker front and center” (Academy of Management, 2023). We extend the extant focus on employees’ responses by exploring both employees’ and managers’ experiences of stressful events, and hence more fully capture workers’ experience. Our symposium gathers international scholars from Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States to investigate workers’ experiences of stressful work events using diverse situations, perspectives, and methodologies. Specifically, our papers investigate (a) employees’ experience of, and responses to managerial inaction as a stressful event, (b) how leadership role occupancy and autonomy influence the specific self-regulation strategies workers pursue to cope with taxing work demands, (c) how the enactment of justice is a form of identity work in managers during challenging work events, (d) how self- and other-directed assessments of identity threat emerge during the stressful situations of layoffs and denied promotions in managers and employees, and (e) how interpersonal justice assists/impedes professors in reacting to negative student feedback. Following the paper presentations, Dr. Laurie Barclay will conclude the symposium with an engaging, interactive discussion that highlights key insights and future research directions. By showcasing theoretical and practical insights into how workers (i.e., employees and managers) and organizations can more effectively manage stressful work situations, we aim to fulfill the Academy of Management’s objective to “putting the worker front and center”.