Conflict, identity and sense of coherence in managers: a case study from South Africa

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to initiate the discourse on conflict, identity and health, specifically with regard to the sense of coherence (SOC) in South African Coloured managers, thereby contributing towards improving these issues in a culture-specific, organisational context. More specifically, the aim is to present selected research results from an explorative qualitative case study in the frame of recent theoretical discourses. Certain components of the SOC contribute to managers' coping with, and staying healthy in cross-cultural conflict situations. Results from the case study demonstrate how the identity of South African Coloured managers is affected in (cross-cultural) conflicts, as well as how these managers create SOC components, such as comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness, to constructively cope with cross-cultural conflicts, thereby enhancing their personal health.

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Racial Differences in Physical and Mental Health: Socio-economic Status, Stress and Discrimination.

David R. Williams, Yan Yu, James S. Jackson … (1997)

This article examines the extent to which racial differences in socio-economic status (SES), social class and acute and chronic indicators of perceived discrimination, as well as general measures of stress can account for black-white differences in self-reported measures of physical and mental health. The observed racial differences in health were markedly reduced when adjusted for education and especially income. However, both perceived discrimination and more traditional measures of stress are related to health and play an incremental role in accounting for differences between the races in health status. These findings underscore the need for research efforts to identify the complex ways in which economic and non-economic forms of discrimination relate to each other and combine with socio-economic position and other risk factors and resources to affect health.