COMPARISON OF PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS AND COPING STRATEGIES BETWEEN NURSE MANAGERS AND BUSINESS WOMEN MANAGERS.
Contributors: University of Denver.
Published: 1982
Number of pages: 108
Subjects: Education, Educational Psychology.; Women middle managers -- Psychology.; Women executives -- Psychology.; Nurse administrators -- Psychology.; Sex role.
Description: With more women entering the labor force, women are assuming new, non-traditional roles which inevitably lead to sex-role conflicts. To adapt to the new roles and resolve the concomitant conflicts, women need to define a new sex role identity and to learn effective and adaptive coping behaviours.

The study compared the personality characteristics and coping strategies of nurse managers in traditionally feminine vocations with business women in traditionally masculine vocations to determine if differences exist between the two groups. The hypotheses studied were: (1) Nurse managers who defined themselves as feminine would utilize primarily coping strategy reactive role behaviour more than business women who defined themselves as feminine; (2) Business women managers who defined themselves as masculine would utilize primarily coping strategy structural role redefinition more than nurse managers who defined themselves as masculine; and (3) Business women managers and nurse managers who defined themselves as androgynous would utilize similar coping strategies.

150 nurse and 150 business women managers were used. Each subject was administered the B.S.R.I. and the Hall Coping with Role Conflict Questionnaire-Interview. A Chi Square test determined the significance of differences between the two groups. The study findings did not validate the research hypotheses. The nurse managers and business women managers were similar in their endorsement of feminine and masculine characteristics and the coping strategy categories used. The androgynous business women managers utilized structural role redefinition coping strategies, whereas the androgynous nurse managers utilized personal role redefinition coping strategies. The androgynous nurse managers greater use of personal role redefinition strategies could be due to their involvement in the "feminine" vocation of nursing where the polarization of masculine and feminine characteristics reflects an inability to fully integrate those characteristics. The androgynous business women managers involvement in masculine, non-traditional vocations may have facilitated the integration of the masculine and feminine characteristics in a more flexible and situationally adaptive manner.

The study also suggests reevaluation of the use of the B.S.R.I. and its ability to identify whether androgynous individuals utilize their feminine and masculine characteristics in an adaptive, effective and situationally appropriate manner.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-04, Section: A, page: 1028.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF DENVER, 1982.

School code: 0061.