Title: The effects of mentoring to reduce stress in a state IT department during times of transformational change

Authors: Cynthia Riemenschneider, Myria Allen, Margaret Reid, Deborah Armstrong

Addresses: Information Systems Department, Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas, 204 Business Building, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA. ' Department of Communication, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA. ' Department of Political Science, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA. ' Department of Management Information Systems, The College of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA

Abstract: Over the last two decades, public sector organisations have responded to increasing demands for reforms and downsizing with accelerating cycles of organisational change. Researchers have suggested that public sector managers need to do more in assisting employees to cope with the change-induced stress. This study examined whether mentoring moderated the relationship between increased workloads associated with rapid organisational change and the subjective stress experienced by the employees. The study was conducted among public sector Information Technology employees of a south-central state in the United States and found positive relationships between career mentoring and subjective stress and between perceived workload and subjective stress. The relationship between perceived workload and subjective stress was moderated by psychosocial mentoring but not by career mentoring. Contrary to expectations, those who received more psychosocial mentoring reported experiencing more subjective stress during conditions of high perceived workload than did those who received less psychosocial mentoring.

Keywords: career mentoring; information technology; psychosocial mentoring; state government; subjective stress; transformational change; learning; organisational change; stress reduction; IT departments; public sector; increased workloads; USA; United States; perceived workload.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLC.2006.013910

International Journal of Learning and Change, 2006 Vol.1 No.4, pp.429 - 445

Published online: 03 Jun 2007 *

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