CHAPTER FOUR: SENSE OF COHERENCE (SOC)
4.6.3 How SOC is developed
According to Antonovsky (1987a), SOC develops from infancy and early adulthood, and stabilises around the age of 30 years; remaining relatively stable throughout life. It is acquired from the resources available in the environment including material wealth, intelligence- knowledge, communal support, bonds, ethnic constancy, belief, and a constant set of answers to life’s paradoxes (Wolff & Ratner, 1999). Feldt et al. (2002), citing Antonovsky (1987a), report that the foundation of a strong SOC is laid in childhood through to adulthood by constancy in one’s life experiences (buttressing comprehensibility), load-balance (which boosts manageability) and involvement in making decisions (which bolsters meaningfulness).
This is in line with Weinberg’s (2014) explanation that the human ‘nature-nurture heritage’
impacts a person’s perspective or personal life experience. Weinberg (2014) opines that where this legacy is complete and devoid of lack, then an individual can mingle with his/her peripheral background with meaning and comprehension of realities which could result in sound decisions (Weinberg, 2014). On the other hand, Weinberg added that if the nature-nurture heritage is a result of lack, it is difficult for a person to see things in their proper form and reality thereby leading to inherent failure.
The SOC concept takes cognisance of upbringing and a nurturing environment as the source of a strong or weak SOC. Antonovsky (1979, 1987) proposed that resources present in the environment of nurturing such as wealth, religious beliefs, peace/stability, and so on, impact the level of an individual’s SOC. In agreement with Antonovsky (1987), Latendresse (2009) confirms that a person’s peculiar nature (ways of appraising stressors, coping abilities, and mannerisms) and situations of life (lack, the environment of the place wherein the individual is raised and support systems), add to a person’s life experiences (Cohen et al., 1997).
Additionally, Cederblad et al. (2003) confirm that parents who have robust SOC have the tendency to apply and teach better ways of coping to their offspring due to the fact that they have in their own lives, based on their life inclinations, mastered successfully how to cope with life stressors. They further confirm that the three elements of the SOC, meaningfulness,
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comprehensibility and manageability, contribute significantly to an individual’s ability to manage stressors irrespective of cultural background.
The proponent of the concept (Antonovsky, 1979) suggests that the development of SOC could be traced to childhood (Hofstede, 2010), puberty and youth and then becomes comparatively steady when an individual passes thirty years of age. But Gilbar (1998) reports that SOC is not associated with any particular circumstance, domain of life, timeline or stressor, yet it is a pivotal factor found in the personality of a person which blends towards the attainment of one’s thirtieth birthday. Conversely, Feldt et al. (2003) challenged the stability of the concept based on age and went on to conduct a study to investigate the stability of SOC in a five-year longitudinal study. They found that the constancy (stability) coefficients of SOC were precisely the same after a five-year longitudinal study.
According to Togari et al. (2008), SOC nurtures coping abilities in individuals to effectively cope with issues of life and stressors, while attaining the full potential of growth. They noted further that about one hundred other studies are conducted annually and they contribute to this body of knowledge. They reflect that the concept (SOC) is different from other self-concept theories like self-esteem and self-efficacy by its incorporation of the symbiosis of self and others with the environment (Mechanic, 1994). From Antonovsky’s (1987) perspective, individuals often opt for the experiences and events which strengthen their SOC, so long as the potential of preserving the constancy, intransience plus generality of the extent of the feature could be identified (Antonovsky, 1979; Gilbar, 1998). It is presumably possible therefore that individuals who perceive their work conditions as challenging and are aware of the WLBS in place to assist them in addressing stressors, will choose to use those strategies in order to manage the stressors and achieve WLB.
Feldt, Kinnunen, et al. (2000), citing Antonovsky (1987b), report that SOC gives a conceptual frame for the examination of conditions of the workplace via which abilities to cope can be changed from weaker to stronger or vice-versa, later on in one’s life. In this study, the working conditions that will be examined in light of stressors are role ambiguity/role conflict, absence of autonomy and job stress, which are supported in Antonovsky (1987 b) as among the many factors that shape a person’s level of SOC (Feldt, Kinnunen, et al., 2000). A stress-free job (reversed job stress) can improve a person’s ability to comprehend happenings in the work domain with clarity, by clearly identifying what is required of him/her. This builds capacity and secure feelings concerning the work domain. Ryland and Greenfeld (1991) support the
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argument through their report that high level of SOC is adversely associated to apparent job stress. Kinman (2008), in a study among academics in the UK, found that statistically significant associations were found among SOC, job stressors and health outcomes. Stress creates chaos and conversely affects an individual’s ability to arrange and predict ways of achieving desired goals (Landau, Kay, & Whitson, 2015). To establish the achievement of WLB by individual employees is one of the desired goals of this study.
According to Cunniff and Mostert (2012), individuals with strong SOC exhibit persistence and stable sense of confidence and therefore cope better with stressors (Du Toit, 2002). Antonovsky (1987a, 1993b) emphasises that SOC is more of a health resource, rather than a particular coping technique. Individuals possessing high levels of SOC are not fixated on a particular type of resource or managing technique, but rather they focus on finding ways or strategies that promote great flexibility (Feldt, 1997). Flexibility is one strategy that WLBS adopt to help employees achieve WLB. Therefore, inculcating strategies that promote flexibility among employees can potentially increase employees’ SOC. Kinman (2008) recommends that SOC could be enhanced through strategies that deal with work stressors from the root. In addition, she suggests that based on Antonovsky’s (Perrewé) suggestions to improve SOC, enriched prospects for individual development and involvement in decision-making may result in employee perceptions of better meaningfulness in work, while a sense of manageability could be encouraged through better and efficient work-load administration and increased job autonomy. Similarly, reduction in role stressors, open and fair salary structures and job security could enhance comprehensibility. Kinman (2008) reports that proof that SOC could respond to derived stress-management practices is available (Haraldsson, Fridlund, Baigi, & Marklund, 2005). She finally suggested that the findings of her study recommending programmes that enhance individual resources and help in managing stressors at the source could be considered in protecting employee wellness.
WLBS are benefits available in the workplace to help employees balance their work and family roles. They make resources available which have the capacity to improve on a person’s SOC (Antonovsky, 1987). According to Cunniff and Mostert (2012), individuals with a low level of SOC show the disposition to be challenged by change and exhibit difficulty in adjusting thereto.
They also see the world from a pessimistic perspective and consider demands as stressors (Rothmann & Rothmann, 2006). Strumpfer (1990) is of the opinion that modifying workers’
SOC could improve the way they see themselves, increase their individual development and make way for change. Therefore, building content that should address and improve employees’
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SOC into WLBS could aid the achievement of WLB by those employees having weaker SOC, which is capable of being modified by the strategies.
This study is based on professional level employees at a municipality in the South African public sector, most of whom are confronted daily by work and family stressors and the need to achieve WLB. The study takes cognisance of apartheid and its effect on the SOC of individual employees by appraising the connection between WLB and SOC. The aim for examining the role of SOC in this study was primarily because it is indicated in the literature that most individuals daily contend with stressors, and SOC is discovered to be a dispositional buffering influence in this perspective.