Adaptive resources of subjects with different strategies for choosing a way of life in a stress situation of organizational changes

Background. The modern world is characterized by instability, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Therefore, a successful development of an organization requires organizational changes, which provoke the necessity of adaptation for people working in this organization. The study of specific adaptive resources revealed the benefits of a differentiated approach to personnel undergoing organizational changes. The differentiation of the sample depending on the strategies for choosing a way of life is justified. Aim. The paper aims to study the specifics of adaptive resources in the context of organizational changes and the features of experiencing stress, tolerance to uncertainty and resilience. Materials and methods. The study involved 208 employees of a large industrial enterprise in Chelyabinsk (of which 135 females and 73 males). The following methods were used during the study: typology for a personal choice of a way of life by V. Gryazeva-Dobshinskaya, A.S. Maltseva; the Psychological Stress Measure (PSM) by L. Lemyrr, R. Tessier, L. Fillion (adapted by N.E. Vodopyanova); the Hardiness test by S. Maddi (adapted by D. A. Leontiev, E. V. Rasskazova); the tolerance to uncertainty scale adapted by E.G. Lukovitskaya. For statistical processing, discriminant and factor analysis were used. Results. General (nonspecific) adaptive resources were revealed: in all subjects regardless of their strategies for choosing a way of life, an inverse correlation was found between stress exposure and resilience as stress resistance resources. Specific adaptive resources were identified: subjects of a hedonistic type had a positive attitude towards new, diverse situations in life and were characterized by a preference for uncertainty; subjects of a value-oriented type were characterized by an arbitrary level of attitude to uncertain and complex situations; creative subjects demonstrated a set of properties, including “challenge” and all the components of “uncertainty tolerance”.