Workplace Grief

Introduction

Definition of Terms

Grief: A social, psychological, and spiritual adaptation to many forms of loss not only death. A normal and universal reaction even if the grief is not recognized or acknowledged by others. For the purposes of this study, grief, and mourning will be used interchangeably.

Mourning: A socially and culturally influenced grief reaction. Often used interchangeably with grief in literature, they will also be used that way in this study.

Bereaved or Bereavement: The state of having suffered a loss.

The following definitions are taken from Rando's book, Grief, Dying and Death (1984), in her analyses of Averill (1968), Fulton (1971), Raphael (1983), and Parkes and Weiss (1983, pp. 37, 59-62). They have been alphabetized here for the convenience of the reader.

Abbreviated Grief: A short-lived but normal form of grief. It may occur because of the immediate replacement of the lost person (e.g., Marrying a new spouse soon after the first one dies) or an insufficient attachment to the lost person (e.g., the individual was never that attached to the person in the first place).

Absent Grief: In this situation feelings of grief and mourning processes are totally absent. It is as if the death never occurred at all.

Adaptive Denial: A form of behavior in which the person is well aware of the crisis and its implications, but chooses to focus on the strengths and opportunities remaining rather than dwell on the unpleasantness.

Anitcipatory Grief: In apprehension of a future loss, a form of normal grief can occur that includes similar symptoms and processes of grief following a loss.

Chronic Grief: When the mourner continuously exhibits intense grief reactions that would be appropriate in the early stages of loss. Mourning fails to draw to its natural conclusion and it almost seems that the bereaved keeps the deceased alive through grief.

Conflicted Grief: An exaggeration or distortion of one or more of the manifestations of normal grief, while other aspects of the grief may be suppressed at the same time. Two common patterns are extreme anger and extreme guilt. This grief reaction can be abnormally prolonged and is often associated with a previously dependent or ambivalent relationship with the deceased.

Decathexis: Detaching and modifying emotional ties so that new relationships can be established and the mourner is not tied in a debilitating way with someone who is no longer alive.

Delayed Grief: When normal or conflicted grief may be deferred for an extended period of time, up to years, especially if there are pressing responsibilities or the mourner feels he cannot deal with the process at the time.

Inhibited Grief: A lasting inhibition of many of the manifestations of normal grief, with the appearance of other symptoms such as somatic complaints in their place. The mourner may be able to relinquish and mourn only certain aspects of the deceased and not others, for example, the positive aspects but not the negative ones.

Unanticipated Grief: A form of grief that occurs after a sudden, unforeseen loss and is so disruptive that recovery is usually complicated. Mourners are unable to grasp the full implications of the loss. Their adaptive capabilities are seriously assaulted and they suffer extreme feelings of bewilderment, anxiety, self-reproach, and depression that render them unable to function normally in any area of their lives. There is difficulty in accepting the loss, despite intellectual recognition of the death, and the death may continue to seem inexplicable. Grief symptomology persisted much longer than usual.

Other terms used in the study are:

Eustress: A word coined by an endocrinologist at the University of Montreal, Dr. Hans Selye, frequently referred to as the "father of stress", referring to stress that is good or produces a positive outcome. Rather than anxiety, positive stimulation is experienced.

Management by Objectives (MBO): Pioneered by Peter Drucker (1954), MBO is both philosophy of management and a management process that focuses upon the setting of goals, action planning to achieve these goals, and periodic review of the degree of goal attainment obtained.

Organizational Climate: A set of properties in the work environment related to employees' perceptions of how the organization deals with them.

Psychological Stress: A reference to affective behavior and physiological responses to aversive stimuli in the environment.