Asia Pacific Journal of Research Vol: I Issue XIV, June 2014 ISSN: 2320-5504, E-ISSN-2347-4793 Page | 124 A STUDY ON RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OCCUPATION STRESS INDEX DIMENSIONS AND COPING STYLES: AN EMPIRICAL ENQUIRY INTO OFFICIALS OF POLICE DEPARTMENT Smt.Rashmi Ram Hunnur, Research Scholar, Jain University, Bangalore & Working as Asst.Professor, Department of Management Studies, Basaveshwar Engineering College, Bagalkot. Dr.M M Bagali, Head, Research in Management, Jain University, Bangalore. ABSTRACT The police department is not an exception to the job stress phase. Inherently, certain research questions arise. For instance, “What causes job stress among police department employees?”, “What are the present coping strategies the employees adopt in police department?”, etc. Number of the years spent with an organization, emotional reactions and coping skills of employees, relationships at work with superiors, colleagues, and subordinates, unreasonable group and political pressure, role overload, role conflict, powerlessness, under participation, intrinsic impoverishment, role ambiguity, poor peer relations, low status etc., are the key variables leading to stress. Infact, the present study will help to develop more appropriate strategies to cope with workplace stress and that these could be incorporated into a more fully integrated set of human resource policies for better performance of police department in the study region. Keywords: Rational, Detached, Avoidance, Emotional Coping Introduction: The word stress gets its name from the Latin word „stringere‟ meaning to draw tight. In the 15 th century, the term was associated with troubles or pain. A century later, the meaning shifted to encompass burden, force or pressure, especially on a person‟s body or soul. In the next century, stress became synonymous with hardship, straits, adversity or affliction. During the 18 th and 19 th centuries, it meant, “force, pressure, strain or strong effort”. Stress has been the subject of many definition and theory. The interactionist model of stress coined by Lazarus & Folkman (1984) was the pioneer among them. They identify three key components in the process: