abilities to meet work demands and to
cope with any subsequent stress. The need
for more information on coping is widely
recognised (see, for example, Dewe,
2000), but relatively less attention has
been paid to the need better to under-
stand the concept of work ability or com-
petence, although this is being flagged in
relation to ageing research (e.g., Griffiths,
1999a; Ilmarinen & Rantanen, 1999)