Organizational-level interventions to reduce occupational stressors

Abstract

Occupational stress research continues to grow, and is increasingly being used to inform national policy on worker health and well-being. Most models of occupational stress emphasize notions of person-environment fit. Two approaches for intervention to minimize adverse consequences of occupational stress follow from such models. One emphasizes the strengthening and enhancement of indwiduals and their resources, the other emphasizes the reduction ofcommon workplace-based sources ofoccupational stress. This paper reviews 10 organizational-level interventions to reduce stress at work which have been examined in various field studies. These interventions were generally found to have positive effects, and, given the limited success of individual-level interventions in addressing occupational sources of stress, should be encouraged.     

Information systems and occupational stress: a theoretical framework

The information systems (IS) profession is a stressful profession. However, there is little theoretical or empirical research on the effects of occupational stress on IS professionals. A major reason is because IS professionals and researchers are unaware of the consequences of occupational stress and unfamiliar with the occupational stress literature. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework of occupational stress for IS professionals. Based on a review of the IS, psychology, and general management literature, 12 occupational stress models are identified. These stress models are analyzed along the two dimensions of focus and theoretical foundation. The analysis shows that most of the occupational stress models consider stress to be the consequence of the interaction between an environmental stimulus and the idiosyncratic response of the individual. Further analysis of these models suggests that nine key points are critical in developing a theoretical framework of occupational stress for IS professionals. A mapping of how the existing stress models incorporate the nine key points is also presented. The findings of this paper can provide a theoretical basis for further research on the occupational stress of IS professionals. Finally, an agenda for further research into this issue is presented.     

Determinants of perceived occupational stress among Chinese offshore oil workers

This is the first comprehensive study to explore the determinants of perceived sources of occupational stress among workers in the rapidly expanding Chinese offshore oil industry. In this study we surveyed 561 Chinese workers in a state-owned oil company using a questionnaire that measured occupational stress and Type A personality behaviour (TABP), social support and other socio-demographic data. Occupational stress was assessed by the Occupational Stress Scale, adapted from the questionnaire developed in previous studies (Cooper & Sutherland, 1987; Sutherland & Cooper, 1996). Using factor analyses, we identified nine sources of stress: 'interface between job and family/social life'; 'career and achievement'; 'safety'; 'management problems and relationship with workmates'; 'physical environment of workplace'; 'living environment'; 'managerial role'; 'ergonomics'; and 'organizational structure'. We performed hierarchical regression analyses on each source of stress with variables reflecting socio-demographic characteristics, TABP and social support. Better-educated workers perceived more stress from the interface between their job and family or social life and career achievement, but less stress from ergonomics. Type A workers perceived more stress from career achievement and the living environment. Social support was significantly associated with four sources of stress. Workers with different job titles perceived stress from different sources. Our findings imply that, in the stress management of offshore oil workers, different strategies and methods could be applied to different occupational groups, and to workers with different personalities and socio-demographic characteristics.     

Sources of stress in the national health services: A comparison of seven occupational groups

This paper reports a comparative study of sources of occupational stress affecting the seven major occupational groups within the National Health Service. The groups are compared on seven dependent variables. These are the six sub-categories of stressors identified by Cooper and Marshall (1978) and measured by the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI) (Cooper et al. 1988), and a total stress score that is derived by summing scores for each of the six sub-categories. Occupational groups differed significantly (p.05) in only two of the six sub-categories. In these cases occupational groups not normally associated with front-line care reported higher levels of stress than either doctors or nurses. The results show that high levels of occupational stress are experienced by all occupational groups within the NHS and the subsequent discussion argues for a more progressive research policy that gives adequate attention to 'lower status' groups, such as ancillary, works and maintenance, and administrative and clerical.     

Occupational stress in universities: staff perceptions of the causes, consequences and moderators of stress

In recent years, the Australian university sector has undergone large-scale organizational change, including restructuring, downsizing and government funding cuts. At the same time, research from across the globe reports an alarming increase in the occupational stress experienced by university staff. We report on the first phase of a longitudinal investigation of occupational stress. A total of 22 focus groups were conducted with a representative sample of 178 academic and general staff from 15 Australian universities. The groups focused on understanding staff 's experience of occupational stress, and perceptions of the sources, consequences and moderators of stress. Both general and academic staff reported a dramatic increase in stress during the previous 5 years. As a group, academic staff reported higher levels of stress than general staff. Five major sources of stress were identified including: insufficient funding and resources; work overload; poor management practice; job insecurity; and insufficient recognition and reward. The majority of groups reported that job-related stress was having a deleterious impact on their professional work and personal welfare. Aspects of the work environment (support from co-workers and management, recognition and achievement, high morale, flexible working conditions), and personal coping strategies (stress management techniques, work/ non-work balance, tight role boundaries and lowering standards), were reported to help staff cope with stress. The findings provide a timely insight into the experience of stress within universities.     

Occupational stress in universities: Staff perceptions of the causes,consequences and moderators of stress

In recent years, the Australian university sector has undergone large-scale organizational change, including restructuring, downsizing and government funding cuts. At the same time, research from across the globe reports an alarming increase in the occupational stress experienced by university staff. We report on the first phase of a longitudinal investigation of occupational stress. A total of 22 focus groups were conducted with a representative sample of 178 academic and general staff from 15 Australian universities. The groups focused on understanding staff 's experience of occupational stress, and perceptions of the sources, consequences and moderators of stress. Both general and academic staff reported a dramatic increase in stress during the previous 5 years. As a group, academic staff reported higher levels of stress than general staff. Five major sources of stress were identified including: insufficient funding and resources; work overload; poor management practice; job insecurity; and insufficient recognition and reward. The majority of groups reported that job-related stress was having a deleterious impact on their professional work and personal welfare. Aspects of the work environment (support from co-workers and management, recognition and achievement, high morale, flexible working conditions), and personal coping strategies (stress management techniques, work/ non-work balance, tight role boundaries and lowering standards), were reported to help staff cope with stress. The findings provide a timely insight into the experience of stress within universities.     

Changing work environments: Innovative coping responses to occupational stress

To what degree do individuals adapt their work environments in response to occupational stress? The research reported below addresses this question through a qualitative questionnaire survey that assesses the extent to which innovation is used as a stress coping strategy amongst health care professionals (community and hospital nurses, administration workers and paramedics; N = 333). Overall, 32% of these workers reported a coping response subsequently coded as innovative, and significant between-occupational group differences in the frequency of usage were found. Overwork, procedural difficulties and dealing with others were the stressors eliciting the greatest number of innovative coping responses. The study indicated that such responses were perceived as an effective and important way of dealing with occupational stress. It is concluded that stress management programmes that encourage individuals to change workplace factors through innovation, would be a worthwhile addition to interventions that emphasize individual adaptation to stressful work environments.     

Incorporating multiple levels of analysis into occupational stress research

In recent years, more and more research in the organizational sciences has incorporated a multiple levels of analysis perspective (e.g. individual, group and organizational) into models of organizational behaviour. The study of occupational stress, however, has continued to focus almost exclusively on the individual level of analysis. In this paper, the authors contend that incorporating a multi-level perspective in the study of occupational stress has theoretical as well as practical value. The authors illustrate their position using results from an occupational stress research programme conducted by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.     

The externalized nature of teachers' occupational stress and its association with job satisfaction

The dimension of 'blame' was explored as part of a conceptual framework for teachers' externalization of occupational stress. It was proposed that teachers allocate principal responsibility for their occupational stress to sources external to the individual. The authors suggest that teachers externalize their dissatisfaction to these (external to self) domains. This hypothesis was explored with a sample (n=111) of teachers in the service of the New South Wales Department of Education, Australia. A survey, composed of multiple items, dealt separately with the phenomena of perceived occupational satisfaction-dissatisfaction and stress. Four stress factors were isolated. These were named: personal, student, school and external (to school). These factors were consistent with the authors' hypothesis that teachers generally externalize blame for their stress. Further examination of the association between the satisfaction factor scores and the stress factor scores revealed significant canonical correlations. The main contributors to the correlation between stress and satisfaction factors were the personal domain (stress) and income (satisfaction) and the school domain (stress) and school culture (satisfaction).     

Sources of occupational stress in the police

This paper describes an empirical study (n = 954) of occupational stress conducted in a large provincial English police force. Conceptual distinctions were made between stressors, i.e., potential external sources of adverse reactions; felt stress, i.e., self-perceived negative impact; and distress, i.e., self-reported symptoms of anxiety, depression, social dysfunction, and somatic disturbance. Findings indicates that overall exposure rates are highest for organizational and management stressors rather than routine operational duties. Differential rates of exposure, felt stress, and distress are reported for different ranks of officers. The paper confirms the nature of postulated sources of police stress from earlier studies and extends analysis to differentiate between exposure to stressors and experience of distress.     

Sources of occupational stress: An examination of British prison officers

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify the major sources of occupational stress experienced by British prison officers and to examine their effects on overall job stress and job satisfaction. Eighty-one officers from HM Prison, Maidstone, took part in a questionnaire study, and three main findings emerged. First, lack of stiff and resources were ranked as the most likely sources of stress, and areas of the prison where confrontations with inmates were most likely to occur were ranked as the most stressful locations. Second, officers who reported the highest levels of job stress overall had the lowest job satisfaction and the greatest wish for more emphasis on control and security of inmates. Third, when the sources of stress were factor-analysed and used to predict overall job stress and job satisfaction, using multiple regression, the sìngle most important predictor of job stress was found to be the factor labelled 'confrontations with inmates' and, for dissatisfaction with the job, it was 'poor morale and resentments'. The paper discusses the theoretical implications of the findings.     

Lay representations of workplace stress: What do people really mean when they say they are stressed?

An individual's beliefs in relation to stress are likely to affect their perceptions, and hence their work-related actions (such as absenteeism). In this paper, lay representations of work stress were investigated utilising semi-structured interviews with 45 individuals from a range of occupations. The meaning of occupational stress, its antecedents and outcomes, and ways by which it may be managed were examined. Dominant factors were established through the use of thematic content analysis. Similarities and differences were found between lay and professional discourses on work stress. Results indicate that lay representations of occupational stress are multi-faceted. Little consensus was found in how participants interpreted the concept: a diverse range of personal, environmental, and societal factors was highlighted. A different (and arguably more complex) range of definitions of job stress and the manner in which it impacts on individuals was revealed than has been reported in previous studies. The causes of stress at work were perceived as being predominantly organisational, but the impact of stress on the employee was more salient than organisational outcomes. Paradoxically, secondary and tertiary stress management techniques were thought to be more effective than interventions designed to prevent stress at work. Interviewees with line management responsibility were more likely to emphasise individual responsibility for managing stress, most others maintained that the individual and the organisation are equally responsible. The potential value of examining lay representations of job stress to the discipline of Occupational Health Psychology is discussed and suggestions for future research are made.     

Are lay theories of work stress related to distress? A longitudinal study in the British workforce

The potential stressfulness of an event may depend on how it is appraised by the individual, although up to now there have been no longitudinal studies on the relationship between lay beliefs concerning work stress and perceived strain. This longitudinal study examines how lay theories of work stress at baseline were related to perceived mental strain at follow up. The present paper builds on an earlier study (Furnham, 1997), using a longitudinal design and a much larger population of the British workforce (N=2270). Lay beliefs were assessed by a scale consisting of 36 items. Factor analysis gave a solution with five factors on perceived causes and four factors of perceived alleviation of work stress. Linear multiple regression analysis revealed significant relations between lay beliefs of work stress at baseline and perceived mental strain as well as job stress 14 months later. The effect sizes were small but of a similar magnitude to those that have been found, for example, in occupational stress-reducing interventions. A problem with the factor analytic approach was the discrepancies between the factor solutions and the relative importance of the perceived causes of work stress. The results from the study suggest that subjective beliefs about work stress merits further analysis as potentially mediating between 'objective' working conditions and stress outcomes.     

Job Strain, Effort-Reward Imbalance and Mental Distress: a study of occupations in general medical practice

There is increasing evidence to support the predictive power of social epidemiological models such as Effort-Reward Imbalance (Siegrist, 1996) and the Job-Strain Model (Karasek, and Theorell, 1990) for explaining occupational stress, although it has been suggested that the models may have distinctive contributions towards explaining work stress in specific work settings. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the explanatory power of the different models might be enhanced if they were combined. The aim of this paper is to explore these questions by examining the power of the two different models both separately and in combination for explaining job satisfaction and mental distress in general medical practice. This analysis was based on data collected from a postal survey of the members of staff (N=1089, response rate = 70%) of 81 practices, which were randomly selected from all general practices in the National Health Service Executive South East region. The results show that while both models were predictors of mental distress and job satisfaction the models that combined different dimensions were the strongest predictors.     

Occupational health psychology

Abstract

An individual's beliefs in relation to stress are likely to affect their perceptions, and hence their work-related actions (such as absenteeism). In this paper, lay representations of work stress were investigated utilising semi-structured interviews with 45 individuals from a range of occupations. The meaning of occupational stress, its antecedents and outcomes, and ways by which it may be managed were examined. Dominant factors were established through the use of thematic content analysis. Similarities and differences were found between lay and professional discourses on work stress. Results indicate that lay representations of occupational stress are multi-faceted. Little consensus was found in how participants interpreted the concept: a diverse range of personal, environmental, and societal factors was highlighted. A different (and arguably more complex) range of definitions of job stress and the manner in which it impacts on individuals was revealed than has been reported in previous studies. The causes of stress at work were perceived as being predominantly organisational, but the impact of stress on the employee was more salient than organisational outcomes. Paradoxically, secondary and tertiary stress management techniques were thought to be more effective than interventions designed to prevent stress at work. Interviewees with line management responsibility were more likely to emphasise individual responsibility for managing stress, most others maintained that the individual and the organisation are equally responsible. The potential value of examining lay representations of job stress to the discipline of Occupational Health Psychology is discussed and suggestions for future research are made.     

Job Strain,Effort-Reward Imbalance and Mental Distress: A study of occupations in general medical practice

There is increasing evidence to support the predictive power of social epidemiological models such as Effort-Reward Imbalance (Siegrist, 1996) and the Job-Strain Model (Karasek, and Theorell, 1990) for explaining occupational stress, although it has been suggested that the models may have distinctive contributions towards explaining work stress in specific work settings. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the explanatory power of the different models might be enhanced if they were combined. The aim of this paper is to explore these questions by examining the power of the two different models both separately and in combination for explaining job satisfaction and mental distress in general medical practice. This analysis was based on data collected from a postal survey of the members of staff (N=1089, response rate = 70%) of 81 practices, which were randomly selected from all general practices in the National Health Service Executive South East region. The results show that while both models were predictors of mental distress and job satisfaction the models that combined different dimensions were the strongest predictors.     

Qualitative differences in men and women police officers' experience of occupational stress

Gender differences in exposure to sources of occupational stress and experience of adverse consequences are explored in a study of 358 male and 139 female police constables engaged in uniformed patrol or detective duties from one large provincial English police force. Stressors were divided into those arising tiom police operational duties and those deriving tioni organizational and management issues. Women uniformed constables are less likely to be exposed to police operational stresson involving the potential for violence, but ifexposed they report more severe adverse reactions than uniformed policemen. Women unifomied officers and women detectives are more likely to be involved with victims ofviolence or sexual offences and the former report higher levels ofassociated self-perceived stress than their male counterparts. There are relatively few differences in exposure to organizational stressors except that women detectives and uniformed officers report higher rates of sex discrimination and prejudice than policemen. Multivariate analyses show gender and occupational role differences in qualitative features that contribute to reported psychologal distress. Results are discussed in terms of possible explanations for gender differences.     

Why aren't managers concerned about occupational stress?

Abstract

To explain the rarity of workplace stress management interventions, it is thought that managers are not concerned with the risks of occupational stress to health and job performance. Some writers consider either (1) deficiencies in theory, and/or (2) deficiencies in methodology to be the cause of this apparent lack of concern. The aim of this paper is to illustrate another perspective on this issue; that of risk perception. Two perspectives on risk perception are discussed; the psychometric view and the cultural view. The psychometric view suggests that senior managers may underestimate the risks associated with stress. The cultural view suggests that managers may consider stress management to be inappropriate, since individuals, not organizations, should be responsible for coping with stress. Both perspectives indicate that very few managers may consider stress to be a risk that should be actively managed by the organization. The associated disciplines of risk management and particularly risk communication are discussed to suggest ways to overcome lack of managerial interest in stress management.     

Why aren't managers concerned about occupational stress?

To explain the rarity of workplace stress management interventions, it is thought that managers are not concerned with the risks of occupational stress to health and job performance. Some writers consider either (1) deficiencies in theory, and/or (2) deficiencies in methodology to be the cause of this apparent lack of concern. The aim of this paper is to illustrate another perspective on this issue; that of risk perception. Two perspectives on risk perception are discussed; the psychometric view and the cultural view. The psychometric view suggests that senior managers may underestimate the risks associated with stress. The cultural view suggests that managers may consider stress management to be inappropriate, since individuals, not organizations, should be responsible for coping with stress. Both perspectives indicate that very few managers may consider stress to be a risk that should be actively managed by the organization. The associated disciplines of risk management and particularly risk communication are discussed to suggest ways to overcome lack of managerial interest in stress management.     

Evaluating the Efficacy of a Mental Models Approach for Improving Occupational Chemical Risk Protection

Chemical risk protection in the workplace relies partly on informing workers about possible risks using material safety data sheets (MSDS). This article reports on phase 2 of a project (phase 1 reported in Cox et al.), which employed a mental models approach to improve on data sheets as communicative interventions for perchloroethylene in dry cleaning and rosin-based solder flux in the electronics industry within small businesses in the United Kingdom (small enterprises (SEs) < 25 employees in the workplace). It focuses on the efficacy of a multimethod evaluation strategy to assess (1) the capacity of a mental models approach to yield contextually relevant data for intervention design and (2) the effectiveness of the strategy itself in validating the mental models data. The evaluation was conducted using postal questionnaires and semi-structured verbal protocols to provide responses to the alternative intervention content and to prioritize risk messages. User discussion groups were then employed, particularly as a means of establishing whether contextual information could be obtained that would differ qualitatively from the kind elicited through individual (semi) structured methods. We conclude that the mental models approach as part of an iterative process including systematic multimethod evaluation is successful in supporting the design of relevant communications to the users of chemicals. The overall viability of communicative interventions in the context of health and safety in small businesses remains in question. Future research might aim to develop a more holistic approach to interventions in complex occupational contexts.