Individual differences in the perception of occupational stress and their association with blood pressure status

Casual blood pressure (BP) was recorded in a sample of 217 working adults. A questionnaire was used to obtain subjective reports of job stress. comparisons were made between a group with elevated BP and a normotensive group. The high BP group appeared to perceive more stress. In particular, scores on the role conflict, job versus non-job conflict and type A scales reliably differentiated the groups. In contrast, for the job satisfaction items, no difference between the groups was observed. There appeared to be some association between reported occupational stress and BP level.     

Healthy lower backs in the construction industry in Sweden

This corss-sectional study exmaines the relationship between healthy lower and psychosocial and physical factors in a random sample of 1773 male construction workers. Infoamtion on lower back status, lifestyle habits, stress, psychosomatic and psychological symptoms, psychosocizal demands and resoruces and physical workload were collected by means of a postal questionnaire. Measures of psycholocial and physical factors were based on factor analysis of the data. The criterion variable 'healthy lower back' (HLB)—no lifetime history of low back pain—proved to be valid compared with an interview and a physical examination. A total of 216 workers (12%) reported HLB. The prevalance rate decreased significantly with increasing age. The prevalence rate of HLB was 6% among workers reporting high stress levels. It was postively influenced when there was a balance between demands and resoruces. A low level of physical workload also increased the prevalence rate of HLB. When age, lifestyle and physical factors were kept constant in a multivariate analysis high scores on the discretions index and low scores on eh psychosomatic, psychological and stress indices cosntributed significantly to an increase prevalence rate of HLB.     

Chronic strain,daily work stress and pain among workers with rheumatoid arthritis: Does job stress make a bad day worse?

The structure of the job and the daily experience of work are challenges for workers with rheumatoid arthritis. Yet little is known about how these two factors interact to put workers with chronic pain at risk for worse pain on a given day. This exploratory 20 workday diary study of 27 workers with rheumatoid arthritis used hierarchical linear modelling to examine how the structure of the job and neuroticism moderate the relationship between daily undesirable work events (daily stressors), and pain reports within a day. On days with more undesirable work events compared to days with fewer events, individuals with jobs associated with job ‘strain’ (high demand/low control) reported greater midday pain, irrespective of neuroticism and negative mood, than workers with other combinations of demand and control. These findings demonstrate the utility of analysing fluctuating within-person relationships among pain, mood and daily work stressors within the context of the structure of the job, and helps to explain why daily work stressors result in worse health outcomes for some but not all workers with RA.     

A re-analysis of the occupational stress indicator

Abstract

This paper investigates the reliability of the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI). Data from a sample of university staff, drawn from all areas of an urban university, are used to reassess the apparently low reliabilities of many of the OSI subscales reported by Cooper et al. (1988). In addition, factor analysis results are reported for the first time for the sources of pressure data. The reliability data reported here, while higher reliabilities than originally obtained, remain unacceptably low. A lack of stability in the device as it is currently formulated seems apparent. The paper also presents for the first time a detailed analysis of the sources of pressure scale, indicating a solution different from that proposed by Cooper et al. (1988). Certain areas of the OSI clearly need refinement; the inclusion of locus of control and type A behaviour as personality variables in particular is called into question. Observations regarding the particular strengths and weaknesses of this device, and suggestions for future refinements, are offered.     

The effect of capacity management strategies on employees' well-being: A quantitative investigation into the long-term healthcare industry

The aim of this study is to understand the effects of different capacity management strategies on the well-being of employees in long-term healthcare organizations. Such strategies may produce psychological effects in terms of job satisfaction and well-being among employees, namely frontline employees, thus affecting service quality. We collected 2158 observations from 42 nursing homes in Italy. Our results show that all capacity management strategies addressed in this study can influence the perceived degree of fatigue or of job hazard, and some of them can influence both. Moreover, a better perception of job hazard and fatigue leads to a higher degree of reported well-being from employees, although with the former, it is only through the mediation of job satisfaction. We conclude our paper by discussing theoretical contributions and policy implications.     

Job design and levels of physical and mental strain among Australian prison officers

Abstract

Over the past 15 years much has been made of the moderating influence of job discretion and support in occupations that are perceived to be high in demands. Such an effect seems to be most prevalent when subject populations are large and heterogeneous. One aim of this study was to examine the influence of subjective perceptions of these variables on strain reactions among a group of relatively homogeneous workers such as, in the present study, prison officers (n = 274). A second aim was to extend previous research and examine the joint influence of negative affectivity and perceptions of demands, discretion, and support on mental and physical well-being. It was hypothesized that those high in negative affect would be particularly strained by jobs perceived as being demanding. The hypothesized relationship between job demands, discretion and support were found to be weak and at times inconsistent. Social support, in particular, was found to have both positive and negative consequences for different aspects of well-being. Those high in negative affect were in general found to suffer lower mental well-being. More importantly, the interactive effect of negative affectivity and job demands was found to significantly predict the majority of the dependent variables used in this study. The valences of these relationships were inconsistent and are interpreted in light of Warr's (1987) vitamin model of stress.

There are several conclusions that can be drawn from the present study. Negative affectivity appears to have a truly interactive effect with job components, job demands in particular, to influence a range of variables relating to physical and mental health as well a job-related attitudes. The nature of these effects, however, suggests a dissociation in the ways that different independent variables influence a range of indices of well-being and affect. This result requires further investigation since there are important theoretical implications which will follow if the data are replicable.

In order to examine such complex effects, in addition to the need for more longitudinal studies, it is also important that standardized measures of job components are developed so that levels of stress exposure can be equated and their impact assessed across organizational settings.

Finally, the data reported in this study suggest that some effective stress management may be undertaken by adopting selection strategies which take into consideration individual characteristics. In view of the fact that individual stress management programmes are of unproven benefit (Murphy 1986, 1988) such an approach is recommended especially for those organizations which are highly constrained in the services that must be performed.     

The importance of knowing the affective meaning of job demands revisited

This paper starts with the assumption that when people are asked to describe the level of demands they face at work, it cannot be assumed that those demands are necessarily stressful, even if they are rated as strong or high demands. Thirty demand questions were designed for use with a sample of 2,253 public sector employees in Western Australia. As well as rating frequency of demand the respondents were asked to rate their level of dissatisfaction with the demand. For only 16 of the demands was there a correlation high enough to assume that the demand might be a stressor. Having demonstrated this, the rest of the paper compares different ways of combining the two scores to predict the level of psychological distress as measured by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ12). The results support the claim in the title, that it is important to know the affective meaning of job demands.     

Relationship between job control,work pressure and strain: Studies in the USA and in The Netherlands

The purpose of this study was to test a model of job control, work pressure and strain in two samples in the USA and in The Netherlands. According to the proposed model, work pressure has a mediating role between job control and worker strain. The present model specifies three types of job control: task or instrumental control, conceptual or resource control, and decision organization control. Task and resource control are assumed to reduce the stressor of work pressure which, in turn, is related to high strain. Organization control is assumed to be positively related to work pressure. The model was tested in two samples : one US sample of 273office employees and one Dutch sample of 958 employees in a variety of jobs. The same measure of job control was used in both samples. Resultspartially confirm the proposed model. As predicted by the proposed model, high task control was related to low work pressure, whereas high organization control was related to high work pressure. The effects of task control and organization control on strain were mediated by work pressure for the measure of anxiety in the US sample and for the measure of stress in the Dutch sample. However, the mediating effect of work pressure was not found for job satisfaction in both samples, for the measure of mood disturbances in the US sample and for the measure of sick days in the Dutch sample. The proposed model is only partially confirmed by the results. These results confirm the importance of differentiating between different dimensions of job control.     

Distributions of Total Job Tenure for Men and Women in Selected Industries and Occupations in the United States, February 1996

This article develops and fits probability distributions for the variability in projected (total) job tenure for adult men and women in 31 industries and 22 occupations based on data reported by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. It extends previously published results and updates those results from January 1987 to February 1996. The model provides probability distributions for the variability in projected (total) job tenures within the time range of the data, and it extrapolates the distributions beyond the time range of the data, i.e., beyond 25 years.