workplace stress

• Workplace stress


  Workload and control are the two main factors associated with it
• Job demand-control model (Karasek, 1979)

  • Degree of control that an individual has over their work is more important than workload in terms of determining stress levels
  • If two individuals have the same workload, if one is less stressed than the other, then this suggests that they have a higher degree of control over their work e.g. greater flexibility etc.
• Bosma et al (1997)


  • Found no correlation between stress-related illnesses and workload in a sample of 10,000 Whitehall civil servants, but rather a strong negative correlation between a decreasing degree of control over work and increasing levels of stress/incidence of stress-related diseases
  • This stood true even when accounting for lifestyle and personality factors, using a statistical averaging technique
• Johansson et al (1978)


  • When studying a Swedish timbre production factory, the 'finishers' (with little control over their work, high levels of responsibility and undertaking roles which required high levels of skill and concentration, even with repetitive work) had higher levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline in their urine samples, compared to the 'cleaners' working in the same factory (with high control over their work and low levels of responsibility, due to being reliant upon the finishers)
  • The concentrations of these hormones increased throughout the day for the finishers (as shown by consecutive urine samples) in accordance with increasing rates of absences and stress-related illnesses, whilst the opposite was true for the cleaners