Interventions typically used to manage ‘stress’ at work and their effectiveness

Paul B.

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Interventions typically used to manage ‘stress’ at work and their effectiveness

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Abstract

In addition to defining a number of relevant terms (e.g., the notion of stress management and those of intervention-typicality, -goals and -effectiveness), Part 1 of this essay sets the ground for a discussion of the relative usefulness of typical interventions amidst the plethora of methodological and, perhaps more seriously, theoretical problems that seem to characterize so much of stress research and stress intervention practice. This is followed in Part 2 by a more systematic review of evidence relevant to evaluating the effectiveness of a number of ‘typical' interventions, including stress management training, employee assistance programmes and workplace counseling. Such interventions are compared with so-called primary interventions in order to gain a more complete view of their relative effectiveness. Part 3 addresses a number of more general theoretical issues as they relate to problems relevant to the derivation, implementation and evaluation of stress management interventions including those of direct interest to the present study. The essay concludes with a brief discussion of possible socio-political influences on stress phenomena and their study and explores briefly some of the implications of such more expansive approaches for intervention practice and research.

Introduction.
Part 1.
1. Typical SMI's: Definitions and issues.
2. Stress: Not an easy notion.
3. Stress management as an intentional activity.
Part 2.
1. Secondary interventions.
2. Tertiary interventions.
3. The Health and Safety Executive in the UK.
4. The evaluation research that has been carried out.
5. The effectiveness of typical SMI's and primary SMI's.
Part 3.
1. Stress theory and SMIs.
2. The radicalism of Briner and the position taken by Carver and Scheier.
Conclusion.
Bibliography.

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[...] A review of research methods used to examine employee assistance delivery oprions. Evaluation and Program Planning pp.25-36. Cooper, C. (Ed,1998). Theories of organisational stress. Oxford University Press. Cooper, C., Dewe, P., & O'Driscoll, M. (2001). Organizational Stress: A Review and Critique of Theory, Research, and Applications. Sage Publications. Cooper, C. & Payne, R. (1988, Eds). Causes, Coping and Consequences of Stress at Work. John Wiley & Sons. Chichester. Cooper, C., Sadri, G., Allison, T. & Reynolds, P. (1990). Stress counseling in the Post Office. [...]

[...] Organizational Work Stress Interventions in a Theoretical, Methodological and Practical Context. In Dunham, J. Stress in the workplace. Whurr Publishers. Lazarus, R. & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal and coping. New York: Springer Publications. Macdonald, S., Lothian, S. & Wells, S. (1997). Evaluation of an employee assistance program at a transportation company. Evaluation and Program Planning 495-505. Marchington-Yeoman, C. & Cooper, C. (2002). The benefits of counseling and employee assistance programs to British industry. In Feltham, C. (Ed). What the Good of Counseling and Psychotherapy? [...]

[...] Study to evaluate the effectiveness of stress management workshops on response to general and occupational measures of stress. Occupational Medicine-Oxford pp.451-457. International Labour Office (Di Martino, V.) (1992). Conditions of Work Digest. Preventing Stress at Work, Geneva. Ivancevitch, J., Matteson, M., Freedman, S. & Phillips, J. (1990). Worksite stress management interventuions. American Psychologist pp.252-261. Jones, F. & Bright, J. (2001). Stress: Myth, Theory and Research. Prentice Hall. Kahn, R. & Byosiere, P. (1992). Stress in Organizations. In M. Dunnette & L. [...]

[...] With substantial reviews failing to support many of the earlier claims about the possible links between stress and health (e.g., Rick, Thomson, Briner, O'Regan and Daniels 2002), routinely assumed links between employee psychological well-being and performance being shown to have been grossly simplistic if not entirely mistaken (Briner, 1997b; Reynolds, 2000), and research, of the type reviewed here, indicating that typically used SMI's are mostly ineffective, one wonders whether more radical moves may be required than has been the case in recent decades. [...]

[...] Beyond stress and satisfaction.: Alternative approaches to understanding well-being at work. In Proceedings of the British Psychological Society Occupational Psychology conference (pp. 95-100). Leicester, UK: British Psychological Society. Briner, R. (1997b). Improving stress assessment: Toward an evidence-based approach to organizational stress interventions. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, pp. 61-71. Briner (1999). Organizational stress as a trivial concept and modern myth: Alternative approaches to understanding work and well-being. Paper presented at the University of Surrey, UK. Briner, R. (2000). Do EAPs work? [...]

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