Multilevel approaches to stress management

AbstractWhen considering stress intervention strategies within organisational settings a variety of options are available to practitioners including job redesign, clarification of role relationships, developing coping skills, and employee assistance in terms of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment. It seems that many organisations focus on some but not all of the above when seeking to ameliorate the effects of exposure to stress. Most appear to address stress in the workplace at the individual level instead of assuming a broader perspective that incorporates organisational change of some sort. Given that in one way or another all approaches are expensive, the question often asked is, which approach is likely to be the most effective? Evidence from a series of studies is presented which suggests that changes at the job level in objective job characteristics will have a modest but highly predictable outcome. Approaches at the individual level may be broken into three strategies: skill development, improved selection techniques and the delivery of stress assistance. However, it is argued that it seems likely that the biggest gains will be found with management/supervisor training aimed at managing employee perceptions of the work situation.