I am looking for information or research results into attitudes towards stress. Is it often a taboo subject? Is there a stigma attached to it? Are attitudes changing? To implement our stress policy I am delivering different types of training including 'Personal stress awareness' and 'Stress - the manager's role'. Can anyone recommend sources of current information on this please?
Fiona MacLeod
5 Responses
Recent research
Fiona
On HR Zone we have just published a summary of research on this by Cubiks. You can find the story here:
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/item/102596
Search for “stress” on TrainingZONE and you will pick up some other useful information.
You could also try the International Stress Management Association.
Best wishes
Ben Hawes
TrainingZONE News Editor
Stress and wellbeing
If you want to see some good research on the issue of workplace stress see anything by Dr Rob Briner of Birkbeck College. He is from the stress buster school of thought and prefers to speak of work and wellbeing. I studied under Rob and he shed new light on old dogma. He recently had articles in People Management and is a down to earth academic. The other area to look at is Professor Cary Cooper of Manchester – the other end of the spectrum in view. Either name in a search engine should give some good results. My own experience is that Stress Awareness trainings and programmes are too generic to alter anything so complex to understand.
cheers
Stress
It is not documented research but the view of many Senior Mangers on stress is that they can work with it so what is everyone’s problem.
Stress
There is reseach on this web iste about the levels of workers stress and the numbers involved. It seems to us when we deliver training to educate employers that it is the fear of litigation that makes the strongest impact.
Amongst a lot of managers we see that attitude is the key as per Iain’s posting. If an individual can handle stress it can be viewed as weakness in others who cannot.
Lime One Ltd
Reprise on Cary Cooper
I’d like to echo Mark’s recommendation regarding Prof. Cary Cooper.
Prof. Cooper is a specialist on stress in the workplace, and has carried out a great deal of research on the subject. For example, how many people would feel iffy about discussing stress if they realised that approximately 40 MILLION working people are adversely affected by stress within the EU alone?
Sometimes just knowing that it is an increasingly common occurrance can remove the stigma some people undoubtedly feel.
His books include:
Strategic Stress Management: An Organizational Approach
and
Workplace Bullying: What Do We Know, Who Is to Blame and What Can We Do?
(Both books are available on Amazon.co.uk)
Despite its title, the second book is very much concerned with the causes and consequences of stress and gives information based on a massive study carried out in the UK.