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Influence of Psychotherapeutic Interventions on Occupational Stress
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 696 – 701
PSIWORLD 2013
Influence of psychotherapeutic interventions on occupational stress &ăWălina Dumitrescu * Bucharest University, Romania
Abstract This paper investigated the influence of therapeutic interventions on occupational stress. Method: Participants were 60 employees, Instruments: the occupational stress questionnaire developed by Parker & Decotiis (1983). After evaluating stress levels all participants took part in a therapeutic session in order to understand, manage and reduce occupational stress levels. Following therapeutic intervention participants’ occupational stress levels was reviewed. The research results show that there was a significant difference between scores obtained at post intervention test and scores obtained from pre intervention testing, which demonstrates the usefulness of psychotherapy in the management of occupational stress. © Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. ©2014 2014The Cătălina Dumitrescu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Selection and peer-review under responsibility of PSI WORLD 2013 and their Guest Editors: Dr Mihaela Chraif, Dr Cristian Vasile andand Dr Mihai Aniteiunder responsibility of Romanian Society of Applied Experimental Psychology. Selection peer-review Keywords: Occupational stress, work anxiety, training, psychotherapy, counseling at workplace
1. Introduction Occupational stress is defined as a biological and psychological reaction of the body to an aggression. To understand occupational stress, one must first understand the concepts underlying this process (Spector, 2008). Whenever, people are asked to do something that they can not or do not want to do, it is called stress. Using Lazarus's transactional definition, the concept refers to a gap between the environmental requests and the individual resources. This discrepancy results in consuming large amounts of energy (Kleber & Van der Velden, 2003). The first stress theory was developed by Walter Cannon and Hans Selye, who studied stress in situations of danger. The first theory is called the fight or flight reaction, and refers to the body's reaction in extreme situations
* Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
1877-0428 © 2014 Cătălina Dumitrescu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Romanian Society of Applied Experimental Psychology. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.338
Ca˘ta˘lina Dumitrescu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 696 – 701
when it is flooded with adrenaline and the stress hormone secretion significantly increases (Landy & Conte, 2010). Stress reactions at work fall into three categories: physical reactions, psychiatric reactions and behavioral reactions. Physical reactions are based on stress somatization through headaches, stomach problems, heart problems and diseases. Psychiatric reactions lead to high anxiety, anger, frustration, low job satisfaction, and the behavioral reactions cause accidents, drug abuse, smoking and turnover (Spector, 2008). Lazarus & Folkman (1984) regarded stress as a reciprocal relation between man and environment. In this theory, stressors can vary from disasters to irritating accidents. Stress is associated with impairment of the individual to function at work, these effects including decreased performance, reduced exercise capacity, lack of interest in work, rigidity in thinking and lack of focus and organization (Greenberg & Baron, 1995; Matteson & Ivancevich, 1982) . Stress has been associated with lower satisfaction in work as well as low organizational commitment (Naumann, 1993; Sullivan & Bhagat, 1992, Tett & Meyer, 1993; Williams & Hazer, 1986 Arnold & Feldman, 1982; Hollenbeck & Williams, 1986 ), but also with counterproductive behaviors such as role ambiguity, role conflict, workload, organizational constraints and interpersonal conflicts (Chen & Spector, 1992; Fox & Spector, 1999, Fox, Spector, & Miles, 2001 Miles, Borman, Spector, & Fox, 2002; Penney & Spector, 2002). Stress and its negative effects are well known and have high financial costs. On the literature, we can say that the most stressful jobs are execution jobs (nurses, workers) in which role ambiguity and high workload is very common (Schwab, 1996). Also stressful situations affect each individual differently according to experience, the ability to handle a situation and coping styles which divides in problem focused coping and emotion focused coping. Problem focused coping is the ability to manage stress after a stressful situation has appeared. This type of coping includes problem definition, generation of solutions and weighing the benefits and costs, thus solving the problem. Emotion focused problem is reduced to the emotional experience of the subject, which may manifest itself as a socially withdrawn behavior, distancing from the problem, and a beneficial coping type for the subject involves social support from family and friends, which can reduce job stress (Lazarus, 2000 in Landy & Conte, 2010). To prevent stress there are a number of options that can be taken into account such as reducing stress, stress management and employee assistance programs / counseling work. Reducing stress refers to taking measures to minimize or eliminate sources of stress at work. At this stage of stress reduction, the focus is on adapting the environment to the individual (Cooper & Cartwright, 1997). Primary intervention strategies are often the beginning of a culture change. The stress factors are different in every organization and therefore a preliminary stress diagnosis and risk assessment in the organization should be designed. A second strategic intervention is essentially prompt detection of stress, stress management programs, raising awareness and improving the ability to manage stress (Cooper & Cartwright, 1997). The third intervention involves treatment, rehabilitation and recovery after an employee suffered an illness as a result of a high stress level. This type of intervention involves the provision of counseling both professionally as well as personally (Cooper & Cartwright, 1997). Also, van der Klink et. al. (2001) demonstrates the efficacy of intervention programs against stress. A metaanalysis of these programs showed that interventions focus on relaxation have the least impact, while the cognitivebehavioral interventions have had a significant impact on stress level. The design of these interventions which serve to reduce occupational stress can be categorized according to treatment. They are divided into content, method and duration. Regarding the focus of treatment it can be classified according to purpose: in order to increase resources and improve the individual's response to stressors (adaptation) and aiming to change the occupational context. The first category of intervention is usually called stress management and has a common denominator for many types of treatment and interventions such as relaxation and breathing interventions, cognitive behavioral interventions and person centered therapy. The second category refers to interventions in the workplace such as organizational development and rewriting (redesign) work (Klink et. Al., 2001). Alexe, Chraif, Burtavede & Mihaila, (2012) studies life satisfaction, teamwork and life ideals in a car producing company from Romania, AniĠei, Chraif, & Minea (2013) were evaluating the effects of fatigue on impulsiveness, aspiration level and performance motivation on youngsters as possible perceived stressor, AniĠei & Chraif (2012) provide a model for the core competences validation using BARS in ANOFM from Romania, AniĠei, Chraif & Chiriac (2012) were interested to study improvements in stress perception as effects of Integrative psychotherapy action, AniĠei (2013) was interested to highlight the main directives of stress management in the 21st century, Chraif & AniĠei (2011) evidenced the impact of economic crisis on occupational stress in a Romanian food and beverage chain of restaurants, Chraif &
697
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Ca˘ta˘lina Dumitrescu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 696 – 701
Danciu (2011) evidenced possible correlations on perceived emotions and communication in in a Romanian tourism agency from Bucharest, Chraif & Danciu (2011) highlight that communication and emotions are predictors of performance in a tourism agency. Taking in consideration the public servants, Chraif & Stefan (2010) evidenced a practical model for the development of public servants, Cicei (2011) accomplished a pilot study regarding the effects of workload and job insecurity regarding work-family conflict in Romania, from a psychotherapeutic point of view, Crăciun (2012) made a brief description of rational-emotive psychotherapy techniques, PăVăOău & Chraif (2011a; 2011b) were interested to study the prediction value of salinization system, age and work experience of perceived stress and of physical and mental health during present economic crisis, Plăiaúu & Chraif (2011) proved that organizational stress may be a predictor of managerial performance in Bucharest casinos, Rusan (2013) accomplish a correlative study between organizational climate, family support and physical health in a Bucharest software Company, Tănase, Manea, Chraif, AnĠei & Coblaú (2012) proved that assertiveness and organizational trust can be predictors of mental and physical health in a Romanian oil company, Chraif, ğLĠirigă & AniĠei (2013) accomplish a correlative study between counterproductive behavior, employee health and perceived stressors in a multinational company from Romania. 2. Method 2.1. Study objective The objective of this study is to determine the occupational stress level of employees and create a therapeutic intervention program in order to significantly reduce occupational stress levels. Thus, we expect there to be significant differences regarding the level of occupational stress between pre-intervention testing and postintervention testing. In this research design, the independent variable is therapeutic intervention and the dependent variable is occupational stress. 2.2. Hypothesis There are significant differences regarding the level of occupational stress between pre-intervention testing and post-intervention testing.
2.3. Participants A total of 60 participants took part in the research (M age = 34.00, SD = 3.02), all employees of METRO Hypermarket Romania. All participants gave verbal consent to participate in the research. To avoid the phenomenon of social desirability information about the identity of the participants were not required. 2.4. Instruments Occupational stress was measured using Job Stress Scale. This questionnaire was developed by Parker & Decotiis (1983). The questionnaire contains 12 items, each item with 5 response options (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). The test comprises of 2 scales. One scale measures stress (8 items) (eg, I feel as if I never have free time) while the other measures anxiety at work (4 items) (eg, I feel nervous and irritated because of work). The internal consistency of the two scales on the group of participants of this study was .50 for the stress scale and .84 for the anxiety scale.
Ca˘ta˘lina Dumitrescu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 696 – 701
699
2.5. Procedure The research was conducted in collaboration with the human resources department of METRO Romania. The 60 participants were selected from four departments of the organization: IT, economics, HR and marketing. The data collection spanned across a period of three months, and was carried on at the METRO Romania headquarters. The therapeutic intervention program was built after the first diagnosis of occupational stress as a group therapy focused on the main causes of occupational stress and the management methods that have shown the highest utility in the literature. The intervention took place 10 days after the first evaluation of occupational stress. Participants were divided into 6 groups of 10 persons each, requiring 2 days for all participants to take part in this intervention. Postintervention Diagnosis of occupational stress occurred 10 days after completion of the intervention. 3. Results In Table 1 we see means and standard deviations of study variables (N = 60). Table1. Means, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis for study variables. Variable
M
SD
Skewness
Kurtosis
Stress
14.50
3.15
1.25
2.80
Anxiety
12.31
5.08
.56
-.74
Age
34.00
3.02
1.14
1.00
In Table 1 averages, standard deviations and distribution symmetry indicators are presented. Given the values of the two indicators of symmetry which are between the limits of normality, we can use parametric tests to compare averages to test the hypothesis of the study. Table 2. T test result and effect size Pre-intervention Variable
M
SD
Post-intervention M
SD
T
d
0.74
Stress
15.60
3.71
13.40
1.97
2.86**
Anxiety
13.10
5.48
11.56
4.70
1.16
In Table 2 the results of the test T are presented. Thus, it is apparent that there is a significant difference between pre-intervention occupational stress testing and post-intervention occupational stress testing t(58) = 2.86, p <0.01, and thus we can conclude that therapeutic intervention had a significant impact on occupational stress, the stress level during test 2 was significantly lower compared to stress level during the first stress test. 4. Coclusions The impact of occupational stress is well known, especially on the financial and human resource costs. This study investigated the influence of therapeutic interventions on occupational stress. The study achieved its objective and the results are sustainded by other research. This relation has been studied extensively in the literature, numerous studies demonstrating the beneficial role that therapeutic interventions have on employees with high stress levels (Cooper & Cartwright, 1997; van der Klink et. Al., 2001) . Giga et. al. (2003) found that although therapeutic interventions against stress were an instant success, these are just short-term interventions and health programs implemented against stress have a rather low success rate. The research in the field of occupational stress and stress prevention vary from country to country, as well as the level of therapeutic interventions. Much more research is needed, more so in Romania, especially in studies that evaluate the long-term effectiveness of intervention strategies against stress.
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Ca˘ta˘lina Dumitrescu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 696 – 701
One of the limitations of the study is the application of self-report questionnaires. Because of their subjective nature they may not provide a complete picture of the stress experienced by the patient. Being a non-experimental design the variables could not be controlled completely because the environment in which the tests were applied was the company headquarters. A future direction of research would be a longitudinal research on therapeutic interventions on stress, with longterm intervention programs in which the employee can see the evolution during a longer period.
References Alexe, D., Chraif, M., Burtavede, V., Mihaila, T. (2012). Study regarding life satisfaction, teamwork and life ideals in a car producing multinational company in Bucharest, Romanian Journal of Experimental Applied Psychology, 3 (3), pp. 4-14. AniĠei, M. Chraif, M., Minea, L. (2013). Influence of Fatigue on Impulsiveness, Aspiration Level, Performance Motivation and Frustration Tolerance Among Young Romanian Psychology Students, In Vasile, C. Anitei, M. Chraif, M. (Eds.) Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 78, 13 May 2013, Pages 630-634. AniĠei, M., Chraif, M. (2012). A model for the core competences validation using behavioral anchoed rated scales within the romanian agency for employment as changing organization, in in Zhang, M. (editor), In International Proceedings of Economics, Development and research Humanity, History and Society - ICHHS 2012, vol. 34, pp.52-57. AniĠei, M. Chraif, M., Chiriac, G. (2012). Resilience to Stress Evidence-Based Improvements in Integrative Psychotherapy Working Groups, In AniĠei, M., Vasile, C. & Chraif, M. (Editors.). Social and Behavioral Sciences, Elsevier, Volume 33, 2012, Pages 1042-1046 AniĠei, M. (2013) Stress management in the 21st century , Volume 4, Issue 4, pp. 3-5. Arnold, H.J. & Feldman, C.C. (1982), “A multivariate analysis of the determinants of job turnover”, Journal of Applied Psychology, 67( 3), 35060. Chen, P. Y., & Spector, P. E. (1992). Relationships of work stressors with aggression, withdrawal, theft and substance use: an exploratory study. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 65, 177–184. Chraif, M. & AniĠei, M. (2011). The impact of economic crisis on occupational stress and counterproductive behavior in a food and beverage restaurant chain from Romania in Proceedings of the „2nd World Conference on Psychology, Counselling and Guidance” Elsevier, Science Journal ISSN: 1877-0428) , Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 30, 2011, Pages 2644-2650. Chraif, M., ğLĠirigă, L., AniĠei, M. (2013) Correlative Study between Counterproductive Behaviour, Ethical Behaviour, Physical Health, Mental Health and Perceived Stressors in a Multinational Company from Romania, In Vasile, C. Anitei, M. Chraif, M. (Eds.)Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 78, 13 May 2013, Pages 620-624. Chraif, M. Danciu, L. (2011). Correlation study on perceived emotions and communication in the workplace in a romanian tourism agency, Romanian Journal of Experimental Applied Psychology, 2 (3), pp. 35-44. Chraif, M. Danciu, L. (2011). Communication and emotions at work place - predictors of performance in a tour agency in Bucharest, Romanian Journal of Experimental Applied Psychology, 2 (1), pp. 13-21. Chraif, M. Stefan, C. (2010). A practical model for the development of public servants’ competitiveness and professional performance, Romanian Journal of Experimental Applied Psychology, Vol. 1, Issue 1, pp. 34-47. Cicei, C.C. (2011) High demands and uncertainty. Pilot study regarding the effects of workload and job insecurity on work-family conflict, Romanian Journal of Experimental Applied Psychology,Volume 2, Issue 4, pp. 5-15. Crăciun, A. (2012). Rational-emotive psychotherapy techniques: brief description, Romanian Journal of Experimental Applied Psychology, Volume 3, Issue 2, pp. 12-20. Cooper, C.L., & Cartwright, S., (1997). An intervention strategy for workplace stress. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 43(1), 7-16. Fox, S., & Spector, P. E. (1999). A model of work frustration—aggression. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20, 915–931. Fox, S., Spector, P. E., & Miles, D. (2001). Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) in response to job stressors and organizational justice: some mediator and moderator tests for autonomy and emotions. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 59, 291–309. Giga, S. I., Noblet, A. J., Faragher, B., & Cooper, C. L. (2003). The UK perspective: A review of research on organisational stress management interventions. Australian Psychologist, 38, 158–164. Greenberg, J. & Baron, R.A. (1995), Behaviour in Organizations: Understanding and Managing the Human Side of Work, 5th ed., Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Hollenbeck, J.R. & Williams, C.R. (1986), Turnover functionally versus turnover frequency: a note on work attitudes and organizational effectiveness, Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 606-11. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 10(1/2), 51–57. Kleber, R.J.& Van der Valden, P.G. (2003). Acute stress at work in M.J., Shabracq, J.A.M., Winnubst, C.L., Cooper, Handbook of Work and Health Psychology, second edition, Ed. Wiley & Sons, West Sussex, England. Landy, F.J. & Conte, J.M., (2010). Work in the 21th Century: An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology, Ed. Wiley & Sons, Altamont Pass, California. Lazarus R.S. & Folkman S. (1984) Stress, Appraisal and Coping. Springer Publishing, New York. Matteson, M.T., & Ivancevich, J.M. (1982), Managing Job Stress and Heath: The Intelligent Person’s Guide, The Free Press, New York, NY.
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Miles, D. E., Borman, W. C., Spector, P. E., & Fox, S. (2002). Building an integrative model of extra role work behaviors: A comparison of counterproductive work behavior with organizational citizenship behavior. Naumann, E. (1993). Antecedents and consequences of satisfaction and commitment among expatriate managers, Group & Organization Management, 18( 2), 153-87. Penney, L. M., & Spector, P. (2002). Narcissism and counterproductive behavior: do bigger egos mean bigger problems? International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 10(1), 126–134. 3ăVăOău, M. & Chraif, M. (2011a). Salarization system, age and work experience as predictors of perceived stress in a public educational organization, Romanian Journal of Experimental Applied Psychology, Vol. 2, Issue 2, pp. 29-41. 3ăVăOău, M. & Chraif, M. (2011b). Salarization system, age and work experience as predictors of physical and mental health during present economic crisis, Vol. 2, Issue 3 , pp. 25-34. Plăiaúu, F. & Chraif, M. (2011). Organizational stress as a predictor of managerial performance in bucharest casinos, Romanian Journal of Experimental Applied Psychology, Vol. 2, issue 3, pp. 44-53. Rusan, C. (2013). Corelative study between organizational climat, family support and phisical health at the employee’s of a software producer company, Romanian Journal of Experimental Applied Psychology,Volume 4, Issue 4 – 2013, pp. 45-53. ... of Psychology Abstract Schwab, L. (1996). Individual hardiness and staff satisfaction. Nursing Economics. 14 (3), 171-173. Spector, P.E., (2008). Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 5th edition, Ed. Wiley & Sons, New Jersey. Sullivan, S.E. & Bhagat, R.S. (1992), Organizational stress, job satisfaction and job performance: where do we go from here?, Journal of Management, 18( 2), 353-74. 7ănase, S., Manea, C. Chraif, M. AnĠei, M., Coblaú, V. (2012).Assertiveness and Organizational Trust as predictors of mental and Physical Health in a Romanian Oil Company Original Research Article, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Elsevier, Volume 33, 2012, Pages 1047-1051. Tett, R.P. & Meyer, J.P. (1993), Job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, and turnover: path analyses based on metaanalytic findings, Personnel Psychology, 46, 259-93. van der Klink, .JJ., Blonk, R.W., Schene A.H. & van Dijk ,.F.J.(2001) The benefits of interventions for work-related stress. American Journal of Public Health,91(2):270–276. Williams, L.J. & Hazer, J.T. (1986), Antecedents and consequences of satisfaction andcommitment in turnover models: a reanalysis using latent variable structural equation methods, Journal of Applied Psychology, 71( 2), 219-231.
ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 696 – 701
PSIWORLD 2013
Influence of psychotherapeutic interventions on occupational stress &ăWălina Dumitrescu * Bucharest University, Romania
Abstract This paper investigated the influence of therapeutic interventions on occupational stress. Method: Participants were 60 employees, Instruments: the occupational stress questionnaire developed by Parker & Decotiis (1983). After evaluating stress levels all participants took part in a therapeutic session in order to understand, manage and reduce occupational stress levels. Following therapeutic intervention participants’ occupational stress levels was reviewed. The research results show that there was a significant difference between scores obtained at post intervention test and scores obtained from pre intervention testing, which demonstrates the usefulness of psychotherapy in the management of occupational stress. © Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. ©2014 2014The Cătălina Dumitrescu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Selection and peer-review under responsibility of PSI WORLD 2013 and their Guest Editors: Dr Mihaela Chraif, Dr Cristian Vasile andand Dr Mihai Aniteiunder responsibility of Romanian Society of Applied Experimental Psychology. Selection peer-review Keywords: Occupational stress, work anxiety, training, psychotherapy, counseling at workplace
1. Introduction Occupational stress is defined as a biological and psychological reaction of the body to an aggression. To understand occupational stress, one must first understand the concepts underlying this process (Spector, 2008). Whenever, people are asked to do something that they can not or do not want to do, it is called stress. Using Lazarus's transactional definition, the concept refers to a gap between the environmental requests and the individual resources. This discrepancy results in consuming large amounts of energy (Kleber & Van der Velden, 2003). The first stress theory was developed by Walter Cannon and Hans Selye, who studied stress in situations of danger. The first theory is called the fight or flight reaction, and refers to the body's reaction in extreme situations
* Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
1877-0428 © 2014 Cătălina Dumitrescu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Romanian Society of Applied Experimental Psychology. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.338
Ca˘ta˘lina Dumitrescu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 696 – 701
when it is flooded with adrenaline and the stress hormone secretion significantly increases (Landy & Conte, 2010). Stress reactions at work fall into three categories: physical reactions, psychiatric reactions and behavioral reactions. Physical reactions are based on stress somatization through headaches, stomach problems, heart problems and diseases. Psychiatric reactions lead to high anxiety, anger, frustration, low job satisfaction, and the behavioral reactions cause accidents, drug abuse, smoking and turnover (Spector, 2008). Lazarus & Folkman (1984) regarded stress as a reciprocal relation between man and environment. In this theory, stressors can vary from disasters to irritating accidents. Stress is associated with impairment of the individual to function at work, these effects including decreased performance, reduced exercise capacity, lack of interest in work, rigidity in thinking and lack of focus and organization (Greenberg & Baron, 1995; Matteson & Ivancevich, 1982) . Stress has been associated with lower satisfaction in work as well as low organizational commitment (Naumann, 1993; Sullivan & Bhagat, 1992, Tett & Meyer, 1993; Williams & Hazer, 1986 Arnold & Feldman, 1982; Hollenbeck & Williams, 1986 ), but also with counterproductive behaviors such as role ambiguity, role conflict, workload, organizational constraints and interpersonal conflicts (Chen & Spector, 1992; Fox & Spector, 1999, Fox, Spector, & Miles, 2001 Miles, Borman, Spector, & Fox, 2002; Penney & Spector, 2002). Stress and its negative effects are well known and have high financial costs. On the literature, we can say that the most stressful jobs are execution jobs (nurses, workers) in which role ambiguity and high workload is very common (Schwab, 1996). Also stressful situations affect each individual differently according to experience, the ability to handle a situation and coping styles which divides in problem focused coping and emotion focused coping. Problem focused coping is the ability to manage stress after a stressful situation has appeared. This type of coping includes problem definition, generation of solutions and weighing the benefits and costs, thus solving the problem. Emotion focused problem is reduced to the emotional experience of the subject, which may manifest itself as a socially withdrawn behavior, distancing from the problem, and a beneficial coping type for the subject involves social support from family and friends, which can reduce job stress (Lazarus, 2000 in Landy & Conte, 2010). To prevent stress there are a number of options that can be taken into account such as reducing stress, stress management and employee assistance programs / counseling work. Reducing stress refers to taking measures to minimize or eliminate sources of stress at work. At this stage of stress reduction, the focus is on adapting the environment to the individual (Cooper & Cartwright, 1997). Primary intervention strategies are often the beginning of a culture change. The stress factors are different in every organization and therefore a preliminary stress diagnosis and risk assessment in the organization should be designed. A second strategic intervention is essentially prompt detection of stress, stress management programs, raising awareness and improving the ability to manage stress (Cooper & Cartwright, 1997). The third intervention involves treatment, rehabilitation and recovery after an employee suffered an illness as a result of a high stress level. This type of intervention involves the provision of counseling both professionally as well as personally (Cooper & Cartwright, 1997). Also, van der Klink et. al. (2001) demonstrates the efficacy of intervention programs against stress. A metaanalysis of these programs showed that interventions focus on relaxation have the least impact, while the cognitivebehavioral interventions have had a significant impact on stress level. The design of these interventions which serve to reduce occupational stress can be categorized according to treatment. They are divided into content, method and duration. Regarding the focus of treatment it can be classified according to purpose: in order to increase resources and improve the individual's response to stressors (adaptation) and aiming to change the occupational context. The first category of intervention is usually called stress management and has a common denominator for many types of treatment and interventions such as relaxation and breathing interventions, cognitive behavioral interventions and person centered therapy. The second category refers to interventions in the workplace such as organizational development and rewriting (redesign) work (Klink et. Al., 2001). Alexe, Chraif, Burtavede & Mihaila, (2012) studies life satisfaction, teamwork and life ideals in a car producing company from Romania, AniĠei, Chraif, & Minea (2013) were evaluating the effects of fatigue on impulsiveness, aspiration level and performance motivation on youngsters as possible perceived stressor, AniĠei & Chraif (2012) provide a model for the core competences validation using BARS in ANOFM from Romania, AniĠei, Chraif & Chiriac (2012) were interested to study improvements in stress perception as effects of Integrative psychotherapy action, AniĠei (2013) was interested to highlight the main directives of stress management in the 21st century, Chraif & AniĠei (2011) evidenced the impact of economic crisis on occupational stress in a Romanian food and beverage chain of restaurants, Chraif &
697
698
Ca˘ta˘lina Dumitrescu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 696 – 701
Danciu (2011) evidenced possible correlations on perceived emotions and communication in in a Romanian tourism agency from Bucharest, Chraif & Danciu (2011) highlight that communication and emotions are predictors of performance in a tourism agency. Taking in consideration the public servants, Chraif & Stefan (2010) evidenced a practical model for the development of public servants, Cicei (2011) accomplished a pilot study regarding the effects of workload and job insecurity regarding work-family conflict in Romania, from a psychotherapeutic point of view, Crăciun (2012) made a brief description of rational-emotive psychotherapy techniques, PăVăOău & Chraif (2011a; 2011b) were interested to study the prediction value of salinization system, age and work experience of perceived stress and of physical and mental health during present economic crisis, Plăiaúu & Chraif (2011) proved that organizational stress may be a predictor of managerial performance in Bucharest casinos, Rusan (2013) accomplish a correlative study between organizational climate, family support and physical health in a Bucharest software Company, Tănase, Manea, Chraif, AnĠei & Coblaú (2012) proved that assertiveness and organizational trust can be predictors of mental and physical health in a Romanian oil company, Chraif, ğLĠirigă & AniĠei (2013) accomplish a correlative study between counterproductive behavior, employee health and perceived stressors in a multinational company from Romania. 2. Method 2.1. Study objective The objective of this study is to determine the occupational stress level of employees and create a therapeutic intervention program in order to significantly reduce occupational stress levels. Thus, we expect there to be significant differences regarding the level of occupational stress between pre-intervention testing and postintervention testing. In this research design, the independent variable is therapeutic intervention and the dependent variable is occupational stress. 2.2. Hypothesis There are significant differences regarding the level of occupational stress between pre-intervention testing and post-intervention testing.
2.3. Participants A total of 60 participants took part in the research (M age = 34.00, SD = 3.02), all employees of METRO Hypermarket Romania. All participants gave verbal consent to participate in the research. To avoid the phenomenon of social desirability information about the identity of the participants were not required. 2.4. Instruments Occupational stress was measured using Job Stress Scale. This questionnaire was developed by Parker & Decotiis (1983). The questionnaire contains 12 items, each item with 5 response options (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). The test comprises of 2 scales. One scale measures stress (8 items) (eg, I feel as if I never have free time) while the other measures anxiety at work (4 items) (eg, I feel nervous and irritated because of work). The internal consistency of the two scales on the group of participants of this study was .50 for the stress scale and .84 for the anxiety scale.
Ca˘ta˘lina Dumitrescu / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 127 (2014) 696 – 701
699
2.5. Procedure The research was conducted in collaboration with the human resources department of METRO Romania. The 60 participants were selected from four departments of the organization: IT, economics, HR and marketing. The data collection spanned across a period of three months, and was carried on at the METRO Romania headquarters. The therapeutic intervention program was built after the first diagnosis of occupational stress as a group therapy focused on the main causes of occupational stress and the management methods that have shown the highest utility in the literature. The intervention took place 10 days after the first evaluation of occupational stress. Participants were divided into 6 groups of 10 persons each, requiring 2 days for all participants to take part in this intervention. Postintervention Diagnosis of occupational stress occurred 10 days after completion of the intervention. 3. Results In Table 1 we see means and standard deviations of study variables (N = 60). Table1. Means, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis for study variables. Variable
M
SD
Skewness
Kurtosis
Stress
14.50
3.15
1.25
2.80
Anxiety
12.31
5.08
.56
-.74
Age
34.00
3.02
1.14
1.00
In Table 1 averages, standard deviations and distribution symmetry indicators are presented. Given the values of the two indicators of symmetry which are between the limits of normality, we can use parametric tests to compare averages to test the hypothesis of the study. Table 2. T test result and effect size Pre-intervention Variable
M
SD
Post-intervention M
SD
T
d
0.74
Stress
15.60
3.71
13.40
1.97
2.86**
Anxiety
13.10
5.48
11.56
4.70
1.16
In Table 2 the results of the test T are presented. Thus, it is apparent that there is a significant difference between pre-intervention occupational stress testing and post-intervention occupational stress testing t(58) = 2.86, p <0.01, and thus we can conclude that therapeutic intervention had a significant impact on occupational stress, the stress level during test 2 was significantly lower compared to stress level during the first stress test. 4. Coclusions The impact of occupational stress is well known, especially on the financial and human resource costs. This study investigated the influence of therapeutic interventions on occupational stress. The study achieved its objective and the results are sustainded by other research. This relation has been studied extensively in the literature, numerous studies demonstrating the beneficial role that therapeutic interventions have on employees with high stress levels (Cooper & Cartwright, 1997; van der Klink et. Al., 2001) . Giga et. al. (2003) found that although therapeutic interventions against stress were an instant success, these are just short-term interventions and health programs implemented against stress have a rather low success rate. The research in the field of occupational stress and stress prevention vary from country to country, as well as the level of therapeutic interventions. Much more research is needed, more so in Romania, especially in studies that evaluate the long-term effectiveness of intervention strategies against stress.
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One of the limitations of the study is the application of self-report questionnaires. Because of their subjective nature they may not provide a complete picture of the stress experienced by the patient. Being a non-experimental design the variables could not be controlled completely because the environment in which the tests were applied was the company headquarters. A future direction of research would be a longitudinal research on therapeutic interventions on stress, with longterm intervention programs in which the employee can see the evolution during a longer period.
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