Occupational stress and health outcome among British and German managers

Abstract

A large sample of German and British managers selected from the private and public sectors completed the pressure management indicator (PMI). The PMI is a 120‐item self‐report questionnaire developed from the occupational stress indicator (OSI). The PMI provides a global measure as well as differentiated profiles of occupational stress. Outcome measures include work satisfaction, organisational security, organisational satisfaction, and commitment, as well as physical wellbeing (physical symptoms and exhaustion) and psychological health (anxiety depression, worry and resilience). In addition moderator variables are assessed including type A behaviour, internal locus of control and coping strategies. The data from the PMI show that, when compared with British managers, the German managers reported greater job satisfaction and lower levels of resilience. The German managers displayed substantially higher pressure from the home‐work interface but less pressure from the need to have their achievements recognised. German managers reported higher levels of impatience (a sub‐scale of type A behaviour), coupled with high internal control (extent to which individual feels able to influence and control events) and made more use of coping strategies, especially problem focussed measures.