1. Workplace Stress, Health and Well-being
Sharon Clarke, Marilyn Davidson, Sandra Fielden, Helge Hoel, Sheena Johnson, Dieter Zapf

2. The Problem: The Cost of Stress at Work
Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Absenteeism: Loss of nearly 6.5 million working days per year in Britain
Confederation of British Industry: Cost of mental health and stress problems to employers at £5 billion per year.
The number of workers who had sought medical advice for what they believed to be work related stress reached an estimated 530,000 (2006). 
The European Union estimates that work-related stress affects at least 40 million workers in its 15 (Western ) Member States and that it costs the European Union at least €20 billion annually

3. Recent Trends and Developments
A shift from physical to psychological work stressors
Physical work stress reduced
Environmental stressors reduced
Instead: Psychological stressors
Consequence:
Increase in stress-related illnesses
Anxiety & depression
Psychosomatic symptoms
Burnout

4. Recent Trends and Developments
Stressors and resources at work
Stressors have negative consequences on health
Resources have positive consequences well-being and personal development
Resources buffer against stress
Decrease stressors, increase resources

5. Psychological Stressors at Work
Task related and organisational stressors
High workload, time pressure
Role conflicts, organisational constraints
Social stressors – colleagues, supervisors, subordinates
Negative social climate
Task conflicts, relationship conflicts
Unfair behaviour, destructive leadership, workplace bullying
Social and Emotional stressors – customers, clients
Customer-related social stressor: Aggressive customers, exaggerated customer expectations
Emotional dissonance
Job insecurity and unemployment

6. Resources at Work Task related and organisational resources
Job control, autonomy, decision latitude
Social resources
Social support by supervisors
Social support by colleagues

7. Studies at MBS Measuring occupational stress (Johnson, Hoel, Zapf)
Human safety and risk management (Clarke)
Safety climate
The role personality
Stress & Gender:
Unemployment (Fielden & Davidson);
Temporary workers (Crozier & Davidson)
Social stressors at work (Zapf)
Emotional work and older employees (Johnson, Hoel, Zapf, MBS; Stock-Homburg, TU Darmstadt; Zapf, Frankfurt University)

8. Measuring Occupational Stress
Research team investigating stress at work
includes academics from a number of UK universities
ASSET questionnaire database (approx. 40k)
Current projects investigating:
Stress and bullying across occupations with emphasis on the interaction between bullying from supervisor / colleagues / clients
The role of commitment in the stressor and health relationship
Commitment from and to organisation
Professional commitment

9. Emotional Work and Older Employees
The problems
Low employment rate of older employees, but:
Demographic change
Decline of physical and basic cognitive abilities (however, often compensated by experience)
The hypothesis: Older employees are good service workers
Customer orientation: The friendly smile
Little influence on the situation (e.g., on negative interaction with customers)
Use of intra-psychological strategies such as: - use humour, perspective taking, play down
Consequence: less affected by customer-related stress