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Industrial relations, worksite stress reduction, and employee well‐being: A participatory action research investigation
Author(s) -
Heaney Catherine A.,
Israel Barbara A.,
Schurman Susan J.,
Baker Elizabeth A.,
House James S.,
Hugentobler Margrit
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of organizational behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.938
H-Index - 177
eISSN - 1099-1379
pISSN - 0894-3796
DOI - 10.1002/job.4030140510
Subject(s) - industrial relations , adversarial system , context (archaeology) , psychological intervention , labor relations , stress management , psychology , organisation climate , action (physics) , applied psychology , business , social psychology , public relations , political science , management , economics , clinical psychology , paleontology , psychiatry , law , biology , physics , quantum mechanics
The workplace has become the locus of many stress management and stress reduction interventions. However, little attention has focused on how worksite factors affect the implementation and impact of such interventions. In this paper, we investigate the effect of new versus traditional industrial relations practices on the impact of a worksite stress reduction program in a manufacturing setting. More specifically, a participatory action research (PAR) stress project is described and evaluated in two different labor–management relations contexts. One organization is characterized by the emerging ’new‘ industrial relations system where labor–management relations incorporate elements of joint problem‐solving. The other organization has a more traditional approach where labor–management relations are formally adversarial. Results indicate that the labor–management relations context did influence the impact of the stress project. Involvement in the PAR stress project enhanced employee participation in decision‐making in both contexts. However, involvement in the stress project enhanced employees' perceptions of the climate for participation only in the organization with more cooperative industrial relations. Increases in coworker support and decreases in depressive symptoms were associated with involvement in the PAR stress project in the organization with more adversarial industrial relations.