Meta-analytic evidence of the effectiveness of stress management at work

ABSTRACT

To increase employees’ psychological health and to achieve a competitive advantage, organizations are increasingly introducing flexible work arrangements (FWAs) and stress management training (SMT). This paper provides meta-analytic evidence of the effects of two forms of FWA (flexitime and telecommuting) and three forms of SMT (cognitive-behavioural skills training, relaxation techniques and multiple SMT) on employees’ psychological health, job satisfaction, job performance and absenteeism. Applying the conservation of resource theory, we conjecture that both FWAs and SMT improve all four employee-related outcomes. Quantitative meta-analyses based on 43 primary studies and 22,882 employees show that both FWAs and SMT are positively associated with psychological health and job satisfaction. However, due to a lack of primary studies we were mostly unable to analyse the effects on performance and absenteeism. Although we found a large heterogeneity in the hypothesized relationships, additional moderator analyses of study quality, age, gender, duration and intention of intervention yielded no significant effects. We discuss limitations and implications for practice and for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychological health
• job satisfaction
• job performance
• absenteeism
• Stress Management at Work

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In addition to FWAs and SMT, absenteeism has also other antecedents such as an employee’s personality and health (Jones, 2002), job satisfaction (Jones, 2001) or the absenteeism of co-workers (ten Brummelhuis, Johns, Lyons, & Ter Hoeven, 2016).

2. Job performance and absenteeism were measured via single items or via objective measurements.