Risk assessment of occupational stress: Extensions of the Clarke and Cooper approach

Abstract

For an organization to prevent occupational stress problems, it is necessary to correctly diagnose the characteristics of the work and employment conditions that are perceived as risks by employees and to investigate the consequences of these risks. Clarke and Cooper propose a methodology to assess which organizational factors pose the highest levels of risk to the well-being of employees. A level of risk is calculated based on the exposure level of a hazard and on the level of negative consequences associated with this exposure. The methodology has proven to be useful to prioritize and target specific areas for interventions. The present study introduced significant developments to this methodology by incorporating a coping dimension into the formula in order to better reflect the theoretical stress model. Tested on a sample of employees from a hospital centre (N = 1229), the introduction of coping strategies in the computation of risk level increases the strength of the relationship between risk exposure and outcomes, illustrating that the improved formula constitutes a more precise method to assess risk.

Keywords:

• Risk assessment
• risk management
• occupational stress
• methodology
• coping

Notes

1 This transformation is straightforward: (a) subtract a constant to get a minimum score of zero, (b) divide the result by the maximum score of the corrected scale, and (c) multiply the resulting score per 10 to get a 0 to 10 score. For example, if we have a mean of 3.5 on a ‘1 to 7’ scale, we need to do these operations: (3.5−1)/6×10 = 4.17.

2 Clerks and the respondents from ‘other categories’ were not included in the analysis.

3 Respondents had to indicate weather or not they were exposed to toxic agents, no details were obtained concerning which type of toxic agents.