Chronic stress increases workers' illness absences and decreases personal performance in organizations. That is, work stress affects not only workers' health status but also organizational benefits. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between blue-collar workers stress and the perception of their work. The subjects were 789 male blue-collar workers of four manufacturing companies producing household appliances in Puchon, Korea. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on stress symptoms, daily working hours, rest time, shift work, self-perceived workload, relationships with supervisors, relationships with coworkers, salary satisfaction, satisfaction with work environment, general job satisfaction, and demographics. The average age of subjects was 33.3 years old, and 40% of subjects were single. All subjects were classified to stress or non-stress groups in terms of their stress scores, and people whose stress scores were within 0.5 standard error measures of the mean were excluded in the analysis to clearly classify groups in terms of stress symptoms. Descriptive analyses, Multiple Analysis of Variance, and Descriptive Discriminant Analysis were used in statistical analyses. There were significant differences in self-perceived workload, relationships with coworkers, relationships with supervisors, satisfaction with work environment, and general job satisfaction between stress and non-stress groups. Satisfaction with work environment, relationships with coworkers, and workload were important outcome variables of workers' stress symptoms. Thus, workers under low levels of stress worked better with their coworkers and supervisors, were more satisfied with their job and work environment, and perceived less workload than workers under high levels of stress.
Learning Objectives: 1. Identify important work stressors of blue-collar workforce 2. Compare job-related factors of high stress groups with those of low stress groups
Keywords: Workplace Stressors, Adult Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.