MANUAL: OF O.S.1. THE OCCUPATIONAL STRESS INDEX Dr.A. K. SRIVASTAVA & Dr. A. P. SINGH DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY BANARAS HINDU UNIVERSITY VARANASI - 221 005 Published by : Manovaigyanic Parikshan Sansthan Sanjay Nagar Colony (Cotton Mill) VARANASI The reproduction of any part of this manual by a duplicating machine or in any other way, whether the reproduction are to be sold or not, is a violation of copyright law. Copyright 1984 Manovaigyanic Parikshan Sansthan ALL RIGHTS RESERVEDOCCUPATIONAL STRESS INDEX Introduction : We are living in an era of growing complexities and pressures where human constitution and capacities are being taxed severely. The stresses relating to job have become predominant feature of modern life, exerting for reaching effects on focal employees’ behaviour and adjustments on as well as off-the-job. This is the reason that systematic studies of stress in organizational setting have increased dramatically over the past one decade. Recently, job stress has come into prominent work-related research topis. Job stress is generally define din times of relationship between person and environment. Mc Grath (1976) has noted tnat a stress involves an interaction of person and environment To define stress he said, “..... ... .... there is potential for stress when an environmental situation is perceived as presenting demand which threatens to exceed the person's capabilities and resources for meeting it, under conditions where he expects a substantial differential in the rewards and costs from meeting the demand versus not meeting it”. Margolis and Kroes (1974) defined job stress as a condition worth interacting with worker characteristics to disrupt psychological or physiological homeostasis. The causal situation conditions are job stresses and the disrupted homeostasis is job related strain. The Psychologists and management scientists have different views about potential psychological and situational conditions or job factors which cause job stress. The resear- chers engaged in analysing the anticedents and consequents\ SP of job stress have reported different physica| ang psychological conditions at work as potential 0CcUpationay stressors. Rahn. et al., 1964; Kahn & Quinn, 1970; French Caplan, 1972; Mc Grath, 1976; Cooper & Marshall, 1976. Eden, 1977 House et al., 1979, etc.). Purpose : The Occupational Stress Index purports to measure the extent to stress thich employees perceive arising from various constituent and conditions of their job. However, stress researchers have developed the scales which measure the stress arising exclusively from job.roles (Rizzo, et al 1970: Pareek 1981). The tool may conveniently be administered to the employees of every level operating in context of industries or other non-production organizations. But it would prove more suitable for the employees of supervisory level and above. Main features of the Tool The scale consists of 46 items, each to be rated on the five-point scale. Out of 46 items 28 are ‘true-keyed’ and rest 18 are false-keyed’. The items relate to almost all relevant components of the job life which cause stress in some way or the other, suctvas, role over-load, role ambiguity, role conflict, group and political pressures, responsibility for persons, underparticipation, powerlessness, poor peer relations, intrinsic impoverishment, low status, strenuous working conditions, and unprofitability. The following Table gives an accounts of the items consituting various sub-scales of the O. S. |. alongwith their indices of internal consistency.(3) Serial number of the items in the schedule Sub-Scales (Occupational stressers) rabis Role Overload 1, 13, 25, 36, 44, 46 30-46 Role ambiguity 2, 14*, 26, 37 .20-.48 Role Conflict 3,155 face 45 .36-.53 .21- 52 Unreasonable grp. 4, 16, 28, 39 & pol. pressures- persons 5,17, 29 .30-.57 Underparticipation 6", 18, 30*, 40* 55-.73 Powerlessness Te ASr Sl” .44—.62 Poor peer relations 8*, 20*, 32*, 41* .24-.49 Instrinsic Impoverishment 9, 21*, 33%, 42 32-64 10%, 22%, 34 Low status Strenuous working 12, 24, 35, 43* 40-62 48-51 conditions Unprofitability 11,23 *False-keyed item Reliability The reliability index ascertained by split half (odd-even) method and Cronbach's alpha-Coefficient for the scale as a whole were found to be .935 and .90 respectively. The reliability indices of the 12 sub-scales were also computed on the (split half) method. The followi F win obtained indices. Poi ree heSub Scales Reliability inde, Ss . 2ole overload 684 Role ambiguity 554 1 2 3. Role conflict 696 4. Unreasonable grp. & pol. pressure 454 5. Responsibility for persons .840 6. Underparticipation 630 7. Powerlessness .809 8. Poor peer relations 549 9.» Interinsic Impoverishment 556 10. Law status .789 11. Strenuous working condition 733 12. Unprofitability 767 Validity The validity of the O. S. |. was determined by computing coefficients of correlation between the scales on the O. S. I. and the various measure of job attitudes and job behaviour. The employees’ scores on the O. S. |. is likely to positively correlate with the scores on the measures of such work- manifest attitudinal and motivational and personality variables which have proved lowering or moderating the level of occupational stress. The coefficients of correlation between the scores on the O. S. |. and the measures of Job Involvement (Lodhal & Kejner, 1965), Work Motivation (Srivastava, 1980), Ego-strength (Hasan, 1970). and Job satisfaction (Pestonjee, 1973) were found to be ~.56 (N = 225) -.44 (N = 200), -.40 (N = 205) and — 51 (N = 500). respectively. The correlation between the scores on the O. S. |. and the measure of Job Anxiety (Srivastava, 1974) was found to be 0.59 (N= va mployees' scores on the O. S. |. have been found to be poativel) conetaied with their scores on the ines Mental il, Health, standardized by Dr. O.N. Srivastava (Prof of Psychiatry). The following Table presents the indices th mental health of the high and low occupational stress group of the employees :Symptoms ofill High Low mental health Occupational Occupational C.R stress stress Grp. (N=103) Grp. (N=97) Mean S.D.__Mean_S.D. Free floating Anxiety. 617 Obsessive traits & symptoms 786 309 769 «324 047 Phobic Anxiety 613 362 443 315 3:54" Somatic con- comitent Anxiety 6-50 377 4:35 3:39 423° | Neurotic | Supression 535 330 429 360 490°" } Hysterical traits 524 288 444 2:78 2:00* P< 4) *P<05 Scoring Since the questionnaire consists of both true keyed and false-keyed items two different patterns of scoring have to be adopted for two types of items. The following table provides guide line to score the responses given to two categories of items : Scores For For True keyed False keyed Categories of response Never/Strong disagree Seldom/Disagree Sometimes/Undecided Mostly/Agree Always/Strongly Agree ahwon= aANnNwaanNORMS Norms have been prepared for the Occupationay ~ Index as a whole as well as for its twelve sub-scales Spa on a representative sample of 700 employees of iter! cadres operating in various production and POM Produ” organizations. The distribution of scores on the 0.8) \%b found to be slightly skewed in negative direction. To Prepay? the norms three methods were adopted. i. ©. nomen distribution, percentile point and division of upper ang long halves. The scores were divided into three categories. i.e, higy moderate and low, following the principles of Norm distribution. The scores falling above +10 , between+ cg below 1¢ were categorized, respectively as to indicate tig moderate and low levels of occupational stress. The following Table provides the norms for the raw scores| (See Table - 1). Norms Table 1 Level of occupational Stress Moderate IV Vi vil 3-7 8-11 12-15 vill 4-8 9-13 14-20 Ix 4-9 10-13 14-20 x 3-6 7-11 12-15 xl 4-9 10-12 13-20 xIl 2-4 5-7 8-10 123-155 156-230 Scale as awhole 46-122(8) The scores were also divided into upper and lower ha on the basis of the median point the distribution of the ste 8 scores. The score below median and above Median , a categorized, respectively as to indicate low and high lev 7 of occupational stress. The following table provide then on this criterian : (See Table 3). Norms Table 3 Sub-Scales Level of occupational Stress Low (Below Median) 6-19 4-12 5-15 4-12 ° 3-10 4-12 3-9 4-11 4-11 3-9 4-12 2-6 Scale as a whole 46-129 Printed by : v ARANAS MEHROTRA PRINTERS, ENGLISHIA LINE: