Occupational stress management programmes: a practical overview of published effect studies

There are many occupational stress management programmes availablewhich are designed to prevent and cure the negative aspectsof job-stress. The focus of the programmes can be directed towardsthe individual worker, the working group, the organization ofthe work or the organization as a whole. Moreover, programmesshow a considerable variation with respect to the type of interventionsthey promote and their underlying assumptions, as well as theirduration and costs. In this paper, effect studies of occupationalstress programmes published between 1987 and 1994 are reviewed.The aim is to give a practical overview of the variety in occupationalstress programmes, their scope, applicability and the evidenceof their effectiveness. The paper updates the review by DeFrankand Cooper published in 1989.