Job stress and mental well-being: similarities and differences among American, Japanese, and Indian managers

The sources and mediators of occupational stress have been assessed frequently but rarely from a cross-cultural perspective. The present study examined responses to a number of stress, social support, job satisfaction, and personal characteristics measures and their relationships to mental well-being among samples of lower-, middle-, and upper-level managers in the United States, Japan, and India. These data suggested basic similarities between 178 U.S. and 306 Indian managers; the 222 Japanese managers tended to report more negative reactions than the other two groups. Variability among these groups was seen, however, in the relative weights given to the factors of the mental well-being measure and in the association of these factors with the various independent variables. Implications and shortcomings of these results are discussed, along with suggestions for future research priorities.