Validation of the work stress screener (WOSS-13) and resilience at work scale (ReWoS-24)

Work stress is a global issue with countries such as the UK requiring organisations to protect employees. Work stress can be beneficial (challenging) or harmful (overwhelming), and characteristics such as resilience are thought to mitigate some of the negative effects. This paper describes the validation of two new scales. The WOSS-13 was designed to measure both benign and harmful experiences of work stress, while the ReWoS-24 captures information about individual and team resilience.

For both scales the assessment of individual items, domains captured by scale items, reliability and validity were completed using data from a survey of 1980 individuals from the University of York, England. A sub-sample of respondents (N = 609) provided additional data for retest purposes. Analyses were performed using these two samples.

Responses to scale items were found to be normally distributed. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated the WOSS-13 was comprised of three subscales: positive work-related affect/stress, general positive affect and harmful stress. The ReWoS-24 is presented as four sub-scales: general well-being, well-being at work, satisfaction with job performance and team resilience. All subscales demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ≥0.80). Both scales complement existing measures of stress and mental health.

The findings suggest that the WOSS-13 is a valid and reliable measure which enables the assessment of both benign and harmful forms of work stress. The ReWoS-24 is a valid and reliable measure of individual and team resilience. These scales could be used in workplaces to assess for and mitigate against, harmful work stress.