Job stress in a multinational corporation: cross-country comparison between Japan and Vietnam

The current study aimed to identify workplace stress and how stress factors differed in employees of a multinational company's subsidiaries in Japan and Vietnam.

For the study, a total of 340 Japanese and 379 Vietnamese workers were included from their corresponding subsidiaries of a multinational company headquartered in Japan. The data were anonymously collected via an online pre-administered questionnaire between November 2021 and February 2022. A brief Job Stress Questionnaire was used to assess the job stress. Doubly robust estimation combines a multivariate regression model with a propensity score model to identify the adjusted difference of job stress between workers in two companies.

Japanese employees included 292 males and 48 females, with an average age of 45.5 years. Vietnamese workers comprised 91 males and 288 females, with an average age of 36.5 years. Japanese workers reported higher level of job stress (odds ratio [OR] 1.37, p<.001), family dissatisfaction (OR 1.25, p<.001), and job dissatisfaction (OR 1.31, p<.001) than Vietnamese workers. Supervisor support had the lowest ranking in both countries (Mean 2.61; SD, 1.14 in Japan and mean 2.08; SD, 1.34 in Vietnam). The largest score differences between Japanese and Vietnamese workers were observed for family support (Diff=-1.25, p<.001) and colleague support (Diff=-1.20, p<.001).

Although we have herein focused on the factors with the poorest perception and the highest gaps between the two countries, the managers in each country should be mindful of the other factors that appeared to be significant job stressors in their subsidiaries for further prevention of job stress.