Work stress and depressive symptoms among Japanese information systems managers

The aim of the present study is to investigate the task-specific work stressors of IS (Information Systems) managers and to analyze the effect of these work stressors on depressive symptoms among these managers. A questionnaire including 33 items on work stressor was designed. Three hundreds of samples were gathered. The response-rate was 66.4%. Factor analysis suggested that these 33 items were categorized into 8 factors; job-overload, project-management, mental-rewards, job-latitude, communication with users, career development, technical difficulty, and work-environment. Eight work stressor scores were constructed using this Factor analysis. Using the 8 stressor-scores, and 6 items of background data, multiple regression analysis was conducted on the depressive symptoms score. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale. The results showed that the factors of project-management, mental-rewards, and job-overload had significant effect on depressive symptoms (p < 0.01). It is indicated for the first time that software project management affects depressive symptoms in systems managers.