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

There are many occupational stress management programmes available which are designed to prevent and cure the negative aspects of job-stress. The focus of the programmes can be directed towards the individual worker, the working group, the organization of the work or the organization as a whole. Moreover, programmes show a considerable variation with respect to the type of interventions they promote and their underlying assumptions, as well as their duration and costs. In this paper, effect studies of occupational stress programmes published between 1987 and 1994 are reviewed. The aim is to give a practical overview of the variety in occupational stress programmes, their scope, applicability and the evidence of their effectiveness. The paper updates the review by DeFrank and Cooper published in 1989.