Improving stress assessment: toward an evidence-based approach to organizational stress interventions

There is little evidence to suggest that the stress management interventions (SMIs) used in organizations are necessarily effective nor is it clear why, in principle, they should be. Why then do organizations introduce SMIs? A wide variety of reasons is apparent, many focusing on reducing the presumed costs of stress and the attractiveness of what appears to be a panacea-like intervention. The central aim of this study is to make the case for and outline an evidence-based approach to SMIs in which data gathered from initial assessments are used to make decisions about interventions. Valid assessment requires a relatively sophisticated and comprehensive approach to measurement; designs which permit causal relationships between the phenomena of interest to be established; and a healthy scepticism toward the claims that are made by organizations and individuals about stress. It is argued that an evidence-based approach will lead to advances in theory development and intervention practices.