Describe and critically access Cooper's Model (1976) of occupational stress

Role in the Organisation 

‘A persons role at work has been isolated as a main source of occupational stress.’(Cooper 1986).

Various examples of this would be role ambiguity, conflicting job demands, responsibility for people and conflicts in the workplace arising from promotional barriers.  Cartwright and Cooper (1987) identified role ambiguity, role conflict, and responsibility as major sources of work-related stress.  They found that in cases where tasks were clearly set out, and clarification was given, exposure to stress was minimized.

Career Development

        Cooper (1983) found career development to be a fundamental stressor at work and referred to the impact of over promotion, under promotion, lack of job security, and thwarted ambition.  Career development barriers were also more noticeable among female managers.  A study by Davidson and Cooper (1983) revealed that out of seven-hundred female managers, and two-hundred and fifty managers at all levels of the organization, women suffered significantly more than men in relation to a wide range of organizational stressors.  The most damaging to their health was found to be job dissatisfaction and stressors associated with career development.  Other stressors were found to be sexual discrimination with regards to promotion, inadequate training, and male colleagues being treated more favourably.

Relationships at Work

        The nature of relationships and social support from ones colleagues and superiors has also been related to job stress.  French and Caplan (1972) found that poor relationships with other fellow members of an organization could have arisen from role ambiguity, which may produce psychological strain in the form of job dissatisfaction.  Cooper and Melhuish (1980) found from their study of 196 senior male executives that their outgoing, tough-minded approach and their relationships at work were central to the increase in blood-pressure that they experienced.  It was found that they were particularly vulnerable to the stresses caused by poor relationships with colleagues, that they also had a lack of personal support from home and work, and that conflicts arose from a difference between their own values and those of the particular organization.

Organisational Structure and Climate

Another potential source of stress includes factors relating to office politics, lack of effective consultation, lack of participation in decision making, and restrictions on behaviour.  Marglois et al (1974) and French and Caplan (1972) found that greater participation led to higher productivity, improved performance, lower staff turnover, and lower levels of physical and mental illness.

Bond and Bunce (2001) showed the involvement of empowerment of individuals at various stages of the intervention process and showed how this was a positive result.  The Participatory Action Research initiative (P.A.R.) has been reported to be successful and has improved organizational change initiatives.  It does this by involving various members of an organization in the decision making process (Henry et al 1993).

Home/Work Pressures

        A further danger to the current economic situation is the effect that work pressures may have, such as the fear of job loss, work overload, and stifled ambition.  These factors in turn effect the families of employees and can themselves create further stress.  An example of this can be illustrated by an inherent conflict involved in being a young senior executive whilst also trying to start a family.

Dual-Career Stress

        In this day and age, an increasing number of women are seeking long-term careers.  This creates a problem for male employees with regards to family life and can create further stress when a couple are in the process of starting a family.  This particular type of stress is called dual-career stress.

Revisions of Cooper’s Model

        Over the years, several revisions have been made to Cooper’s original model.  These are; Cooper and Baglioni (1988), and Robertson, Cooper and Williams (1990).  The home/work interface aspect of the model was originally part of the individual differences section, but in 1988, this was incorporated as a sixth source of stress.  The reason behind this was the increasing recognition that demands and conflicts from work could act as potential sources of stress at home and could also be transferred and influence work-related well-being.  Also, in 1990, Robertson et al introduced coping strategies into the model as another aspect of individual differences.  Although there are several features of the work environment, which have been associated with stress, Cooper and Marshall (1976) developed one of the earliest classifications which is still widely used today (Newell 1995).

Criticisms

        Claire Harris (1998) criticizes Cooper’s model as describing a model of organizational stress rather than occupational stress.  She argued that it was vague in relation to particular types of job-related stress.  This is evident from the sources of stress, with only those ‘intrinsic to job’ being occupational stresses and the rest being generic to organizations rather than occupations.  Several researchers including Cooper have noticed this problem and have used the measurement of stressors for the particular occupation under study.  Cooper and Bramwell (1992) for example, assessed mental health satisfaction and sickness absence from looking at a group of managers and shop floor workers.

        Another criticism with this model is its simplistic left to right characterization of the stress process.  In Lazarus Folkmans (1986) transactional model of stress, the extent to which a stressor in the environment results in strain outcomes depends on the interaction between the individual and their environment.  The model also includes feedback loops which are not accounted for in Cooper’s model.

        Cooper’s model has also been criticized because it fails to show how individual differences relate to other parts of the model.  Cooper’s model fails to account for organizational characteristics as moderators of the stressor strain relationship and does not indicate whether coping and personality have direct influences on stress outcomes or if they are combined to have an interactive influence.  Although Cooper has incorporated individual differences in the model, further evidence is required to establish whether or not these differences have a direct effect or moderate strain outcomes.  In addition to these criticisms, Cooper’s model does not account for other well known researched individual differences such as neuroticism (relating to well-being) and less researched factors such as extroversion and competence (Warr 1987).

Conclusions

        Cooper’s 1986 model of work-related stress describes the main features of an individual’s work and also of his/her home environment.  He describes these in the ‘Model of Stress at Work.’  

        Although Cooper’s model is simplistic, it does give a general overview of how stress can influence an individual’s relationships at work and at home.  

        It could be argued that Cooper’s model only concentrates on organizational stressors i.e. organizational structure, relationships at work, or career development.  That being said, he mentions the feature of ‘intrinsic to job’, which is in fact related to occupational stress.

        Cooper’s model is still widely use today in the field of occupational psychology, but further revisions need to be made which describe the individuals coping strategies and personality, as they play a major role in the workplace with regards to a persons health.  Further research also needs to be conducted on existing data and then it needs to be analysed directly with the H.S.E.

        

         

References

i)Brown et al 1999 – Police Stress.

ii)Claire Harris – Msc Thesis (1998).

iii)Daniels et al 2002 – Stress Risk Report.

iv)Jordan et al 2003 – Practice stress in management.

v)Parkes and Sparkes 1998 – Organisational Stress Interventions.

Joanna Garibaldinos – 2117411

PSY 2333 – Occupational Health Psychology

Dr Andrew Guppy

Trent Park

Describe and critically access Cooper’s Model (1986) of Occupational Stress.