Work-related stress in the Italian banking population and its association with recovery experience

• Authors: Gabriele Giorgi , Giulio Arcangeli , Antonio Ariza-Montes , Venerando Rapisarda , Nicola Mucci

Abstracts

EN

Objectives Over the past decade, there has been a markedly growing interest in issues involving work-related stress in Europe. In Italy, according to Eurofound, research has demonstrated high levels of stress in the banking sector. With this in mind, a study was conducted to evaluate the peculiarities of hindrance and challenge stressors, and their links with recovery in the Italian banking population. Material and Methods The health and safety managers of a major Italian banking group were contacted and invited to participate in a stress assessment procedure, not only for research purposes but also to help them fulfill their obligations with regard to work-related stress. In total, 6588 bank workers took part in the study (57.5% males and 42.5% females) in 2012–2018. Work-related stress was measured with the Stress Questionnaire (SQ) that assesses several psychosocial working variables. Recovery was measured using a scale based on the SQ. The analysis and tabulation of the study results were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results The results have demonstrated that female respondents lack more job control and colleagues’ support as compared to male respondents. Employees aged > 50 lack their supervisors’ support while employees with the shortest job seniority experience the greatest role ambiguity, as well as the lack of job control and colleagues’ support. The results of hierarchical regression analysis have demonstrated that the lack of colleagues and supervisors’ support, as well as job demands and job control, contribute to explaining the recovery experience. The greatest contribution to the explained variance could be attributed to job demands and the lack of colleagues’ support. Conclusions This study has demonstrated an important contribution of the so-called traditional stressors to predicting recovery for the banking population in Italy. These findings suggest that banks should adopt corporate policies containing activities for the prevention of and protection against stress, with a more general objective of improving the mental health of their workers. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2019;32(2):255–65

Keywords

EN

workplace; occupational stress; occupational medicine; risk assessment; banking; job demand-control model

• Publisher: Instytut Medycyny Pracy im. prof. dra Jerzego Nofera w Łodzi
• Journal: International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 255-265

Dates

published

2019

Contributors

author

Gabriele Giorgi

• European University of Rome, Rome, Italy (Department of Human Sciences)

author

Giulio Arcangeli

• University of Florence, Florence, Italy (Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine)

author

Antonio Ariza-Montes

• University Loyola Andalucía, Cordoba, Spain (Department of Management)
• Autonomous University of Chile, Santiago, Chile (Department of Business Administration)

author

Venerando Rapisarda

• University of Catania, Catania, Italy (Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine)

author

Nicola Mucci

• University of Florence, Florence, Italy (Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine)

Identifiers

DOI

10.13075/ijomeh.1896.01333

Biblioteka Nauki

2162003