A couple of weeks ago, the American Psychological Association and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health held a conference in Washingtion, D.C. entitled 'Stress in the 90's'. At this conference the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) conducted a session on 'Programs and Resources for the Control of Job Stress in the Federal Workplace'. I am going to present an overview of that three-hour session and some related information from the conference. My discussion covers stress terminology and models, selected programs and resources, evaluation research, some concerns about our progress, and plans to expand our efforts at OPM

Joice, Wendell

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

PROGRAMS AND RESOURCES FOR CONTROL OF
JOB STRESS IN THE FEDERAL WORKPLACE _
Wendell Joice, Ph.D. _ 9 _ - _ @_ _ 1 7
Office of Personnel Management / / . )
Washington, D.C. #
A couple of weeks ago, the American Psychological Association and the National
Institute of Occupational Safety and Health held a conference in Washington, D.C.
entitled "Stress in the 90's." At this conference the Office of Personnel Management
(OPM) conducted a session on "Programs and Resources for the Control of Job Stress
in the Federal Workplace." I am going to present an overview of that three-hour session
and some related information from the conference. My discussion will cover:
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Stress Terminology and Models
Selected Programs and Resources
Evaluation Research
Some Concerns About Our Progress
Plans to Expand Our Efforts at OPM.
Stress Terminology and Models
At the conference and in my readings I noticed that there is still a lack of a clear
and generally accepted definition of what we mean by stress. Not only does this cause
methodological problems for our research efforts, but it also affects our ability to identify
relevant issues and target populations. Our ability to design and integrate programs and
resources is likewise hindered. As social scientists, however, we always seem to be
struggling with definitions, concepts, constructs, and paradigms. Fortunately, I do not
need to resolve this issue here, and I mention it only because I considered it when
selecting programs and resources to include in this presentation.
I also noticed that there was an abundance of different models which served as
a basis for the various theories and programs. Actually, I find these models helpful and
have selected some more-or-less standard ones to reference my comments.
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Treatment Intervention: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary
A commonly used treatment intervention model presented at the conference
included primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment interventions. The model was
focused on workplace issues by defining primary intervention as addressing workplace
demands; secondary intervention as addressing worker reaction, adjustment and
accommodation to these demands; and tertiary intervention as addressing the worker in
distress. Most Federal and non-Federal programs appear to be focused on secondary
interventions. Looked at another way, most of our activity appears to focus on the
individual worker; that is, on managing and reducing the symptoms of worker strain,
both physiological and psychological.
Programs and Resources
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)
All Federal Agencies are required to have or provide access to Employee
Assistance Programs (EAPs). Currently, approximately one-half of the EAP programs
are in-house and the other half are run by contractors. Some Agencies pool their
resources and utilize EAP cooperatives such as those established by the Cooperative
Administrative Support Unit Program of the President's Council on Management
Improvement. During Fiscal Year 1991, approximately 78,000 employees used Federal
EAPs. Nearly all EAPs have some sort of stress management program and provide
short-term treatment for stress-related problems. In a related initiative, since 1987
approximately 861,000 Federal supervisors and managers have been trained in assisting
troubled employees and referring them to EAPs.
Worksite Health Promotion Programs
Worksite health promotion programs were initiated in the wellness movement of
the 1980's to bring broader perspective to occupational health activities and to be more
outreach and prevention-oriented. Regarding stress control, these programs operate in
the realization of the beneficial connection between fitness, wellness, and stress.
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NASA hasoneof thestarhealthpromotionprogramsin theFederalGovernment.
VariousotherFederalagencieshavelesselaboratehealthpromotionprograms,someof
which are reviewed in a 1991 Office of PersonnelManagement(OPM) publication
entitled "Worksite Health Promotion." Another star program is the one at the Army
Materiel Commandin Virginia. Like NASA's program,the Army Materiel Command
program usescomprehensivehealthrisk appraisals,medical screeningprotocols, and
fitnessfacilities. Medical dataobtainedonincomingparticipantsis fed into anautomated
systemwhich maintainsan extensiveresearchdatabaseand which providessame-day
diagnosticsincludinginterventionneeds. Manyof theinterventionsarehandledin once-
a-week,60-minutetraining sessionswhich rangefrom four to eight weeksin duration.
The ProgramManagerreportsthat more than5,000 employeeshaveparticipatedin the
Army Materiel CommandProgram.
Work and Family Movement
Many Federal Agencies are actively involved in the work and family movement.
One of the goals of this movement is to reduce employee stress by helping them achieve
a healthy balance between their work and family lives. The Office of Personnel
Management has established a Federal Work and Family Program Center which provides
policy guidance, training, and technical assistance to Federal Agencies. OPM has also
established the Interagency Partnership on Work and Family. This partnership works to
establish coordinated Federal efforts in this area. Many Agencies have established their
own work and family centers to focus on their particular initiatives such as work and
family counselors and support groups. The work and family counselors are separate
from the EAP counselors and provide counseling, resource and referral services focusing
on balancing work and family life.
Dependent Care Programs
Primary among existing work and family programs are the dependent care
programs. The Federal Government currently has between 800 and 900 child care
centers for its workers. Most of these are in the Department of Defense (DoD). The
General Services Administration (GSA) has established an Office of Child Care and
development programs to provide technical assistance. At least two Agencies, the
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are working
on the establishment of adult day care centers.
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Organizational Intervention Model: Control, Clarity, Conflict Management
An intervention model that applies to many of our recently developed
organizational programs was discussed by Dr. James Quick at the "Stress in the 90's"
conference mentioned earlier. This model focuses on organizational and work redesign
interventions for reducing occupational stress. The three components are to:
. Increase the amount of employee control over work and work
environment. This has been a popular issue of late.
, Increase the amount of clarity in the work environment, especially
in terms of expectations, policies, communications, and consequences.
. Improve the management of conflict so that individuals
professionalize if not personalize their conflicts.
I think that the following programs fit this model.
Additional Programs
With supervisor approval, Federal employees may use a combination of annual
leave, sick leave, and leave without pay for parental and family responsibilities.
Currently, nineteen Federal Agencies have formal dependent care leave policies.
The employee option of flexible work schedules, Flexitime, is widely available
in many Federal Agencies. We estimate that 54 percent of Federal employees with
dependent care needs work under Flexitime schedules.
The Office of Personnel Management has designated an office to coordinate and
encourage Agency use of job sharing and part-time employment programs.
My favorite program, however, is Flexiplace, which allows employees to work
at home or at geographically convenient satellite offices. Federal Agencies have the
authority to establish Flexiplace programs, and at least fourteen have done so.
Participants in this program have specified stress reduction as one of its primary benefits.
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Otherbenefitscitedby theparticipantsincludereducedcommutingtimeandmorecontrol
over time andenvironment. Between800and 1,000employeescurrently participatein
Flexiplace. We havecompletedan evaluationof thepilot programand the resultsare
very positive,especiallyjob performanceandemployeemorale.
All Federalemployeeshaveaccessto formal disputeresolutionmechanismssuch
asfiling grievances.Humanresourcesprofessionalshaverealizedthat disputeshandled
in the traditional formal and legalistic fashionusually add more stressto an already
stressfulsituation. This is becausesomeonebecomesawinner andsomeonebecomesa
loser. Various Agenciessuchas theGeneralAccountingOffice (GAO) haveturned to
mediation. A neutralpersonhelpstwo or moreindividualsexplorewaysto resolvetheir
differencesand arrive at an agreementhat doesnot focuson win/lose or fight/wrong.
Beyond that, however, employeerelations counselorsat the Los Alamos National
Laboratory believe they have improved upon the mediation approach by using dual
advocacy mediation. This type of mediation utilizes two counselors who meet separately
with the conflicting parties. They prepare the parties for mediation, meet with each other
to plan the mediation, participate in the mediation, and develop relapse prevention plans.
A few Agencies are working to reduce stressors associated with their physical
work spaces. The EPA has a unit which focuses on indoor air quality and sponsors an
International Research and Advocacy Society for reducing indoor air pollution. The IRS
has a Research and Technical Advisory Unit which focuses on ergonomic factors and the
establishment of a comfortable and injury-free work space.
Finally, when things get really rough, some Agencies have programs designed for
crisis intervention, such as the Traumatic Incident Program at the IRS and a similar
program at the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Evaluation Research
Shifting our focus to resources, I will mention a few research studies that you
may find interesting.
Last year, the National Center for Health Fitness published a comprehensive
evaluation of the Army Materiel Command's Health Promotion Project. It
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covers2,700participantsand reportsimpactfindings on health indicators,
sick leave, productivity, and cost benefit.
O The Office of Personnel Management will soon publish its final report on
the work-at-home component of the Flexiplace Project. The findings will
include job performance, health impact, sick leave, operational costs, etc.
In addition, the Office of Personnel Management has recently published several other
studies which bear on our topic. These include:
S.O.F.E., a comprehensive survey of 32,000 Federal employees containing
attitude, behavioral, and organizational information useful to considerations
of employee stress.
O A study of the work and family needs of the Federal work force and a
report on Federal EAPs.
O The General Accounting Office recently published "The Changing
Workforce," which compares Federal and non-Federal work and family
programs.
Concerns About Our Progress: Program Availability, Cost Benefit,
Outcome/Efficacy, Symptoms and Individuals
As you may have noticed, many of the programs mentioned here are only
available at some Agencies. Where programs are available, even Government-wide, they
are often only available to a limited number of employees. We need to find and utilize
ways to make these programs more broadly available, not just for the benefit of
employees, but also for evaluation purposes. It really does not serve us well to talk
about programs that are not sufficiently available to have the impact for which they were
designed.
With this in mind, managers and health professionals alike would be more
inclined to utilize programs if they had access to broadly accepted cost benefit
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information as well as solid research findings supporting program effectiveness.
Currently, suchinformation is hardto find.
As I mentionedearlier, therehavebeen someconcernsabout our tendencyto
focuson stressmanagementand individual adjustment. Many socialscientistsbelieve
that we shouldplacemore emphasison primary interventionsthat involve preventive
measuressuchas organizational,workplace,andjob redesign. One schoolof thought
holdsthat stressexpertsandeducatorsmaybedoingmoreharm thangoodby teaching
people to "managestress." It points out that, despite the proliferation of such
techniques,millions of Americanscontinueto die and Americanbusinesscontinuesto
losebillions of dollars from stress-relatedillnesses. Indeed,the stressepidemicappears
to beworseningratherthan improving. This schoolof thoughtmaintainsthat insteadof
encouragingpeopleto managestresswe shouldencouragethem andtheir employersto
focuson andresolvethe specificproblemstroubling them;that we shouldbe ready to
apply organizational,environmental,or other external remediesas well as traditional
individual therapies.
OPM Plans: Ongoing Research, Organizational Diagnosis, System
Integration, Consultation/Referral, Healthy Companies
Mindful of these concerns and of the growing magnitude of the workplace stress
problem, the Office of Personnel Research and Development at OPM is planning to
expand its efforts to assist Agencies to achieve and maintain health Federal workplaces.
We have put together the following tentative plans and, additionally, are open to any
Agency recommendations regarding our role in this effort.
To begin with, we would like to establish ongoing research using Government-
wide perspective and taking collective advantage of existing databases. The research
would focus on areas such as outcomes, cost benefit, individual and organizational
performance, and program utilization. We would also like to develop an efficient and
accurate approach to organizational diagnosis and follow-up which would include
methods of projecting gains and losses associated with the level and quality of
management response to indicated problems.
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We have noticeda greatdeal of fragmentation in the Federal approach to the
healthy workplace. This is true at both the Government-wide and Agency-wide levels.
In some cases, we have numerous programs all working separately with little
coordination of their activities. We would like to design and encourage the
implementation of integrated programs that can benefit from a united effort. As we
develop expertise, information, and Federal networks, we will provide consultation and
referral services to organizations and Agencies.
We have already joined a public/private partnership called Healthy Companies,
and we plan to assist them with a fairly ambitious research effort they are undertaking.
This research focuses on qualitative assessments of policies, practices, cost benefits, and
employee attitudes along fourteen identified dimensions of a health workplace.
Finally, in response to concerns expressed to us by EAP practitioners, we plan
to work with our Federal Employee Health Care policy people to establish a closer
working relationship between health care providers and our EAP practitioners. Along
these same lines, we plan to see if there are ways we can improve the mental health
benefits offered by our managed care providers.
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Programs and resources for control of job stress in the Federal workplace

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