The purpose of this study was to (1) examine associations between six organizational communication processes and job stress, (2) discover the relative importance of the communication processes in explaining the presence of stress, and (3) test moderating effects of three task-environment characteristics on the communication to stress relationship. The communication variables and the criterion variable of stress were measured with scales derived from a questionnaire administered to 405 management personnel from a manufacturing firm which has facilities located throughout the U.S. Job Stress was defined as an uncomfortable emotional response (e.g., anxiety, frustration) attributed to the work place. Using correlation analysis, each of the six communication variables were found to be negatively correlated with stress (p < .001), including: quality of supervisory communication (r = -.40), quality of formal performance feedback system (r = -.23), quality of top management communication (r = -.39), openness of communication climate (r = -.25), amount of felt decision-making autonomy (r = -.33), and quality of one's self-perceived communication behavior (r = -.17). Regression analysis found that the set of variables accounted for 25% of the variance; but, only three of the variables significantly contributed, including: supervisory communication, top management communication, and decision-making autonomy. Results of step-wise regression found the following order of importance of the variables: supervisory communication (partial = -.40), top management communication (partial = -.25), and decision-making autonomy (partial = -.17); the three remaining variables were not statistically significant. The following characteristics were found to have little effect on the relationship between the communication variables and stress: business area, job function (line vs. staff), and job specialty. Thus, the associations between the communication variable and stress were found to occur consistently among subjects regardless of the nature of their work. Results of the study suggest that certain communication processes, especially supervisory and top management communication, may play an important role in provoking stress. Also, the specific nature of one's work appears to have little effect on the extent to which communication provokes stress.Ph.D.ManagementUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/160071/1/8412284.pd
