Assessment of job stress factors in a context of organizational change

Introduction. - Research consistently showed that stress and organizational change are closely related. Objective. - This study was conducted to identify the psychosocial job characteristics that are responsible for psychological stress in a context of organizational change. Method. - An expanded 30-item version of the Job Content Questionnaire was used to measure psychological demands, decision latitude, supervisor support, coworker support, and organizational difficulties. Online survey responses from 973 employees from the university of Strasbourg were analyzed. Results. - Confirmatory Factor Analyses indicated a poor fit of the five-factor model based on 30 items but an acceptable to good fit of a reduced five-factor model based on 26 items. Results from a stepwise regression showed that the organizational difficulties dimension was the second most important predictor of psychological stress. Conclusion. - The implications of these findings for further work on health outcomes of organizational changes closed this study. (C) 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.