ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND WORK STRESS AMONG MENTAL HEALTH CARE STAFF

摘要

This study was conducted within a Mental Health Care Centre in Northern Italy, with the aim of investigating how organizational changes, due to a restructuring process, influences stress levels among workers. The Occupational Stress Indicator (Cooper, Sloan and Williams, 1988) and the Organizational Check-up System (Maslach and Leiter, 1997) were administered to participants (N=20): Executives (N=10) and Staff (N=10). Quantitative data were combined with qualitative ones obtained from two focus groups. The OCS identified stressors related to Workload, Fairness, Work-group Cohesion and Leadership, whereas the OSI revealed sources of stress in Relationship with Others, Climate and Organizational Structure and Management Role. These results, consistent with the ones shown by focus groups and previous studies, are relevant in order to plan effective management change interventions and strategies to reduce the impact of stressors on mental health care staff.