Executive Stress: Extending the International Comparison

Much current research has considered the problems of occupational health and stress within particular work groups or individual countries. In a recent paper, an international comparison was made of the stress of senior executives in such countries as the United Kindgom, the United States, Sweden, Japan, Nigeria, and Egypt. In this study, it was shown that executives from less industrialized countries had higher levels of mental ill-health and job dissatisfaction. In the present study, this international comparison was extended using executives from New Zealand, a country with a reputedly more relaxed lifestyle but with serious economic problems. The comparison indicated that the New Zealand executives had lower levels of stress than those in all other countries but Sweden, and the lowest rates of job dissatisfaction. Stepwise multiple regression analyses provided clear and useful results indicating that threat of job loss was the best predictor of mental health, while interpersonal conflict and external agency conflict were the best predictors of job dissatisfaction. It would be most helpful for this international comparison to be extended by other researchers.