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Stress at the top: myth or fact? Causal explanations from a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA)

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Abstract

Stress and its associated health issues are a serious concern, because they not only affect employees but also organizations through related costs. The common perception is that being at the top of a hierarchy is associated with higher levels of stress because of the increased responsibilities, challenges, and demands. The present study examines this perception by applying a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. The study investigates how the top position, authority, number of subordinates, workload, and a sense of control, alone or in combination, lead to stress or its absence. The results show that there are several recipes for stress and that being (or not being) in the top position is neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for stress (or absence of stress). One of the recipes, however, indicates that being in the top position might be conducive to stress. This finding shows that the position an individual has in the hierarchy does not determine stress. The present study also shows that the absence of a sense of control is almost always a necessary condition for predicting stress and is present in all recipes for the absence of stress. The results can inform managers about the conditions that cause stress and enable managers to think about solutions that can lead to good mental health in their organizations.

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Notes

  1. To measure SES, we presented the managers with a picture of three ladders and asked them to choose a rung from the ten available that best represented where they stood in their country, their communities, and their jobs, as in Adler et al. (2000). We averaged the three scales to create the subjective SES index.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, through the Advance Research Centre (Project UID/SOC/04521/2013). The authors thank Graça Silva and the referees for helpful comments.

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  1. ISEG, Universidade de Lisboa, Rua Miguel Lupi 20, 1249-078, Lisbon, Portugal

    Maria João Guedes, Helena Martins Gonçalves & Vítor da Conceição Gonçalves

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  1. Maria João Guedes
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Correspondence to Maria João Guedes.

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Guedes, M.J., Gonçalves, H.M. & da Conceição Gonçalves, V. Stress at the top: myth or fact? Causal explanations from a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Qual Quant 51, 2001–2017 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-016-0363-9

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