It is important to be able to separate the individual cognitive responses from the normative responses...it is possible to have a group of very clinically healthy people who are highly stressed because the normative environment is highly authoritarian. It is a fundamental attribution error to conclude that stress is a function of the collective individual psychologies of people in a group. So, I recommend using a well validated survey, Survey of Organizations (University of Michigan Institute for Social Research) as a place to start in order to measure the degree of power sharing (authoritarianism) that exists in the organizations you are considering. If you are interested in individual assessments, I would use the 16pf, this is clinical instrument (requires a clinical license) and it should be administered in an atmosphere of total trust with an individual and results not broadcast to others. There are of course a number of pop assessments that consultants use...strength deployment inventory etc etc... But if I were you, I would not be in such a hurry to blame stress on the nature of the individuals in the group you are surveying...but instead on the normative environment. You do know that social psychologists report that 95% of workplaces are authoritarian, and that most stress comes from overcontrol: people not given the authority that allows them to handle the responsibilities placed on them. It is often believed that conflict on the job, the major source of "stress," is due to the nature of the two or more individuals engaged in the conflict. When, actually, this is not true. The stress is actually due to the fact that the organization has a norm of silence and conflicts are never faced openly and resolved fairly. Remember that conflicts are normal to being human. But in authoritarian workpalces, which most are, conflicts are not addressed AND THAT IS THE TRUE SOURCE OF STRESS; UNRESOLVED CONFLICT. Conflicts are not faced in authoritarian organizations because that would be opening the pandoras box of mistreatment inherent in any authoritarian system. You can see the bind here and why most consultants do not see it let alone face it. Consultants are caught by the system and their perceptions are clouded---and allowed to be so in order to get that contract. You would do well to read the book _Work Abuse: How to Recognize and Survive It_ (Schenkman books 1997), which gives the truth about "work stress"---fundamentally a euphemism that allows stress to be blamed on individuals rather than looking at the systems sources which are the real culprits. If you have questions: email me: donjgenaro@hotmail.com
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