Psychosocial stress in industry: a heartache for middle management?

Based on French and Caplan's stress-strain model, a large number of stressors, supposed to lead to psychological, behavioral and physiological strains, was measured in Dutch industries with regard to the position of the middle management. It was possible to reduce the number of stressors to three factors: job ambiguity, work load and poor relations with others. Job ambiguity is the factor with the most negative consequences, regarding cholesterol level and mean arterial pressure. The experience of, as well as the relations between stressors and strains, may be influenced by behavioural dispositions (A/B typology), and contextual variables (company size, hierarchical level).