ILPC 2027

 Due to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Work related stress, anxiety and depression statistics in the UK from the Labour Force Survey (2014/2015), stress accounted for 35% of all work related ill health causes and 43% of all working days lost due to ill health.  Stress research has increased exponentially in the past few decades due to the revelation of a need for it as the costs caused by it, as reflected by the statistics, are being recognised. There seems to be an abundance of literature regarding what causes stress, making much known about factors that contribute to workplace stress; however there seems to be little known about how these factors are to be tackled (Kelloway et al, 2008). This featured research will seek to contribute to filling this gap by exploring how stress is and should be tackled. This research mainly aims to understand the process of Stress Management Intervention (SMI) development and implementation and identifying the main drivers and constraints of SMI success. Furthermore this study aims to determine who the main contributors are and their role in the process.

The research undertakes a multiple embedded case study approach. This study looks at two contrasting cases from the UK one being a housing association which was recognised for its efforts combating and preventing work related stress and the second case study is one of the large universities in the UK which mostly reactive, mostly implementing secondary and tertiary interventions. The researcher is taking an inductive, exploratory approach to try and understand: why particular SMIs are implemented; how are they implemented in different organisations; what factors lead to a successful (or unsuccessful implementation of SMI(s); who are the main actors involved and how do they shape the implementations of SMIs. This is done by carrying out in depth semi-structured interviews with the main drivers and participants of SMI design, implementation and evaluation. Approximately 15-20 participants will be interviewed from each organisation; participants will include HR managers, occupational health, health and safety, union leaders and employees. Participants were selected on the basis of their role (purposive sampling) and snowball sampling.

This particular paper will concentrate mainly on one of the points which seem to prominently come out of the initial stages of the data analysis.  Although trade unions are seen to have impacting roles in collective bargaining and pay negotiations. However, for both of the cases unions proved to have a central role in initiating the implementations of the interventions, and making the organisation accountable for the wellbeing of their employees. The use of primary data from the interviews and some available literature on the topic (Cooper and Smith, 1985; Gallagher and Underhill, 2012; Walters, 2006; Landsbergis et al., 1993) to illustrate the crucial role which unions have to maintaining employee wellbeing, specifically looking at work related stress. The researcher, in the time of the conference, will be in the third year of their doctoral degree, at the end of their data collecting period starting to formally analyse the data.