Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The purpose of this study was to determine which factors explain, most fully, the psychological stress reported by middle-level sales executives.

Main Topics:

Attitudinal/Behavioural Questions Role structure: whether job has written job description/manual of procedures/written instructions/official organisation chart/regular assessment by superior. To what extent job is routine and predictable, whether content has changed in past year, whether change expected, frequency of major problems, frequency of needing fresh knowledge or skills, whether problems are easily solved, whether responsibilities and opportunities for decision-making are clearly laid down, amount of variation in job. Role conflict: whether feels policies and guidelines of job are incompatible, amount of conflict experienced in carrying out job, whether finds difficulty in reconciling needs of customer with needs of organisation, whether job has clear planned goals and objectives. Role ambiguity: knowledge of own responsibilities, whether has to work under vague directives and orders. Job satisfaction: expectations of promotion, amount of security in job, opportunity to demonstrate initiative and make progress, satisfaction with status/authority/accomplishment, expectation of finding a better organisation to work for. Inter-departmental conflict: relationship with other departments. Formalisation: whether decisions can be taken alone, whether staff are checked for rule violations, whether procedures exist to cover all situations, whether job performance is recorded. Centralisation: whether all decisions have to be referred to someone higher up. Routinisation: amount of variety/routinisation in job. Environmental uncertainity: degree of uncertainty concerning firm's market share position/sales volume/ composition of product mix/customers' tastes/competitors' activity/government regulatory activity/customer credit worthiness. Satisfaction with information concerning market elements, to what extent prediction of future trends is possible. Environmental orientation: frequency and perceived importance of contact with customers, whether needs of customers have to be balanced with needs of own dept./other depts,/whole organisation, importance of good working/social relationships, frequency of contact with executives from other depts. Personal flexibility: whether likes uncertainty and variety in job or prefers regularity, whether has ability to be flexible and accept changes. Job related tension: degree of uncertainity about responsibilities/promotion opportunities, whether dissatisfied with workload/amount of responsibility, doubts about personal efficiency/ability to handle job/own progress. Background Variables Age, length of service, length of time in present position.

Simple random sample

Face-to-face interview

Self-completion