Ravalier PhD Theis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

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(1992), where the author notes that certain medical costs were vastly
reduced in Campbell’s Soup Company in the USA when mental health
treatment and counselling were introduced to its EAPs. Similarly, Sciegaj
et al. (2001) presented important figures showing that 92% of Fortune 500
firms offered employee assistance. However, systematic evaluation of
EAPs is quite rare. Quite apart from the methodological and measurement
problems associated with measuring human and financial outcomes, there
is a notoriously poor uptake of employee assistance opportunities
(Millward, 2005). One such systematic evaluation, however, concluded
that there was strong evidence for the use of cognitive behavioural
therapy (CBT) as a tertiary response to stress when individuals have
succumbed to its effects. CBT was found to have the strongest influence
as a tertiary technique, and was found to be used more often than
schemes to impact upon job role or increase employee participation
(BOHRF, 2005).
1e.3.1) Why Primary Interventions
Many stress management approaches have been implemented to
help people cope with increased stress in the workplace (i.e. secondary
approaches). Although these have realised some benefits, they have not
resulted in the desired outcomes and the level of stress experienced by
workers has continued to rise. One strong limitation as to the use of these
approaches is that they do not alleviate stress at the source of the
problem, or help to prevent stress at the point at which it occurs (Barrios-
Choplin, McCracty & Cryer, 1997). The ‘conventional’ person-directed
approach (i.e. secondary and tertiary) is predominantly reactive and
biased, portraying an impression that the problem of stress in the
workplace lies solely with the employee as an individual as opposed to the
organisation and the way that it works (Giga, Cooper & Farragher, 2003).
During a review of the research evaluating organisational stress
interventions, Kompier and Cooper (1999) stated that individual-focussed
interventions concentrate on decreasing the impact of stress on
employees while making no attempt to reduce the levels of actual