Evaluating organizational stress-management interventions using ...

28 RANDALL, GRIFFITHS, COX
visors were instructed to resume reporting faults and instigating their
resolution). The intention was that this change be communicated to all
station supervisors through a number of levels of management through two
media: via (1) written memos from senior management delivered through
established communication routes and (2) verbal communications in a
variety of forums (e.g., individual and team meetings).
Study 2: Hospital staff. Participants were 31 senior paediatric nursing
staff with significant managerial and administrative responsibilities in
addition to a specialist clinical workload. They worked in a large urban
hospital. A response rate of 52% was achieved (70% at Time 1 and 66% at
Time 2 respectively). All participants were female, with the majority (56%)
being aged between 36 and 45 years, with most (also 56%) having worked in
the hospital for more than 11 years. 3 The nurses worked in 15 different
wards, each with its own specialty including oncology, orthopaedic, and
outpatients. Comparisons between the demographic data obtained from the
risk assessment questionnaire (age, length of service, and size of ward
worked in) and the hospital’s records indicated that the nurses completing
questionnaires were representative of the whole sample.
The rationale driving the intervention in this study was relatively
straightforward. The risk assessment identified that there were few
computing facilities on the wards at Time 1. There were a handful of
computers shared between the 15 wards. As a consequence, access to these
facilities was erratic. Staff needed to use computers for many aspects of their
administrative and managerial work, and were often unable to progress
tasks because of a lack of access to them. Further, it was well recognized
that communication within such a large and diverse department (comprising
15 different wards) was difficult: It was felt that providing staff with access to
intranet and email facilities would significantly improve the flow of
information within the department. The agreed intervention plan was to
introduce fully functional computing facilities (an internet-ready computer
with email, word-processing, and spreadsheet capabilities) in each ward over
the 6 months after the Time 1 measures. Each participant’s involvement in
(exposure to) the intervention was determined purely by the progress that
had been made on the installation of new computer technology.
Measures
In both studies data on demographic variables age, gender, length of service,
and work location were gathered by self-report. A correlate of the emotional
3 Age and length of service measured using categorical items to protect participant
anonymity.