Cross‐national job stress: a quantitative and qualitative study

Abstract Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study contrasted employees' job stress perceptions and their relationships to strains in China and the United States. Significant job stressor–strain correlations were found in both countries. However, hierarchical regression analyses revealed significant interactions of country by job stressors in predicting job strains, indicating the unique patterns of stressor–strain relationships in China and the United States. In the qualitative analyses, American employees reported significantly more incidents of lack of job control, direct interpersonal conflict, lack of team coordination, anger, frustration, feeling overwhelmed, and stomach problems than the Chinese. Chinese employees reported significantly more incidents of job evaluations, work mistakes, indirect conflict, employment conditions, lack of training, anxiety, helplessness, sleep problems, and feeling hot than the Americans. The qualitative approach contributed above and beyond the quantitative results in that it revealed culture‐specific job stressors of job evaluations, work mistakes, and indirect conflict that had been overlooked in western‐based stress research. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.