Sample Reports

Job Stress Survey (JSS) Score Report Download

Authors

Charles D. Spielberger, PhD, Peter R. Vagg, PhD

Description

Occupational stress affects productivity, absenteeism, accidents, worker turnover and stress-related health problems. Identifying major sources of stress in a workplace may help to identify changes in the work environment and other interventions that will reduce stress and increase productivity. The JSS was developed to assess generic sources of work-related stress experienced by men and women ages 18 years and older in a wide variety of business, industrial and educational settings.

The JSS focuses on common work situations that often result in psychological strain. Each of the 30 items describes a job-related stressor event and assesses both the perceived severity and the frequency of occurrence of that event. In addition to providing information about stressors that adversely affect individual employees, the JSS may also help to identify sources of occupational stress for groups of workers and allow comparison of stress levels among employees in different departments or divisions within the same organisation.

Consists of Three Scales Based on all 30 Items and Six 10-Item Subscales

The JSS Severity and Frequency scales provide information on the average level of perceived severity and frequency of occurrence of the 30 JSS stressor events.
The Stress Index assesses the overall level of stress based on the combined severity and frequency ratings of all 30 stressor events.
The 10-item JSS subscales measure components of occupational stress associated with the job itself (Job Pressure) and with lack of support from supervisors, co-workers, or the policies and procedures of the organisation (Lack of Organisational Support).

In addition to the scales and subscales, individual JSS items provide valuable information about the specific aspects of a particular job or a work environment that may be good targets for job redesign, organisational change, or other interventions.

Test materials include the JSS Professional Manual and the hand-scorable JSS Test Booklet. An optional computerised Scoring Program is also available. A special OCR-scannable test form (Form SP) has been developed for use with the scoring software (responses must be entered into the software) or for large group administrations or research projects.

Administration, Scoring, and Interpretation 

A 6th-grade reading ability is generally sufficient to understand and respond to the JSS items. First, the individual rates the perceived severity of each of the 30 stressor events on a 9-point scale. Then the individual indicates (on a scale of 0 to 9+ days) how often each event has occurred during the preceding 6 months. Scores are then calculated for the three JSS scales and 6 subscales. To compare an individual’s scores with those of other workers in a particular normative group, percentile ranks and T scores can be obtained from the appendix tables in the Professional Manual.

Comparison of item scores with appropriate norms provides important information about how the stress experienced by an individual or group of employees compares with that of others engaged in similar activities. Scores may be plotted on the JSS Profile Form. Scoring Program users key the individual’s responses into the software, and the program rapidly calculates the raw scores, percentiles and T scores.

The Professional Manual provides information on administration, scoring, and interpretation of the JSS, as well as the development and standardisation of the instrument. Normative data were obtained from 2,173 adults employed in business and industry, university and military settings. Normative groups include managers, professionals, clerical employees, skilled-trades or maintenance employees and military personnel. Gender-specific and combined-gender norms are provided.

Computerised scoring program (JSS-SP) also is available!

Users key the individual’s responses into the software.
The program rapidly calculates the raw scores, percentiles and T scores.
A special test form (Form SP) has been developed for use with the scoring software (responses must be entered into the software), or for large group administrations or research projects.

System Requirements

Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 10;

Mac users: install Windows in VirtualBox or BootCamp.

Other virtual machine solutions (e.g., Parallels, VMWare) are not supported.

Prerequisites:

NTFS file system; CD-ROM drive for installation; Internet connection or telephone for software activation.

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