Objectives The aim of this article is to present the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ), a questionnaire developed in three different lengths for assessing psychosocial factors at work, stress, and the well-being of employees and some personality factors. The purpose of the COPSOQ concept is to improve and facilitate research, as well as practical interventions at workplaces. MethodsThe development of the questionnaire was based on a survey of a representative sample of 1858Danish employees aged 20-59 years. The response rate was 62%; 49% were women. Altogether 145 questions from some international and Danish questionnaires and 20 self-developed questions were tested with factor analyses, analyses of internal reliability, and analyses of response patterns. ResultsThe analyses resulted in a long research version of the questionnaire with 141 questions and 30 dimensions, a medium-length version for work environment professionals with 95 questions and 26 dimensions, and a short version for workplaces with 44 questions and 8 dimensions. Most of the scales have good reliability, and there seems to be very little overlap between the scales. A novel feature of the COPSOQ is the development of five different scales on demands at work. ConclusionsThe COPSOQ concept is a valid and reliable tool for workplace surveys, analytic research, interventions, and international comparisons. The questionnaire seems to be comprehensive and to include most of the relevant dimensions according to several important theories on psychosocial factors at work. The three versions facilitate communication between researchers, work environment professionals, and workplaces.Key terms psychosocial factors; stress; survey. The psychosocial work environment is generally considered to be one of the most important work environment issues in contemporary and future societies (1-5). A large proportion of employees in the countries of the European Union (EU) reports being exposed to psychosocial stressors at work, and the consequences are believed to be very significant for workers, workplaces, and society. Among these consequences are musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular diseases, mental disorders, stress, burnout, reduced quality of life, sickness absence, labor turnover, and decreased motivation and productivity. Recently, the EU member countries gave psychosocial factors "top priority" among work environment factors (6), and the directors of the European work environment institutes have estimated that psychosocial factors would be the most important research field in the future (7).In research on psychosocial factors several different methods can be used, such as standardized questionnaires, clinical examinations, observational methods, registers, secondary data, and qualitative interviews. Most researchers agree that well-validated standardized questionnaires are necessary tools in research, as well as in practical prevention. In our article, such a tool is presented: the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ). Background ...

The COPSOQ I concept has been further developed and new validated scales have been included.

This study is an overview of published empirical research on the impact of leaders and leadership styles on employee stress and affective well-being. A computerized search and systematic review of nearly 30 years of empirical research was conducted. Forty-nine papers fulfilled the inclusion criteria, which include the requirements for papers to report empirical studies and to be published during the period 1980 to 2009 in English-language peer-reviewed journals. The studies were mostly cross-sectional (43/49 papers) and examined the impact of leaders' stress (4 papers), leaders' behaviours (e.g. support, consideration and empowerment) (30 papers) and specific leadership styles (20 papers) on employees' stress and affective well-being. Three research questions were addressed. The review found some support for leader stress and affective well-being being associated with employee stress and affective well-being. Leader behaviours, the relationship between leaders and their employees and specific leadership styles were all associated with employee stress and affective well-being. It is recommended that future studies include more qualitative data, use standardize questionnaires and examine the processes linking leaders with employee stress. This may lead to effective interventions

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Work-related physical and psychosocial factors, as well as several individual risk factors, are important in the understanding of neck/shoulder pain. The findings suggest that neck/shoulder pain has a multifactorial nature. Reduced health-related quality of life is associated with subjective pain and clinical signs from the neck and shoulders. The physical workplace factors were highly intercorrelated, and so the effect of individual physical exposures could only be disentangled to a minor degree.