Climbing the Organisational Ladder: Pressures and Satisfactions at Different Levels

Abstract

For many years it was assumed that the senior managers in organisations were the main sufferers of job stress. There were, indeed, a number of studies of stress-related illnesses such as coronary heart disease which showed that senior people manifested greater stress than did those of lower organisational levels (Ryle and Russell, 1949; Breslow and Buell, 1960; Syme, Hyman and Enterline, 1964). The management literature of the 1950s and 1960s also reinforced this belief, as illustrated by an executive in the Coates and Pellegrin (1975, p. 219) study:

This corporation has been reorganised just so I could turn over the presidency to a younger man, I wanted to get rid of all these responsibilities, worries, and pressures. The ups and downs in the competitive business world are terrific. You’re always on the telephone, days and nights and holidays. I’ve got to get some time with my family and more time for recreation before it is too late. I haven’t had a vacation in four years, and the only way to get one is to pack up and leave town.

Not all researchers or management educators were, however, in agreement.