Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI) for Ergonomic Evaluation of Work Stress Among VDT Operators

Workplace stress has been a major source of deterioration in wellbeing and performance of workers for decades now. VDTs have become an inseparable part of any workstation in the modern work world. It is important to address workplace stressors in order to achieve a better work life around the globe. The study aimed at identifying potential stressors associated with VDT work and developing a measuring instrument to assess the level of occupational stress experienced by VDT operators. The study was conducted in three phases, i.e., identification of constructs of occupational stress among VDT operators; generation of items and item analysis; and standardisation of Occupational Stress Inventory (OSI). As a test of validation, the inventory was subjected to an evaluation by 50 experts. A sample of 100 VDT operators, chosen randomly, from IT industry was taken for the pilot study and 1000 VDT operators were taken for the final administration of the inventory for its standardisation. Reliability Estimation was done by split halves and test retest method. For test retest reliability estimation, an interval of 6 months was taken for repeated administration of the inventory. The OSI was found to be valid and very reliable, in terms of both internal consistency and repeated administrations (r = 0.83 by split halves method and r = 0.92 by test retest method).