title: The HSE Management Standards Indicator Tool: concurrent and construct validity.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Health & Safety Executive Management Standards Indicator Tool (HSE-MS IT) is a questionnaire commonly used to assess work-related stress risks at an organizational level. A critical factor in determining whether this instrument is actually useful is that higher levels of stress risk in the work-design domains should predict higher levels of stress and stress-related outcomes in workers. Only a few studies, however, have addressed this issue.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To test both the concurrent and construct validity of the HSE-MS IT, by relating it with another widely used instrument, the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ), and by examining its relationships with a set of work-related stress outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  An anonymous cross-sectional questionnaire was administered to a sample of employees in an Italian municipality. The questionnaire included the HSE-MS IT, self-reported measures of job satisfaction, job motivation and stress at work, the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the reduced form of the JCQ.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 760 out of 779 employees completed the questionnaire. Results showed moderate to strong correlation among the corresponding HSE-MS IT and JCQ scales. Hierarchical regression highlighted the specific contribution of each of the HSE-MS IT scales in predicting three relevant work-related stress outcomes (self-reported stress, job satisfaction and job motivation), after controlling for gender, age and life satisfaction.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings consolidated the HSE-MS IT validity and showed the specific sensitivity of its scales to assess different aspects of work-related distress, including self-perception of stress at work. These results can have practical implications for the occupational well-being of employees.
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, I-34127 Trieste, Italy, fmarcatto@units.it.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marcatto
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, I-34127 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Colautti
authors.affiliation: Unit of Occupational Medicine, University of Trieste, I-34129 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Larese Filon
authors.affiliation: Municipality of Trieste, I-34121 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Luis
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, I-34127 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ferrante
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D016272:Occupational Health; D009790:Occupations; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D057566:Self Report; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014937:Work / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Risk assessment; stress management; workplace stress.