Occupational stress : are we all talking about the same thing?

Occupational stress is of increasing concern for employers and employees. The term stress has multiple, and at times conflicting, definitions and uses in the academic literature. In addition very little investigation has related to how employees define stress, and whether their definitions have any relationship to those used by academics. This may call into question the relevance of academic research to those who experience, or must attempt to manage, stress. This paper investigated managers' experiences and concepts of stress and finds a core of agreement between managers' experience of stress and academic definitions.