ABSTRACT
In the Netherlands, work stress and work stress prevention and intervention in particular are considered to be main topics in occupational medicine, in occupational psychology, and in the view of many practitioners responsible for work and health issues in organisations, ranging from the works council to the human resource manager (see, for example, Van der Beek et al., 1996). This relates to the fact that work stress has been found to be a major risk factor for the whole work force; it is considered to be responsible for a large amount of absenteeism and drop out from work, and is, therefore, to blame for high costs, to the individual, the company, and society.
