Stress, Strain, and Their Moderators: An Empirical Comparison of Entrepreneurs and Managers

Abstract

It is generally recognized by researchers that there is a positive relationship between stress and strain (strain being manifested as a variety of psychological and physical disorders). During the last 15 years, empirical studies have identified several factors that act as moderators or buffers against the deleterious effects of stress. These studies indicate that differences in personality characteristics and social support systems render some employees relatively safe from stress-induced illness and others relatively vulnerable. For example, social support is generally considered a moderator because the correlation between stress and strain is low for employees who receive high social support and this correlation is high for employees who receive low social support. The moderating variables are commonly referred to as stress-buffering resources because they are presumed to protect or buffer people from the adverse effects of stress. BACKGROUND Evidence indicates that entrepreneurs and managers differ in attitudes, values, and demographic characteristics. Benfari and Knox (1991) described entrepreneurs as follows: Entrepreneurs are fascinating paradoxes. They swing between ecstatic success and dismal failure, then bounce back to encounter life again. They have high needs for excitement and risk-taking. They accumulate wealth not for its own sake but for the exhilaration of conquering the unknown, then move on to other conquests. ... But their dark, shadow side is exploitative and unscrupulous. They are the Leona Helmsleys and Donald Trumps of the world. Because of the great appetite of their ambition, their failures are often on a grand scale (135-136). In the above statement, entrepreneurs differ from other professionals greatly. Unfortunately, only a few empirical studies have compared how they differ in their perceptions, and in the interrelationships of phenomena such as stress and strain (Boyd and Begley 1987; Boyd and Gumpert 1983). We found no study that compared entrepreneurs and managers regarding the effects of the variables that moderate the stress-strain relationship (that is, protect individuals from the debilitating effects of stress). One of the research questions in small business management is whether stress, strain, and their moderators have similar or differing effects on managers and entrepreneurs. Another issue has to do with the quality of a number of field studies on stress. A number of studies on job stress collected data from nonrandom samples, and some of these studies have collected data from inappropriate subjects, such as undergraduate students. Consequently, conclusions from these studies have limited generalizability. In addition, Funk and Houston (1987) and Hull, Van Treuren, and Virnelli (1987) indicated that researchers frequently use inappropriate statistical techniques to test the moderating effects. They correctly pointed out that these effects can be adequately tested with hierarchical regression analyses. These effects cannot be effectively tested through analysis of variance, discriminant analysis, or comparing the correlations between stress and strain for persons high (above the median) and low (below the median) on a moderating variable (see also Cohen and Edwards 1989). OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The present study attempted to bridge this gap by comparing the entrepreneurs and managers on stress, strain, and their moderators (such as locus of control personality and social support) and the interrelationships among them. This involved collecting data from a random sample of entrepreneurs and managers and testing the moderating effects of locus of control and social support with stepwise hierarchical multiple regression analyses with interaction terms (Cohen and Cohen 1983). Figure 1 shows the model tested in this study. LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES Job Stress A number of studies on stress have used the indices of role conflict and ambiguity developed by Kahn, et al. …

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