Abstract:

The impact of job stress on workers' health and productivity has been well researched. The detrimental effect of work stress has been shown to manifest itself in employees' work relationships and personal well-being. As different factors functioned as stressors to varying degrees for different people in the workplace, people from various ethnic cultures also became stressed by different things and had different stress levels. In fact, various theoretical approaches indicated that ethnic minority individuals may perceive stress and behave differently than Anglo Americans. For those ethnic minorities, acculturation into the host culture of the United States was seen as a source of stress. Employees' ethnic match with their company was also thought to be related to work stress.

This study explored the relationship among work stress, acculturation, and company ethnic composition of Chinese American employees. Data were collected from 208 Chinese American employees working within the United States in Anglo American companies and Chinese/Chinese American companies. It was hypothesized that a company's ethnic composition and an employee's acculturation level could either exacerbate or alleviate job stress. More specifically, the researcher hypothesized that more acculturated Chinese Americans working in Anglo American companies would experience less job stress in comparison to less acculturated Chinese Americans working in similar Anglo American companies. Participants' level of work stress was measured using the Job Stress Survey, and their level of acculturation was also obtained using a researcher-constructed acculturation measure.

Results indicated that acculturation was the only factor to have a significant main effect on Chinese American employee work stress, regardless of employee ethnic match with the company. Less acculturated Chinese Americans perceived more work stress than their more acculturated counterparts, regardless of their company ethnic composition. To the extent that stress is related to acculturation, this study's findings suggested that if employers want to diminish employee work stress, they should promote acculturation-focused events and activities to help Chinese Americans assimilate.