FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Downsizing and increased productivity goals mean longer work hours and higher stress for many workers. But University of Arkansas researcher Dan Ganster has found that the longer hours are not the cause of the stress experienced by workers and their families.

"We found that it is not how long you work, it is how you are working that causes stress," explained Ganster, professor of management and department chairman in the Walton College of Business. "The impact of work hours was dwarfed by factors related to the job itself, such as schedule flexibility and autonomy."

Ganster and graduate student Collette Bates conducted their study by using data from the 1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW). The 2,842 respondents were at least 18 years old and worked for pay but were not self-employed. The researchers presented their findings recently at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management in Seattle.

American workers spend more time on the job than workers in other industrialized countries. Many people believe that this increased time at work leads to work-family conflicts and increased stress. Elements like number of hours worked, the amount of overtime or the work schedule are said to have an impact on general well-being, work-family conflict and job stress.

"When we started to look at the research, we found what little research had been done on the topic gave an ambiguous picture of the role of working hours," Ganster explained. "In addition the samples studied were not adequate to draw sound conclusions. Some research looked at a single company, while others considered a single type of job or socio-economic group."

Ganster’s study included both salaried and hourly workers and looked at work interfering with family, family interfering with work, job stress, job satisfaction, absenteeism, illness absences, stress symptoms and life satisfaction. The size of the data set allowed the researchers to control for conditions that might affect the results, including demographic characteristics, occupation, non-work demands and non-linear effects.

To see if there were effects on subgroups, the researchers used nine control variables: gender, age, race, education, total family income, occupation, hourly/salaried, length of time with the employer and union membership. In addition, they looked at four variables — non-work demands, job quality, scheduling support and fringe benefits — that might moderate the effect of the number of work hours.

Non-work demands included marital status, the number of children living in the household, children’s ages, number of hours spent on chores and the number of hours spent on elder care; fringe benefits included benefit flexibility, the ability to work from home and dependent care benefits. Job quality comprised autonomy, learning opportunities and job pressure, while scheduling support included the organizational culture or "unwritten rules" pertaining to work and family, supervisor support and control over scheduling work hours.

After the data were coded, the researchers examined how the control and moderating variables might interact with work hours. They also examined how work hours might impact subgroups, such as women with children, workers in jobs with low autonomy or workers with traditional fringe benefits.

"We kept getting zero. We tried different groups. We asked ourselves what we had missed. But despite every conceivable test, we couldn’t find any significant interactions. We were forced to conclude that long work hours are not an important contributor to life satisfaction or feelings of well-being," said Ganster.

However, Ganster is quick to point out that work-family conflict does have an impact on life satisfaction, but that conflict is shaped by factors related to the work environment. Work autonomy, learning opportunities, supportive supervisors and scheduling flexibility are more important influences on work-family conflict and life satisfaction than are long work hours.

"We don’t want to downplay the importance of work-family conflict," Ganster said. "Employer policies do matter. Flexibility is a good thing no matter how many hours you work. But it’s not how long you work that matters, it’s how you are working."