Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal

Purpose – This paper aims to raise some important questions for cross-cultural research on occupational stress and well-being and sets the stage for the five papers in the special issue.

Design/methodology/approach – This paper reviews some previous literature on cross-cultural understanding of occupational stress and well-being, why such research is difficult to undertake, and summarizes the five original manuscripts that comprise this special issue.

Findings – Manuscripts in this special issue represent authors from several countries and report data collected from over a dozen countries. Some contributions attempt to replicate previous North American and European research findings in other countries while others undertake comparative studies of two or more countries.

Originality/value – It is important to undertake more cross-cultural comparative research of the effects of occupational stress and well-being to determine whether any boundary conditions exist for previous results based in North American and European samples. In addition, future research should include assessments of some national culture values.