Chapter 9: Studies and Interventions on Quality of Life and Occupational Stress in Brazil

This chapter is a national literature review on the themes of quality of working life and occupational stress, with an emphasis on critical aspects of studies carried out in Brazil. Anticipating results, a first critical element is the wide use of authors and theoretical references from the 1970s, notably in the study of quality of working life. There is also a significant emphasis on empirical research, of a descriptive and quantitative nature, excluding the perspective of the subjects, their voices, and experiences. Advances, however, refer to studies that jointly address quality of working life and occupational stress, many of them quantitative, incorporating different professions and occupations, as well as relationships with other important constructs associated with organizational behavior. Additionally, there are publications resulting from empirical research aimed at investigating intervention programs in quality of working life and management of occupational stress. As a result of this bibliometric review, we have recurring criticisms of the processes of formulating and implementing such programs at the organizational level, the recurrence of initiatives centered on reducing impacts on the dimensions of health and safety at work, and ignoring structural factors of longer term achievement. In this sense, it points to the low strategic impact of the programs that were the target of the reviewed studies.