Structural equation modelling was used to examine the internal structural validity of the Occupational Stress Inventory- Revised (OSI-R), a 140-item fourteen facet three-dimension questionnaire assessing stress at work . Previous reports have indicated partial replication of the three-dimension (factor) structure among Australian teachers and Turkish teachers, respectively (Hicks, Fujiwara, & Bahr, 2006; Hicks, Sabanci, & Bahr, 2014). Since the OSI-R is used to assess stress originating in occupational role, and personal (psychological) strain and personal coping resources , and is applied to decision making in human resource and management functions in organisations and across professions, the validity of the questionnaire needs to be demonstrated, especially given the partial rather than full replications of the structure found in recent studies (cf., also: Hicks, Bahr, & Fujiwara, 2010). Because of the potential and actual use of the OSI-R in research and in consulting in organisations guidance as to the use of the three dimensions and the fourteen facets is needed, to avoid sometimes differing results that come from the use of the OSI-R.
Our research questions were: would similar results about the partial replication of the OSI-R across the teaching and original studies also occur across other professions and groups? And, if so, should the OSI-R be represented better as a four-dimension (or other) questionnaire for interpretation , rather than a three dimension structure? Several studies aimed at addressing these issues have been conducted over more than eight years and have yielded results from some 1000 employees and in addition some 1000 university students in Australia. The studies used the OSI-R mostly as part of larger studies incorporating other questionnaires such as personality, psychological wellbeing and social desirable scales, and the results have been extracted for the current paper. The paper reports the results of the SEM program and outlines the main recommendations for the research use and the professional consulting use of the questionnaire in organisations.