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Stress, and occupational stress in particular, has become a major area of interest not just only for academics but also at the industry and government level. This is in terms of its potential cost to individuals and organizations and in what may be done to reduce the experience of stress in the workplace. As [13] Cox et al. , 2002, p. iii have said "... work-related stress is currently one of the greatest challenges to the health of working people and to the healthiness of their work organizations". Reducing the cost of occupational stress at the levels of the organization and of national economies is also becoming a major concern.
Although individual level stress management interventions still seem to be the most commonly adopted approach to reduce occupational stress in practice, there is an increasingly dominant view in the literature that more broadly focused organizational approaches should be the interventions of choice ([11] Cousins et al. , 2004). The reasons for this emphasis seem to be primarily based in a risk management approach wherein the removal or reduction of real or potential sources of stress is preferred to the moderation or amelioration of their effects, or the treatment of manifested damage ([38] Quick et al. , 1997). The logic and attractiveness of this stressor reduction approach is obvious, although empirical evidence for its effectiveness is largely lacking ([53] van der Klink et al. , 2001). This organizational level approach seems not to fully acknowledge that individuals may react differently to potential stressors, and that these differences in reaction may be rooted in both individual differences and in the context in which these potential stressors exist ([30] Le Fevre et al. , 2003). Reintroducing eustress as an entity distinct from distress, we believe, also helps to clarify the process through which external pressure may, or may not, result in distress, and may also shed light on the very mixed results that have been achieved through stress management interventions to date. Some authors also suggest that individual-based stress reduction approaches are less acceptable as they place the responsibility for stress with the individual rather than with the organization and its managers. We have a concern that there is a danger here of "throwing the baby out...