The Nature and Predictors of Job Related Tension in a Crisis Situation: Reactions of Nuclear Workers to the Three Mile Island Accident

This study was conducted to assess job tension and the factors contributing to job tension in a crisis situation. Workers at the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear plant (Pennsylvania) who were employed at the time of the March 1979 reactor accident were selected as subjects for the study. Employees at another nuclear plant were selected to serve as a control group. All subjects were surveyed about their objective work environments, their perceptions of work environment hazards, and their job tensions. Both supervisory and nonsupervisory TMI employees were found to have higher levels of job tension than employees at the other nuclear plant. The major factors determining job tension were: 1. work overload, both in terms of the amount of work required of TMI workers during the accident and the types of work which had to be performed, and 2. home/work role conflict. TMI employees working in the area of the damaged reactor experienced less job tension than employees in other parts of the plant, suggesting that they felt more control over their work situations and experienced less role conflict.