Over the past three decades, there has been a growing belief in all sectors of employment and in government that the experience of stress at work has undesirable consequences for the health and safety of individuals and for the health of their organizations. Identification of factors responsible for stress and its management at its primary level has long term benefits both for employee and employer. The hotel is generally seen as a sector whose working environment involves many stresses and strains. It is very important to measure the stress level among employees and to identify the factors that create stress in order to lessen its impact on employee’s health and work. The aim of this study was to investigate possible relationships between various levels of occupational stress and socio-demographic characteristics of hotel employees and to apply Karasek's Demand /Control/Support Model to an analysis of the relationships between job type and perceived stress and stress behaviours among hotel workers.The objective was that the results should be able to be used in working out a health promoting organization. The data collection has been made by a questionnaire study answered by hotel employees of selected hotels in Malmø.

The results showed 39% of employees in a hotel industry feel that they are always or often stressed. Bad health was found among employees in high strain jobs (64%). Employees in iso- strain jobs were more stressed (61%) and had bad health (35%) in comparison to other job types. High job demands and low social support were associated with stress. High demands and low control were associated with presence of negative health.

Active jobs (OR=6, 79), bad health (OR=5, 14), unsatisfaction with work (OR=4, 61), lack of work experience (OR=3, 6), lack of support (OR=3, 02), p=0,028), low general demands (OR=4, 2) showed to be important predictors of work characteristics in stress perception.