Does Academic Publishing Lead to Work-Related Stress or Happiness?

Abstract

The topic of work-related stress and happiness has recently been of interest to science as well as in practice. Work-related stress has negative effects on workers, organizations, and the whole of society, whereas happiness has positive effects. It is therefore important to monitor the wellbeing of workers. This article deals with stress and happiness as related to academic publishing. To answer the research question of whether academic publishing leads to stress or happiness, a narrative analysis was conducted. Narratives from ten Czech academics were collected and analyzed with the use of a categorical-content approach. The categories used are the general causes of work-related stress and happiness as identified in the literature: work overload, ambiguity, conflict, the sense of meaningful work, job satisfaction, and affective organizational commitment. It was found that academic publishing leads to both work-related stress and happiness. However, stress is more prevalent. Not only do academics experience all the general causes of work-related stress, unfortunately they often lack the sources of happiness. Many specific causes of stress and happiness, as well as unhappiness, were discovered in the narratives. Several ways to improve the situation have been suggested. Refining policies in human resources is particularly important if universities wish to retain their academics.

Job Demands and Job Resources of Academics in Higher Education

“…Kubátová ( 2019 ) has noted that publishing forms an integral part of academic work worldwide. A reason for this is that Academic institutions are ranked according to the level of publication in high-impact journals.…”

“…Furthermore, these targets are being set in an environment where there is a significant increase in teaching and administration loads (Guthrie et al, 2019). Kubátová (2019) has noted that publishing forms an integral part of academic work worldwide. A reason for this is that Academic institutions are ranked according to the level of publication in high-impact journals.…”

Role of Family Motivation, Workplace Civility and Self-Efficacy in Developing Affective Commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

“…Today’s workplace is characterized by many stress factors like high job demands, insufficient job resources, work overload, ambiguity [ 15 ], high competitiveness, change [ 16 , 17 ] workplace bullying, lack of social support, working conditions [ 18 ]. Moreover, in the developing countries, where job opportunities are scarce, people are bound to do whatever jobs they get, jobs are usually underpaid and there are many repetitive and routine jobs that provide little skill variety and autonomy.…”

“…The rationale behind selecting teachers is that teaching is considered as an underpaid profession in developing countries and frontline employees lack skill variety and autonomy due to repetative and routine nature of tasks, so, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is expected to be low in this population. Moreover, the teacher are not only required to perform their job descriptions but also are required to perform certain tasks beyond job description [ 35 ] like publishing research in well-reputed journals to uplift the name of their institute or event management or counseling/training students [ 15 ]. Similarly, frontline employees are essential in creating value, handling customers’ complaints and service delivery [ 36 ].…”

Determination of Factors Affecting Academician's Happiness Level: Scale Development Research

“…In this case, it is stated that many people have limited social relations, cannot obtain a meaningful job, materialism is dominant over spiritual values, they feel inadequate against others, and they are powerless against socialeconomic changes (Bartram, 2012). Kubatova (2019) stated in her research on the happiness levels of academicians that they often complain about the amount of work and their duties, and they work under time pressure. She emphasized that academics experience uncertainty in their activities (in terms of publication acceptance or rejection, changing rules for their research and changing requirements for the number of publications, and lack of criteria).…”