What employers may learn from English higher education institutions: A fortigenic approach to occupational stress

Abstract

Whilst there is no denying that levels of occupational stress in staff working in universities and colleges are increasing, academic staff, in particular, continue to maintain a level of satisfaction from their jobs. A stratified random sample of staff working in 14 higher education institutions in England was used. The results showed that, whilst commitment was lower and levels of occupational stress were significantly higher with regard to work relationships, control and resources and communication, compared to the normative data, staff reported significantly lower levels of stress relating to work-life balance, overload, and job dissatisfaction. Compared to normative data, participants reported significantly lower levels of physical ill-health and psychological outcomes of stress. The results support previous findings identifying a protective effect of job satisfaction against the negative consequences of workplace stress. Opsomming Terwyl dit nie ontken word dat die vlak van werkstres van personeel wat in universiteite en kolleges werk, verhoog nie, ervaar akademiese personeel steeds tevredenheid met hul werk. ’n Gestratifiseerde ewekansige steekproef van personeel wat by 14 hoër opvoedkundige instellings in Engeland werk, is geneem. Die resultate het aangetoon dat hoewel verbondenheid laer en werkstres beduidend hoër was ten opsigte van werksverhoudinge, kontrole en bronne en kommunikasie vergeleke met normatiewe data, personeel beduidend laer vlakke van stres ten opsigte van werklewe balans, oorlading en werkstevredenheid getoon het. Deelnemers het ook beduidend laer vlakke van fisieke ongesondheid en psigologiese uitkomstes van stres gerapporteer. Die resultate ondersteun vorige bevindings wat ’n beskermende effek van werkstevredenheid teen die negatiewe uitkomstes van stres identifiseer.

Coping Strategies and Trait Emotional Intelligence of Academic Staff

“…Nevertheless, there is no general consensus for the operational definition of EI. Petrides & Furnham (2000, 2003 have proposed a distinction between: 1) trait EI (or "trait emotional self-efficacy") and 2) ability EI (or "cognitive-emotional stability"). The term "trait emotional intelligence" specifies a configuration of abilities and dispositions closely related to emotions that can be measured with self-report techniques, while ability emotional intelligence can be described as a constellation of cognitive abilities related to emotions that can be assessed with the use of maximum performance tests.…”

“…Doyle and Hind, 1998;Tytherleigh, 2003) found that although academics experience high level of stress and engage in long working hours, a large proportion of them still consider the job as essentially motivating, delightful and potentially beneficial. Academic staff is intrinsically motivated by the interest they have for their disciplines, and the related teaching and research tasks (Lacy & Sheehan, 1997;McInnis, 1996McInnis, , 1999.…”

Occupational Stress of Academic Staff in South African Higher Education Institutions

“…All but two factors returned coefficients in excess of 0.70 ranging from 0.60 to 0.91 (Cartwright & Cooper, 2002). Tytherleigh (2003) used the ASSET as an outcome measure of job satisfaction in a nationwide study of occupational stress levels in 14 English higher education institutions. The Cronbach's alphas for the ASSET subscales vary from 0.64 to 0.94, which show acceptable internal consistency.…”

“…Although some studies found high levels of stress relating to work relationships, control, resources and communication and job insecurity (see Tytherleigh, 2003;Tytherleigh et al, 2005), excessive overload and work-life imbalance are among the most frequently reported stressors by academics (Association of University Teachers, 2003). In fact, 80 percent of the academics in Boyd and Wylie's (1994) study indicated that their workloads had expanded significantly in recent years.…”

Occupational stress, organisational commitment and ill-health of employees at a higher education institution in South Africa

“…Johnson and Cooper (2003) found that the Psychological Well-Being subscale has good convergent validity, with an existing measure of psychiatric disorders, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ -12; Goldberg & Williams, 1988). Tytherleigh (2003) used the ASSET as an outcome measure of job satisfaction in a nationwide study of occupational stress levels in 14 English higher education institutions. A series of Cronbach alphas was carried out on each of the questions for the five ASSET subscales to identify the reliability of the ASSET questionnaire with these data.…”