Source of faculty Stress at Higher Education:
A comparative study on the Public and Private Business Schools of Pakistan
Literature Review:
Job Stress always proves to be a big hazard for the organizations in almost all professions. Besides this phenomenon, teaching professions was considered as a low stress job as compared to others. But with the growing evidence, universities no longer provide low stress environment that they once used to did. Job stress at higher education is now becoming a crucial issue for the faculty members and administrators alike (Bowen & Schuster, 1986; Smith, Anderson, & Lovrich, 1995). Research conducted in many countries reported growing academic stress as a major concern for the policy makers. These researches include: blix, Cruise and Mitchell (1994), Gmelch, Wilke and Loverich (1986), Hogan, Carlson and dua (2002), Richard and Krieshok in (1986), Abouserie (1996), Bradly and eachus (1995), Daniels and Guppy (1992), Kinman( 2001), Wilkinson and Joseph (1995), Winefield, Gillespie, Stough, Dua, and Hapuarachchi (2002), Boyd and wylie (1994) and Taris, Scherus, and Van Iersal-Van silfhout (2001).
Stress is the physiological response to actions or events that place excessive psychological or physical demands on a person. It is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed his ability or resources to handle them. The stressful conditions results in decrease in communication, motivation, performance etc. The stress at workplace adversely affects the performance, productivity, job satisfaction, health and general quality of professional life and people in general ( Farber, 1983; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).The stress level depends on the person's perception of the situation and his ability to handle it. The acceptance of stress as a serious topic for medical concern in the United States has reached to the point that many medical practitioners believe that stress is one of the primary causes of early death (North western National Life Insurance company 1991). Besides the drawbacks of stress on faculty as an individuals as well as for the organizations, stress have negative effects particular to the Higher education (O'Connor et al., 2000; Tindall, 1998) and on organizations (Gandham, 2000; Reynolds, 1997) because of low productivity towards research work (Blackburn & Bentley, 1993). A study concluded that there is a significant relationship exists between the occupational stress and performance of the university teachers (Kalyani R., Panchanatham N., and Parimala R., 2009). The research of Gmelch et al.(1986) shows that half of the American university faculty feel stress, and the stress mainly comes from; reward and recognition, time constraints, departmental influence, professional identity, and student interaction.
According to Lazarus' (1966), one of the profound researchers to work on stress related issues, stress is what occurs when the demands of the environment, in the person's eyes, clearly exceed the resources of that person to handle it. One of the biggest resource is the ability of the person to construct the situation. Lazarus's concept is advocated by many other researchers i.e. McGrath (1970) and French, Rodgers and Cobb( 1974). Another research suggests that people experience low work stress, lower perceived stress, and better physical health who indicated a higher sense of belonging to their work team (Oldfield, S., Mclaren, S., & Mclachlan, AJ.). Research conducted on the occupational stress stories of the educators and their possible determinants reported that Stress within the teaching is considerable and have far-reaching consequences for the entire education system ( Kryiacou & Sutcliffe, 1977; National Education Association, 1967, 1979). Wiggins, Milstein & Farkas, 1988.
According to Clark, Stress arises the possibility of students' doubts on the teachers' ability to teach. Many researchers focused on the identification of most stressful sources of stress in the teaching environment and the ill- effects associated with the teaching ( Kyriacou and Sutcliffe, 1978a; Cichon a nd Koff, 1980; Dunham, 1980; Humphery and Humphery, 1981; Laffey, Cichon, Koff and Olson, 1981; Needle et al. 1981).
Peter Varhall, was of the point of view that Stress is a protection phenomena that enables us to fight against undesirable events and to meet challenges. The research by David Friesen and marry-jo-williams found that there are four factors that contributes the most substantial variations to overall job related stress of teachers ; Role overload, relationships with students, work load and relationship with colleagues.
Stress, according to House and Wells (1978) is perceived when the demands of the situation are assessed as exceeding the individual's typical modes of behavior. A research by Cox, Boor, Cox & Harrison, 1988, identified changes in education as a major source of stress for educators in Britain. Ngidi and Sibaya (2002) and Olivier and Venter (2003) also found educational changes and administrative problems as a significant source for job stress among educators in Kwa Zulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. A study on South African educators found high job stressors related to time pressure, educational changes, administrative problems, educational system, professional distress and pupil misbehavior among educators (Peltzer. Karl, Shisana, Olive, Zuma, Khangelani, Wyk, V.B, & Zungu-Dirwayi, Nompumelelo 2008).
The research conducted on occupational stress in Australian university staff found five major antecedents of stress; insufficient funding and resources, work overload, poor management practices, job insecurity, and insufficient recognition and reward (Winefield, A.H., Gillespie, N., Stough, C., Dua,J., & Hapuarachchi, J. 2003).
According to person-environment fit model of job stress ( French, Caplan, & Van Harrison, 1984), job stress can be a consequence of two kinds of mismatch: a mismatch between the requirements of the job and the ability of the worker to meet those requirements and a mismatch between the worker's expectation of what the job involves and what it actually involves.
Melandez and Guzman (1983a) investigated sources of stress among 1957 faculty and administrators in 17 two and four year colleges. 19 percent of their sample reported that they experienced severe stress, 43 percent moderate stress, 27 percent mild stress and 11 percent never felt any work stress at all. Melendez and de Guzman grouped the stresses into three categories: those related to colleagues, to students and to administration. The three sources of stress of most concern were faculty apathy, student apathy and work load.
A survey conducted by the University and Colleges Union and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found that the main sources of work-related stress were linked to demands to meet targets and deadlines, long working hours, increased workloads and frequent changes to timetables or courses. Lecturer complained that they were given responsibilities without the authority to take decisions and they were undervalued and lacked administrative support.
One research found teaching as stressful and the major sources of stress comes from work related issues ( Rudow 1999, Dunham 1998, Kyriccou 1989, 1999, 2001 , Guglilam, tatrow 1998). Another study conducted by Jhonson, cooper, cartwright, donald taylor,2006) in USA resulted teaching as one of the most stressful occupation out of 26 other occupation.
Clagett (1980) studied stress sources in a community college and found: lack of faculty participation in decision making; the increase in unprepared students; student expectations of a grade; apathetic peers and low salaries, cited most frequently as stress factors. Eckert and William (1972) reported that routine duties, long hours, poor facilities, friction in intra-faculty relations and administrative red tape were the most important sources of stress.
Another study identified personal capacity of faculty members, inadequate organizational resources and serious time constraints as a major sources of stress in academe (Shull, 1972; Hunter, 1980). Wilke, 1983 pointed faculty reward structure as a source of considerable tension in the teaching profession.
A study by (Alexander , Adams & Martray, 1983) reports that younger age groups experience higher degrees of stress as compared to older peers. Research by Tung(1980) reported that women educational administrators experienced relatively less stress then men in four areas of professional work; task based, role based, boundary spanning and conflict mediating.
Koester and Clark (1980) found that married women and single men experienced more level of stress as compared to their respective single and married counter parts. However, some studies have shown an insignificant relationship between marital situation and job stress ( Chen 2003; Lin, 2001; Lin 2003; Russell et al., 1987).
In 2003, Lin found that overall Job stress and professional identification of the faculty Members whom tenure is less then one year were higher as compared to those working for around 6 to 15 years.
Kyricuo 2001, Griffthet al; 1999 identified disruptive behavior of students , dealing with parents & conflicts with colleagues as the major causes of teacher's stress.
Different researches have indicated that the major stress sources are time pressures (Astin, 1993; Barnes, Agago, & Coombs, 1998; Gmelch et al., 1986; Olsen, 1993; Smith et al., 1995; Thompson & Dey, 1998), high self expectations (Gmelch et al., 1986; Smith et al., 1995), and research and publication demands (Astin; Blix et al., 1994; Smith et al., 1995)
The study conducted by beena and Poduval concluded that gender is one of the main factor affecting the stress level. One study found out that women professors experience more stress because of time related work demands and student expectations of access (Jeffrey W. Totten, McNeese State University
Barbara A. Schuldt, Southeastern Louisiana University 2009) .
But Wang ,Z et.al also found out that females have more coping resources to deal with stress as compared to males
The most comprehensive study was conducted by Gmelch, Lovrich and Wilke (1983, 1984); Gmelch (1984). From among 184 doctoral granting universities in the United States, a sample of 40 public and 40 private universities were stratified by Biglan's (1973) eight clusters of academic disciplines and by academic rank (assistant, associate and full professor). A sample of 1920 faculty, consisted of equal numbers from private and public universities, the eight disciplines and the three academic ranks. The findings indicated that 60 percent of the total stress in the faculty life came from their work. The participating faculty responded to a Faculty Stress Index consisting of a list of 45 stressors as typical to academic work. The 10 most troublesome stressors were: (1) imposing excessively high self- expectations, (2) securing financial support for research, (3) having insufficient time to keep abreast with current events in one's field, (4) low pay for work done, (5) striving for publication of one's research, (6) feeling that one is continually overloaded with work, (7) job demands interfering with personal activities, (8) lack of progress in career, (9) interruptions from telephone and drop-in visitors, and (10) meetings. There was more similarity than differences across academic disciplines and of the three major faculty functions: teaching, research and service, teaching was designated as the most stressful activity.
The Gmelch's instrument was also applied to get the sources of stress in academe in Israel by Arye Perlberg and Giora Keinan (1986). The research indicated the presence of five distinct factors through the Varimax solution factor analysis; conflicts with the academic system, overload of administrative and public duties, academic overload and time constraints, teaching functions, working condition. As compared to faculty in American universities, Israelis pointed the most troublesome stressor was having insufficient time to keep abreast with the current development.
Banes & colleagues in 1998 conducted a research and found a significant relationship between the stress producing factors and faculty intentions to leave academia.
The major significance of finding the causes of stress is to develop strategies to cope with it .Adams (1980) suggests:
" an understanding of the sources of stress in one's life is an important prelude to developing a plan for effective stress management. Furthermore, understating the organizational sources of stress is basic to developing processes for reducing or remove unnecessary stress.... A complete approach must consider altering stressful organizational norms and management practices. ( P.165)
The viewpoint of Adam is also supported by other researchers such as Kratzmann, Byrne and worth ( 1980) in a government fact- finding commission report as "work induced stress is generally dysfunctional" .According to them, if stress is present in educational organizations and if it is dysfunctional for teachers and education, then factors causing stress should be identified and studied so that they can be removed or at least both individual and organization will develop through coping mechanism which is a way to reduce the negative impact of teachers and education.
In order to cope with the stress related factors, first there is a need to understand the personal and environmental context in which it occurs. Coping has been defined as the cognitive and behavioural efforts to master, reduce or tolerate the demands that are created as a consequence of a stressful transaction (Lazarus & Launier, 1978; Folkman & Lazarus, 1980). According to Lazarus & folkman, 1984, coping stress is considered as stabilizing factor that can help individuals to maintain psycho-social adaptation during stressful situations. Newton and keenan (1988) conducted a research on stress coping strategies and described five strategies of coping stress: 1. talking with others (superiors, colleagues); 2.direct action ( problem solving orientation); 3. preparatory actions ( problem appraisal, getting information and seeking a solution; 4. withdrawal & avoidance; and 5. expressing helplessness & resentment. Latack (1986 ) conducted a research and found two different types of coping measures on the basis of Control & escape. His scale encompasses the dichotomy between the emotion oriented coping strategy and problem-oriented emphasized by Lazarus & Folkman (1984) but also threw light on both the cognitive appraisal and the situation management strategies by Moos & billings (1982). With the integration of all the above strategies resulted in four kinds of coping strategies : Active behavioral strategies ( attempt to change the sources of stress); 2. active cognitive strategies( problem appraisal and seeking more information about the sources of stress ; 3. inactive behavioral strategies ( behavior of escape and avoidance of sources of stress); and 4. inactive cognitive strategies ( helplessness and expressing resentment)
Billing & Moos (1981) found that educated people were more likely to rely on problem focused strategies rather than avoidance coping strategies. Moreover, many researchers found a relation between the gender and stress coping strategies. Williams & Best (1982) & Etzion and Pines (1986) suggest that women usually display a tendency to cope stress through inactive strategies where as men cope stress through active strategies. Besides Stress coping strategies also have significant relationship with the personality factors such as locus of control ( Lefcourt et al., 1981). Thus people with internal locus of controls focus on altering the stressful situations where as those with external locus of control try to adopt palliative coping strategies such as ignoring or riding the situation.
Coping stress strategies also depend on the organization's size. A research conducted by Newton & Keenan (1985) in United Kingdom found that in large organizations, people in stressful situations generally seek help and talk with others. Besides Organization's size, organizational culture is an other important factor in determining the Stress coping strategies (Etzion & Pines, 1985).
Many researches have been conducted to find the stress coping strategies and all lead to one final conclusion: people apply different kinds of coping strategies at same time against different stressors in different situations. Research done by Gmlech (1988) revealed seven kinds of coping strategies that includes:
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