In recent years, the Australian university sector has undergone large-scale organizational change, including restructuring, downsizing and government funding cuts. At the same time, research from across the globe reports an alarming increase in the occupational stress experienced by university staV. We report on the ® rst phase of a longitudinal investigation of occupational stress. A total of 22 focus groups were conducted with a representative sample of 178 academic and general staV from 15 Australian universities. The groups focused on understanding staV 's experience of occupational stress, and perceptions of the sources, consequences and moderators of stress. Both general and academic staV reported a dramatic increase in stress during the previous 5 years. As a group, academic staV reported higher levels of stress than general staV. Five major sources of stress were identi® ed including: insuYcient funding and resources; work overload; poor management practice; job insecurity; and insuYcient recognition and reward. The majority of groups reported that job-related stress was having a deleterious impact on their professional work and personal welfare. Aspects of the work environment (support from co-workers and management, recognition and achievement, high morale, exible working conditions), and personal coping strategies (stress management techniques, work/ non-work balance, tight role boundaries and lowering standards), were reported to help staV cope with stress. The ® ndings provide a timely insight into the experience of stress within universities.

This article presents results from a study of occupational stress in Australian university staff. The authors report data on psychological strain and job satisfaction from nearly 9,000 respondents at 17 universities. Academic staff were generally worse off than general staff, and staff in newer universities were worse off than those in older universities. At the aggregate level, selfreport measures of psychological well-being were highly correlated with objective measures of university well-being (investment income, student-staff ratios, and recent cuts in staffing levels and in government operating grants).

All staff at the University of New England were sent a personal particulars form and questionnaires designed to obtain information about job‐related factors which acted as stressors for them, their general stress, their emotional health, and their physical health. Factor analysis of the job stressors questionnaires revealed that six factors, namely, job significance, workload, work politics, interpersonal dealings at work, work conditions, and university reorganization, were the major stressors for the staff. In general, younger staff members reported more job stress than older staff. Staff belonging to the Faculty of Education, Nursing and Professional Studies at the Armidale campus and general staff at the Armidale campus reported more job stress than other staff. There was some indication that staff employed at the higher job levels were less stressed than those employed at the lower job levels and support staff. Both the job stress and non‐work stress were associated with poor physical health, poor emotional health, and high job dissatisfaction.

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