Occupational Demand and the Level of Stress among the Secondary School Administrators in Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

The issue of occupational stress has been a growing area of concern in many professions and has been revealed as a particularly serious problem among school administrators (Montegomery & Rupp, 2005). The term, teacher stress, gained momentum in the 1970's with a significant increase in studies focusing on stress in this profession (Commer, Hanif, Tariq, & Nadeem, 2011). Previous research surveys in the United Kingdom found typical rates of approximately one-third of school administrators surveyed reporting their job as stressful or extremely stressful (Kyriacou, 1987; Eres & Atanasoska, 2011). The issue is not limited to secondary school administrators but extends to primary school also, for example Chaplain (1995) found that approximately 23% of the primary school administrators in his study identified their work as 'very' or 'extremely' stressful. (Murray, 2007), also found that 3 out of 4 second level school administrators felt under constant pressure as a result of stress. The particular study found that the common stressors were workload, teaching classes with a wide ability range and not having enough time to spend with students. According to Kendi (2012), there is strong influence of occupational stress on the head teacher's tasks in Kericho County. Kendi found that occupational demand among the secondary school heads influences the level of stress among the secondary school administrators. According to Wangai (2012), in a study conducted in Mwatate district of Kenya, it was found that occupational demands has led to many school heads to undergo stress and mental health issues. According to Koech, Tikoko and Chemwei (2014) found that teacher and secondary school administrators undergo a lot of occupational demands that causes the stress among the school administrators and teachers. Austin, Shah and Muncer (2005) found that the most common work stress among their participants was work overload which lead to the school administrators carrying the work at home to proceed to working at home. This study