Occupational Stress and Academic Staff Job Performance in Two Nigerian Universities

Abstract

Available reports provide an account of academic staff’s poor job performance in higher education institutions and universities in particular. Consequently, a growing body of research has been attracted to this area, including those seeking ways to understand the problem and others aimed at proffering solutions. This study contributes to the literature by investigating the influence of occupational stress on the job performance of academic staff in universities. Three null hypotheses directed the study in line with the quantitative ex-post facto research design. A sample of 150 respondents was obtained using the systematic random sampling technique from a population of 400 lecturers in the Faculty of Education from two public universities in Nigeria. A 31-item questionnaire was used for data collection. The null hypotheses were tested at the .05 alpha level using simple linear regression analysis. It was revealed that remuneration is a significant positive predictor of academic staff job performance. The prediction of workload was negatively non-significant on the job performance of academics. The provision of institutional amenities has a positive but non-significant prediction on academic staff job performance in the two public universities. It was concluded that occupational stress significantly influences the job performance of lecturers in universities. The study recommended that the government constantly pay lecturers’ salaries as and when due. Institutional managers should reward lecturers with outstanding performance to boost their morale for effective service delivery.

El estrés laboral percibido y su influencia en la salud mental de los profesores de radiografía y ciencias médicas de laboratorio en instituciones terciarias de Nigeria

“…This study found that the average impact of occupational stress on the mental health of lecturers from the departments of interest was mild. Consistent with the result of this study, Akah et al (15) , reported that stress occurrence among university academic staff or other workers is a pervasive trend in almost all nations worldwide. More so, with the development of society and continuous advancement in science and technology, the work requirements for professional people are constantly improving, and the detection rate of occupational stress also increases.…”

Joint Mediation of Psychosis and Mental Stress on Alcohol Consumption and Graduates’ Job Performance: A PLS Structural Equation Modeling

“…This result corroborates other previous studies which have documented an unfavourable effect of excessive alcohol consumption on consumers' mood (Alford et al, 2020), workplace productivity (Łyszczarz, 2019;Stepanek et al, 2019) and presenteeism (Buvik et al, 2018;Lee et al, 2021). Past studies on stress have also documented its negative effect on job performance (Aduma et al, 2022;Akah, Owan, Aduma, et al, 2022;Daniel, 2019) and other work-related variables such as productivity (Ma & Ye, 2019;Ramos-Galarza & Acosta-Rodas, 2019) and job satisfaction (An et al, 2020;O'Brien et al, 2019).…”

“…Past studies on mental stress have also documented its negative effect on the job performance of academic staff (Aduma et al, 2022;Akah, Owan, Aduma, et al, 2022;Daniel, 2019) and other work-related variables such as productivity (Ma & Ye, 2019;Ramos-Galarza & Acosta-Rodas, 2019) and job satisfaction (An et al, 2020;O'Brien et al, 2019). This means that the more academic staff are exposed to stressful conditions, the higher the declining chances of their job performance, other things being equal.…”

Management strategies for effective administration of higher education in Nigeria in the 21st century

“…In the opinion of Dada, Okpara, Adeleke, Okon, Merimekwu, Anagbogbu, Petters, Edu, Eno, Akah and Olofu (2022), the management strategies for higher education in the 21st century vary from organization to organization but to some extent share some similarities. Therefore, this work has identified and explicated eleven management strategies that can be utilized by higher education administrators.…”