Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Work Stress in Academia in Tanzania

Abstract

<p>Work stress has been identified as a common phenomenon in the teaching profession. However, little research has been done to examine the prevalence of and factors associated with work stress among employees in university context in Tanzania and sub-Saharan African countries in general. Using survey design within the quantitative approach, this study investigated the prevalence of and factors causing work stress among academic staff in public and private universities. The results show that a significant proportion of academic staff reported experiencing high stress, with respondents in public universities reporting being more stressed than their counterparts in private universities. Three factors have been identified as particularly associated with work stress among academic staff. These are lack of staff involvement in institutional reform processes, lack of necessary support systems related to their work and high workload levels. Highly qualified and experienced staff reported lower levels of stress than staff with low qualifications and less experienced. These results indicate that work stress is a common phenomenon among institutions of higher education with its associated consequences such low job satisfaction, which is likely to affect staff’s productivity.</p

Work related stress and associated factors among Huajian shoe manufacturing employees in Dukem town, central Ethiopia

“…However, it was higher than those of studies done in European countries (35%) [ 7 ], Bristol City (20%) [ 8 ], Vietnam (20.7%) [ 9 ], India (32.8%) [ 10 ], Iran (21.3%) [ 11 ], and Tanzania (30.1%) [ 12 ]. The difference may be explained by the fact that developed countries with their better socio-economic status have organized safety precautions and facilitated access to health and safety trainings ahead of time.…”

“…Globally, WRS accounts for 35% of all work related illnesses [ 7 ]. Studies conducted in Bristol City, England [ 8 ], Vietnam [ 9 ], Indian resident doctors [ 10 ], Iran [ 11 ], Tanzania [ 12 ], and Ethiopia [ 13 ] also show that one-in-three employees experience work-related stress.…”

Job stress and satisfaction among academic staffs in public universities: An empirical study in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

“…However, there was a shortage of researchers binding an overall view of stress level at universities, and the commonality of the dissatisfaction from job among all institutes. With this respect, a study by Mkumbo (2014) proposed to check commonality of stressful work environment in educational institutes in Tanzania. A total of 326 respondents were surveyed on the general stress they overcame in working environment, and the responses suggested that job stress existed every day among educational institutes and also contributed towards low job satisfaction.…”

Work-related Stress and Associated Factors among Academic Staffs at the University of Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia: An Institutionbased Cross-sectional Study

“…Correspondingly, the result of a study in India showed that the majority of the academic staffs experienced high levels of stress (8). Moreover, though there is only a small survey in Africa, Zimbabwe (9), Nigeria (10) and Tanzania (11) have reported a high prevalence of stress from higher education academic staff.…”