Spiritual Approach in Managing Work-related Stress of Academicians

Abstract

Work-related stress is an imbalance between work-related demand and individual capacity. If not appropriately handled, it may adversely affect individual emotions. Work-related stress is also experienced by academicians in institutions of higher learning due to various aspects. Various measures have been taken by academicians to overcome stress so that it will not adversely affect academic excellence and scholarship. Hence, the aim of this research is to identify the perceptions of academicians regarding their career and to examine the role of the spiritual aspect in managing stress experienced by them. This research is designed as a survey study. 37 out of 108 academicians at the Faculty of Islamic Studies, National University of Malaysia (Universiti Kebangsan Malaysia) have been randomly selected as study sample. Questionnaires are used as instrument of data collection. The data obtained is analysed using the descriptive statistical technique. Research results find that the respondents' perception of their academic career shows they experience stress due to the burden of heavy workload leading to emotional and physical fatigue, and also whenever they receive new assignments. This research also finds that a spiritual approach may play a role in alleviating stress among academicians.

Systematic review on the prevalence of illness and stress and their associated risk factors among educators in Malaysia

“…The overall sample size in this review was 11,876 respondents, with a minimum sample of 10 and a maximum of 6,039. Respondent sex and age were both reported in all but six of the selected [11,19,20,23,28,29]. Women made up the majority of respondents in all except five studies [18–20,28,45].…”

“…Women made up the majority of respondents in all except five studies [18–20,28,45]. Only three of the selected articles had response rates below 75% [7,10,18]; the other 19 studies had rates above 75% [2,8,9,11,15,16,19,20,22–25,27–29,45–48]. The prevalence and/or risk factors of 22 selected studies are summarized in Table 3.…”

“…Comparing between Malays and non-Malays (ethnicity), Noor & Ismail (2016) reported that the latter had a higher prevalence of stress than the former, findings contrary to those in a study by Mukosolu et al (2015). Educators with strong spiritual practices also showed lower stress levels [19].…”

“…High or heavy workloads and job demands among educators were positively associated with stress [16,19,20,22]. Career development (getting to a higher position), research work, and teaching had a positive relationship with the level of stress among educators [15,29].…”

“…The contrary findings in India were concordant with those of a study by Azizah et al (2016) in which ambitious educators had higher expectations as they worked their way to higher positions or ranks (career development). In addition, school teachers with heavier workloads have a higher prevalence of stress attributable to their exhaustive work burdens [19,41].…”