Stress in academe: What bothers professors?

Abstract

Traditionally, the professoriate has not been viewed as a stressful occupation. Academic freedom and tenure seemed to provide work conditions which were free of common stress producing pressures. Situations recognized as stressfO'in other occupations have now become common in academe. The study sought, inter alia, to identify the nature and extent of occupational stress in the professoriate. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire mailed to faculty in four Ontario universities. The respondents were from the professorial ranks in four areas of study. The research questions and hypotheses sought to test relationships between personal and occupational variables and perceived stress. It was found that quantity rather than the nature of the academic work was stressful. Teaching was the least stressful of the work functions and research the most, particularly among professors in the humanities. The hours spent on the job and tasks which had a time constraint were significant sources of stress for this sample. Rank rather than tenure status appeared to be more significantly related to perceived stress.

Factors Affecting Stress among Faculty Members of Public Universities in the Philippines: A Multiple Regression Analysis

“…These include work overload (Thorsen, 1996;Abbas & Roger, 2013;Gupta, Rao, & Mukherjee, 2015), work-life imbalance, (Slišković & Maslić Seršić, 2011;Kinman & Jones, 2008;Rafeeq & Harish, 2015), decreased job satisfaction (Brewer & McMahan-Landers, 2013;Reevy & Deason, 2014;Chung, 2011), increased number of students to teach (Easthope C. & Easthope G., 2000;Jamison & Enrera, 2015;Gartia & Sharma, 2013), lack of university funding, resources and recognition (Gillespie, Walsh, Winefield, Dua, & Stough, 2001;Reevy & Deason, 2014;Gupta et al, 2015) and lack of administrative and colleague support (Slišković & Maslić Seršić, 2011;Kavitha, Religious coping, one of the most common coping strategies, is defined as the use of religious beliefs and practices in the facilitation of problem solving in order to easily adapt and to prevent or alleviate the negative emotional effects of the stressful situation (Pargament, Smith, Koenig, & Perez, 1998). The use of religion was shown to help Filipino workers such as fast-food chain workers (Ereno et al, 2014) and policemen (Inasoria, 2014) in decreasing their work stress and in improving their job performance.…”

Work Stress Among University Teachers: Gender and Position Differences

“…Work overload is perceived as workload beyond the scope of statutory requirements of a position (1)(2)(3)(4) and as time pressure caused by colliding teaching, research, and administrative duties (1,2,5,6).…”

Exploratory Study about Health and Job Stress Determinants for Teaching and Research Staff in Universities in Spain

“…Thorsen (1996) señalaba que factores como la autonomía, la claridad del puesto de trabajo y la estabilidad profesional permanente protegen a los académicos de experimentar las condiciones laborales tradicionalmente asociadas con el estrés en el trabajo, como son la falta control en el trabajo, las limitaciones de tiempo, la ambigüedad de roles y la inseguridad en el empleo (Kahn et al, 1964). Aunque el trabajo de Willie y Stecklein (1982) no examina directamente los factores relacionados con el estrés laboral, el 80% de los encuestados indicaron que estaban muy satisfechos con sus carreras profesionales y que, dada la oportunidad, escogerían de nuevo la misma profesión.…”

“…Thorsen (1996) sugiere que los profesores e investigadores universitarios están sujetos a presiones similares que el resto de empleados de grandes organizaciones. La investigación realizada en el Reino Unido por Kinman (1998) muestra que el 52% de una muestra de 782 académicos declararon que, si se les diese la oportunidad de empezar de nuevo su carrera profesional, no optarían por trabajar en la educación superior.…”