STUDY OF OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AMONG PROFESSORS

Introduction
Todays life is full of challenges. In everyday life we come across many situations. The
work of a teacher is a physically and mentally challenging. A teacher needs to use a lot of
energy in his daily chores in the classroom coupled with his personal and family commitments.
This trend which is a routine for a teacher forwards a lot of stress to the teacher. More than
ever before work is not seen as the root of infinite satisfaction and fulfillment, but rather a
source of stress, discontentment and humiliation.
The work of university teachers has largely changed recently. Thorsen was among the first to
observe that the occupation of academics had lost the characteristics for which it was
traditionally considered stress-free and beneficial for work well-being and he determined that
the quantity of work rather than its quality had become a source of stress for the members of the
academic community. In recent years, many other authors have confirmed this increasing
pressure on university teachers, which is a result of a change in the policy and social status of
higher education. The growing number of students and teachers and stronger connections with
industry make the academic community less isolated and elite and the working conditions at
universities are becoming similar to those of other professions.
By all definitions the profession of teaching has a very prestigious place in all professions. A
teacher is a kingpin in the entire system of education. Almost all cultures of the civilized world
have considered their teachers in a very high esteem. They are very often been given names
like Master Mentor and Guru. To achieve this status teachers throughout the history of
civilization have come up to the expectations of the world around them. Most thinkers and
philosophers of the past who are still remembered are because they had their disciples and
students.
The globalization and privatization of the education system in different countries and in India
forced the higher education to be more competent so as to produce the stakeholders with better
knowledge, accommodativeness, skills and competencies which are essential for survival in the

world market. In tune with this, the Indian higher education system had undergone rapid
changes in terms of expansion, privatization, commercialization, curricular reforms and
pedagogical Innovations. These changes have challenged the universities in terms of quality
education, shortage of faculty of high caliber, ineffective teaching methods, outmoded curricular
and evaluation system, lack of appropriate reading materials, poor infrastructure facilities, faulty
administration, faculty admission criteria, inability to attract and retain talented minds and
absence of academically conducive atmosphere.
Further, the increasing role played by latest knowledge, skills, innovation and research in
economic growth and development, the emergence of the information society and the need for
quality education results in increased pressure on the higher education system and teachers in
particular. These factors in-turn adversely affects the quality of our higher education system and
creates various stressors and strain in teachers which further deteriorates their performance.
Continuous stress leads to strain which in turn make the individual to burnout in their workplace
which further brings in job dissatisfaction.
Occupational stress is defined in different ways over the years. In the Guidance on Work-related
Stress issued by the European Commission in 2002, work-related stress is defined as a
pattern of emotional, cognitive, behavioral and physiological reactions to adverse and
noxious aspects of work content, work organization and work environment, the main emphasis
is on the workplace as the source of stress.
The United States National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, on the other hand, in
its 1999 publication entitled Stress at Work, defines work-related stress as the harmful
physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the
capabilities, resources or needs of the worker, and expresses the view that working conditions
are a primary factor, but that personal factors are also influential. Thus, by considering the
purpose of the present study, the investigators refers university teachers occupational stress
as a negative emotional state experienced by them out of

challenged organizational

structure and climate, inadequate personal and professional efficiency, strained intra and
interpersonal interactions and, environmental factors existing within the university in
which they are working.

Impact of stress on performance of professors:

How does Stress Affect Performance?

The relationship between stress and performance has been portrayed by the stress
response curve created by Nixon P. in 1979. In addition, pressure, an important stressor,
has also a crucial influence on an individual's response to stress.
One of the most noticeable effects of stress in ones life is the changes in his performance. While
we can easily recognize the consequences of normal or excessive amounts of stress through mere
observation, its best to learn about the scientific relationship between stress and performance.
The Stress Response Curve:
To better understand the effects of stress to performance, Nixon, P. (1979) created the following
graph of the stress performance curve explaining how stress affects performance in theoretical
terms.

Figure 1: The Stress Response Curve

The curve shows that as the level of stress increases, the performance level also increases, to the
point of eustress, or healthy tension. Near the point of fatigue, an identified area called the
Comfort Zone indicates the range of stress levels that we can absolutely manage and facilitates
good performance levels.
As stress begins to be perceived as overwhelming or excessive, the person reaches a fatigue
point wherein the performance levels starts to decline. The ultimate end of overwhelming stress,
called burnout, can be exhaustion, ill-health or breakdown.

Positive Effects
As shown by the graph, performance levels increase when stress management is effective.
Stressors such as pressure and demands can facilitate better stress response and thus, higher
levels of performance. For instance, a basketball player tries to run faster, shoot a three-point
shot and succeeds in it because of the pressure he has obtained from the audience, the close
scores and the tough opponents.
Another example is the short but adequate deadline given to an employee, which motivates and
encourages her to work actively and efficiently on the project assigned to her. Yet another
instance is an approaching major examination which leads a college student to double time on
studying and reviewing of lessons.

Negative Effects
When stress is perceived as uncontrollable or unmanageable, the person begins to experience a
gradual to drastic decrease in performance levels, causing a decline in productivity and
enthusiasm to respond to the stress.

For instance, a very tight deadline is given to an office employee who has to take care of her
four children at home and a sick mother at the hospital. This overwhelming mix of situations, if
not managed carefully and totally, will result to a poor performance at work, bad relationships
with other members of the family, ill health, and burnout.

Pressure and Performance

Pressure, one of the significant life stressors, affects performance, as shown by the Inverted
graph below, which was created by Robert Yerkes and John Dodson in 1908.

Figure 2: The Inverted-U Model or the Yerkes-Dodson Law

Looking at the left side of the graph, you will notice that low pressure or low levels of stress
results to s persons stress response as boredom or unchallenging. Even if the task is of great
important, in the absence of an appropriate level of pressure, attention and concentration to
perform the task are significantly low.

On the other hand, extreme levels of pressure doesnt mean high performance levels; rather, its
the same as the result from low pressure low performance levels due to unhappiness or
negative feelings due to overwhelming stress.
However, theres a region called the area of best performance. In this region, moderate
pressure resulting to optimum stress or stress that is totally manageable leads to the highest
level of performance.
Stressors like workload, people issues, lack of work/life balance and job insecurity can cause a
dip in productivity at work, according to ComPsychs 2012 Stress Pulse survey.

Effect of stress on daily productivity

41% lose 15 to 30 minutes of productivity a day
36% lose one hour or more each day
23% report their productivity is not affected by stress

Effect of stress on attendance

55% miss one or two days a year to stress
29% miss three to six days a year
16% miss more than six days a year

Effect of stress on effectiveness

46% come to work one to four days per year when too stressed to be effective
30% show up that way five or more days per year
24% say stress does not influence their effectiveness

Effect of personal tasks on daily productivity

41% lose less than 30 minutes a day to personal tasks
40% lose 30 minutes a day
19% lose more than an hour a day

OCCUPATIONAL STRESS with respect to Professors

Occupational Stress
Occupational Stress is stress at work. Stress is defined in terms of its physical and
physiological effects on a person (or thing). Stress is mental, physical or emotional strain or
tension or it is a situation or factor that can cause this. Occupational stress occurs
there

is

discrepancy b e t w e e n

when

the demands of environment/workplace and an

individuals ability to carry out and complete these demand. Often a stressor can lead the body
to have a physiological which in turn will result on a strain on a person physically as well as
mentally.

One of the main causes of occupational stress is work overload. Occupational stress is often
caused by an increased workload without the addition of employees to take on that additional
work. Instead the increased amount of work is given to the current employees to finish in the
same time span that they would be asked to finish their regular or standard workload

But stress doesn't always happen in response to things that are immediate or that are over
quickly. Ongoing or long-term events, like coping with a divorce or moving to a new
neighborhood or school, can cause stress, too. Long-term stressful situations can produce a
lasting, low-level stress that's hard on people.

The nervous system senses continued pressure and may remain slightly activated and continue
to pump out extra stress hormones over an extended period. This can wear out the body's
reserves, leave a person feeling depleted or overwhelmed, weaken the body's immune
system, and cause other problems.

Occupational stress can be defined as the physical and emotional response that occurs where
worker perceives an imbalance between their work demands and their capability and/or
resources to meet these demands or in simple words it is the harmful physical and emotional
response that can happen when there is conflict between job demands on the employee and the
amount of control and employee has over meeting these demands.

Occupational stress is a term used to define ongoing stress that is related to the workplace. The
stress may have to do with the responsibilities associated with the work itself, or be caused
by conditions that are based in the corporate culture or personality conflicts. As with other
forms of tension, occupation stress can eventually affect both physical and emotional well being
if not managed effectively.

According to Margolis and Koreas (1974) O c c u p a t i o n a l stress is a condition worth

interacting with worker characteristics is to disrupted psychological and physiological
homeostasis. The causal situation conditions are job stressors and the disrupted homeostasis is
job related stress.

By all definitions the profession of teaching has a very prestigious place in all professions. A
teacher is a kingpin in the entire system of education. Almost all cultures of the civilized world
have considered their teachers in a very high esteem. They are very often been given names
like Master Mentor and Guru. To achieve this status teachers throughout the history of
civilization have come up to the expectations of the world around them. Most thinkers and
philosophers of the past who are still remembered are because they had their disciples and
students.

Times have changed and the societies and cultures have drastically diversified, but the tasks of a
teacher are primarily the same, which is the transfer of knowledge to the next generation. With
change in cultural norms and traditions in the societies there has been a drastic change in the
expectations from a teacher. Some of these changes have limited the measures which a
Teacher in the past could exercise in disciplining a student and some have put additional
burden on teachers in respect their preparation of lessons and adopting and maintaining their
teaching styles.

This is because most of the school systems prefer to maintain uniformity in all of their
branches. Teaching has now become a very demanding occupation with a lot of stresses for a
teacher who has a lot of deadlines to meet and a lot of responsibilities to shoulder besides
teaching a child what are in a text book.

Relationship with
faculty

Satisfaction with
organizations
Management

Professionalism

Satisfaction with
facilities / Income

Performance
Evaluation by employer

Job Satisfaction

Job Stress

Comparison with
colleagues

performance
Respectable Nature of
Job

Job Assignments

Job Demands too

much physically and
mentally

Insufficient salary

Figure 1: A schematic diagram of the conceptual framework

This study infers that mutual relationship exists

Between job stress and job satisfaction

Overview of a Professors Responsibilities

Primarily the role and responsibility of a professor is multitasked in the present day school
system. This was altogether different just a few years ago. With the change in the type of
teaching culture and added managerial responsibilities for teachers include planning and
executing instructional lessons, assessing students based on specific objectives derived from a
set curriculum, and communicating with parents. A teacher has to take on his responsibilities in
the following capacities:

Lesson planning and teaching.

Accountability for student performance.

Classroom management and discipline.

Supervisory role.

Extracurricular activity conducting and monitoring

In relation to the profession of teaching, where a teacher is viewed as dispensers of

knowledge; teachers are increasingly perceived as facilitators or managers of knowledge. They
work in a constant socially isolated environments surrounded by hostile views and
sometimes threat of physical abuse, and at the same time under a constant fear and threat of
accountability for each and every action of both own self and that of the pupil. This alone can
be a sufficient cause for stress for an individual. But in the case of a teacher it is multiplied by
other factors as well.

Teaching has been identified as one of the most stressful professions today. The reasons for
that are quite similar to other stressful occupations in the world. In a survey assessing the
stress levels of various jobs by the Health and Safety Executive, teaching came out top.

The report, The Scale of Occupational Stress: further analysis of the impact of demographic
factors and type of job, published in 2000, found that 41.5% of teachers reported themselves
'highly stressed', while 58.5% came into a 'low stress' category, while 36% of teachers felt the
effects of stress all or most of the time. This is indeed an alarming state and visibly also the
biggest reason for school teachers quitting at a very high percentage or seeking professional
help to fight back stress. The figures from teachers support line,

USA, show different reasons that cause distress to teachers:

stress, anxiety and depression 27%

Conflict with managers or colleagues 14%

Pressure of workload and excessive changes 9%

Loss of confidence and performance anxiety 9%

Relationship, marital and family problems 5%

This shows that the highest percentage is job related stress that can wreck a professional
teacher personally while discharging his duties.

Occupational stress has become increasingly common in teaching profession largely because
of increased occupational complexities and increased economic pressure on individuals. A
major source of distress among teachers is result of failure of school to meet the social needs
and jobs demands of the teachers.

The teacher must be aware of his clear role to build up the nation. Teachers are over burdened
with regular teaching load. Occupational satisfaction is a necessary condition for a healthy
growth of teachers personality. A teacher at present has a vulnerable position. College
teachers protest that they are not paid enough.

The importance of pay or a factor in

occupational has been greatly over emphasized.

In general, occupational stress arises from the working conditions/environment of a system,

when we talk of stress among teachers. Many factors cause stress among teachers. School

teachers face high amounts of stress during teaching and handling students; Classroom in
developing

Countries remain overcrowded and teacher face intensive verbal communications, prolonged
standing, high volume of work load.

Teachers are also over burdened with regular teaching work and non-teaching work as
election duties, duty in census; populations counting etc. the teachers are often heard of
complaining about.

Teaching profession occupies important and prestigious place in society. Teachers are
considered as the creators of leaders, scientists, philosophers, advocates, politicians and
administrators. Teacher is the principle means for implementing all educational programmers
of the organizations of educations. With the changing socio-economic scenario and increasing

Unemployment, the values of teacher and their professional concerns associated with the job
have undergone a change, increasing stresses and hassles of teachers.
According to Schwab and Iwanicki (1982), occupational stress in teachers can lead to a
variety of negative outcomes including emotional exhaustion, feelings of depersonalization,
and a sense of failure with one's personal accomplishment--a condition the authors refer to as
"burnout." Burnout is one of the major reasons that teachers leave the teaching profession, a
loss that results in added costs in training and hiring for the field of education (Niles &
Anderson, 1993). In other words, the negative outcomes of teachers' occupational stress can be
both internal and external.

Because of the negative outcomes associated with occupational stress, many studies have
attempted to better understand the phenomenon of occupational stress as it relates to
education. These studies have found that degree of stress can differ as a function of several
variables. For example, Mo (1991), in a study examining for relationships among
secondary school teachers' levels of occupational stress, personality type, and social support,
found that burnout was greater among teachers new to the profession, teachers with more
personal (non-job related) stress in their lives, teachers who lacked strong social support
systems, and teachers with Type A personalities.
Similarly, in his study of occupational stress and teaching, Borg (1991) identified four factors
that contributed to teachers' level of occupational stress.
Most people never realize the amount of stress that teachers deal with on a daily basis. They
think, "Wow, my kids can be holy terrors. It's a good thing I can drop them off at school
and get a break." What they never stop to consider is the poor teacher at the other end of
that ride to school who has to deal with everyone else's holy terrors.
They don't just have one or two problem children. They usually have an oversized classroom
full of them. While a child may be relatively behaved at home they may become quite unruly
while at school due to the lack of enforceable reprisal. So how about some stress management
for teachers.
Job stress can be defined as the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the
requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker. Job
stress can lead to poor health and even injury. This will discuss the areas from which
occupational stress
Originates. Next, the outcomes of stress will be discussed, followed by an examination of the
classifications of stressors. The remainder of the discussion will be focused on the aspects of
organizational communication and recommendations for prevention of occupational stress and
stress management.

Causes of Stress in Professors

General Factors
Working with national curriculum, teacher appraisal, lack of authority and sanctions for
disciplining students, threats of school closure, media portrayal of teachers and inability to
reconcile different roles i.e. of teacher, guide, counselor and social worker, conflict at home
and work, attack on pride by rude pupils, financial pressures, and declining status in the
community.

The Role of Management

Feeling of being used

or manipulated, being seen as

willing workhouse, lack of

flexibility in times of need, too much emphasis on paper work, lack of support from
management, sexual discrimination and not knowing if you are doing a good job, lack of good
pay and promotional aspect etc.

School Policy and Ethos

Lack

of

consultation,

fear

of

speaking

ones

mind,

no

clear

boundaries

of

responsibility, adopting to change, fear of abuse from parent, break, lunch and after school
duties, covering for absent colleagues, fear of losing your job etc.

Working Conditions
Large Classes, crowded staff areas, poorly lit rooms, lack of resources, working on
School matter during vocations, rewards dont match efforts.

The Pupils

Lack of co-operation from pupils, racial problems, pupils using bad language, pupil
answering back, verbal abuse from pupils towards staff and attitude of pupils towards
authority, attack on pride by discourteous students.

From winter vacations and spring breaks. But considering everything that a teacher has to
go through everyday all these days off do not do much to get a teacher back in the right
frame of mind. According to a research the major causes of teacher stress are:

Excessive working hours

Excessive workload

Rising class sizes

Pressures due to OFSTED inspection

Changes in curriculum & courses

Changes to assessment & testing requirements

Poor management

Workplace bullying

Crumbling schools

Pupil misbehavior

Risk of violence from pupils, parents and intruders

Lack of support with bureaucracy, form filling and routine tasks

Lack of job security due to redundancy and fixed term contracts

Lack of control over the job

Burden of providing cover

Threat to early retirement arrangements

Denigration of profession by politicians & media

Lack of public esteem

Questionnaire
Study of Occupational Stress among Degree
College Professors
Confidential Questionnaire Stress Survey
Name *

Gender *
Female
Male
Contact

1. Do you suffer from any of the following?

Please tick the appropriate box.

Never
Headaches
Anxiety
Sleeplessnes
s
Irritability
Backache
Neck ache
Inability to
concentrate

Sometimes

Often

2. Do you find any of the following cause problems?

Please tick the appropriate box.

Never

Someti
mes

Often

Shift work
Inadequate
break
times/mealtimes
Very heavy
workload
Repetitive/borin
g work
Meeting
Deadlines
Job insecurity
Under utilization
of skills
3. Do you feel you?
Please tick the appropriate box.

Never
Are underpaid
Are undervalued
Receive
appreciation for
good work

Sometime
s

Often

4. The balance between work and home life is about right

Please tick the appropriate box.
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Agree
Strongly Agree
5. Please list below what you feel are:
(a) The main cause of stress in your job?

(c) The steps you think could be taken to ease the situation.

CASE STUDY
FACTORS INFLUENCING STRESS AND COPING STRATEGIES AMONG
THE DEGREE COLLEGE TEACHERS OF DHARWAD CITY, KARNATAKA

JAYASHREE NAYAK

2008 Dr. SUSHEELA P. SAWKAR

MAJOR ADVISER
ABSTRACT

The study on factors influencing stress and coping strategies was conducted on a random
sample of 200 (100 each of male and female) degree college teachers of Dharma city.
Questionnaire for Demographic characteristic and Coping Strategies were used along with
Employment Organization Sources of Stressors scale (Telaprolu and George, 2005). Frequency,
percentage, t-test, correlation and step wise regression were used for analysis. The factors that
caused stress always were mainly due to the interference of the employment organizational
responsibilities with their family organizational role, lack of their involvement in decision
making that reduced their responsibilities and the participatory model in their organizational set
up which enhanced their responsibilities to the point of exhaustion. Majority of the teachers
revealed that stress was basically due to their laziness and also they were happy with fewer
responsibilities. The overall results of stress level revealed that, higher percentage of teachers
was in low stress category.
Gender wise significant difference was obsevered in case of personal development
stressor and inter-personal relation stressors, while it was no significant in case of work, role and
organizational climate stressors. Age was the influencing factor on the total stressors which was
statistically highly significant. Keeping ready well ahead, taking rest, avoiding strenuous posture,
taking balanced diet, walking, using sleeping pills and hot water therapy were practiced by the
teachers when they were physically stressed. Offering prayer, positive thinking, working ingroup, avoiding painful reminders, delegating the tasks and listening songs were practiced when
they were mentally stressed. There was no significant gender difference found with respect to
physical stress management where as it was significant in case of mental stress management

strategies.

AN ARTICLE

HOW TO IDENTIFY SOURCES OF STRESS IN YOUR LIFE

STRESS MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUE
HOW CAN PROFESSORS COPE UP WITH STRESS
ANALYSIS OF THE STUDY
IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY
SUGGESTIONS