EFFECTS OF ACADEMIC RELATED STRESS ON JOB PERFORMANCE OF LECTURERS IN FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION PANKSHIN

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

The world is in an era known as the information age, when almost everything is driven by the need to generate information or acquire knowledge. Colleges of Educations belong to this knowledge sector, and are in fact one of the apex institutions in the knowledge sector. This makes it imperative for colleges to excel especially if the quest for information and knowledge must be serviced.

Given the dynamism of knowledge, and knowledge needs, current knowledge quickly becomes obsolete. There is constant need to update existing knowledge and also to acquire new ones. Consequently, new courses are constantly floated in colleges of education being the principal institutions charged with the responsibility of producing school teachers. Besides, Nigeria, a nation of over 200 million has a large youth population who view education in college as cheap and an easy ticket to a teaching job. Unfortunately, the rate at which teaching staff are recruited by colleges of education does not appear to measure up with the work load created by this voracious search for knowledge via college of education. The implication has been that of inadequate man power, and excess work load for those lecturers available which results to job-stress.

Stress has become an integral part of lecturing job. The demand of lecturing job has increased the level of stress among lecturers in Colleges of Education. An optional level of stress can be a source of positive motivation to succeed (Edward, 2011). However, too much stress can cause physical and mental health problems (Ubangari&Bako, 2014). The nation-wide strikes embarked by the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) in 2014 which last for over nine months is partly caused by stress related demands by the college lecturers termed “earned allowance” which includes over load allowance. Imeokparia, Ediagbonya (2013) opined that stress is the condition that results when person/environment transactions lead the individual to perceive a discrepancy, whether real or imagined between the demand of a situation and the resource of the person’s biological and social system. Similarly, Gunnar, Herrera and Hostinar (2009) conceptualize stress as a condition in which an individual experiences challenges to physical or emotional well-being that overwhelm their coping capacity.

According to Nnuro (2012), excessive and otherwise unmanageable demands and pressures can be caused by poor work design, poor management and unsatisfactory working conditions. Similarly, these things can result in employees not receiving sufficient support from others or not having enough control over their work and its pressures. Job-stress affects not only the employees’ but also the organizations in the monetary and non-monetary costs. These costs are used to recover the work and health related injuries. Monetary cost is used to recover the health of employees and lower productivity and absenteeism of employees’ is recovered by non-monetary costs (Syed, et al 2013).

Academic related stress can have both positive and negative effects. Academic related stress is a normal, adaptive reaction to threat. It signals danger and prepares lecturers to take defensive action. Fear of things that pose realistic threats motivates workers to deal with them or avoid them. Academic related stress also motivates workers to achieve and fuels creativity. Although academic related stress may hinder performance on difficult tasks, moderate academic related stress seems to improve motivation and performance on less complex tasks. In personal relationships, academic related stress often leads to less cooperation and more aggression. Janet (2003) opined that, if not managed appropriately, academic related stress can lead to serious problems. Exposure to chronic academic related stress can contribute to both physical illnesses, such as heart disease, and mental illnesses, such as anxiety disorders. Much of the academic related stress in lives results from having to deal with daily hassles like lectures, attending conferences, computing results, marking scripts, personal relationships, and everyday living circumstances. When taken individually, these hassles may feel like only minor irritants, but cumulatively, over time, they can cause significant academic related stress. The amount of exposure lecturers have to daily hassles is strongly related to their daily mood. Generally, the greater their exposure is to hassles, the worse is their mood. Studies have found that one’s exposure to daily hassles is actually more predictive of illness than is exposure to major life events (Janet, 2003).

It is in the above discussions that this study investigates impact of academic related stress on the job performance of lecturers in Federal College of Education, Pankshin.

Statement of the Problem

In academic setting, job stress can cause unusual and dysfunctional behaviour at work and contribute to poor physical and mental health. In extreme cases, long-term stress or traumatic events at work, may lead to psychological problems conductive to psychiatric disorders resulting in the workers being unable to work again. Job-stress could affect Federal College of Education, Pankshin by increasing absenteeism, decreasing commitment to work, increasing staff turn-over, impairing performance and productivity, increasing complaints from students, increasing mistakes and causing damage to the college‘s image among their academic workers. Academic-stress has positive value on organizational performance if it is not constant and not cumulative.

However, in Federal College of Education, Pankshin, lecturers are exposed to a lot of academic activities such as lecturing, marking of scripts, exams supervision, computation of results, attendance of workshops and conferences among others. These academic activities are not distributed to a large amount of individuals which will be less stressful but only a few personnel are allowed to handle a large number of activities for a large crowd of students. No wonder, we have cases of lecturers slumping, unable to mark scripts as a result of large population, unable to write conference papers and a host of other issues arising from the effects of the stressful academic job.

These and others are what has interested the researcher and hence the need to carry out the study on effects of academic related stress on job performance of lecturers in Federal College of Education, Pankshin with the aim of proffering possible solutions.

Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is the examine the effects of academic related stress on Job performance of lecturers in Federal College of Education, Pankshin. Other specific objectives of the study are:

1. To determine the causes of academic related stress among lecturers.
2. To determine the effects of academic related stress on the health of lecturers in FCEPankshin.
3. To find out the effects of academic related stress on the job performance in terms of lecturing, marking of scripts, supervision of exams among others.
4. To examine the strategies and measures that can be used in handling or managing academic related stress among lecturers of Federal College of Education Pankshin.

Research Questions

The following research questions have been raised to serve as a guide to the researcher:

1. What are the causes of academic related stress among lecturers?
2. What are the effects of academic related stress on the health of lecturers in FCEPankshin?
3. What are the effects of academic related stress on the job performance in terms of lecturing, marking of scripts, supervision of exams among others?
4. What are the strategies or measure that can be used in handling or managing academic related stress among lecturers of Federal College of Education Pankshin?

Delimitation of the Study

The researcher is aware of other problem areas in Federal College of Education, Pankshin such as students’ workload and their academic achievement among others. However, for the purpose of the present research, this study covers the effects of academic related stress on job performance of lecturers in Federal College of Education, Pankshin. However, despite the fact that the study is limited to Federal College of Education Pankshin, its findings will be generalized to other colleges of education in the state and country at large.

Operational Definition of Terms