Determinants of Stress Causing Dissatisfaction Among University Teachers Of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

Abstract

Stress has been introduced as a creatively ambiguous term that brings detrimental consequences to both individuals as well as the organization. Stress if left unchecked may result in burnout that is the stage where person develops feelings of exhaustion, lack of accomplishment and depersonalization. The study is an effort to find out the pertinent stressors of public and private sector universities’ faculty members in Peshawar. Another objective of the research is to find out the level of stress among the faculty members of public and private universities. The study tends to find that stress is more in private or public sector Various studies have brought in front number of variables both individual as well as organizational inciting stress out of which work overload, Rewards, Student’s interaction, collegial support, self efficacy, but the greater achievement was to identify those factors which were either considered secondary in previous researches or were neglected; were identified here in first instance like; leadership style, organizational politics, distributive justice and procedural justice and further these pertinent factors came out to be very important in causing stress. The scope of the study is limited to the business management universities/institutions who have got degree awarding status only; therefore the population includes eighteen universities of Peshawar recognized by Higher Education Commission. Through Simple random sampling 398 faculty members were selected and contacted through questionnaire instrument. The questionnaire was pilot tested. The reliability of the pilot test (.94 alpha) revealed the justification for the further data collection. The analysis of data indicated the following major findings:  The faculty serving the public as well as private sector universities of Peshawar experience stress with varying magnitude. In public sector the level of stress is comparatively higher than the private sector. Whereas for both sectors stressors relating to work overload are the prime stress instigators.Stress in Private and Public Sector Universities  Universities must also review their policies regarding employee maintenance like compensation, distributive as well as procedural justice that is needed to be ensured for the purpose of reducing employee stress and frustration.  Communication dependent problems were identified as student faculty interaction (SFI) and collegial social interaction (CSI) which are causing stress and are to be addressed by the universities.  Other then the reward procedural (PJ) and distributive justice (DJ) was identified as a major factor in causing stressful environment among faculty members. Also the additional factors reported by the faculty includes Limited technical support for computer problems, working with new administrators, Insufficient classrooms and office space for new faculty, Budget cutbacks by the governments. Stress among teachers makes the dream of quality education as an infertile reality by placing teachers venerable to various health risk, therefore the factors inciting stress among teachers should be explored with a view to either eradicate them altogether or at least coping mechanism should be developed in order to deal stressors effectively. Based on the findings of the data analysis the researcher’s recommendations include the following:  Stress management training programs and seminars for the faculty.  Redesigning jobs in a manner so that there is reward dynamism on one side and clear career path of promotion and development on the other.  Attractive employee maintenance; like compensation, distributive as well as procedural justice needed to be rejuvenated and applied. Administration should take steps in providing procedural and distributive justice to their employees for ensuring reduction in stress. Furthermore, steps should be taken to reduce discrimination amongst teachers for the purpose of job promotion, reward, and performance evaluation.