Effect of Job-Related Stress on Lecturers’ Performance in Nigeria’s Federal Universities in South – East Region

Abstract:

Stress has always been an issue that tends to hinder the performance of employee in organizations as well as educational institutions. For this singular reason, this study was set-out to ascertain how this burning issue can be dealt with so that employee can work at their maximum best and not be burned-out. In order to achieve this, three specific objectives guided the study. The first was to explore the nature of relationship that exist between management support and lecturer – student relations; the second was to ascertain the extent to which work – home interface affects lecturers organizing skills; and finally was to determine the extent to which work overload affects lecturers course knowledge. The study employed a descriptive survey design; a structured questionnaire was used in the collection of data. Pearson’s product moment correlations coefficient was used to analyze the data with the use of SPSS version 22. The targeted population comprised of 4072 academic staff in the five Federal Universities in South-East Nigeria. The sample stood at 364 after applying Taro Yamane’s formula. The findings revealed that a significant positive relationship exists between management support and lecturer – student relations; Work-home interface affects lecturers’ organizing skill; and finally, that Work- overload does not affect lecturers’ course knowledge. The study therefore recommended thus: creation of a periodic interactive forum with academic staff; understanding the role of perception; encouraging flexibility, and finally, conducting a regular task audit on all Academic staff to ascertain the weight of work load each is carrying. The study concluded that job stress variables such as management support and work-home interface negatively affects lecturer-student relations and lecturers’ organizing skills respectively, while work-overload does not negatively affects lecturers’ course knowledge.