Occupational Stress Interventions and Performance of Academic Staff in Selected Public Universities in Kenya
Loading...
Date
2023
Authors
Kinuthia, Jane Muthoni
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
This study sought to investigate the effect of occupational stress interventions on the performance of academic staff in selected public universities. The study’s specific objectives, were; to identify the effect of primary occupational stress interventions, secondary occupational stress interventions, and tertiary occupational stress interventions on academic staff performance. Additionally, the mediating effect of psychological capital on the relationship between occupational stress interventions and performance of academic staff in selected public universities and the moderating effect of social support on the same relationship were determined. The theories that anchored the study included job-demand-support theory, person-environment fit theory, broaden and build theory, and cognitive dissonance theory with the main theory anchoring the study being person-environment fit theory. The study was based on the philosophical approach of positivism. The study adopted a descriptive and explanatory design which was cross-sectional in nature. The observation unit was three public universities, Egerton, Kenyatta, and Maseno universities with a total number of 3277 academic staff. The three universities were purposive selected based on their age, geographical location and student population size. Subsequently, the respondents from the selected universities were picked through a simple random sampling technique. The sample size was determined using the Krejcie and Morgan formula and was determined to be 342. Primary data were collected systematically and analyzed and conclusions were drawn from them. The research instrument used in collecting primary data was a questionnaire. The questionnaire was found to be valid in terms of face and content validity. The Cronbach alpha for all the items was above 0.7 hence had achieved acceptable levels of reliability. Ethical requirements that have been recommended for conducting empirical studies were observed such as getting authorization from the relevant bodies such as NACOSTI and the universities where the data was collected. The study also complied with the requirement of informed consent. Inferential and descriptive statistics were then used to analyze the data. Data was presented in form of percentages, frequencies, and measures of central tendency. Inferential statistics were used to gauge the nature and extent of relationships between variables by using regression analysis at a 0.05 level of significance. The findings show a positive and significant relationship between occupational stress interventions and the performance of academic staff. The results of diagnostic tests which included test for normality, multicollinearity, linearity, heteroscedasticity and sample adequacy test revealed that the data collected was suitable for regression analysis. The regression model for the direct relationship matched with the data since it was statistically significant at F (3, 215) = 142.82 and a calculated probability of 0.000 which was lower than the 0.05 significance level that was adopted by the study as the threshold. The following regression model was obtained: Performance of academic staff = 0.949+ 0.168 primary occupational stress intervention + 0.184 secondary occupational stress interventions + 0.457 tertiary stress interventions. This implies that primary, secondary and tertiary OSI explained 16.8%, 18.4% and 45.7% of performance respectively. Tertiary occupational stress intervention had the most significant contribution to performance among the three types of occupational stress interventions adopted by the study. Psychological capital was found to partially mediate the relationship between occupational stress interventions and academic staff performance. Moreover, social support was found to moderate the relationship between occupational stress interventions and academic staff performance. The findings from this study can be applied by managers, universities, and other organizations dealing with knowledge workers to improve the performance of the employees. The study proposes replicating the current study in private universities and organizations in industries other than the education sector.
Description
Thesis Submitted to the School of Business, Economics and Tourism in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration (Human Resource Management Option) Of Kenyatta University January 2023
Keywords
Occupational Stress, Interventions, Performance, Academic Staff, Selected Public Universities, Kenya