Resumo

OOSTHUIZEN, TFJ  e  BERNDT, AD. Stress management behaviour among academic employees. JCMAN [online]. 2008, vol.5, n.1, pp.90-105. ISSN 1815-7440.

Education is critical in the development in any country as it influences future economic growth and personal development. This education is provided by the primary and secondary, as well as the tertiary education sector, which is the focus of this paper. The recent merging of tertiary educational institutions in South Africa has affected the stress levels of employees in these institutions. Diversity characterises the employees within a merging educational institution. Employees working under stressful conditions play a vital role in assisting the organisation to achieve its mission and objectives. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the academic employees (considering their diversity) of a newly-merged tertiary institution perceive their stress levels, and the stress management behaviour in individual and organisational context, to cope with these stresses. The paper examines the existing literature regarding diversity, stress and stress behaviour in organisations (specifically merging tertiary institutions). The research was by means of a census conducted among permanent academic staff of a merged institution in South Africa. Use was made of an electronic survey in order to attract responses from the various campuses of the institution. The findings indicate that high levels of stress are experienced by all diverse groups of academic employees, although the type of stress can be different. Management can therefore not generalise in their approach. While employees exhibit various behaviours to deal with the stress experienced, management needs to strive to provide organisational support systems in order to provide support to create an environment conducive to handling stress.

Palavras-chave : Stress; academic employees; stress behaviour; diversity; women; stress management.

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