Abstract:
This study investigated job satisfaction, academic workload, perceived stress
and coping strategies among lecturers of the University of Education,
Winneba, Ghana. The purpose of the study was to establish the correlations
between job satisfaction, academic workload and level of perceived stress
among participants. The study adopted the cross-sectional survey design using
the descriptive approach of research. The proportional stratified sampling,
simple random sampling, and purposive sampling techniques were applied to
select the sample for the study. Questionnaire was used to collect data from
159 participants. The research questions were analysed using means and
standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested using the Simple Linear
Regression, Pearson‟s Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient, Independent
Samples t-test, and the One-way Analyses of Variance (ANOVA). The study
revealed that the most stressful source of lecturers‟ stress was teaching large
class-size, and the most preferred coping strategy for mitigating stress was the
use of alcohol/stress reducing drugs. The findings further revealed that
academic workload predicted lecturers‟ perceived stress level, academic
workload inversely correlated level of job satisfaction, and that lecturers‟
perceived level of stress was negatively associated with their level of job
satisfaction. However, gender, age, and status of lecturers did not influence
their perceived level of stress. The study recommended that more lecturers
should be employed to commensurate with the increasing lecturer-student
ratio so as to ease stress among lecturers. It is also recommended that lecturers
should be provided with counselling to assist them to use healthy coping
strategies to mitigate work-related stress.
