Investigating the effects of occupational stress on the job performance of academic staff of College of Distance Education, university of Cape Coast

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigating the effects of occupational stress on the job performance of academic staff of College of Distance Education, University of Cape Coast in the Central Region of Ghana. The study adopted a sequential explanatory mixed method research design. The population comprised all teaching staff at CoDE. A quota sampling of twenty (20) academic staff was selected for the quantitative data whiles purposive sampling was used to select ten (10) participants for the qualitative data. The main data collection instruments used were questionnaires and a semi-structured interview guide. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) was used to analyse the quantitative data whiles the qualitative data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that work make full use of their skills and abilities as well their workload is too heavy to be completed during their ordinary working hours as the main causes of occupational stress experienced by the academic staff at CoDE. Also, the experience of constant inner tension; constant fatigue; pounding of heart; high blood pressure at the alarming stage as a symptom of occupational stress. Furthermore, the experience of depression; experience of migraine and anxiety as their psychological effects; feeling of helplessness and easily getting angry as their social/behavioural effects as well as experience of musculoskeletal disorder; experience of regular cold and flu and chest pains as their physiological effects of occupational stress among academic staff of CoDE in the University of Cape Coast. It is recommended that academic staff of CoDE should be made to undertake a compulsory medical examination at a regular interval to help detect the alarming stage of stress before it escalates into the exhaustive stage.