Faculties' Mental Health and Workplace Stress: An Analytical Study in the Context of Health Awareness

Abstract

Higher education faculty members' professional effectiveness is affected by their Mental Health. Faculty members in higher education are experiencing increasingly demanding responsibilities related to academics, administration and research. Stressful conditions at their workplaces, such as heavy workloads, role ambiguity, performance evaluations, technological changes and poor work life balance, can negatively affect the psychological wellbeing of these professionals. On the other hand, an increased understanding of health is recognized as a protective factor allowing higher education faculty members to pursue a healthy lifestyle, effectively manage their stress and develop and/or sustain their emotional resilience. This study examines the relationships between workplace stress, mental health and health awareness among faculty members who are employed in the higher education system. This study utilized a quantitative methodology and collected data via a survey instrument with a Likert-type scale (five point) as its measurement tool. The population of this study included 311 faculty members who were employed by either government or privately owned higher education institutions; they were selected using convenience sampling. For the purpose of analyzing the collected data the researcher used a variety of statistical methods including descriptive statistics, reliability coefficients, correlations, regression analyses, independent sample t-tests and one-way Analysis of Variance. The results of this study indicate that workplace stress negatively impacts mental health while health awareness provides positive benefits to psychological wellbeing and diminishes negative impacts of stressful experiences. These findings will be useful to educational administrators and policy makers in developing institutional wellness programs, counseling services and stress reduction efforts and in promoting employee health awareness. Encouraging the wellbeing of college professors will contribute to improved physical and mental health of these employees which in turn will lead to improved effectiveness in their roles as teachers, researchers, organizationally committed employees and providers of high-quality educational products and processes. As a result of the evidence presented in this study it is clear that there are several ways to promote healthy academic environments within colleges/universities and create opportunities for long-term sustainability of these organizations.