Job Stressors and Their Effects on Academic Staff: A Case Study

The purpose of this study was to understand the kinds of stressors originating from academic work setting, the influences of those kinds of stressors on academic staff and to know how they overcame stress at work setting. A non-probability sample was used. 12 academic staff -- six in Diest Campus and six in Heverlee Campus in KHLeuven University Teacher Education and Training College in Leuven in Belgium -- were volunteers working in pre-school, primary school and secondary school programs. A qualitative approach with a multiple case study with embedded units was selected for this study. Semi-structured individual and focus group interviews, participant observations and document analysis of staff's weekly schedules were used to collect data. Findings showed that there were intensive and various kinds of stress originating from stressors in academic setting and the effects of stress might be either negative or positive. Thus, the outcome of the research addresses important implications for the professional work life of academic staff in understanding how stress influences academic staff's performance negatively and positively, identifying where negative and positive stress exist in academic setting and knowing how to overcome stressors originating from academic settings. [This article was presented at World Conference on Educational and Instructional Studies (WCEIS), Nov 6-8, 2014, Antalya, Turkey.]