Factors associated with stress among academic staff at a Malaysian public university

Workers who have stress at workplace will experience a few changes on their emotions and attitudes which negatively affect their own health and productivity. This research was conducted to measure the factors that lead to stress among academic staff at one of the Malaysian Public Universities. Academicians were selected in this study since motivational aspects and level of stress among them will affect the holistic development of students. A survey was conducted through questionnaires that were given randomly to 150 respondents. The sample of this study was selected based on a purposive sampling. The study used focus group discussion for data collection and open-ended questions as the main instruments. All the data collected were descriptively analysed. Findings have shown that there are four prominent factors which contribute to stress including heavy workload, negative working environment, administration and management problems and lack of rewards or appreciation. The highest frequency factors fall onto the two factors- heavy workload and negative working environment. Most workers complained that they were overloaded with work tasks in addition to having had to be in a less conducive working environment. Thus, this research suggests some potential ways for organisations to reduce the stress among their workers by being alert about what the workers actually need at their workplace.