Concept of Job Stress

 
 Job stress has been of major concern to all and sundry in the educational sector and in the education sector, and as such various authors have in different ways explained the concept of stress according to their own understanding. According to Ecker (1987) job stress is a physical response that the human body involves in other to fuel with a perceived threat to its stability. Everly and Girdqano (1979) are of the view that stress is a fairly predictable arousal of psychological system which if prolonged, can cause fatigue or damage of system to the point of malfunction and disease.

It is both the cause and the result of physiological and psychological process in the interaction with others. In the same way, Denga (1986) mentioned that individuals are susceptible to different pattern of job stress. A situation may be stressful or not depending on individual attitude towards it.

According to Nweze (1995) stress is a feeling and direct consequences of personal life attributes and disposition as they affect the individual reactions to personal life experiences including threats, pleasant and negative ones. Adebanwi (1995) averred that job stress is a condition or situation where an individual finds him or herself under frustration, fear, anger, resulting in tension, anxiety, depression, loss of appetite and in extreme cases loss of sleep at night. In the light of the above, Panker (1977) regarded stress as a reaction which we experience when we cannot cope with a situation. Job stress according to Baron (1986) is an external condition which produces feelings of discomfort, tension, since they are seen as threatening, frustrating or they exceed the individual’s capacity to deal with them.

        Job stress therefore is a state of the mind, if the mind is peaceful there will be no stress but if the mind is troubled then there is too much stress and this can lead to exhaustion and breakdown physically, mentally and emotionally. From the various views of job, stress can be looked at from the medical, psychological and equilibrium destabilization of the individual’s body by external factors and the interaction between a combination of these and other factors. Although the term stress is popularly used by almost everybody in the sphere of human endeavor; its meaning is not generally agreed upon.

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OCCUPATIONAL STRESS FACTORS AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL 2

communication stress

Job stress according to Beehr and Newman (1978) is a condition arising from the interaction of people and their jobs, characterized by changes within the people that force them to deviate from their normal functioning. For our purpose, we take job or occupational stress to refer to the reaction to the demands on the work environment such that the individual is

unable to contend with them. Be that as it may, it needs to be stressed, however that stress is an inevitable phenomenon experienced by everybody in all works of life. Work related stress is of growing concern because it has significant economic implications for organizations through employee-dissatisfaction, lowered productivity, and lowered emotional and physical health of the employee (Matteson and Ivancevich, 1987).

        A search of the literature reveals that researches carried out on principal stress were conducted mostly in the developed countries like the USA (Whitaker, 1996); the U.K (Cooper, 1988) and Australia (Beeson and Matthews, 1992). The applicability of their recommendations may not be tenable in a developing country like Nigeria. In Nigeria, the bulk of research conducted so far had focused exclusively on stress among university administrators (Ugoji, 1995; Bamisaiye, 1996). Little studies had been carried out on stress among principals of secondary schools in Nigeria.

        This background emphasizes the need to explore principal stress in the Nigerian context more so when considered against the crucial position of the school principal in secondary school management. This study was, therefore undertaken to explore the occupational stress factors among secondary school principals in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State. 

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OCCUPATIONAL STRESS FACTORS AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS

Chapter One

Introduction

Background of the Study

        The introduction of the Universal Primary Education (U.P.E) Scheme launched in 1976 ushered in an unprecedented crisis of enrolment in the country’s educational system. In addition to the introduction of U.P.E and its attendant management problems, Nigeria took a wide stride to revolutionize her educational system with the introduction of the 6-3-3-4 system. This brought a lot of changes especially in the secondary section.

        The task to implement such a comprehensive curriculum tailored to the relevant needs of the students and the aspirations of the nation rests squarely on the chief executive of the secondary who in the Nigeria context is known as the principal. Hence, Ozigi (1977), Ezeocha (1985), Ukeje, Akabogu and Ndu (1992) all see him as the central figure in the school and the pivot of which all the educational activities in the school revolve. The present system of secondary education in Nigeria poses a lot of new and additional challenges to the secondary school principal. His management duties include staff control, effective execution of professional duties, students control, and the effective utilization of available human, material and financial resources. All these impose very high administrative demands on him. It is in recognition of these multifarious tasks reposed on the secondary school principal that Knezevich (1969) regards him as an educational leader, a counselor of students, the school disciplinarian, the organizer of the schedule, and supervisor of the instructional programme, the school public relations officer, the liason between the teacher and student, the director and evaluator of teaching efforts, the management of school facilities and generally a professional leader.

        In Nigeria’s circumstance, in addition to the long list of duties of expectations from the school head, he has yet another set of problems to grapple with as he performs his duties. Those from internal sources are coping with the truancy of students, gangs and peer group opposition (Bassey, 1997); school riots and protests, secret cult membership (ANCOPSS, 1988), the issure of examination malpractice (Belloh, 1996), and opposition and petitions by aggressive staffs (Obemeata, 1984). Sources external to the school are late payment of salaries, non-release of imprests, petitions by some Parents Teachers Association (P.T.A) (Bassey, 1997); and the concern for public accountability and probity in the face of dwindling resources (Udoh, 1986). Indeed the secondary school principal of today faces new and distinct challenges. This state of affairs can provoke stress for the principal.

OCCUPATIONAL STRESS FACTORS AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL

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Abstract

The study was designed to ascertain the occupational stress factors among secondary school principals in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State. To direct the study, one research question and two hypotheses were stated and formulated. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design and the population of the study comprised all secondary school principals in government owned secondary schools in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State. Sampling was not required as all the principals were used in the study. Data for the study were collected using researcher developed questionnaire. In analyzing the data collected, the researcher used t-test to test the hypotheses.

The data analyzed revealed that there is a significant difference in the performance of public and private secondary school students in mathematics and there is no significant difference in the achievement of male and female students in mathematics. Based on these findings, some recommendations were made at the end of the study.

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