Teacher Stress and Job Effectiveness - Literature review Example

Teacher Stress and Job Effectiveness

The Concept of Stress, Its Nature and Process

Several studies have attempted to come up with the definition of stress, basing on various viewpoints. The WHO defines the work-related stress as the way people respond to the demands and pressures of their employment roles that differ from what they know and are capable of handling. Besides, Jennings & Greenberg (2009) defines stress as the physiological reaction that a body may have towards a demand that it is incapable of meeting. Therefore, depending on these two definitions, this research regards the work-associated stress as a subjective spectacle that is multi-faceted, occurring when an employee’s emotions physicality or attitudes contrast the demands of their positions.

The assertion of Bartholomew et al. (2014) is that stress is of two categories, which comprise the good and bad strains, otherwise called the eustress and distress respectively. The former assists employees to have positivity in their jobs while the latter makes staff members undergo conditions that do not match their job requirements, resulting in a lower quality of life for them. Subsequently, a balance is necessary so as to avoid compromising the effectiveness of employment and the employee health. The workload may also cause stress in three aspects, which include qualitative workload, quantitative workload and under-load. Whereas qualitative workload is work that is much difficult to handle, quantitative overload is a situation when a worker has much work to do. Under-load, on the other hand, refers to when an employee’s skills and capabilities get underutilised (Bartholomew et al., 2014).

Whereas the nature of stress remains unambiguous, it depends on an individual. It accumulates, building up slowly as it indicates the symptoms that all is not right. Breen (2016) outlined some of the stress features as common, inescapable and transferable. However, the way stress manifests itself differs. Besides, it has the capability of changing people’s behaviour, altering the thinking arrangements, lowering esteem and causes psychological and social alterations. Moreover, stress is rather sociological than psychological since it is not inborn, but occurs because people want to meet the social anticipations.

Melgosa (2004) identified three stress stages, the first being the alarm phase. At this stage, the physical reactions first warn the worker concerning the need to watch out. Here, if there are procedures taken to bring a solution to the issue, the stress does not occur. Secondly is the resistance phase where the employee attempts to resist the stressful event through mental adjustments or other coping methods. Here, the worker already tries adjusting to the stressing condition. Lastly is the exhaustion stage, where the employee experiences much fatigue, is depressed and anxious. It is here that the effectiveness of an employee and his productivity becomes extremely low (Melgosa, 2004).

Elements of Teachers’ Job Effectiveness

Regarding the employment terms of instructors, their effectiveness depends on factors such as their capability to impart knowledge to learners, to take part in research work as well as improving the community. Gold et al. (2010) in defining job effectiveness of teachers, provided elements of effective teachers like; being able to offer clear explanations, displaying concern in the teaching quality, assessing whether the learners understand, preparing in advance, being presentable, respecting schoolchildren, prioritising critical class issues and carefully replying questions. Jennings & Greenberg (2009) in their investigation identified four features of effective teachers, which was from the instructors’ viewpoints. They include being capable of grasping the subject matter, showing interest in all learners, actually creating a friendly and compassionate atmosphere, and becoming enthusiastic towards the students. In the same study, the student’s perceptions of effective teachers included the need to be creative, passionate, respectful, risk taking, flexible, pragmatic, loving, enthusiastic and authentic.

Apart from their ability to impart knowledge on the learners, effective leaders need to be proficient in research work (Gold et al., 2010). Research leads to publications as its final product. Besides, it is from research work that the upgrading of teachers often takes place. Such career uplifting activities require the teachers to take part in published works. It is particularly the case in the case of lecturers in colleges and universities. Therefore, as a result of the requirements of quality in these works, it constitutes part of the workloads that the teachers engage.

The majority of people in the society perceive effective teachers to be people who must show some level of social responsibility (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009). It is because the learners constitute the brains in the community. Teachers have to lead their students in activities that promote the social good in the community such as conducting outreaches. Besides, their effectiveness may be in the form of holding enlightening public seminars through the school and hold debates and public speaking. All these also add to the workload on the teachers, becoming additional stressors (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009).

Theoretical Framework

For purposes of this investigation, it is fortified using Karasek & Theorell (1990)’s Job demand-control theory. From their approach, the argument was that the genesis of stress is the impacts of the job strains which combine with other environmental stressors. One of the core causes of stress for workers according to this theory is the fact that their decision-making roles are minimal in their organisations. According to the theory, the environmental factors trigger the employee stressors, while it also recognises that there are personal factors that might contribute to the stressful; occasions of workers. Furthermore, the theory elaborates that the staff who frequently engage in demanding jobs, like in this case the teachers who are in the service-based employment usually undergo the highest degree of stress (Karasek & Theorell, 1992). Also, the theory holds that workers in high-status roles experience little pressures compared to their counterparts in the lower ranks since they occasionally have a high degree of decision making within their capacities. Karasek & Theorell (1990) also indicated I their model that an attempt to increase the productivity of workers, there is a need to chain the high demands as well as the high control and decision making of the workers.

The Job Demand Control Theory becomes vital for purposes of contextualising this investigation since it clearly defines the real association between the stresses that employees experience in everyday life and their effectiveness at work. Additionally, this model is vital for this research because it describes the stressors of service-based works, and this study also concerns teachers, who coincidentally are in the service-based sector.

Workload and Job Effectiveness

According to Diestel & Schmidt (2010), there are three sources of stress categories. They are the environmental, individual and organisational types. Among the organisational factors that may cause stress to teachers include the tasks, roles, the school management, teaching processes, staff relationships and school culture. Besides, they may also cover the aspects of instructors’ career development, politics and education goals. The similarity between the work demands and non-work demands is that workload is a stressor.

The consideration of Instructional Tech (2016) is that task-induced stress caused direct impacts on the characteristics of the jobs handled. Such task-caused stress relates to the technological changes, professional development, job control and security. Besides, they can originate from physical and mental overwork as well as the management. In this case, it is vital noting that teachers consistently experience the job demand of attending to learners who continually stream in seeking for assistance.

Burnout is one extreme form of work-related stress commonly experienced by professionals in the people service industry. It is common among workers like the lawyers, accountants, physicians, police constables and teachers. Overload pressures result to longer working hours and sleeping problems. The assertion of Diestel & Schmidt (2010) is that the demand pressures on people lead to an increased performance level until the optimal point. After this point, more stresses result in a declining effectiveness of the individual. It, therefore, means that as the teachers continue engaging in work overload, they reach a point when their productivity starts reducing (Diestel & Schmidt, 2010).

The other possible work-associated stressor is change. As a result of globalisation, work changes are creating several job pressures and stress to employees. Due to technological innovations, some workers have found their skills obsolete (Buchanan, 2010). Subsequently, teachers may require undergoing further training and education. Initially, technological innovations meant to ease workers’ duties. However, it has proven that if an employee does not understand its use, it induces rather than relieve stress. Additionally, the failure of employees to get involved in decision-making becomes a stress inducer to them. According to Collie, Shapka & Perry (2012), there is a direct association between failing to actively engage workers in making decisions and their job stress.

The assertion of Klassen & Chiu (2010) is that the behaviour indications of work-induced stress include the high rates of accidents, poor performance, skiving, substance abuse and increased turnover rates. Others include erratic conduct and problems to communicate. However, rather than sticking to an individual level, the occupational stresses transmit to the others in the same institution. Britten (2016) further divided the organisational impacts of such stresses into the groups of participation difficulties, decreased performance and compensation awards. Among the participation issues include absenteeism, slowness at work, high turnover, picketing and interruptions. As a result of this occurring in the case of teachers, their effectiveness would go down, leading to low quality of teaching practices that may not impart knowledge on the learners nor benefit the society (Britten, 2016).

Buchanan (2010) notes that the teachers are having to work overtime such as in cases of conducting private tuitions for students, which reduces their time for socialising with their families, which is important in their stress reducing. Besides, it adds to more tensions at home, which if adds to the job pressures, becomes extremely depressive to the teachers. Moreover, an increase in the number of students under a teacher’s care increases their workload. As a result, the teacher stress rises, which eventually reduces effectiveness (Klassen & Chiu, 2010). Therefore, this investigation is an endeavour to determine the influence that stress causes on the teacher’s job effectiveness.

Elements of Teachers’ Job Effectiveness

Regarding the employment terms of instructors, their effectiveness depends on factors such as their capability to impart knowledge to learners, to take part in research work as well as improving the community. Gold et al. (2010) in defining job effectiveness of teachers, provided elements of effective teachers like; being able to offer clear explanations, displaying concern in the teaching quality, assessing whether the learners understand, preparing in advance, being presentable, respecting schoolchildren, prioritising critical class issues and carefully replying questions. Jennings & Greenberg (2009) in their investigation identified four features of effective teachers, which was from the instructors’ viewpoints. They include being capable of grasping the subject matter, showing interest in all learners, actually creating a friendly and compassionate atmosphere, and becoming enthusiastic towards the students. In the same study, the student’s perceptions of effective teachers included the need to be creative, passionate, respectful, risk taking, flexible, pragmatic, loving, enthusiastic and authentic.

Apart from their ability to impart knowledge on the learners, effective leaders need to be proficient in research work (Gold et al., 2010). Research leads to publications as its final product. Besides, it is from research work that the upgrading of teachers often takes place. Such career uplifting activities require the teachers to take part in published works. It is particularly the case in the case of lecturers in colleges and universities. Therefore, as a result of the requirements of quality in these works, it constitutes part of the workloads that the teachers engage.

The majority of people in the society perceive effective teachers to be people who must show some level of social responsibility (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009). It is because the learners constitute the brains in the community. Teachers have to lead their students in activities that promote the social good in the community such as conducting outreaches. Besides, their effectiveness may be in the form of holding enlightening public seminars through the school and hold debates and public speaking. All these also add to the workload on the teachers, becoming additional stressors (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009).

Theoretical Framework

For purposes of this investigation, it is fortified using Karasek & Theorell (1990)’s Job demand-control theory. From their approach, the argument was that the genesis of stress is the impacts of the job strains which combine with other environmental stressors. One of the core causes of stress for workers according to this theory is the fact that their decision-making roles are minimal in their organisations. According to the theory, the environmental factors trigger the employee stressors, while it also recognises that there are personal factors that might contribute to the stressful; occasions of workers. Furthermore, the theory elaborates that the staff who frequently engage in demanding jobs, like in this case the teachers who are in the service-based employment usually undergo the highest degree of stress (Karasek & Theorell, 1992). Also, the theory holds that workers in high-status roles experience little pressures compared to their counterparts in the lower ranks since they occasionally have a high degree of decision making within their capacities. Read More