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UK and Australian universities ‘more stressful than Uganda’

First transnational study of stress levels in higher education finds Germany’s academics are the world’s happiest

五月 4, 2017
asian woman with hulk painting
Source: Rex

Academics working in the UK and Australia experience more stress in their job than their counterparts in Iran and Uganda, according to a study.

The first global comparison of stress levels in different higher education sectors suggests that the world’s happiest researchers are to be found in Germany, while scholars working in China feel the greatest strain.

Roland Persson, professor of educational psychology at Sweden’s J?nk?ping University, created the ranking by analysing 91 articles, literature reviews and national surveys on workplace stress covering 34 countries.

Germany’s success in generating high staff morale and strong job satisfaction among academics can be attributed to the country’s relative lack of a performance management culture, says Professor Persson.

Canada, Denmark, Finland and Malaysia are also judged to be relatively stress-free sectors by Professor Persson, whose research is due to be published in a book later this year.

According to the study, “The management and mismanagement of academic staff worldwide”, China’s universities are the most stressful largely because of the pressures faced by female academics, who receive little help in juggling academic and personal commitments.

“Female academics will face all the pressures of their job, but if they have children, they are expected to take care of their family – the same is not true for men,” Professor Persson told 成人VR视频.

The UK and Australia are ranked mid-table in Professor Persson’s assessment, coming ahead of Russia and Pakistan but behind the US, Japan, the Netherlands and Singapore on well-being.

Several other countries, including Iran, Turkey, Uganda, Greece and Portugal, are also deemed to have more pleasant work environments than the UK and Australia, which are placed in the same stress-level category as France, India, Mexico and Spain.

Professor Persson, who has previously worked at the?University of Huddersfield, said?that it was no exaggeration to rate the UK behind Iran and Turkey on workplace well-being, although the Turkish studies predated the crackdown on academic freedom in the country. British academics’ job satisfaction and happiness had been significantly damaged by the ever-growing influence of the research excellence framework, he argued.

“The deterioration [in staff well-being] between 2006 and 2010 has been remarkable,” he said.

“The pressure caused by the REF has grown much worse…if you examine newer universities, in particular, they have really embraced the concepts of new public management wholeheartedly,” he added, saying these are a major source of staff unhappiness.

Professor Persson’s subjective ranking of sectors relies heavily on national staff surveys conducted over the past 20 years. The largest one polled almost 38,000 people, and the average number of participants was 1,430.

While studies showed that academics often enjoyed high levels of job satisfaction, the application of the “lean management” model developed initially by Toyota, which emphasises continual improvement, contributed hugely to workplace stress, said Professor Persson.

“Imposing an industrial model of management on academia fails to understand that scholars need autonomy to function,” he said.

“Academics are not used to being managed as if they were working at BT – they need to be trusted to do their jobs, but management does not understand how science and creativity really work.”

Professor Persson’s review identifies excessive workload as a key driver of stress, alongside a lack of support, understanding and respect from managers.

Unfair recognition and promotion systems, and feelings of inadequacy, were also common themes worldwide.

Of 30 studies that examined the relationship between stress and gender, 15 reported women to be more prone to stress than their male colleagues, while four found the opposite.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the UK’s University and College Union, called the findings concerning.

“Domestic and international surveys show high levels of stress among UK academics,” she said. “Our own work in this area points to high workloads and poor management as key reasons for high stress levels.

“Many academics and academic-related staff are clearly under far too much pressure, and we know that this level of stress in the workplace can be very damaging to mental and physical health.”

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com

Stress levels for academics by country, subjectively assessed (5 defines alarming stress levels; 0 describes no or minimal stress)

Stress level Country Stress level Country
5 China 2 Greece
4 Croatia ? Iran
? Pakistan ? Republic of Ireland
? Russia ? Japan
3 Algeria ? Netherlands
? Argentina ? Portugal
? Australia ? Singapore
? Brazil ? South Africa
? Chile ? Turkey
? Colombia ? Uganda
? France ? US
? India 1 Canada
? Mexico ? Denmark
? Nigeria ? Finland
? Peru ? Malaysia
? Romania 0 Germany
? Spain ? ?
? UK ? ?

Source: Roland Persson,?J?nk?ping University

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Reader's comments (1)

Stress comes from a variety of sources but poor leadership is among the most prominent. As Robert Hogan, one of the best writers on leadership, observed in 1994 “Academic deans are often chosen from the ranks of first-line supervisors on the basis of likeability and perceived ability to work with senior management…(rather than their actual leadership effectiveness)”. In Universities It is typically those with upward impression management skills (German: Arsch-Lecken) who get promoted. Effective leaders manage those below them to make their lives better and easier while 'impressionistas' spend their time on the telephone networking with, communicating with and impressing their bosses rather than conversing with their reports and running their departments efficiently. This leaves their underlings with two jobs to do, their own and that of their boss. Ironically in academia (leadership and management studies) we know exactly what makes an effective leader but universities ignore their own expertise and use a highly useless 'tick-box' approach to appointments and promotions which rewards the inept and ineffective. As a result the higher you go the worse university leadership is. This creates stress for everyone below. When I tell fellow academics that I study toxic leadership and corporate psychopaths they often invite me to come and meet their Dean, PVC or Vice-Chancellor. Unfortunately I don't have time to meet everyone. However, even when bullies are identified in one university they may often end up in more senior positions somewhere else. (Bullying correlates so closely with psychopathy that you can more or less take it as a proxy measure). As a final thought - and I'm sure this has been written before - but it seems to me that universities generally succeed despite their leadership and not because of it. Some reports state that around 70% of employees would take a pay cut if they could get rid of their boss. Ask yourself does this apply to you? Good luck. Clive Boddy.