Barriers to Work Wellness Among Academic Staff in Higher Education Institutions

Introduction

For many years, higher education has been changing. Institutions once considered to be relaxed workspaces are now considered stress factories and unattractive working environments. In many cases, these situations worsened in 2020 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff at universities have reported increased workloads and stress and, simultaneously, decreased self-care. The impact of mental health problems in the workplace have serious consequences not only for the individual but also for the productivity of the universities. Employee performance, rates of illness, absenteeism, accidents, and staff turnover are all affected by employees’ mental health statuses. Ntshoe, Higgs, Higgs, and Wolhuter (2008) highlight the complexities of academic work, the problematic trend of academics abandoning core teaching functions in order to give attention to miscellaneous tasks, and the distortion of roles, all of which may give rise to low staff morale. Morrish (2019) reported that factors such as work-related stress, high workloads, often unattainable performance evaluation processes, and the competitive environment in both academia and contract employment were additional stressors. Dollard and Tuckey (2014) indicate that high levels of occupational stress experienced by academics from universities have been reported for over 20 years. The incidents of stress, anxiety, and depression furthermore seem to be increasing in most organizations, despite intensified scientific attention to this phenomenon from various disciplines. Barkhuizen and Rothmann (2005) allude to the fact that occupational stress has a negative impact on the physical and psychological health and well-being of both academic and administrative staff within universities.

Van Niekerk and van Gent (2021) noted that even reports prior to the pandemic showed a significant escalation in the poor mental health of university staff members in the United Kingdom and South Africa. The outbreak of COVID-19 worsened the situation, 65% of staff at South African universities reporting feeling either stressed or severely stressed about the spread of coronavirus and the associated impact of the pandemic on finances, relationship problems, job security, grief, gender-based violence, and trauma. Pre-existing stressors were further exacerbated by the sudden demand to adjust to online teaching, ambiguous boundaries between work and home and social disconnection from students, additional administrative duties, and limited organizational support. Many staff members in universities have neither been adequately equipped for these demands, nor did they experience the institutional support required to face the challenges. This chapter therefore presents an overview of barriers to the adoption of wellness behaviors and work-sponsored wellness programs among staff in universities by focusing on the post COVID-19 pandemic period. The conclusions and implications for future studies are also presented.

Background

As indicated in the introduction, for many years the academic profession was envied for its secure tenure, light workloads, flexible working hours, overseas excursions for conferences and studies, as well as an environment where scholars enjoyed the freedom to pursue their own research. According to de Paula and Boas (2017), the situation has changed drastically and not only due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Buckholdt and Miller (2009) reiterate that there is lots of work-related stress in a wide range of academic environments. Academics are subject to several work-related stressors flowing from the multiple duties and responsibilities they need to perform. Their job-description includes teaching relevant content to students, researching new and current phenomena in their industries, engaging with the community, identifying and applying for funding grants and working in committees. Furthermore, academics are expected to also supervise postgraduate students, deal with academic administration, and develop a curriculum and concurrent assessments (Cloete, 2017). A study by Tytherleigh, Webb, Cooper and Ricketts (2005) reported that the sources of stress for academics include excessive workloads, work-life imbalances, work relationships, lack of control, communication, and job security.