Perceived Effects Of Occupational Stress On Employee Job Performance Among Non Teaching Staff At The University Of Nairobi.

Abstract

Stress in organizations is a wide-spread phenomenon with far-reaching practical and economic consequences. High levels of stress come at a high cost to organizations as growing stress levels greatly affect employee productivity as well as the bottom line. There is considerable evidence that the incidence of stress at work place is sizeable and on the increase. Job performance can be viewed as an activity in which an individual is able to accomplish the task assigned to him/her successfully, subject to the normal constraints of reasonable utilization of the available resources. The purpose of this study was to establish the perceived relationship between occupational stress and employee job performance among the non teaching staff at the University of Nairobi. The study adopted descriptive research design in which 351 respondents were sampled using stratified random according to their job cadre. The data was collected using questionnaires which were self administered. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, mean score and standard deviation. The study established that a good percentage of the respondents were affected by the stress as majority suffer from illness, they feel angry or frustrated because of things related to work, felt stressed due to unrealistic deadlines, received too much pressure from many people and majority felt that they would quit their jobs if given an option among others. This has had some effect of the performance of the respondents for example absenteeism, low self esteem, and thoughts of leaving the organisation if given an opportunity among others. However, the study found that the general performance of the respondents could be described as good. Some respondents indicated that they were able to establish clear objectives and organize duties for self and those supervised to moderate extent. Some respondents are only able to develop workable ideas only to moderate extent. v The effect of occupational stress on employees can therefore not be ignored. The study therefore recommends that the institution should set up Organizational support activities such as counselling and stress reduction workshops to deal with stress before it degenerates into burnout which is a caused by chronic work stress. The organization can change or remove the stress by redesigning jobs to reduce feeling of being undervalued at workplace, unclear job roles, work-home interface and job insecurity. They can also change organizational policies to give individuals more control over their work activities, develop support System, shared Goal and direction, encouraging innovation, distribute decision Making ,team Work ,respect and personal needs heard