THE INFLUENCE OF STRESS ON JOB 

PERFORMANCE AS A TEACHER

Stress is a natural phenomenon, as individuals undergo daily hassles; it is inevitable. It is one of the concepts you can be sure of in life, no matter how wealthy, powerful, attractive or happy you might be. It is experienced in many forms. Stress could be experienced in form of difficult examinations, too numerous jobs to be completed within a limited time, over expectation from your boss, an automobile accident, disappointment from spouse, low achievement, unsafe working environment, long hours at work, the list is inexhaustible. In spite of the ubiquitous nature of stress the level of stress experience by individuals depend on how people predict and control their stressors and their stress coping skills.

To this end, it is therefore definite that stress must occur as individuals interact with their physical environment. Virtually all human activities whether teaching non-teaching generate stress. Akinade (2007) posited that stress is any stimulus that either raises your excitement or anxiety level beyond what you regard as above your usual or personal tolerance.  To Ortese (2009) stress refers to an individual state of physical and physiological imbalance leading to his/her social maladjustment, poor cognitive operation poor work performance and ill health. Jayashree (2010) corroborated with the above assertion as he opine that stress is a condition of strain that has a direct bearing on emotions, thought process and physical conditions of the persons. It is evidence from the definition stated, that any event that strains an individual and makes him/her unable to cope with normal life activities including teaching is a stressor. In line with this, Beheshtifar and Nazarian (2013) posited that external events such as difficult relationship in the workplace and heavy work load are stressors.

It is obvious that too much stress has negative influence on the individual. According to Nnachi (2007) stress can lead to easy loss of memory, inability to settle to gather points and anxiety to settle for test, distorted mood, destabilization of emotion and inability to learn properly. Oghiagbephan and Ikekhua (2014) also enumerated the adverse effect of stress as, difficulty in concentration, short time and long time memory lose, inability of the mind to accurately analyze and evaluate present situation, disorganized pattern of thinking, difficulty in relaxing emotionally, physical illness, thoughts of worthlessness, inability to address a group, absenteeism from work, increase consumption of alcohol, and thoughts of committing suicide.

Teaching like any other profession is also associated with work-related stress. According to Bedu-Addo and Akinade (2013) work-related stress refers to stress that comes as a result of one’s work environment, relationship with boss and peers. Implying that work related stress could result from excess work load, trying to please your boss, role ambiguity, unsafe work environment, long hours at work, poor salaries and irregular payment of salaries as we are experiencing now in Nigeria.

The teaching profession is not exempted from this work-related stress hence kyriacov (2001) specifically define teachers’ stress as teachers’ experience of unpleasant and negative emotion such as anger, frustrations, anxiety, depression and nervousness resulting from some aspect of their work. Gelvin (2010) also buttresses this assertion as he opined that teacher’s stress is a response syndrome of negative effect resulting from some aspects of the teacher’s job and mediated by the perception that, the demands constitute a threat to self-esteem and coping mechanisms activities to reduce the perceived threat.

The influence of stress on job performance has actually been on the negative direction. Existing literature on the influence of stress on job performance attest to this fact, Adepoju (2001) advanced that teachers stress results to high rate of absenteeism and lead to poor or reduction in performance and productivity. Jayashree (2010) also advanced that stress on job performance may cause subtle manifestation of morbidity that can effect personal well-being and productivity. To Fairbrother and Warn (2003) stress in work-place eventually rob workers of their spirit and passion for the job, resulting in impaired individual functioning, dampened initiative and reduced interest in work place.

Teaching as a profession has never been without stress. Evers, Tomic and Brouwers (2005) and Kokkinos, Panayiotau and Dazoglou (2005) were of this view as they assert that the negative aspect of the teaching job such as disciplinary problems, students’ apathy, overcrowded classroom, preparing lesson note, involuntary transfer, inadequate salaries and lack of administrative support are among the stressors that confront teachers in both develop and developing nations of the world.

Teachers are the pillars of our educational system. They are often blamed of any inadequacy in the school system. However teachers need a lot of energy to manage their classroom as well as impacting knowledge. They deal with diverse children, especially with the emphasis on inclusive education. They are also saddle with the responsibility of educating and helping to mould these children into productive citizens in our society. These goals could only be achieved if teachers are performing their duty effectively.

The work environment Teachers are prone to several stressors, such as lack of seat, dilapidated building, lack of resource material, involuntary transfer, inadequate salaries, and irregular payment of salaries, which might influence on their job performance. It is therefore pertinent to ascertain if the stress associated with these stressors influence on teachers’ job performance. Against this background the problem of this study is to investigate the influence of stress on job performance among secondary school teachers in the States.

The finding revealed that stress influenced adversely on teachers’ job performance in the State. The four research questions raised with regard to job performance, in terms of instruction delivering, classroom management, punctuality to school and assessment of students performance have grand means of 2.83, 2.94, 2.85 and 3.06 respectively. These were higher than the criterion mean of 2.5, implying that stress adversely affects how teachers deliver instruction; manage their classes, their punctuallity to school and their mode of assessing students.

Findings of this work are in consonant with Nnachi (2009) who advanced that stress causes distorted mood and inability to settle and gather points. The teacher who is under stress cannot gather points for effective delivery of instruction. Also he cannot address a group of students, as it was also in line with Oghiagbeghan and Ikekhua (2014) who were of the view that a person who is under stress cannot address a group.

The adverse effect of stress on teachers’ mode of assessing students was also in agreement with Oghiagbephan and Ikekhua (2014) who viewed a stressed person as one who cannot evaluate present situation. The result further revealed that stress affects teachers’ punctuality and can as well result to absenteeism at work and lead to low productivity or poor performance. Adepoju (2001) was in agreement with this result, as he posited that stress leads to absenteeism and low productivity.

Stress among teachers is an issue that needed urgent attention as it could lead to impaired individual functioning as it was advanced by Fairbrother and Warn (2003). The result of this is lost of passion in the job, dampened initiative, reduced, interest and eventually poor performance on the side of the teachers. If achieving our set goals in our various schools is paramount, then it is imperative to strategize to reduce stress among teachers to the barest minimum generally in Bayelsa State and in Nembe Local Government Area in particular to enable teachers perform maximally, in order to achieve our set goals.

The results of the study are quite revealing. Stress is influencing adversely on teachers’ job performance in terms of instruction delivery, classroom management, punctuality to school and assessment of students’ performance in secondary schools in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. It is therefore necessary to identify these stressors, and find out strategies of minimizing them for effective teachers’ job performance.

THE WAY FORWARD

Based on the findings, the following recommendations are made

·    Government and public spirited individuals should provide infrastructures to make the work environment conducive.

·               Seminars and workshops on stress management should be held regularly.

·       Counseling services should also be made available for our teachers in the secondary schools.

·                       Teachers should be reoriented to understand that, there is no job without stress

Reference

Adepoju, T. I. (2001). Management of stress in education Industry: Implication for Educational Manager. African Journal of Educational Management. 9(1) 25-35.

Akinade, E.A. (2007). Stress: Understanding and managing it Lagos: Pumark Publisher Limited.

Beheshtifar, M & Nazarian R. (2013). Role of occupational stress in organization. Interdisplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business 4 (9) 648-657.

Bedu-Addo, P.K. & Akinade, E. A (2013). Work-related stress among Ghanian bankers: Implication for Counseling. The Counselor, 32 (182) 1-12