Occupational stress in Canadian universities: A national survey.

Abstract

Vic Catano and Lori FrancisSaint Mary’s UniversityTed Haines, Haresh Kirpalani, Harry Shannon, and Bernadette StringerMcMaster UniversityLaura LozanzkiCanadian Association of University Teachers, Ottawa, ON, CanadaStress surveys in U.K. and Australian universities demonstrated high occu-pational stress levels among faculty. This study investigated whether the sameoccupational stressors and stress outcomes applied at Canadian universities. Ran-domly selected staff ( n 1440) from 56 universities completed a Web-basedquestionnaire. The response rate 27%, was similar to those in the U.K. and Austra-lian studies, as were most of the results. With respect to strain, 13% of the respon-dents reported high psychological distress and 22% reported elevated physicalhealth symptoms. Less secure employment status and work-life imbalance stronglypredicted job dissatisfaction; work-life imbalance strongly predicted increased psy-chological distress. Overall study participants were satised with their jobs andemotionally committed to their institutions. These results warrant consideration ofcontemporary academic work by both academic staff associations and universityadministrations with respect to the implementation of changes in policies andprocedures that might lead to reductions in work-related stress and strain.