Stress, Job stress and stress management
According to Selye (1936) stress is defined as "the force, pressure, or strain exerted upon a material
object or person which resist these forces and attempt to maintain its original state.”
It also is a substantial imbalance between environmental demand and the response capability of the
focal organism” McGrath (1976).
In its most general form stress is an individual’s psychic and somatic reactions to demands that
approach or exceed the limits of his coping resources. (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984 p.19)
Job stress,in the position of Shilendra Singh (1990), happens when an individual reacts to the
threatening features of the work environment.
Stress management is the use of all the strategies and tools to help minimize the negative effects of
stress.
How Teachers and workers of Kanda International School ( Private School) manage their stress
and health issues
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Lack of logistics or resources for work – Owing to this , a teacher uses their own resources to
complete necessary. There are instances where teachers have to use their own money to
buy marker pens.
Poor department and skills allocation: sometimes teachers are placed in departments where
they do not have the needed skills or knowledge. The teacher has to therefore learn on the
job to reduce the stress that comes with it.
Negative effects of Personal issues: Workers in the school may have personal challenges
from their homes that affect their job performance. As a result, work ar that moment is seen
as a stressful activity. The help of school counsellors can be utilised if necessary. If not
helpful, with the right arrangements the worker can go on leave to sort things out.
Class control and discipline: In many instances, the school does not allow for the traditional
method of caning to be used to control the class. The class will tend to become noisy and
difficult to control. Teachers report such instances of difficulty to management because they
have not received the authority to deal with it in the traditional way. Therefore,
management in concert with teachers deprive the class of certain privileges to curtail the
situation.
Sometimes, there might be the overload of work. Teachers must set fixed limits to working
hours and use time judiciously. The import of this is to prevent them from overworking the
hours whereby no compensation comes, and the health of the individual is threatened.
The school runs a clinic which is accessible to all teachers. Once a month, there is a
compulsory health check done on all members of the institution.
How Teachers and workers of Kanda Cluster of Schools ( Public School) manage their stress and
health issues
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Class control and discipline: Here, the school does not openly allow for the traditional
method of caning to be used to control the class. The class will tend to become noisy and
difficult to control as in the private school situation. Teachers do not report such instances of
difficulty to management because they have not been openly prohibited from dealing with
it in the traditional way. Therefore, teachers mete out corporal punishments on the class.
The most popular means is caning or asking the child to kneel down.
Personal Emotional issues: When a teacher’s input and output is affected by personal issues,
they usually take unauthorized breaks from class duty. They may occasionally ask other
teachers to fill in for them. However, a few teachers may ask for leave to take care of the
issue at hand. The school does not have a school counsellor to attend to such issues.
Overload of class work: When a teacher overdoes work it steals his time and causes him to
fatigue. Teachers in this school have an earlier closing time. In fact, there is even organised
morning school and afternoon school to help reduce the work stress. NB: The students in
public schools are overpopulated.
In public schools, all teachers are from the NAGRAT ( National Association of Graduate
Teachers) or GNAT ( Ghana National Association of Teachers). Hence, the problem of
matching a department with a wrong skilled teacher does not occur. Teachers are employed
based on their skill and qualification. Management intentionally does this to prevent any
stress of having a teacher learn on the job.
The school has a sick bay which attends to first aid situations. Teachers are however given
permission to go outside to seek medical help if it has to do with their health.
References
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Selye, H. (1936). "A syndrome produced by diverse noxious agents." Nature, 138:32
McGrath J.E. (1976) ‘Stress and Behaviour in Organization’. In Hand Book of Industrialand
Organisational Psychology. Dunnet. MD (ed) Chicago: Rand and Mc Nally College Publishing
Lazarus R S and S Folkman (1984) ‘Stress Appraisal and Coping.’ New York, Springer.
Shailendra Singh. (1990). "Organisational Stress and Executive Behaviour." Sreeram Centre
for Industrial Relation and Human Resources, New Delhi