Influence of Stress Management Practices on Job Performance of Office Technology and Management Lecturers in Polytechnics in South-South, Nigeria

Abstract

The issue of academic staff job performance in Nigerian Polytechnics has been attracting the attention of public educators and stakeholders in education. High workload of academic staff is one of the factors impeding their desire to put up excellent performance.  This study, therefore, deemed it fit to investigate the Influence of Stress Management (SM) on Job Performance (JP) of Office Technology and Management (OTM) lecturers in South-South Polytechnics, Nigeria. Descriptive research design was adopted. Population consisted 134 OTM Lecturers from seven South-South Polytechnics, Nigeria. Total enumeration sampling technique was used, therefore all the 134 OTM Lecturers served as the sample size for this study. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that SM had positive and significant influence on JP (Adj. R² = .418; F _{(4, 122)} = 23.587, p<0.05). The results of relative influence analysis of the sub-variables reveal that control over job, support from colleagues and support from supervisor all had significant influence on job performance (β = 0.431, p <0.05, β = -0.316, p<0.05, β = -0.207, p<0.05) respectively. Psychological well-being had insignificant influence (β = 0.004, p>0.05).  The study concluded that stress and stress management practices influence JP.  The study recommended that there should be an advocacy for teamwork that would foster effective communication among OTM lecturers as this could also heighten their level of job performance. This would make them to perform better in their jobs.