Holding the line : An exploration of staff perceptions of stress in a developing health promoting university

The principal aim of this thesis was to explore within a developing health promoting university (HPU) the current factors that staff perceived to contribute towards and mediate against work stress. A subsidiary aim was to make some comparisons with a health survey conducted when the HPU was instigated some four years earlier. A secondary aim was to put forward recommendations and priorities to act on, in order to reduce stress and improve the health of staff.The findings of a randomised quantitative study featured all grades of university staff from the various support and academic positions. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) enabled staff stress to be measured by examining gender and position variations with statistical correlation of work stressors. A triad of stress factors, namely unpredictability, uncontrollability and work overload were observed with university staff having higher PSS scores than that found in a general population.The perceptions of stress reduced slightly over the four years of development of the HPU initiative, which appears to be 'holding the line' with regard to staff stress. This was despite the increasing perceptions around work demand verified in the working patterns reported by staff. Stress perceptions around workload, decision-making and communication featured as the top stressors. Control over demand and autonomy in decision latitude supported Karasek's demand control hypothesis.This research suggests that university work needs to be organised to better support the work-life balance of staff, which is a major issue affecting levels of stress. Recommendations and actions are made to address some of the structural and cultural working practices that seem to perpetuate stress and provide barriers to staff health promotion opportunities at work.This study has shown the usefulness of adopting a 'settings based' approach to health promotion and has highlighted some of the driving and restraining factors to such an initiative. Working with the staff in their setting provides opportunities to embed health further into the culture and processes of university life. The challenge for all university staff is to reduce stress, so that stressed staff are not the victims of change but the creators of healthier outcomes.