THE IMPACT OF STRESS ON PRODUCTIVITY – EVIDENCE FROM THE ACADEMIC STAFF OF FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OYE-EKITI, NIGERIA

Abstract

Stress is part of the inevitable stimuli to productivity, efficiency and effectiveness showcased by employees in organisations. It is a universal phenomenon and part of the prices to pay for effective productivity in establishments. This is essentially because without going through stress, it will be difficult to have any meaningful input expected of workers as well as the attainments of the aims, objectives and goals of an organisation. However, exposure of employees to a high level of stress ironically jeopardises the chances of their optimal productivity; hence, loss to the organisation. University Lecturers are part of the employees that are mostly affected by excessive stress. Thus, this paper critically examined the impact of stress on productivity among the academic staff of Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria. Examined in this paper are the definitions of the basic concepts, factors responsible for excessive stress among university Lecturers and the impact of such on their productivity. Out of 200 questionnaire distributed, the researchers were able to retrieved 52 from the respondents which were used for the analysis of the study. The statistical analysis of this project work and plots were all carried out using python3 package. All the data analysis, data manipulation and static and interactive visualizations were done using different open source libraries in python which include numpy, pandas, matplotlib, seaborn, sklearn, graphviz, dtreeviz, plotly, cufflinks, statsmodels and scipy. The findings revealed that work overload, excessive pressures, overcrowded classes, meeting deadlines, administrative duties, students’ unrest, cultism, lack of motivation, accommodation challenges and lack of conducive environment have been associated with the factors that are responsible for the exposure of lecturers to excessive stress which invariably have negative impact on their productivity. Thus, vital recommendations are made on better means by which the university Lecturers can better manage stress.