Academics’ experiences on workplace stress: the case of two public universities in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah / Sareena Sungking

Academics face the risk of high stress levels at work due to work demands. Not only are they responsible to teach, they are also required to do research and administrative works. This study seeks to explore the workplace stress experiences among academics from two major public universities in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, namely Universiti Teknologi MARA and Universiti Malaysia Sabah. Using the Interactional Model of Stress (1982), it highlights the interaction between the work environment and the individual’s perception of it. The context of work environment in this study was the workplaces i.e. the campuses and the methodology used in this study was qualitative approach. A total of 10 academics agreed to take part and to be interviewed with a set of semi-structured questions. Coding process was made based on the Research Objectives, Research Questions and the Interactional Stress Model. The findings indicated that 70% of the academics experienced a moderate stress, and the stress was periodical. This means that the academics did not feel stressed at all time.