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CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM

Introduction

Man’s internal sense of balance exists through the maintenance of a

multifaceted dynamic equilibrium called homeostasis. However, this

homeostasis is constantly being challenged by internal or external adverse

forces referred to as stressors. These stressors are synonymous to a state

of threatened homeostasis which may be re-established by a complex

repertoire of behavioral and physiologic adaptive responses of the

organism.

Stress among people is upshots of interactions between individuals

and their surroundings perceived to strain or exceed their adaptive

capacities and to threaten their well-being. It is an uncustomary state

affecting individual’s roles as an outcome of internal and external factors

which differ qualitatively or quantitatively from specific performance, and

which may be attributed to individual differences. This means having

different types of stressors and having different numbers of stressors

respectively.

However hard people try to go over a stressful situation, life seems

to find new ways of stressing them out and afflicting them with anxiety
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attacks. Moreover, be it their apprehensions, erring attitudes or mind-body

exhaustion, they tend to overlook the causes of stress and the conditions

triggered by those.

Stress is prevalent in various organizations and academic

institutions worldwide. However, it is considered as a major impediment to

organizational success. This goes to show that changes in the nature of

one’s occupation, global competition, rapid development, and technology

could make jobs more demanding than ever, and employers more prone to

stressors such as job control, job overload, job security, pay and benefits,

resources and communication, work-life balance, and work relationships.

Likewise, the diverse aspects of the job could also be a source of pressure

in the workplace. Thus, stressors emerge from diverse energy seeping

conditions in one’s place of work.

In universities, all over the world, leading academic departments is

the chief responsibility vested on academic administrators. These

academic leaders occupy what is referred to as mid-level managerial

position, which according to David (2011) is a position that influences

organizational performance the most. As managers who are positioned

midway within the hierarchy, they are challenged to serve as conduits

between the upper management and the employees. They are expected to
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perform key leadership roles. They need to address various concerns

involving higher authorities, faculty members, staff, students and other

stakeholders in an adept manner. Aside from these, it is also part of their

tasks to efficiently and effectively negotiate with the private sectors,

government and professional organizations for the university’s interests, in

general, and their college’s interests, in particular. Hence, competent and

effective academic leaders and managers are needed by educational

institutions in order to overcome the challenges brought about by the

complexities of administrative tasks and to succeed in the complex and

ever changing academic environment.

In State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in the Philippines, various

position titles are held by leaders of academic divisions such as Campus

Dean, College Dean, Campus Director, or even Associate Dean. Though

their position labels as well as roles differ from one SUC to another in

terms of power and responsibility, they still occupy mid-level administrative

positions. Typically, the persons designated to this position are tenured

faculty members. They were entrusted to manage, within their work units,

the academic well-being of students and the professional growth of

employees. When the designated faculty members move into this position,

they shift their view from instructional solitary task performances to

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manage and lead in the academic works. At the most fundamental level,

these leaders and managers focus on the academic pulse so that all the

personnel can follow the same work flow.

Managing a college or a department, like other services, has

become one of the highly competitive sectors in the Philippine higher

education institutions. Since the beginning of this decade, these

institutions, specifically the state universities in Region IV-A have been

facing greater challenges in terms of technological revolution, service

diversification and global education. These may cause stress among

academic administrators.

Academic administrators’ position entails the ability to multitask and

effectively deal with the challenges associated with their roles and

responsibilities. Deans, specifically, are trapped between the pressures of

performing their managerial functions and the demands of being faculty

member. This dichotomous nature often poses a dilemma, which may

lead to very stressful positions and situations.

Academic administrators are highly vulnerable to stress due to too

much workload, staff’s inadequacies, compliance to directives, financial

scarcity, imbalance between authority and responsibility, injustice in the

distribution of duties, and the authoritarian attitudes of top level managers,

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respectively from most to the least (Dumitru and Talpos, 2012). Doing

more with less tend to be a great source of stress among mid-level

administrators. High level of stress, in the long run can adversely affect

their health; subsequently influencing the quality of performance of

academic administrators, the efficiency of services they provide and the

growth and development of their universities. Hence, it may be

indisputable to state that the typical responsibilities and day-to-day work of

these administrators’ complex and challenging positions may also

generate high levels of stress that could negatively affect organizational

performances through reduced productivity and efficiency. Thus, the

educational institutions’ concern is to reduce these managerial stressors

that may lead to dysfunctional organizations, by nurturing the academic

administrators’ leadership styles.

It is significant to nurture the leadership and management ability of

academic administrators because both leader and manager form

complementary and equally necessary systems of action, with

management being necessary for the smooth functioning of an

organization and leadership needed to achieve organizational

transformation.
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Relative to the foregoing, Section 1, Rule VIII of the Omnibus Rules

Implementing Book V of Executive Order No. 292 states that the academic

institution shall establish a continuing program for career and personnel

development for all agency personnel of all levels, and shall create an

environment or work climate conducive to the development of personnel

skills, talents, and values for better public service. This Executive Order

also stipulates that every official and employee of the government is an

asset or resource to be valued, developed and utilized in the delivery of

basic services to the public. To encapsulate, the development of highly

competent and professional workforce in the public service shall be the

main concern of every department or agency.

In response to the foregoing Executive Order, it is substantial to note

that all the state universities in Region IV-A or in the CALABARZON area

aimed to develop high-level professionals to meet the manpower needs of

the industry, public service and civil society. They significantly contribute to

the urgent tasks of alleviating poverty, hastening the productivity of the

workplace and the dynamism of communities through their triadic functions

namely research, extension and extension. These were made possible

through the efforts of their academic administrators who are all designated
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by their University Presidents and who are under the supervision of their

Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Thus, if academic administrators are to keep up with the demands of

their position, it will be necessary for them to identify their diverse

leadership styles, which may be categorized into political frame, symbolic

frame, human resource frame and structural frame and to understand

stress and the major sources of their stress that include administrative

tasks, faculty role, role-ambiguity, hierarchical authority and perceived

expectations. Likewise, they have to identify the ways to cope effectively

with these stressors like a more realistic and responsive stress

management plan that could be used and be adopted to address and

manage the stress levels of academic leaders.

This study was grounded on the idea that human resources are the

most vital resource of every organization. Thus, any kind of stress or

pressure that directly affects the academic administrators’ performance

also has impact on the performance of the educational institutions.

In dealing with stress, academic administrators may use coping

strategies, interventions or resources that may help them adapt to

environmental demands. These strategies play a key role in determining

the nature and extent of the stressor’s impact. Coping correctly with

stressors facilitates successful adaptation, while a failure in this process

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puts individuals at risk of poor adaptation. In planning, it is important to

systematically dissect and redirect stressors by analyzing the causes of

each stressor, examining potential solutions and finally taking corrective

actions. Since, studies about stress and academic productivity are very

limited, this paper attempted to investigate the ability of academic

administrators to select leadership style, to utilize personal characteristics

as well as to effectively manage environmental or institutional variables in

a manner that can contribute in moderating managerial stress among

selected academic administrators in five state universities in Region IV-A.

With these thoughts in mind, this paper specifically intends to know

the personal profile of the respondents, the institutional characteristics of

the SUCs, the leadership styles of the academic administrators, the

characteristics of managerial stress that beset these administrators.

Furthermore, it aims to determine the significant relationships among

profile variables, leadership styles and managerial stressors. This will

somehow further examine these variables, which will serve as the basis for

its proposed stress management plan. This paper hopes to fill the gap

found in the existing research and literature on academic administrators’

leadership styles within state universities in the Philippines particularly in

Region IV-A.
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Statement of the Problem

This study aimed to develop a stress management plan for

academic administrators of state universities in Region IV-A.

Specifically, the study sought answers to the following questions:

1. What are the personal characteristics reported by the

academic administrators in terms of:

1.1. current designation;

1.2. educational attainment;

1.3. length of teaching experience;

1.4. length of administrative experience;

1.5. academic rank; and

1.6. current workload?

2. What are the institutional characteristics reported by the

academic administrators based on the number of:

2.1. students enrolled;

2.2. programs and its nature;

2.3. teaching personnel; and

2.4. office-support staff supervised?

3. How can the leadership styles of academic administrators be

described in terms of:

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3.1. political frame;

3.2. symbolic frame;

3.3. human resource frame; and

3.4. structural frame?

4. What are the characteristics of managerial stress among

academic administrators in terms of:

4.1. perceived expectation stress;

4.2. role-ambiguity stress;

4.3. administrative-task stress; and

4.4. authority-relationship stress?

5. Are there significant relationships among profile variables,

leadership style and managerial stress factors?

6. Based on the analysis, what stress management plan for

academic administrators may be developed to moderate managerial

stress?

Scope, Delimitation and Limitation of the Study

This study specifically described the personal profile of the

respondents, the institutional characteristics of the SUC’s, the leadership

styles of academic administrators and the characteristics of managerial

stress that beset these administrators. It also determined the relationships

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among profile variables, leadership styles and managerial stressors.

Finally, it aimed to develop a stress management plan for academic

administrators in Region IV-A.

The descriptive mixed method of research was employed in this

study. The data-gathering instruments used in this paper include the

questionnaire, a retrospective interview and focus group discussion. There

were 101 academic administrators purposively chosen from the five state

Universities in Region IV-A involved in the study. The statistical method

used were the frequency, percentage, weighted mean, Chi Square,

Pearson r Correlation Coefficient and Regression Analysis.

The data in the study was limited by the Dr. Lee G. Bolman and Dr.

Terrence E. Deal’s leadership styles namely: the political frame, the

symbolic frame, the human resource frame, and the structural frame as

well as the characteristics of managerial stress cited by Dr. Walter H.

Gmelch and Val D. Miskin namely: perceived expectation stress, role-

ambiguity stress, administrative-task stress, and authority-relationship

stress. The data were also limited by the responses and retrieved data

from the respondents. Likewise, the ethics of research was followed such

as informed consent, confidentiality of data and information as well as

feedback.
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Significance of the Study

The study was deemed beneficial to the following:

. To the Academic Institutions. This study may benefit the academic

institutions in the sense that the output of this paper may be incorporated

in the University Personnel Development Plan in order moderate stress

among its academic administrators. The productive utilization of the

administrators’ welfare system and a more academic administrator-friendly

environment imbedded in the proposed Stress Management Plan can

prove to be useful stress-busters.

To the Academic Administrators. This research may provide

opportunities for academic administrators to think more intensely and

analytically about leadership and management. These knowledge and

experiences have the potential to empower them to work more effectively

with various stakeholders in the multi-faceted situations they are in.

To the Doctor of Education Students. This study may somehow

serve as a guide for the Doctor of Education Students to develop their

skills in time management, stress management and relaxation in order to

balance their academic demands with a healthy lifestyle since higher

academic standards and expectations are even more evident in the

graduate school.
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To the Researcher. This paper may provide the researcher inputs on

how to enhance his lifestyle habits by giving him opportunities to learn the

strategies required to manage stressful situations in order for him to

continually improve his performance and continuously enhance his well-

being.

To the Future Researchers. The study is significant to the future

researchers in the sense that it may provide a frame of reference upon

which studies on the same or related subject could be conducted.