Date of Award

2005

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Leadership PhD

First Advisor

Elvin Gabriel

Second Advisor

John V. G. Matthews

Third Advisor

Wilfred Futcher

Abstract

Problem . Stress, like pain, begins at birth and remains common to the human condition throughout life, and it is a factor in the experience of every human being who ever lived. It is not merely universal but it is also endemic and omnipresent. Chairpersons, due to the bi-directional demands of administration and students are in a stressful environment. This study was undertaken to identify whether quality of life and spiritual well-being play an important role in occupational stress levels in chairpersons of Seventh-day Adventist Tertiary Institutions.

Method. Three questionnaires were used to get responses from 137 chairpersons in five major Seventh-day Adventist tertiary institutions using the survey method of data collection. Canonical correlations and linear regressions were used to analyze the three research questions in this study.

Results. The results of this study indicated that spiritual well-being, especially the existential well-being component, had a statistically significant affect upon quality of life variables. Spiritual well-being had the greatest affect upon self-esteem and creativity satisfactions. Spiritual well-being also affected occupation strains having the greatest impact upon psychological and interpersonal strains.

Conclusions. Chairpersons who experienced increased levels of spiritual well-being were more likely to have an increase in their vocational stress level, and this was especially true for their existential well-being. It can be concluded that the quality of life has a direct relationship on stress levels in the participants, seeing that higher levels of quality of life correlated with lower levels of Occupational Stress Inventory Revised variables.

Subject Area

Departmental chairmen (Universities)--Job stress, Departmental chairmen (Universities)--Spiritual life, Seventh-day Adventists -- Universities and colleges -- Administration

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dissertations/184/

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