Date of Award
Fall 2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Educational Foundations & Leadership
Program/Concentration
Higher Education
Committee Director
Felecia E. Commodore
Committee Director
David F. Ayers
Committee Member
Kim E. Bullington
Abstract
Student affairs has a problem due to staff attrition (Rosser & Javinar, 2003). Most professionals leave the field due to job dissatisfaction, unhealthy work environments, high stress, and low morale (Marshall et al., 2016; Rosser & Javinar, 2003). Researchers have identified a relationship between job stress and burnout and intentions to leave the field of student affairs (Mullen et al., 2018). Turnover of positions is financially detrimental to the institution due to the cost of recruitment, hiring, and training the replacement employee (Agovino, 2019). In addition to the financial impact, when mid-level managers leave, there is a loss of institutional knowledge, understanding of organizational and departmental culture, and relationships with campus partners and students (Rosser & Javinar, 2003), resulting in decreased morale (Boehman, 2007). Psychosocial safety climate theory (Dollard & Bakker, 2010) structured this descriptive single-case study focused on the experiences of work stress by mid-level managers in the student affairs departments of four-year higher education institutions. Data collection occurred through one-on-one semi-structured interviewing and photo-elicitation through the participants creating a meme to represent their work stress. This case study may address the gap in the literature surrounding work stress and mid-level student affairs managers and provide insight into these experiences.
Rights
In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
DOI
10.25777/77bs-e064
ISBN
9798302861726
Recommended Citation
Scott, Melissa J..
"Competing in the Stress Olympics: Mid-Level Managers and their Experiences of Work Stress as Impacted by their Supervisors and Organizational Climate"
(2024). Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Dissertation, Educational Foundations & Leadership, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/77bs-e064
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/efl_etds/334
ORCID
0009-0001-9742-1172
Included in
Educational Psychology Commons, Higher Education Commons, Higher Education Administration Commons, Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons
