COMMUNICATING STRESS MANAGEMENT TO THE ACADEMIC STAFF OF AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, FOR HEALTHY LIVING AND HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY

By

Author

Presented To

Department of Arts

Stress and its fatal consequences on health negatively affect the job performance and productivity of academic staff in our educational institutions. Against this backdrop, this research was carried out to assess the communication of stress management for healthy living and higher productivity among the academic staff of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. The theory of Health Belief Model, the Diffusion of innovation theory and Victor Vroom‘s Motivation theory were used as the theoretical framework for this research. Triangulation method using the quantitative and qualitative instruments were employed on a study population of Six Hundred and Nineteen (619) reduced to a sample size of Two Hundred and Thirty-eight (238) based on Raosoft (2016) sample size calculation. Findings from the quantitative data analysis show that, 63.1% of the respondents were not comfortable and feel overwhelmed with their work schedules, which constitute a stressor to them; 87.1% of the respondents were not informed by the University Management about stress management and its strategies. On the effectiveness of communication channels adopted by the University Management in conveying health awareness messages and campaigns to academic staff, especially on stress management, 96% of the respondents indicate they are ineffective, thus the University need to for re-strategize and adopt more effective media strategies. Results from Qualitative data corroborated the Quantitative findings stated above. In line with that, the research concludes that, effective communication is key to preventing health risks and its resultant consequences. Hence, the choice of channels of communication also goes a long way in ensuring that the messages are not only received but fully comprehended and utilized accordingly. Therefore, the study recommended that there is the need to increase the frequency and regularity of available communication channels and also adopt other modern channels like the use of Bulk Short Messaging Services (SMS), emails and the social media to communicate stress related health messages to the staff in order to reduce its consequences on staff overall health and enhance their job performance and academic productivity in the University