Opinions of Personnel Working in Administrative Financial Affairs in University Faculties on Job Stress: Case Study

Abstract

Human life has undergone many recent changes, technologically and socio-culturally. These life changes have affected people both positively and negatively. Those affected negatively have suffered stress and have attempted to limit that stress to control everyday anxiety by researching developmental methods of coping with those problems. Stress, common in the workplace for many reasons, increases the level of anxiety according to the nature of the job. Disputes among personnel in the administrative financial affairs units of university faculties, the reasons for those disputes that arise from the work environment, the disagreements that employees have had with their supervisors, and most importantly, monetary penalties imposed upon these employees because of errors in doing their work, have, according to administrative and judicial investigations, created stress on the individuals involved. The fact that the fines charged have not been inadvertently rectified, that the investigations concern material issues, and that these individuals are accused of disgraceful crimes reveals even more clearly the magnitude of the stress they have experienced. This study aims to understand how the personnel working in the administrative financial affairs units experienced that stress, how they were affected by it, and their methods for coping with these stressors. The authors investigated these issues through interviews with administrative staff. The authors believe that there was an obvious need for qualified personnel to work in administrative financial affairs units and a concomitant need for solutions to the issue of administrative fines. Since there had been no previous similar study of administrative and financial affairs personnel working in faculties before, the authors believed it would significantly contribute to the literature. This paper represents qualitative research with a descriptive holistic case design. The research population consisted of 12 volunteer personnel working in the administrative financial affairs units of the faculties within Akdeniz University between 2020 and 2021. Using semi-structured interviews, authors performed content analysis, and the results were directly conveyed in a descriptive narrative manner. Findings obtained from the interviews demonstrated that the ongoing stress created diverse physical and mental pressures on the subjects. Those interviewed reported various methods of alleviating these effects.

Keywords

• stress
• psychological
• physiological
• descriptive
• qualitative