Work-Related Stress Experienced by Male Academics in the SADC Region: A Scoping Review

Work-related stress exists in various organisations around the globe and academia is no exception. Even though academics have flexible hours, they often find themselves taking work home and trying to finish their outstanding work in the evenings or weekends at the expense of their family time. Thus, this paper was aimed at synthesising the existing literature on work-related stress experienced by male academics in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. The objectives of the study were (1) to identify the key sources of work-related stress among male academics within the SADC region; (2) to provide synthesised literature on the impact of work-related stress on the mental health of male academics; and (3) to map the existing literature on coping mechanisms used by male academics to deal with their work-related stress. A scoping review guided by PRISMA-ScR was used to report on the coverage of the literature. To identify the literature, international databases (PubMed, and ScienceDirect), local database (Sabinet African Journals Online) and hand-search through Google Scholar were used. The collected data was analysed thematically using the thematic analysis by Braun and Clarke. From the databases, it emerged that there is a paucity of studies addressing academic stress with a focus on male academics within the SADC region. The limited data revealed that stress predominantly arises from role ambiguity and gender factors. Whilst, grappling with work-related stress, some academics tend to attribute blame to themselves and turn to substances or drugs to cope with their stress. From the findings, it could be deduced that academics are not immune to work-related stress regardless of their flexible working hours. The study recommends awareness campaigns on mental health issues and stress management in academia.


INTRODUCTION
Academia is an environment that is concerned with teaching and learning, research, and community engagement.Based on the three aspects mentioned above, there is also an addition of administration that goes into the work.Without a doubt, that creates enormous pressure on academics and results in some of the academics experiencing stress.It is worth noting that there is no clear definition of stress but some authors have been attempting to define it in a form of a process. 1 Those authors indicated that stress occurs when an individual experiences some psychological challenges within the environment that they find themselves in. 2  this paper, stress is defined as a process wherein a male academic experiences psychological challenges in academia.The psychological challenges should affect the academic's physical well-being and also affect his quality of work or productivity.
Working conditions in academia can be demanding and complex for staff.Several authors have noticed that working conditions in academia are stressful and occupied with anxiety for most academics. 3In Germany, it was reported that due to workload, the majority of professors indicated that their job is stressful. 4Due to the indication that academia is stressful, Wiegel and colleagues initiated a study wherein they showed an interest in understanding what strategies are adopted by academics wherever they experience stress.In their study, they discovered that the majority of the academics were using cognitive enhancement (CE) drugs to boost their cognitive abilities. 5However, their study was focused on female academics and not male academics.
Even though this paper aims to synthesise existing literature in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), there is no doubt that the prevalence of work-related stress is a global phenomenon.In showing the prevalence of work-related stress, 62% of employees have reported that they have worked on tight deadlines, while 24% of the employees indicated that they have worked more than 40 hours in Europe. 6As a result of the attempt to meet deadlines, about 40% of employees have expressed some sort of stress and are overwhelmed by their work. 7This goes to show that workload in the academy has the potential of providing male academics with mental challenges as they sometimes work more than 40 hours per week.In South Africa, the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 indicates that an employee has to complete their work within 35 hours per week. 8However, that is not the case and as a result, male academics are more likely to experience burnout and not be productive, similarly to that of male nurses. 9Interestingly, this issue of workplace stress transcends regional boundaries.For instance, a study by Slišković and Maslać Seršić highlighted that in Greece, female academics at the associate and assistant professorial ranks reported experiencing significant inter-professional tension.Although the genders and contexts differ, these findings collectively underscore the pervasive nature of work-related stress in academia, warranting a closer examination and an international dialogue for solutions. 10he paper is aimed at synthesising the existing literature on work-related stress experienced by male academics in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.In attaining the aim, the objectives have been formulated as: 1) to identify the key sources of work-related stress among male academics within the SADC region; 2) to provide synthesised literature on the impact of work-related stress on the mental health of male academics; and 3) to map the existing literature on coping mechanisms used by male academics to deal with their work-related stress.The findings are presented in the subsequent sections.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Stress is a condition that cannot be avoided, and academia is not an exception.It has been previously reported that academia is an environment that is great to work in given the flexible hours of working. 11However, what was omitted was the fact that there is an unreported phenomenon being work-related stress.Much like any working environment, academics experience stresses whose sources could be traced to the environment and personal stressors. 12In terms of gender difference, scholars cannot agree as to who is more affected by stress in the workplace, whereas other scholars indicate that female academics might be experiencing job stress due to extra domestic responsibilities. 13In addition, another scholar indicates that male academics are the ones who experience a significant amount of stress especially when there is restructuring in the workplace. 14To resolve the stalemate, Purvanova and Muros averred that work-related stress transcends gender boundaries. 15Even though the stalemate was done about a decade ago, Solanki and Mandaviya resurfaced the argument and indicated that male academics are more affected by work-related stress, especially during the restructuring process (environmental stressor). 16The fact that academia is still a male-dominated profession and thus male academics are given more workload as compared to their counterparts.It is against this backdrop that this study aims to systematically synthesise the existing literature on work-related stress experienced by male academics in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.This is because, unlike female academics, male academics when they experience stress tend to blame themselves and see substances as a way out of their misery. 17

Work-Family Conflict and its Impact on Fathers in Academia
In academia, academics have flexible hours to complete their work.However, in most instances, academics take their work home wherein they try to accomplish their work in the evening or during weekends and neglect their parental duties. 18As a result, there could be a conflict that might arise in the house as the male academic does not allocate time to spend with their spouse and/or children but instead tries to complete academic activities.A systematic search found that academics are unable to strike a balance between work and family life in the United Kingdom and the United States due to workload, extensive working hours and time constraints. 19As a result of the inability to strike a balance, some academics find themselves frustrated with their work and end up experiencing stress.In the United Kingdom (UK), it was established that it is no longer uncommon to find academics working on weekends instead of spending time with families. 20

Sources of Work-Related Stress
At one stage, academia was seen as an environment that provided academics with satisfying job opportunities. 21owever, of late, academia has turned out to be an institution that contributes significantly to occupational stress for academics. 22To prove this point, a study by El Shikieri and Hassa as reported by Engle found that about 69% of the academics and support staff reported that their work was stressful and caused psychological distress. 23To comprehensively grasp work-related stress in academia, it is crucial to delineate its sources, which can be categorised into environmental and personal stressors.

The Environment as a Source of Work-Related Stress
When talking about environmental factors, these are external factors that cause stress among male academics such as the change in workplace facilities or environment and organisational requirements. 24In 2014, Mkumbo conducted a study in Tanzania to establish the environment as a source of work-related stress and found that the majority of male academics in public universities indicated that if they were allowed to choose a different career path, they would have done so. 25 Those male academics were considering changing their career path because 75% of them experienced physiological stress. 26The symptoms of physiological stress are reported as headache, fatigue and heart palpitations.Given that stress is unavoidable, male academics in private institutions also experience work-related stress.However, to Mkhumbo male academics in private universities have lower physiological stress levels. 27The proportions or difference in the experience of stress level can be positioned to the availability of resources in the private sector.This line of thinking is perpetuated by the views shared by Engle who reported that one of the factors contributing to work-related stress is lack of resources. 28Again, when the environment demands more than the available resources, it increases the stress experienced by academics. 29This is stressful as the academics are required to produce outputs regardless of the support that they receive, or lack thereof.One of the reasons for not receiving support is that some of the employees are in constant conflict with the management and that sees them being overburdened with work and not receiving social support.Thus, in some European and American countries, lack of resources has been flagged as the source of stress for most academics. 30nother factor contributing to work-related stress among academics is the restructuring of universities.When restructuring occurs there are some casualties such as retrenchments and budget cuts.To support this view, it has been found that during the restructuring process, some academics experience stress due to job insecurity, financial challenges, and an increase in job demand. 31For instance, if one academic was responsible for one department, with the restructuring the individual might be called upon to head two or more departments with budget cuts and no incentive on his salary for the additional responsibilities.As a result, Engle reported that in South Africa, the individual will resort to working extra hours to do the job of two or more academics and also lack support. 32This view was upheld by Winefield and Veale who conducted their study two decades ago and still reported that in Australia due to the restructuring, academics receive too much workload, have an unbalanced student/lecturer ratio, and are fearful to raise their concerns as they do not want to lose employment. 33Due to the long hours being put in by academics to ensure that the job gets done, academics pose physical ill-health challenges and set themselves up for burnout. 34

Personal Factors as a Source of Work-related Stress
Personal factors are sources of work-related stress that are manifesting internally, and the individual is unlikely to speak about them.The tolerance of role ambiguity, divorce, and personality type are some of the factors that make academics experience work-related stress. 35For instance, if an academic is divorced, s/he will remain in a toxic job because s/he has no other person who can support him or her financially.Again, there are those individuals who are unable to express themselves as it is their personality, and they end up bottling up the stress that they receive at work due to unclear role division.

Coping Mechanisms used by Academics when in Distress
To show that academics are experiencing stress, more often than not, they resort to absenteeism and substance abuse. 36Whereas other academics use substances to cope with work-related stress, others resort to working in other institutions and cause the institution to fail in their quest to retain good lecturers.Due to academic stress, the retention of lecturers is a challenge as some lecturers leave public learning institutions to take up positions in the private sector. 37Wedekind and Buthelezi position the blame on management for the stress experienced by academics. 38In their work, they found that those in leadership do not have a good relationship with academics and that is seen in the quality of work that academics bring in the academia.

Nexus of Male and Female Academics on Work-Related Stress
Scholars cannot seem to agree on the issue of work-related stress across different genders.For instance, some scholars are all in agreement that female academics experience more stress as compared to male academics. 39owever, Liu and Zhu disputed the above authors and indicated that male academics experience more stress as compared to female academics. 40In trying to side with Liu and Zhu, Archibong and colleagues indicated that the reason male academics are said to experience less stress might be due to the way they perceive stress at work. 41For instance, female academics are more prone to domestic stress whereas male academics are more prone to workload, especially in Africa. 42However, Purvanova and Muros hold a different view as they indicated that work-related stress knows no bounds as both male and female academics experience work-related stress equally. 43he reason that some authors believe that males experience more stress as compared to females might be that academia is still a largely male-dominated profession. 44Female academics experience work-related stress as they have to deal with a high workload and still perform other duties such as caring for children at home. 45On that score, it means that women have to put in more hours at work and still put more effort into fulfilling their family responsibilities after hours which poses a threat to their health.However, Solanki and Mandaviya did not agree with Barkhuizen and Rothmann's justification of why female academics are said to be experiencing less work stress as compared to their counterparts. 46The study findings of Solanki and Mandaviya established that male academics received more workload and had to perform multiple tasks at the workplace as compared to their counterpart. 47As a result, it has been reported that taking part in multiple tasks and roles at the workplace contributes to the ill health of male academics.METHODOLOGY This scoping review followed the PRISMA-ScR (see Figure 1) guidelines. 48The researcher chose a scoping review to rapidly map the existing literature on work-related stress. 49To identify the relevant studies, the researcher relied on international databases (PubMed and ScienceDirect) and local databases (Sabinet African Journals Online).Articles from the databases were exported to the reference manager, Zotero, for handling.To assess their eligibility, the researcher relied on the following inclusion criteria; articles which were about male academics, studies conducted within SADC, and primary research papers (trials, qualitative, quantitative, pilot studies, and observational studies) published within 2013-2023.The search strategy was not limited to any language.The eligibility screening was done by the researcher aided by the research assistant (KM).Eligible articles were placed on the data chart (see Table 1).The collected data was analysed thematically using thematic analysis. 50

Table 1. Data charting
There is a paucity of studies addressing academic stress with a focus on male academics within the SADC region.Only two studies have presented disaggregated findings on work-related stress among male academics. 51These studies, which reported disaggregated results, were conducted exclusively in Ethiopia and Nigeria, employing cross-sectional and randomised trial designs, respectively.According to the primary findings, Chukwuemeka and colleagues asserted that work-related stress is not influenced by gender, 53 while Kabito and colleagues highlighted that stress predominantly arises from role ambiguity and gender factors. 54Nevertheless, it is evident that academics do encounter work-related stress.
When grappling with work-related stress, some academics tend to attribute blame to themselves. 55Amid these challenges, academics turn to substance use as a coping mechanism, while others seek emotional support.

DISCUSSION
The undeniable reality is that teaching is a demanding profession and academics are not exempt from this narrative. 56Academia imposes substantial pressure on academics, potentially detrimentally impacting their mental health.Academics find themselves tasked with teaching and learning, research, and community engagement.In the realm of teaching, educators must adapt to the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution and ensure they deliver quality education to students.However, at times, technology may prove to be less userfriendly and management has introduced a system whereby students must assess the lecturer, a factor later considered during promotion assessments. 57Ultimately, the pursuit of satisfying learners can become so stressful that studies have found academics experiencing depression and contemplating leaving the profession. 58cademics must stay abreast of the latest developments in research, a demand coupled with the age-old adage "publish or perish" 59 and trying to ensure that performance appraisal goals are accomplished.As a result, Kinman noted that academics develop institutional pressure and the situation is worsened when those in leadership adjust appraisal methods and include that academics have to maintain a high productivity with fewer resources. 60Additionally, even when academics produce research outputs in the form of publications, they remain under constant scrutiny by journal reviewers.Some academics invest extra hours, which often go unrecognised by management. 61This practice is detrimental to the psychological well-being of academics.Some academics put considerable effort into their work, aiming to meet their performance appraisal goals at the end of the year with a lack of resources.Whilst not having sufficient resources, academics often do not have clear roles which exacerbate their mental challenges. 62esearch conducted in Ethiopia found that academic stress was more prevalent in males as compared to females. 63The results indicate that male academics make use of two coping strategies, emotional support and substance use when experiencing work-related stress.In terms of support, a study conducted in Malaysia has indicated that support in the workplace reduces the stress experienced by academicians. 64Moreover, Verhoeven and colleagues also summarised that receiving insufficient support affects human life as it has a dire impact on the individual's mental health. 65As a way of making amends and getting to cope with their work-related stress, some male academics indulge in substance use. 66On the other hand, some male academics rely on exercises in order to cope with their work-related stress. 67

RECOMMENDATIONS
Given the dearth of literature in the SADC region, the researcher recommends exploration studies on workrelated stress experienced by academics to implement new policies.These studies should provide a multidimensional analysis, emphasising the cultural, economic, and institutional stressors unique to the region.With robust data, institutional policies can be tailored to address specific stress factors, involving academic staff in their development to ensure practicality and relevance.Upon the introduction and implementation of these policies, it is crucial for management to advocate for their active enforcement and to facilitate training for clear role guidance, which is essential in preventing work-related stress.Regular workshops and seminars focusing on role definition, time management, and stress reduction should become part of the institutional culture.Moreover, for those who resort to substance use as a coping mechanism, a strengthened Employment and Wellness or Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) office within academia is recommended to offer psychosocial support.These services should include counselling, recovery support, stress management, and a confidential hotline for immediate assistance.Institutions without an EAP should prioritise establishing such a programme, recognising its potential in fostering a supportive community and enhancing individual coping strategies.
These programmes must also promote work-life balance through lessons and incentives for academics to take leave and engage in family time.The concept of 'mental health days' should be normalised, allowing for necessary breaks without stigma.In addition, initiating awareness campaigns within academia to de-stigmatise seeking help for stress and substance use is imperative.Such campaigns can cultivate an environment of openness, encouraging male academics to engage in self-care practices openly and without fear of judgment or professional harm.In sum, a comprehensive approach that includes policy development, management advocacy, psychosocial support enhancement, and cultural change is necessary to mitigate the effects of work-related stress on male academics in the SADC region.Only through such concerted efforts can a healthier, more productive academic environment be realised, where self-care is regarded not just as a personal responsibility, but as an institutional priority.

CONCLUSION
This paper has underscored the pervasive nature of work-related stress, affirming that it is a global phenomenon transcending geographic and gender boundaries.Through rigorous examination, the researcher has met the paper's objectives, conclusively determining that the origins of work-related stress among academics stem from role ambiguity, the scarcity of resources, and the demands of working beyond traditional hours.These factors collectively contribute to a destabilised work-life balance and heightened stress levels.The researcher's investigation into the ramifications of work-related stress on mental health, while hampered by a scarcity of indepth studies in the SADC region, nonetheless unearthed alarming trends.The limited literature indicates that male academics are particularly vulnerable to the pressures of reconciling professional responsibilities with familial obligations, often at the expense of personal time and relationships.This imbalance has significant implications, as it affects the individuals, their families, and the academic community at large.The manifestations of stress were observed to extend beyond the workplace, with some academics resorting to substance use as a coping mechanism to maintain cognitive performance and manage stress.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Flow chart of study selection However, in 1 Amalia Stafyla, Georgia Kaltsidou, and Nikolaos Spyridis, Gender Differences in Work Stress, Related to Organizational Conflicts and Organizational Constrains: An Empirical Research (SSRN, 2014). 2 Jesus Montero-Marin et al., "Coping with Stress and Types of Burnout: Explanatory Power of Different Coping Strategies," PloS One 9, no. 2 (2014): e89090; Natasha Khamisa et al., "Work Related Stress, Burnout, Job Satisfaction and General Health of Nurses," International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 12, no. 1 (2015): 652-66; S S Manabete et al., "Job Stress among School Administrators and Teachers in Nigerian Secondary Schools and Technical Colleges," International Journal of Education, Learning and Development 4, no. 2 (2016): 1-9.