Examining the effect of workplace environment on the well-being of academic staff at Makerere University

Abstract

This study examined the effect of the workplace environment on academic staff well-being at Makerere University. It was prompted by persistent ill-being among university academic staff since reports noted that these were stressed due to institutional challenges despite the institution's effort to improve the workplace environment. Using a pragmatist world view through a mixed- methods approach and basing on stratified proportionate random and purposive sampling, 382 academic staff and heads who were reached. Self-administered questionnaires and interviews were administered hence collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data was analyzed descriptively and with inferential statistics multiple linear regression techniques. Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic and content analysis inductively, and later both sets were converged to generate summaries of findings. Quantitatively, results show that; the workplace climate supervisory relationship, and peer group interaction combined stood at R2 =0.281 which implied that these contributed 28.1% of the change in academic staff well-being at Makerere University.This means that 71.9 % of well-being of staff is accounted for by other factors not within this study. Specifically, workplace climate (0.358, p= 0.00) was significant while supervisory relationships (0.066, p =0.158) and peer group interaction (-0.061, p = 0.126) were not significant. The qualitative findings revealed that workplace climate is very important in terms of work pleasure rewarding jobs and development opportunities contribute greatly to well-being. Since this was also found to be significant in quantitative results, it needs to be emphasized in order to enhance well-being at Makerere University. I therefore recommend that management should improve on the well-being of academic staff by; prioritizing work-life balance through effective workload management and utilizes available resources; managers of institutions of higher learning should come up with training and development programs that target academic staff development needs; and managers of higher education Institutions should strengthen interpersonal relationships through social support platforms, and foster a culture of open communication and feedback. (Keywords: Workplace environment, well-being, workplace climate, supervisory relationships, peer group interaction)