ASSESSMENT OF ERGONOMIC HAZARDS AND TECHNO-STRESS AMONG THE WORKERS OF OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY, ILE-IFE, OSUN STATE, NIGERIA
â–ºEmmanuel Olaniyi, Dunmade, Jonathan Funminiyi, Adegoke and Ayodeji Akinlolu, Agboola
10.52283/NSWRCA.AJBMR.20140401A04
ABSTRACT
Advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provide organization opportunities for access to information and enable new work arrangements that were previously not possible. However, ICT have also brought about increasingly complicated ways of doing business in the workplace with its attendant physical and emotional stress on workers which resulted in higher levels of turnover and absenteeism, higher cost of retraining staff and negative effect on productivity. The main focus of this paper therefore, is to examine the prevalence of ergonomic hazards and associated techno-stress among the academic and non-academic staff and also to ascertain the effect of techno-stress on the performance of individual university employee. Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria was used as a case study. Cross sectional survey design using questionnaire to collect primary data to assess the degree of ergonomic hazards experienced by the staff, the relationship between ergonomic hazard and techo-stress as well as the impact of techno-stress on their productivity was adopted as the methodology for this study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were then used to analyse data. Findings revealed that university staff are suffering from ergonomic hazards; quite a number of them lack knowledge of health problem and stress associated with ICT usage; and that there is positive relationship between ergonomic hazards and techno-stress; and finally techno-stress have negative consequences on individual worker’s performance.
Keywords: Ergonomic, Ergonomic Harzards, Techno-stress, Information and Communication Technology