Job stress and satisfaction among academic staffs in public universities : An empirical study in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE )

Article history: Received: March 12, 2019 Received in revised format: April 1


Introduction
The education system in UAE focuses on higher standards and improved professionalism from the school level to the higher educational level.Given the importance of education in UAE, this sector has been providing employment options at various levels.Higher education system requires leaders who are not formally given the role of leader but expected to show leadership qualities.Academic leadership is expected to incorporate teaching, learning, research and leadership functions to teach educational values among the students.More countries try to expand their education system, and they need to attract, support and find out procedures to retain the academic staffs.Universities are expected to provide flexible programs and opportunities so that the students' needs are fulfilled.Considering all these factors for the successful working of the education sector, there have been resentments from academic staff members since they feel their autonomy in the sector is being reduced in an on-going process of meeting the needs of the industry as well as in the academic sector.With the recent increase in pressure within the education system of UAE to meet the demand for improving the standards as per the international levels, there has been a significant increase in policy changes within universities.Subsequently, this can interfere with their jobs and on the learning capabilities of the students.Furthermore, academic staffs are being expected to raise the skill sets of the students and meet the industry demand for skilled professionals.Also, a considerable amount of research has taken place in studying the causes and effects of job-related stress.Fundamentally, there is a lack of a comprehensive and extensive analysis of the job satisfaction levels and workplace stress on academic staff at the universities of UAE.Therefore, this study is an attempt to distinguish different aspects of job-related stress among the academic staff working in public universities in the UAE.There has been the loss of productivity within the educational institutes as well as a decrease in the quality of education along with the increasing international standards of education as well as demand for high-quality education within UAE.
The present condition of extreme work pressure at the workplace is affecting the work environment in all countries, and the UAE is no exception to this phenomenon.According to Global Workforce Study, in Dubai, a major trade centre of UAE, more than 42 % of the working population feels excessive work pressure (Maceda, 2012).More than 50% think that they want to leave their present jobs immediately but cannot do it due to various responsibilities, mostly related to personal financial issues and career growth.Maceda (2012) mentioned that the financial worries such as housing loan, car loans, education for kids, retirement plans, etc. are interrelated to job stress.The decisions regarding these finances are affected by the job-related choice, which adds to the existing pressure that employees face from the organisation in which they are working.The state-run and public universities of UAE are also facing workplace-related issues, as many academic staffs in these institutions are subjected to work-related stress.The academic staffs of higher educational institutes in UAE are facing permanent job-related stress (Chapman et al., 2013).The instructors, professors and lecturers face insecurity, especially being easily replaceable and because of the short-term nature of their contract or temporary employment in universities (Bodla et al., 2014).As a result, the educational institutions are facing severe issues of lack of loyalty and commitment on the part of staffs.The academicians are always on the move to find new jobs and relocate to new workplaces that question the level of commitment in UAE (Hundera, 2014).This study further explores the phenomenon of work-related stress and job satisfaction of academic staff in the UAE, especially in the context of public universities.
This study mainly provides detailed insight into the job stress factors that are present among the academic staffs in UAE.This way, the study would help in bringing in more changes in policies in the education system as well as it would help to understand and determine the factors that can reduce the job stress and improve the job satisfaction levels among the academic staffs of UAE.This study would further help the educational institutions of UAE to formulate ways in which they can retain their academic staffs and can make efficient use of their productivity.In addition to the personal issues faced by the academic staff, there is also a loss of productivity in the organisation (Maceda, 2012).The study, therefore, fills the existing gap in the literature and paves the way for further research in this field.

Literature review
Stress has been regarded in different ways in a variety of context over the years.Considered as a socially acceptable form of mental illness, stress has been further described as pressure from the environment and strain within the person (Kundaragi, 2015).In the context of the present study, the research has been initiated intending to measure the impact of job stress among academic staff at the universities across the UAE.The study is aimed to conceptualise the association between the job stress of a person by screening maximum previous researchers and exploring different factors related to stress at work as well as various antecedents of job satisfaction.

Job Stress-Conservation of Resources Theory
The model of conservation of resources is based on the proposition that people attempt to build, retain and protect resources, and the threat of any potential or actual loss of these resources act as stress among individuals (Hobfoll, 1989).The theory of conversation of funds has been highly appreciated and recommended as perfect explanation towards understanding stress process at work.Also, application of conservation of resource theory can further be useful in interpreting the ways of fostering and protection of critical resources that generate the role of stress (Westman et el., 2006).The conservation of resources model focuses on the loss of resources in the process of juggling between work life, which increases anxiety and job dissatisfaction.The resources considered in theory include time, energy, self-esteem, knowledge, money and health (Thompson, 2006).Conservation theory has been identified as those contemporary theories that have given justified conceptualisation of stress at the workplace and the process of burnout that initiate exhaustion (Hobfoll & Shirom, 2001).Therefore, the conservation of resources facilitates the role of stress in the workplace and potential measures to limit stress and burnout.Thus, with the aim of analysing work stress impact on job satisfaction of employees, conservation of resources theory can provide prospective interpretation and actions required to deal with the problem of job stress.

Vroom's Expectancy Theory
The Victor Vroom Expectation Theory (1964) is best described by Brian Francis Redmond, (2016) as an individual's choice of one behavioural option over other intending to reach the desired outcome.The idea behind Expectancy Theory is that people's motivation has three key variables that explain their motivation behind performing a task, which is, Valence, Expectancy and instrumentality (Van Eerde & Thierry, 1996).Valence refers to the values attached by individuals towards the expected outcome of work, while Expectancy refers to the level of confidence of individual and instrumentality refers to the perception of individuals whether they will be able to achieve what they have desired of (Leopold De Sousa, 2008).Vroom expectation theory has some significant implications in altering the individual's efforts, as Lunenburg, (2011) suggested the applicability of this theory to improve job satisfaction of employee by building performance to reward expectancy and reward valences.Applying the Vroom's Expectation on job satisfaction theory, Ghazanfar et al. (2011) established a positive but weak relationship with work motivation and job satisfaction, however, the work motivation undertaken in this study is not limited towards three components of Vroom's theory, and thus do not give a close approximation towards applicability of this theory in job satisfaction case.Simone, (2015) argued that research based on expectancy motivation of employees in the case of government-funded hospitals in Italy and accomplished with positive relationship towards expectancy variable as motivation and job satisfaction.

Critical Review of the Theories
Conservation of Resource (COS) theory on job stress, given by Halbesleben et al. (2014) pointed out the little focus given towards individual's decision-making process about taking action towards performing a task, also, the theory still has a scope in defining the resource acquisition by employees and how over the time individual's behaviour have changed in acquiring and maintaining resources.Further, Wheeler and Halbesleben (2009) proposed a new direction to COS theory by establishing the importance of person-environment fit factor, which plays an essential role in employees action towards performing the task.Also, Gorgievski and Hobfoll (2008) recognised the COS theory applicable for today's environment and proposed a new framework to the existing method by prescribing the importance of dynamic stability and tolerance of failure as essential factors apart from resource acquisition.Therefore, in the view of general acceptability of the basic concept provided by COS towards job stress, the present study can validate its applicability on constructing the relationship between job stress and job satisfaction.Vroom's Expectancy Theory also stresses on the role of individual's action as the foremost motivational factors.Wabba and House (2007) denied the applicability of its three core concepts, valence, expectancy and instrumentality and argued further that valence and expectancy concept do not have any theoretical classification.Also, the theory has ignored the optimising decision making on individuals.According to Parijat and Bagga (2014), people's behaviour change with the time and their thought process to make a decision also changes.Therefore, the validity of Vroom's Expectancy theory can be questioned based on today's employee behaviour.However, towards acceptability of the Vroom's Theory of Expectancy, Renko et al. (2012) conducted research and advocated that Vroom's theory provides a potential explanation for employee's motivation and future studies can obtain essential insights from the method.

An empirical review of job stress and satisfaction among academic staffs
Pervasive role of stress among educational institute staff have been recognised as a typical scenario, and the present study attempts to build an empirical framework of how stress leads to dissatisfaction towards job among academicians.The foremost research in the concerned area was provided by Chimanikire et al. (2007) in Zimbabwe.A total of 80 respondents were selected to determine job satisfaction among academician, of which higher proportion was identified to be not satisfied with their jobs.The reason quoted for this includes a high volume of work, which ultimately acts as stress and discourages academicians to work efficiently in academic institutes.However, apart from verifying the stress effect, the research was limited to explore factors behind the stress building.Another study by Ahsan and Alam (2009) assimilated a survey on various factors of stress.The determinants of work stress were categorised as management role, relationship with co-workers, workload, role ambiguity and pressure performance.The results from the sample of 100 academicians construct showed a significant association among four determinants towards work stress and confirmed a negative impact on overall job satisfaction.
Acknowledging the prevalence of stress due to multiple factors, another study by Veronica, (2011) focused on investigating job stress among males and females and the role of tenure in job satisfaction.The study surveyed 70 university teachers, and the results generated by the responses advocated a substantial difference for male and female counterparts in experiencing job stress.Further, job tenure was also identified an important indicator suggesting high job satisfaction level.Therefore, the studies so far contributing towards job satisfaction among educational institute's employees successfully identified the role of stress and various other factors leading to stress.However, there was a shortage of researchers binding an overall view of stress level at universities, and the commonality of the dissatisfaction from job among all institutes.With this respect, a study by Mkumbo (2014) proposed to check commonality of stressful work environment in educational institutes in Tanzania.A total of 326 respondents were surveyed on the general stress they overcame in working environment, and the responses suggested that job stress existed every day among educational institutes and also contributed towards low job satisfaction.Lastly, one more study on the same issue by Essiam et al. (2015) undertook stress factor to be a predictor of role overload, role ambiguity, physical environment, supervisor support and co-worker support.The research was initiated by 210 staff member, the results of which suggested the role overload and physical environment had positive variance in job satisfaction, and co-workers support played no role in job satisfaction.Lastly, the analysis suggested that job stress had minimum variance in overall job satisfaction of employees.Therefore, a comprehensive conclusion of the above empirical studies leads towards constructive as well as devastating effects of stress on employees in terms of job satisfaction, and also, more recent researchers have been exploring the positive contribution of stress at work than previous studies, further indicating towards changing pattern of stress handling and maintenance among workforce.
The arguments included in this paper present a comprehensive view of job stress and job satisfaction existing within organisations and their effects on the employees.Also, inspecting two critical theories building the essence of job stress and job satisfaction, Conservation of Resource and Vroom's Expectancy provided a phenomenal meaning of the terms and administered various appreciation and acceptance among researchers and policymakers.Upon reviewing several existing studies regarding job stress-related factors and their effects on job satisfaction among employees, the present research found an exciting scenario of a positive relationship between both the two, commonly observed in recent years within both educational institutes and corporate organisations.Also, for educationalist as both academicians and nonacademicians, job stress prevails in every staff's work profile and adversely affected staff's satisfaction.Further, apart from organisational factors of building stress level, personal and social factors were also explored through existing literature and a common thread among all the literature suggested significant impacts of personal and social factors towards job satisfaction.Therefore, an overall study has examined many useful and disparate findings regarding the job stress impacts and highlights most of the factors that were necessary to be studied within the framework of this research question.

Research methodology
The study is primarily based on the government and private higher education institutes of UAE.A structured and close-ended questionnaire was designed to survey academic staff on the trends of job stress and satisfaction among them as well as to determine the relationship between two, in the educational settings.The factors considered in the questionnaire were designed, based on the five identified job stressors, pay and growth stressors, work-family conflict stressors, work-relationship stressors, work role stressors and status of the job.The questionnaire was segregated into the demographic profile, general background questions related to the job satisfaction level as well as the amount of stress their job accounts for, and Likert scale based questions to determine the role of different job stressors on job satisfaction.The demographic profile and general background helped to get an overview of the respondents' origin and experience to job satisfaction and job stress, whereas the rest of the attributes would help to provide answers to the primary research question.The questionnaires were distributed among the academic staffs through Google Docs questionnaire and interactive meetings with the respondents, after taking the required permissions from the university management.Since the public and private universities have their restrictions and rules which prevent the researchers to collect information from all the academic staff, the sample was restricted to available and permitted academic staffs.Responses were received via emails and meetings, were further analysed for testing the study the hypotheses.To test the hypotheses, several statistical analysis tests were run on the collected data by the researchers.Before conducting the tests, the collected responses were coded in MS Excel and transferred to SPSS 16.

The Demographic Profile of the Respondents
The age wise distribution of the respondents shows that most of the academic staff included in the sample was in the age group of 31-40 years.Similarly, results indicate that 23.7% of the respondents are in the age group of 41-50 years.Only 4.30% is less than 30 year of age whereas 8% of the academic staff was above the age of 51 years.As per the results, around 63% of the academicians were male, and the rest of them were females.This shows the low rate of female participation in the educational sector.However, UAE is considered as the leading country regarding gender equality.As per the latest report of the World Economic Forum, UAE is ranked 2 nd among Middle East countries.Similarly, the literacy rate is around 95% for both male and female.Also the participation of women at the university is higher as compared with men (Embassy of the United Arab Emirate, 2015).The above results do not match with the overall scenario of the UAE.This can be due to the sample included in the current study is small and cannot represent the overall scenario of the overall country.Concerning the educational qualification of respondents included in the study, the results show that more than 50% of them hold PhD whereas around 29% completed their post-graduation diploma degree.The proportion of respondents with post doctorate was around 9%, and 9% of them hold Master's degree.While conducting the primary survey, the designation of the respondents was also recorded, and the results are presented.As the result shows, the majority of the respondents were working as assistant professors at the universities, whereas 28% of them were lecturers.Similarly, the proportions of the associate professors, professors and dean were 21%, 12% and 9%, respectively.From the results, it can be argued that since most of the respondents were working as the assistant professors they had only the work experience of 2-5 years.

General Background
In this section, the results related to the general background of the participants are presented.The general background of the respondents is expected to provide the overview of the respondents included in the study and their behaviour related to the stress and the job satisfaction.From the background of the respondents, it can be said whether the appropriate sample has been chosen from the population to achieve the aim and the objective of the current research.Similarly, it will help in the interpretation of the results from the inferential analysis which has been conducted in the later section of this section.
The number of hours spent at the university may be one of the factors affecting the stress level and the job satisfaction of the staff.As found in the result, 51% of the academic staff in the UAE University spends 7 hours whereas 32% of them spend 8 hours at the university.The proportion of the academician who spends more than 10 hours or more at the university is negligible.Besides, different tasks are handled by the academic staff at the university.The results indicate that 60% of the work is mostly related to the academic work.Further, around 29% of the work was mostly administrative and whereas 11% of the respondents indicated that they were involved in both academic and administrative works.As already shown in the demographic profile, most of the respondents were working as the lecturer, so most of the work was related to academics.Since the results show that most of the respondents included in the study feel stress in their job, they were asked whether or not they had ever left any job due to the high-stress level.The findings indicate that 62% of them had left their previous jobs due to the high-stress level, whereas 38% responded that they had not given up the job due to the stress level.

Exploratory Factor Analysis
Factor analysis helps to represent the observed variables regarding the number of standard factors.It only takes into consideration the standard variance among the variables which further contributes to extract few factors which are inter-correlated.Factors identified through factor analysis are independent of each other, and can hence be considered for further analysis.In the current research, various factors have been identified as job stressors which may affect the job satisfaction of the academic staff in UAE.To identify which factors are the most important among the selected factors in contributing to overall stress among academic staff, a factor analysis test has been conducted and the results are shown in the following section.Results from the KMO-Bartlett test indicate that KMO measure of adequacy is 0.801.This indicates that further tests within factor analysis can be conducted.A KMO value higher than 0.5, is considered appropriate for further analysis.Similarly, the Chi-square value of 6901.662 is significant even at 1 % significance level.Also, the factors can be identified through the rotated component matrix.The factor analysis shows that there are five important factors which should be included in the analysis, the rotated component matrix above identify those five factors.As per the results, the most critical factor is the Pay and Growth stressors, and the values are shown in the first column.Similarly, the second most crucial factor is Work-Family conflict stressors, and the benefits are presented in the second column.Other important factors include Work Relationship stressors, Work Role stressors and Status of Job respectively.

Correlation Analysis
Correlation analysis is performed to examine the relationship among the variables included in the analysis.The values of the correlation range from +1 to -1, where the value of +1 shows that the two values are correctly and positively correlated whereas the correlation of -1 means that the two variables are perfectly and negatively associated (Peat et al., 2009).However, correlation does not guarantee causation.For any analysis, the correlation of the variables is essential.If the variables are not correlated, then further analysis cannot be conducted; however, perfect correlation is also not desirable.For the current research, the Pearson correlation coefficient (two-tailed) has been calculated to examine the correlation among the independent variables, Job Stressors and the Dependent Variable, Overall Job Satisfaction.As shown in Table 3, the Chi-square test was performed at 5% level of significance.The Pearson Chisquare test significance value for pay and growth stressors is 0.000.Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected and hence, it is found that there was a significant association between pay and growth stressor and the job satisfaction level.It might also be concluded that pay and growth stressors and the job satisfaction were not independent from each other.In other words, these two variables are significantly associated with each other.As shown in Table 4, the Chi-square test was performed at 5 % level of significance.The Pearson Chisquare test significance value for work-family conflict stressors is 0.000.Therefore, a null hypothesis is rejected and hence, it is found that there was a significant association between work-family conflict stressor and the job satisfaction level.It might also be concluded that work-family conflict stressors and the job satisfaction were not independent from each other.In other words, these two variables are significantly associated with each other.As shown in Table 5, the Chi-square test was performed at 5 % level of significance.The Pearson Chisquare test significance value for work relationship stressors is 0.000; therefore, a null hypothesis is rejected and hence, it is found that there was a significant association between work relationship stressor and the job satisfaction level.It might also be concluded that work relationship stressors and the job satisfaction are not independent from each other.In other words, these two variables are significantly associated with each other.As shown in Table 6, the Chi-square test was performed at 5 % level of significance.The Pearson chisquare test significance value for work role stressors is 0.000.Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected and hence, it is found that there is a significant association between work role stressor and the job satisfaction level.It might also be concluded that work role stressors and the job satisfaction are not independent from each other.In other words, these two variables are significantly associated with each other.As shown in Table 7, the Chi-square test was performed at 5 % level of significance.The Pearson chisquare test significance value for the status of job stressors is .005.Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected and hence, it is found that there was a significant association between status of job stressor and the job satisfaction level.It might also be concluded that status of job stressors and the job satisfaction are not independent from each other.In other words, these two variables are significantly associated with each other.

Regression Analysis
Regression analysis is conducted to find the impact of the independent variables on the dependent variable.By regression analysis, it can be seen whether or not the independent variables influence on the dependent variable.Since in the current research, the primary objective is to see whether or not job stress has any significant impact on the job satisfaction, the multivariate regression analysis has been performed.The overall job satisfaction has been taken as the dependent variable and the various job stressors (pay and growth stressors, work-family conflict stressors, work relationship stressors, work role stressors and status of the job) as the independent variable.The results from the regression analysis are presented below.The results of Table 8 show that the value of R-Square is 0.070 which suggests that only around 7 % of the variations in the dependent variable is described by independent variables included in the model and rest of the variations are due to some other factors which are not included.The low value of R-Square is because the job satisfaction may depend on more variables than included in the present study.However, in this case, only the factors related to stress have been included.R-Square is one of the measures of goodness of the fit for the regression model and the R-Square value of 0.6 and above is considered to be appropriate (Shahbaba, 2011).In this case, the R-Square is to 0.07.However, high R-Square value does not guarantee that the regression model is in the proper fit.If the results are statistically significant, then important prediction can be made with low R-Square value too.The results from the ANOVA are shown in Table 9, and the results show that the F value of 5.159 is significant at 1% significant level.This shows that the cumulative impact of the independent variable on the dependent variable is significant.In other words, at least one of the independent variable is not zero.F statistic is used to test the null hypothesis where all the regression coefficients in the model are equal to zero, which has been rejected for this case.Since the cumulative impact of the independent variables on the dependent variable is significant, further analysis has been conducted to find the impact of each independent variable on the dependent variable.
The results of the regression coefficients are shown in Table 10 and show that pay and work growth stressor and the work relation stressor have maintained a negative and significant impact on the job satisfaction.The coefficients of these two variables are significant at 10 % and 5 % significance level, respectively.This shows that the job satisfaction declines if the stress increases due to pay and growth and also due to work relation.Other stressors such as the work role stressors, family conflict and status of job showed a positive impact.However, the coefficients are not statistically significant.The coefficient of work-related stressors can be interpreted as, with one unit increase in work-related stress job satisfaction decreases by 0.622 units holding all other factors constant.Similarly, the coefficients of pay and work growth stressor can be interpreted as, with one unit increase in the pay and work growth stressor job satisfaction decreases by 0.517 units holding all other factors constant.The results from the above table can also be written in equation form: Job satisfaction = 1.933 -0.517 pay and growth + 0.256 work role + 0.499 status of job + 0.576 workfamily -0.622 work relation The impact of various stressors on job satisfaction may vary according to the profession.In some professions, pay and growth may lead to high stress and reduce job satisfaction whereas on another professions the family related stress may have a significant impact.However, the results have shown that the job stress has a significant and negative impact on job satisfaction.Only the stressors may differ from one job to another.For example, the work-family conflict stress may be higher if the job requires lots of travelling and the employee is not able to spend time with family members.Whereas on the other hand, the pay and growth stressors may be higher if one is working at a low paying job and do not get enough opportunities for growth.Previous studies have also been conducted to examine the impact of job stress on job satisfaction.A similar study by Mansoor et al. (2011) also shows the negative impact of job stress on job satisfaction level.Other studies have also shown that the stress level negatively impacts the job satisfaction (Deborah et al., 1993;Fairbrother & Warn, 2003;Iqbal & Waseem, 2012).Similarly, Abdulla (2009) examined the factors of job satisfaction among the police in UAE and concluded that job stress has a negative impact on the job satisfaction.So from both the primary and secondary findings, it can be concluded that job stress significantly affects the overall job satisfaction.

Conclusion and recommendation
The assessment of the level of job satisfaction in academic staff of public and private universities reflected significant differences for the private and public universities of the UAE.It was found that private university staff experienced higher job satisfaction than the public one.This can be attributed to a variety of factors.A total of nine different parameters; namely the total working hours, chance of promotion, attention paid to suggestion, amount of responsibility given to handle, recognition and reward for the work done, support from senior, opportunities to use abilities, variety in job, salary and support from colleagues were studied and for the majority of the parameters more respondents from private universities favour their universities with respect to job satisfaction.As for public universities are concerned, the respondents prefer their universities to a great extent but are comparatively less when compared with private universities.Only one parameter did not reflect higher job satisfaction for private universities, which was the total number of working hours that were put in by the academicians.On the hindsight, a higher proportion of academicians of the public universities were also putting in more extended hours, so the problem of a number of working hours for both groups is similar.
The attempt to answer the final question of the study, i.e. the impact of job stress on job satisfaction for the academic staff in the UAE universities revealed that there was a significant link between the two.The null hypothesis of the present study was rejected, and its alternate, i.e. "job stress does have a considerable impact on the job satisfaction" has been accepted.The factor analysis determined five components that aggravated the problems of stress, i.e. work-related stressors; work role stressors; pay and work growth stressor; status of job, and work-family conflict among the academic staff of UAE universities.Further correlation and regression analysis revealed a considerable cumulative impact of the pay and growth stressors and the work relation stressor have negative and a considerably significant impact on job satisfaction, suggesting that pay and growth related pressure alone with relationships at work decreased job satisfaction for academic staff.The above conclusions for the academic institutions in the UAE reveal that human tendencies and stress management techniques applicable to the world over educational institutions are appropriate for the region in spite of inherent favouritism that is given to the permanent residents of the nation.Academic jobs are preoccupied with the following tasks and responsibilities.This includes teaching, marking examinations and assignments, registration, advisory, community services and research, and also tech stress.This will affect the academic staff satisfaction efficiently and efficiently.The workload is exceeding tasks which is less on those non-academic responsibilities.Distribute of work among the academic staff equality will help reduce stress.The university should provide support for staff and academicians like the administrative staff and even to involve students and teaching assistant in academic duties.Moreover, the conclusions of the present study bring out many practical implications for the universities in UAE and also specific policy measures for the regulatory framework for improving job satisfaction and reduce turnover intention among these universities.The following recommendations were made by the researchers for the academic staff of both the private and public educational institutions.While the management of both private and public universities in UAE needs to spread awareness regarding the impact of job stress on the performance and satisfaction among the academicians in UAE, they are also required to form teaching associations for greater access to ideas and resources for the staff.Moreover, particular attention is needed to be paid to the part-time and adjunct teaching staff, along with librarians for the different levels of stress they face, which combined with their lack of job security, contributes to low satisfaction.To well-being of the academic staffs, the institutions should have proper guidelines laid down for the staff starting with taking appropriate care of health, hygiene and food habits and measures of coping stress with the help of alternate techniques like yoga and meditation.Continuous evaluation of mental and physical well-being of academic staff is needed in all universities, to detect stress exceeding permissible limits among the academic staff.The universities should conduct timely workshops and seminars promoting the well-being of academic staff and providing avenues of sharing the common problems faced and methods to resolve them.The issues of inadequate staff especially at the Professor or Associate Professors level and Senior lecturers should be addressed on an urgent basis as this deteriorates the quality of education and aggravates the problems of stress for the existing staff.
The present study recommends that the University should also collaborate with corporate institutions and industries to identify their problems and offer solutions in the process of research.The stress perceived by academicians in private universities is comparatively high as they work in an independent, profitoriented organisation functioning on the private funding aggravating anxiety, stress and timely completion.The industries will be proposed to fund the research project which will not only enhance the knowledge database but also provide researchers conducive environment for their academic progressions.Although, the above recommendations suggest a proactive role by the universities in stress management and job satisfaction, the role of colleagues and superiors cannot be undermined in the analysis.A friendly and coordinated approach needs to be followed at the trustee and higher management level so that its effect trickles down to all the academicians at the university.A significant comfort level and healthy peer group not only leads to lesser stress and higher job satisfaction but also enhances the overall productivity.
Apart from above recommendations, there are specific policy suggestions that can be incorporated in the UAE to manage the level of stress.Regulations should be enacted so that the responsibilities and duties of private and public universities are not very different.A balanced mechanism should be devised so that academicians in private universities are not overexploited and that in public universities are productive to a standardised level.A monitoring and a supervisory board should be set up to oversee the working of private schools and formulate specific rules and regulations to create harmony in their curriculum, faculty, and required infrastructure.The private university should be advised to compulsorily follow the wellness programs for their academic staffs, and special teams of educational experts should visit universities on a regular basis.The recent decision of appointment of Minister of Happiness in the UAE was welcomed world over and plans and strategies laid down by the ministry should be implemented fully which will address the issues raised in the study to a great extent (Khaishgi, 2016;Mckenzie, 2016).
Through this study, a significant relationship has been established between levels of job stress and job satisfaction among public and private universities of UAE and most importantly, the role job stress has influenced on job satisfaction of academic staff.A direct practical contribution of such a study is that the universities in UAE can acknowledge this presence of job stress among their academic staff, and how it impacts their performance and the performance of the university.Subsequently, the universities can devise programs and policies to curb stress and ensure satisfaction among staff.Another contribution this study makes is to the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, UAE that helps design policies for higher education institutions in UAE, since it can now establish regulations regarding check-in job stress among academic staff.Since UAE aims to elevate its education sector's standards to meet the international level, a stress-free faculty would help accelerate growth, research and innovation within the system, and also assist in developing skilled graduates.Regarding theoretical contributions, this study significantly contributes to the existing literature on job stress-job satisfaction relationship, more specifically for studies in UAE, which up until now has not been done.Additionally, this study contributes to the significance of different stressors among teaching staff and higher studies academicians of Universities.Lastly, the study has helped establish a direct link between the two aspects and even suggest a significant difference in Public and Private Universities of UAE.
The study is a prominent contribution to the knowledge in academic world nationally and internationally as it tries to infer and analyse the contributing stress factor concerning academician's job responsibility.It is a new topic yet to be discovered by any previous scholars in the country; however, the present study like any other study has certain limitations that need to be mentioned.The foremost concern is that the sample size is comparatively smaller due to the tight work schedule and involvement in different institutional activities of the academicians.Moreover, qualitative data like focus groups or nominal group techniques were not adopted in this study, which would have given an in-depth view on the different dimensions of stress faced by academic staff at all levels.
On the other hand, this knowledge could assist higher education administrators and policymakers to improve the efficiency of academicians and enhance their performance.These authorities need to consider the implications for job satisfaction as various reforms and management techniques can be incorporated in the study.This study has a value of replicability in future in a constant endeavour to resolve stressrelated problems and the issues of job satisfaction.Further studies involving time-series analysis could be valuable for its practical implications in all kinds of universities in the UAE.

Table 1
KMO and Bartlett's Test

Table 2
Rotated Component Matrix of Factor Analysis

Table 3
Chi-square tests for Pay & Growth Stressors

Table 4
Chi-square tests for Work-Family Conflict Stressor

Table 5
Chi-square tests for Work Relationship Stressors

Table 6
Chi-square tests Work Role Stressors

Table 7
Chi-square tests for Status of Job Stressors

Table 10
Regression coefficients for the impact of job stress on job satisfaction