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03 September 2018 Photo Thabo Kessah
Burnout affects productivity in higher education
Elizabeth Nchapi’s study says burnout has adverse results for both employer and employee.

Staff members who are chronically exhausted may develop a cynical attitude towards their work and are likely to underperform, therefore feeling incompetent or experiencing a sense of reduced accomplishment. This is according to a research study by Elizabeth Nchapi, Head: Finances, on the University of the Free State’s Qwaqwa Campus. The study, which formed part of her Master of Arts (Higher Education Studies), also gives a comprehensive view on potential consequences for individuals and the organisation itself.

“The study was informed by my experience as a finance professional working at a higher-education institution where most of the research on burnout has mainly been around academic staff, hence this study focused on administrative staff,” she said.

Work environment stressors for administration staff

“Administrative staff in this sector have a responsibility to provide quality service not only to the academic core business of the institution, but also to the external stakeholders. Their working conditions require extensive multitasking, as they may often be expected to perform external roles or in fields other than their regular functions. Given that they continuously work under these circumstances, members may increasingly suffer from pressure leading to stress and burnout, which is a state of mental and physical exhaustion caused by one’s work environment.”

Work-environment stressors that lead to burnout, according to the study, include work overload, student interaction, team conflict, role ambiguity, job insecurity, lack of organisational support, lack of motivation, and workplace bullying.

Results of burnout

“Some of the potential consequences of burnout that have been identified as serious health problems may include, among others, sleep disturbances, anxiety, depression, and respiratory infections,” said Nchapi.

“Previous studies have shown that burnout does not only impact employees’ physical and psychological well-being. It also has significant consequences for the organisations and the employers. These include absenteeism, alcohol abuse, and poor organisational commitment, which ultimately result in poor performance,” she added.

The study further emphasises that personal and organisational consequences cut across the lines of gender, age, race, and employment levels. 

News Archive

Famous mineralogists visit UFS Geology
2017-04-25

Description: Famous mineralogists visits UFS Geology Tags: Famous mineralogists visits UFS Geology

From the left: Prof Marian Tredoux, Associate
Professor at the UFS Department of Geology;
Prof Giorgio Garuti; from the University of Leoben,
Dr Federica Zaccarini, also from the
University of Leoben and Dr Freddie Roelofse,
Head of the Department of Geology at the UFS.
Photo: Rulanzen Martin


Years of academic friendship and collaboration is what makes Prof Giorgio Garuti and Dr Federica Zaccarini return to the University of the Free State (UFS) every so often.

The world-renowned academic duo from the University of Leoben in Austria were guest lecturers at the UFS Department of Geology. “We are here because we have known Professor Marian Tredoux and the Geology Department, for a long time. We are really happy to be here, and to be given the opportunity to present talks,” said Dr Zaccarini. The two are experts in platinum-group element mineralogy and each has given their surname to minerals namely, the Garutiite and Zaccariniite minerals.

Visit great advantage for research

They are acclaimed experts on very small minerals (smaller than a hundredth of a millimetre) with emphasis on platinum group elements in chrome-rich rocks. “Their visit is a great advantage for us. We also conduct research on these minerals and can learn from them,” said Prof Marian Tredoux, affiliated researcher at the Department of Geology.

Dr Zaccarini gave a lecture on Chromitites, and associated platinum-group elements, in ophiolites on Wednesday 5 April 2017 and Dr Garuti presented a lecture on Uralian-Alaskan complexes: a puzzling source of platinum, on Thursday 6 April 2017. During the talks they examined the association of the platinum-group minerals with chromite, rather than sulphide, and how this association can lead to the formation of unusual platinum-group element ores.

Collaboration on various academic papers

They and Prof Tredoux have collaborated on various research articles over the past four years, which have been published in various important international scientific journals. “These journals play an important role in calculating the H-scale which measures how important a researcher’s work is on an international scale,” said Prof Tredoux.

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