Creative Education 2012. Vol.3, No.1, 134-144 Published Online February 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ce) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2012.31022 Copyright © 2012 SciRes. 134 Factors Associated with Occupational Stress and Their Effects on Organizational Performance in a Sudanese University Ahlam B. El Shikieri 1 , Hassan A. Musa 2 1 Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, Taibah University, Medina, Saudi Arabia 2 The National Ribat University, Khartoum, Sudan Email: dn7shiki@hotmail.com Received October 31 st , 2011; revised November 21 st , 2011; accepted December 8 th , 2011 Occupational stress has a significant impact on student learning and thereby on the contribution that such institutions can make to society. This affects organizational performance by reducing productivity and ef- ficiency which affect the organization negatively. The aim of the current study was to determine the fac- tors associated with occupational stress and their relationship with organizational performance at one of the private universities in Sudan. A total of 150 male and female employees from different departments and with various educational levels in the main building of the university were randomly selected. Data was collected using a questionnaire with background questions, job stressors such as role conflict and ambiguity, lack of participation in decision making, lack of authority, workload, unsatisfactory working conditions and interpersonal relationships, and statements about the effect on organisational performance. Questions were based on three- and four-point scale. Responses were grouped in terms of scores to show the level of job stress. Descriptive statistics was carried out using SPSS programme. Results indicated that on average the employees experienced high degree of job stress. Job stressors affected the general physi- cal health of employees, their job satisfaction and performance as well as their commitment negatively. Similar findings were reported in other studies. The study recommended that the university needs to ele- vate the situation and resolve all the factors affecting the employees by for example increasing the num- ber of staff needed to perform the tasks and/or decreasing the number of students enrolled. Keywords: Higher Education; Occupational Stress; Organizational Performance; Sudan Introduction Stress is a prevalent problem in modern life (Smith, 2000; Chang & Lu, 2007). In 1964, Selye was the first to use the term “stress” to describe a set of physical and psychological re- sponses to adverse conditions or influences (cited from Fevre et al., 2003). Occupational stress can be defined as a disruption of the emotional stability of the individual that induces a state of disorganization in personality and behaviour (Nwadiani, 2006). A stressor may be defined as any “demand made by the internal or external environment that upsets a person’s balance and for which restoration is needed” (Herbert, 1997; Larson, 2004). Job stressors may refer to any characteristic of the workplace that poses a threat to the individual (Bridger et al., 2007). They affect organizational performance by reducing productivity and efficiency which affect the organization negatively (Dua, 1994; Brown & Uehara, 2008; Reskin, 2008). Theories of Occupational Stress There are several theories of occupation stress, in this section, the “person-environment fit theory, the “demand-control” the- ory and the “cybernetic and systems” theory will be the selected theories since they are prevalent and central to the literature on occupational stress (Fevre et al., 2003). Moreover, they are representative of the range of theories in that they tend to em- phasise various sources and interactional models for the induc- tion of stress as well as different outcome measures for the management of stressors (Fevre et al., 2003). Person-Environment (PE) Fit Theory According to the PE fit theory, stress and stressors are not defined in terms of either the individual or the environment, but rather in terms of the degree to which there is “misfit” between the two (Kenny, 1999; Fevre et al., 2003). The outcome set of PE fit theory consists of the individual's potential reactions to misfit, which can be characterised as ei- ther coping or defense (Kenny, 1999; Rees & Redfern, 2000). Coping and defense are both potentially adaptive, neither being necessarily better or more effective than the other. Demand-Control Theory The demand-control theory concerns the joint effects of job demands and job control on the employee well being (Kenny, 1999). According to Karasek’s job demand—control model, strain occurs when high job demands combine with low oppor- tunity to influence tasks and procedures, resulting in poor em- ployee health and low job satisfaction (Bridger et al., 2007). Heavy workload (McKenna et al., 2002; Nwadiani, 2006), in- frequent rest breaks, long working hours and shift work; hectic and routine tasks that have little inherent meaning, do not util- ize workers’ skills, and provide little sense of control (Fair- brother & Warn, 2003). Locus of control and self-efficacy may have a major impact on perceived stressors and resultant stress (Kenny, 1999; Fevre et al., 2003; Love et al., 2007). Thus, an increase in control is positively correlated with job satisfaction (Kenny, 1999).