Estratégias de prevenção ao estresse ocupacional de professores do ensino superior privado

Abstract

This work is intended to further discuss some plausible strategies to prevent the occupational stress observed on the academic staff of some universities in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. A total of fifteen successful faculty members were interviewed, all presenting at least 20 working hours a week, and at least ten years experience at their faculty position. The interviews were conducted from a structured script, recorded and analyzed according to the Method for Content Analysis of Bardin. The theoretical grounds of this research is based on previous work involving welfare of educators, the Positive Psychology and several other studies concerning this issues. The results revealed the following categories : time, motivation, physical activities, leisure and spirituality. Indeed, it was possible to identify that the mostly used strategies of confronting presented by these individuals were the ones related to their leisure activities; emotional capabilities and their work motivation; to their engagement into physical activities; to their ability to efficiently organize and manage their free time versus professional and domestic demands, and to their spirituality. The implications of this work point to the development of programs of individual and group competences to the faculty involved in this routine, seeking to focus on these five topics as the major polices of prevention to be further assessed in confrotning the occupational stress of the academic staff on private higher education institutions.