Observance of occupational health requirements in universities was recognized as a key factor in sustainable development and organizational productivity. The current results showed that the occupational mental health status of educators was moderate. The highest and lowest scores of the median were reported in the domains of “opportunity for control” and “opportunity to contact others”, respectively. The experiences of educators were explored in the theme of “contrast between preferences and disappointments in the development path”.
The results indicated that the psychological health of educators was influenced by two factors, including the personal and system tendencies to progress and the perceived challenges of educators in the process of advancement. They believed that the nature of the university and its necessities require efforts to keep educators updated in various fields. The requirements were in line with educators’ interests in personal and professional development. In the developmental path, educators experienced demotivation factors in the university. These created a conflict and duality between preferences and requirements and expanded a demotivation climate in the university. These perceived factors have reduced the psychological and mental health of educators to an average level.
The current results indicated tendencies of promotion as internal motivators and external initiators experienced as a positive factor of occupational mental health among educators. The participants acknowledged their interest and tendencies to the promotion of personal and professional development as an intrinsic factor. The educators’ interest in continuous learning, creative problem solving, and dealing with scientific challenges motivated them and enhanced their satisfaction. In addition, the expectation of the academic environment for responding to changing trends is explored as an external initiator factor. The consistency of the dynamic nature of academic environments, and educators’ tendencies of promotion in different fields were explored as a positive factor of the occupation mental health of educators in the university. In line with our results, Wan-Shuai and colleagues indicated educators’ development is a systematic process which influenced by external behavior and internal states of educators. Educators were encouraged to optimize their practice according to their values and external tasks in the institute [17]. Similarly, Zhang and colleagues explained that teachers’ motivation for learning was associated with self-efficacy, beliefs about learning, and emotional pressure as a personal factor. Moreover, leadership and organizational principles as system factors to increase their motivation and commitment to participate in professional learning activities were explained [18]. In contrast to the current results, Alves and colleagues indicated encountering new methods and trends in education and research distorted the mental, health, and educational performance of educators [7]. The results may be influenced by the organizational expectations, and preferences of educators in the universities [7, 9]. Although different academic rank classes participated in this study, the proportion of assistant professors was higher in the investigated university than in other classes, which may affect the results.
Communication, and interaction of workers at different levels of the system were considered as main elements of organizational occupational health [2]. The lowest median scores in the domain of “opportunity to contact others” were reported from the perspective of educators. The domain assessed cooperation with other colleagues, the conditions for using the experience of colleagues in doing work, and the value of collective and teamwork in an organization. The results showed that more than half of the educators reported a poor situation (below moderate level) in this domain. In line with this quantitative finding, the category of unprofessionalism was explored as a main risk factor for psychological health. Disrespect in interpersonal relationships, the irresponsiveness of team members, and discrimination harmed the opportunity to contact others. Distorting interpersonal and inter-professional interactions resulted in discouragement and demotivation of educators. These risk factors turned the university environment into an unhealthy environment. Cochran introduced effective and supportive communication, and professional development by teamwork in the organization as effective factors which if not observed, cause an unhealthy work environment [19]. Similarly, in a meta-analysis, job-related factors such as workload and ineffective communication at work were identified as key factors affecting participants’ motivation and burnout [20].
Assistant professors as young educators believed that they experienced unprofessional behaviors such as disrespect in interactions, discriminatory behaviors in receiving privileges, being forced to perform more difficult tasks, and being abused by junior professors and top managers. These led to the elimination of the motivation of senior educators. In line with the present study, Fitchett and colleagues showed the association between first-year teachers’ risk for stress and professional preparation. They indicated teacher education and support programming associated with the risk for stress classification that teachers experienced [21]. Kelly and colleagues suggested the support of personal resilience-building activities, which require planning especially with younger members. Because young members of the system were more prone to burnout [22]. Furthermore, Chiou-Fen recommended supporting employers through planning career development and teamwork opportunities [23].
The ‘environmental diversity’ domain addressed the variety of tasks and dynamic environment in the institute. The educators’ scores in this domain were reported at higher than the median. The high diversity of the tasks for educators was explored as a risk factor for a healthy workplace in the qualitative results. The participants believed that multiple tasks, workloads, and conflicting roles and tasks, caused job stress among them. They believed not to be able to manage various tasks and high expectations of the institute. These were explored as the key factors of elimination of their psychological health. Likewise, Faisal and colleagues identified workplace factors comprising work overload, role conflict, and management ineffectiveness as sources of stress for university teachers [24]. A review study showed that job expectations (such as workload, job characteristics, and conflict of values), and lack of resources (including social support and rewards) have a significant effect on burnout [25]. A self-care is proposed as a new standard in the workplace occupational health framework. Educators were expected to actively participate in self-care activities to create a healthy job and a favorable learning environment [2]. The participants believed that due to the high workload and various tasks, they had to do work activities during non-working hours and on weekends. They considered the restriction of time, family dissatisfaction, mental fatigue, and lack of enough rest as factors accelerating their unhealthy mental status. The results of studies confirmed the negative relationship between physical and mental well-being with burnout, poor performance in the team and systems, and reduced productivity [20, 26]. The results of Alves and colleagues showed that educators who felt tired before starting work reported lower quality of life, and those who needed more time to rest after work reported less satisfaction. These results can be due to non-compliance with excellence principles for creating a balance between personal and professional life [27].
Organizations affect occupational mental health through changes in work environments, level of organizational support, and a safe psychological atmosphere [5]. The participants believed that in this university, there was resistance to changes atmosphere in the system. Then, any program that leads to change and disrupts the convenience of educators was not accepted. This leads to unprofessional behaviors such as slander, and disrespect to the executive authorities of change programs. The lack of support from supervisors and coworkers in the change process was explored as a main risk factor for the mental health of educators. Likewise, Sabagh acknowledged stress and lack of support have negative effects on faculty’s commitment and performance and endangers their mental and physical health [25]. López-Cabarcos identified support from their supervisors or coworkers as the main factor in a healthy work environment that improved employees’ job performance [28].
In this study, ingratitude was mainly experienced by educators who had executive responsibilities. The participants believed that the incompatibility of individual characteristics such as transformational preferences with the university culture as a restriction to change were among the factors disrupting the occupational mental health of the educators. Lack of support for change programs, ignoring the efforts of educators, and creating challenges for the change team was classified in the sub-category. Gratitude when job stress is high and burnout is considered a concern in the organization has a positive impact on the professional life of the employees [22, 29]. Faisal and colleagues showed recognition as appreciation, gratitude, and admiration for outstanding performance explored as a key factor in the health work environment. They acknowledged appreciation and gratitude of teachers led to the feeling that they were valued by the organization [24]. Afzal acknowledged admiration, constructive criticism, and positive feedback enhanced the engagement and workplace flourishing of faculty members [30]. The establishment appreciation mechanism is recommended for educators.
The score of the domain of access to money and financial resources was reported at the intermediate level by educators. In the qualitative phase, economic problems, and restriction of resources was explored as a negative factor. These factors harmed the personal and professional lives of educators. This study was conducted in a developing country where there was economic instability. The educators believed that although access to money was mediocre, economic instability made them worried about the future. Recently, the enactment of new tax laws and the setting of salary limits for educators has also caused serious concern among educators. These concerns and the incompatibility of work and salary resulted in their demotivation. Similar to the present study, the concern for housing, income, and the management of future financial problems was troubling for academic members and was referred to as a main factor of job stress in Arian’s study [31]. In line with our results, Alves and colleagues addressed facilities such as a house, sufficient income, and life insurance as the minimum necessary facilities that affected educators’ mental health [7].
The Day’s occupational model explained justice as the main component of a healthy workplace. The present results showed a lack of appropriate evaluation, and feedback, and injustice reward systems had led to demotivation, abandonment of responsibility, and reduced effort of educators [32]. Perceiving injustice in the distribution of resources and privileges and interpersonal interactions was positively related to mental health problems and employees’ stress disorders [33]. Similar to the present study, the effort-reward imbalance was strongly associated with an increased risk of mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, and organizational disorders in the workplace [32]. Faisal’s results showed the disparity of rewards, missing supportive feedback, the culture of favoritism/biases, and low salary as the main challenges of healthy work from the perception of faculty members [24].
The development of evaluation systems and feedback-reward mechanisms is recommended for educators who have multiple responsibilities (teaching, research, and executive management) in medical sciences universities. Gorgenyi-Hegyes and colleagues suggested the development of employees, and wellness were planned as occupational health promotion activities [34]. In addition, the implementation of supportive policies for occupational health, and empowerment programs in the field of psychological and self-care is suggested to plan in the university.
Limitations
A small sample size in the quantitative phase and exploration of educators’ experiences in one university were limitations of this study. The data in the quantitative phase were collected by self-report that may some participants tend to respond in the middle of the scale. A main concern in the phase was social desirability bias, when participants were susceptible to give answers that they consider to be the most socially acceptable one. Moreover, the study was conducted in a developing country, and the generalizability of the findings to other settings was a restriction of the study.
