Occupational Well-Being Among Academic Staff

Occupational well-being among academic staff encompasses a multidimensional interplay of job satisfaction, mental health, work engagement and the balance between professional and personal life. Academics face diverse demands including teaching, research, administrative duties and service roles, often under performance metrics and funding pressures. These factors can lead to stress, burnout and reduced engagement, undermining both individual health and institutional outcomes. Conversely, adequate job resources—such as supportive leadership, autonomy, fair policies and career development opportunities—foster vigour, dedication and a sense of belonging. Recent global trends highlight the impact of non-standard working hours, publication pressure and precarious contracts on early career researchers and non-tenure staff. Equally, studies emphasise the protective effect of time sovereignty, procedural fairness and psychological safety. Understanding these dynamics is essential for designing interventions, shaping inclusive policies and promoting sustainable academic careers in a rapidly evolving higher education landscape.

Research from Nature Portfolio

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Occupational Well-Being Among Academic Staff publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in occupational well-being among academic staff across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Burnout: A work-related syndrome characterised by emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment.

Work engagement: A positive, fulfilling state of mind at work, marked by vigour, dedication and absorption in tasks.

Time sovereignty: The degree of autonomy individuals have over the scheduling and pacing of their work tasks.

Job demands-resources (JD-R) model: A framework positing that job demands (e.g. workload) can lead to strain, while job resources (e.g. support) promote motivation and well-being.

Turnover intention: The self-reported likelihood that an employee will leave their current position within a given timeframe.

References

1. Applying Classification Techniques in Machine Learning to Predict Job Satisfaction of University Professors: A Sociodemographic and Occupational Perspective. Computers (2024).
2. Caught between academic calling and academic pressure? Working time characteristics, time pressure and time sovereignty predict PhD students’ research engagement. Higher Education (2023).
3. Publish and perish: mental health among communication and media scholars. Journal of Communication (2024).
4. Perceptions of fairness, inclusion and safety: the differential impact of contrasting experiences on academics and professional services staff. Journal of Management and Governance (2024).
5. Job demands, job resources and work engagement of academic staff in South African higher education institutions. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology (2006).