Antecedents And Outcomes Of Work-Related Psychological Well-Being Of Staff Members Of The University Of Namibia

ABSTRACT

Title: Antecedents and outcomes of work-related psychological well-being of staff

members of the University of Namibia

Key words: Well-being, work engagement, psychological meaningfulness,

psychological safety, psychological availability, higher education

The aim of this study was to investigate the antecedents of work-related

psychological well-being and the individual and organisational outcomes thereof for

staff members of the University of Namibia. Psychological well-being was

conceptualized as an interrelated process between antecedent variables,

psychological conditions, burnout, and work engagement. Institutions of Higher

Education across the world have experience tremendous changes during the past few

decades. Academics have been envied for their tenure, light workloads, flexibility

and perks, such as overseas trips for study and conference purposes, and the freedom

to pursue their own research interests. However, during the past two decades many of

these advantages have been eroded and higher education institutions no longer

provide the low stress working environment that it once did, thereby threatening the

psychological well-being of staff members of these institutions. The potential costs

of poor psychological well-being to organisations include low morale, low quality of

services and products, and high absenteeism and turnover rates.

A structured questionnaire comprising scales from various measuring instruments

(Antecedents Scale, Psychological Conditions Scale, Work Engagement Scale,

ii

Organisational Commitment Scale, Turnover Intention Scale, and the General Health

Questionnaire) was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Research

participants included all the employees (n = 306) of the University of Namibia.

Making use of SPSS 20.0, the researcher carried out the following statistical

analyses: descriptive analysis, factor analysis, correlation analysis, hierarchical

regression analysis and indirect effects. Results from the quantitative analyses

showed that emotional and physical engagement was significantly predicted by

work-role fit (β = .30, p < 0.01), co-worker relations (β = .20, p < 0.01) and

psychological meaning (β = .39, p < 0.01). Organisational commitment was

significantly predicted by psychological meaningfulness (β = .50, p < 0.01) and

emotional and physical engagement (β = .50, p < 0.01). The study further confirmed

that work role fit (r = -.31, p < 0.01), psychological meaningfulness (r = -.40, p