Study of psychosocial risk factors in online university female teachers: A look from the inside

Abstract

The advancement and integration of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the workplace has led to the emergence of new formulae such as teleworking, which have crossed the boundaries of space and time, modifying the working stage, the way of supervision of work and the reconciliation between family and personal life. Within this frame of reference, workers are more exposed to new risks emerging, like the technostress and burnout issues, as well as the trouble reconciling professional and family life, which result in negative effects on people, and can generate a higher level of exhaustion, dissatisfaction, and professional wear. In this context, the aim of this study is to know and analyze the main psychosocial risk factors female online university teachers are exposed. The interview on phenomenological depth, taking as reference the Seidmans model, was used as a data collection technique. In particular, two scripts, one for each of the interviews to be done, were developed and we proceeded to validate them through consultation of 15 experts from the field of safety and health and university teaching, and through the Lawshe content validity study (1975), recommended by Cardona (2006), as a quantitative validity criterion, and the observations and suggestions made by the experts as a qualitative validity criterion. In practice, 20 phenomenological interviews were conducted with 10 women working under this labor formula, to obtain a comprehensive understanding and holistic approach to the problem from their point of view and the context in which they are immersed. The results show the existence of several psychosocial risk factors related to the position and the social environment. As regards the position-related psychosocial risk factors, the findings show the existence of quantitative mental overload, associated with intense periods of work or peaks of work, which are specific moments, linked to the dynamics of temporary teaching online and teaching in general, where work load increases substantially, doubling the amount of work to be carried out. Another psychosocial risk factor perceived negatively by participants, also refers to the qualitative mental under load, which occurs during certain academic monotonous and repetitive activities when teaching online. On the other hand, in relation to psychosocial factors associated with the social and organizational sphere, the isolation of participants working in their home is highlighted. This isolation is related both to the lack of contact with peers, to the absence of spontaneous talks and emotional support, that is, to the loss of informal interaction in the workplace, and to the need to share doubts, to work together on a common educational Project or to homogenize criteria in the same subjects taught by different teachers. On the other hand, the online female teachers reveal in their speeches different situations of personal-role conflict, in which demands are produced, focused mainly on situations of evaluation of both academic work and exams, which are incompatible with their beliefs and values. Finally, the results of the present study indicate the emotional over load due to conflicts with students, usually relating to their assessment. The above supports the need for further research in this field, aimed at developing and implementing preventive and psychosocial risk intervention programmes in the university context, which have an impact on the organizational and personal scope and which are adequate to the characteristics of women. This will help promote a healthy organization, an organization that develops healthy practices of structuring and managing work processes that would influence the development of healthy employees, whose purpose is not only to intervene on the dysfunctional aspects, but attain the welfare of its workers achieving the highest increase in the development of the organization and its employees.