Critical Review of Literature on Effect of Occupational Stress Interventions on Performance of Academic Staff in Kenyan Universities: A Research Agenda

Abstract

This article is a critical review of both theoretical and empirical literature on the concept of the effect of occupational stress interventions (OSI) and academic staff performance in Kenyan universities. The review was informed by the fact that there exists limited research on this topic in the Kenyan context hence this relationship is not adequately understood. In the theoretical review section, the paper reviews four theories in relationship to the proposed study variables i.e., person-environment fit theory, job-demand-control-support theory, broaden and build theory, and cognitive dissonance theory. From the empirical literature review, the paper proposes the studying of the mediating and moderating effect of psychological capital and social support respectively on the relationship between the independent and the dependent variable. A conceptualization that hypothesizes that OSI directly affected academic staff performance and is mediated by psychological capital, while social support moderates the relationship is proposed. The proposed study assumes that the performance of academic staff depends on the practical implementation of OSI, social support, and the psychological capital of the academic staff.