Stress and Incivility in Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study

Research on Higher Education Institutions (HEI) has scantly considered stress and uncivil behaviour as interrelated phenomena. The study presented here was conducted at the University of Siena using an online questionnaire. A total of 160 employees, 80 administrative and technicians (PTA), and 80 faculty participated in the study. The questionnaire presented both a scale for measuring perceived stress and a scale for determining the occurrence of uncivil behaviour, whether only perceived or also perpetrated. Concerning perceived stress levels, several differences emerged: females reported higher stress levels than males and faculty more so than administrative and technicians. An interesting relationship was found between perceived stress and occupation namely that untenured workers perceived higher stress levels. Uncivil behaviour, when perpetrated, appears to be mainly a male phenomenon, while the perception of uncivil behaviour is more evident in faculty. The results also show that the perception of uncivil behaviour, particularly for younger people and women, increases the perception of stress. Conversely, regardless of age or gender, the stress and the perception of uncivil behaviour increase the occurrence of uncivil behaviours.