The Academic Profession between Change and Role Conflict

Over the past few decades, the evolution of macroeconomy, defined by long periods of decline and the burden of a marked economic crisis, has generated a continuum of austerity budget policies with reverberations in all social fields. In Romania, the dominantly decreasing economic evolution, a result of insufficient managerial training and of the lack of competence needed to act on a competitive market, has generated negative and dangerous phenomena. This research places emphasis on previously unexplored areas in surveys performed in Romania related to work stress, a field causing concern all around the world. The results concentrate the opinions of a large number of teachers in the Romanian public higher education system, providing an overview of the way in which they feel in their working environment. This contributes to an increased awareness of the existing issues. The collected data fills in the lack of information concerning the factors that contribute to enhanced work stress in academic institutions. Emerging sources are identified from legislative, organizational, economic and social changes. Work stress regarded as an organizational, not an individual issue, can be managed like any other organizational, resilience aspect of an organization. Thus, it is imperative that resources are balanced as a fundamental source of wellbeing, since resource dwindling or loss is a decisive factor in increasing stress levels. The paper provides data and information that are necessary both for political decision factors and for other researchers, regarding stress-generating factors on a personal and an organizational level in the academic environment.