Occupational stress and burnout among secretarial staff in the public service in Nairobi county

Abstract

Secretarial profession is unique in that secretarial personnel play various roles during the course of their work in supporting executives in a wide range of activities geared towards meeting the organization’s goals. While exercising these duties, at some point they become vulnerable to work related stress and burnout which might impact negatively in the performance of their duties. The purpose of this study was to find out the prevalence of occupational stress and burnout among secretarial personnel in the public service. The objectives of this research were to examine the prevalence of occupational stress and burnout causes among secretarial personnel in the public service, establish the relationship between occupational stress and burnout, with regard to the duration of service and the coping strategies. The study was conducted in Nairobi County in Ministry of East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism; Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations; and National Police Service. The pilot study was conducted in the Ministry of Devolution and Planning. The research design was a descriptive survey. A sample of 51 secretarial personnel was taken using multi-stage sampling. The study was guided by Albert Ellis, Aaron Beck, and Arnold Lazarus’ cognitive behavioural theories. The data was analysed using descriptive and referential statistics. This study revealed that the secretarial personnel experienced burnout. Participants who had served in the public service between 6 – 10 years and between 16 – 20 years experienced burnout, while participants who had served over 20 years experienced low burnout. 43.14% were at risk of burnout, 29.41% were at severe risk of burnout, 5.88% were at very severe risk of burnout. The results were presented in form of tables. The results of this study could be used by the human resource managers, as well as supervisors in order to organize counselling seminars and workshops for psycho-education on counselling issues to minimize potential burnout. The recommendation of this study is that Public Service Guidance and Counselling Policy should be implemented and Monitoring and Evaluation to be done in all Ministries to ensure successful implementation of the policy.