Stress, Health, and Scholarly Output: Investigating the Interplay between Faculty Well-Being and Research Productivity in Higher Education

Background: University faculty in Pakistan often face overwhelming workloads, administrative burdens and resources constraints leading to higher stress rates and a lack of well-being. Even though faculty can serve as key drivers of research and innovation, no attention has hitherto been paid to the effect of these stressors on the motivation and research output of faculty in Pakistani institutions of higher learning. Objectives: This study fills this gap by investigating how Self-Determination Theory explains educational institutions academic employees stress levels, health, research motivation, and productivity. Methodology: A survey-based on 850 faculty respondents that represent STEM departments in the different public and private universities of Pakistan was carried out. Results: The results indicated that systems of lower stress and improved mental health correlated with improved feelings of autonomy and competence, which are the potential motivators of research activities. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and factor analysis showed that the increase in autonomous motivation and the decrease in introjected motivation were a significant contribution to better research productivity. Additionally, it was noted during the analysis that, mental health impacted the results of the research positively due to augmented autonomous motivation, wherein autonomy had been found to be an imperative moderating parameter. These findings highlight the vital importance in promoting the well-being of faculty members to achieve a more driven and prolific culture of research. Conclusion: The research offers valuable implications to both administrators and policymakers of the Pakistani universities, advocating systemic-level interventions and health-related strategies towards enhanced performance in faculty research and institutional research outputs.