THE IMPACT OF STRESS ON THE WORK PERFORMANCE OF POSTGRADUATE WORKING STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION WINNEBA, KUMASI CAMPUS.

ABSTRACT The study examined the impact of stress on postgraduate working students at University of Education, Winneba, Kumasi Campus.University of Education, Winneba, Kumasi Campus was chosen for the study because it was established during the literature review that not much of similar studies have been conducted at public universities globally. It was therefore imperative that the views of university working students be sampled to know and to fill in the gap as to whether their work performance is affected by stress and its signs from their various work places. The outcome of the study was intended to add to scholarly knowledge and improve HRM practices on the clear and distinct purpose of checking the cause and signs of stress and it impact on work performance.   A descriptive research methodology was adopted for this study and a survey used to administer questionnaire to selected working students of University of Education, Winneba, Kumasi Campus. In all, a total of seventy one (71) respondents made up of 58 Senior Staff, 13 Junior Staff were sampled for the study.  Findings from the study revealed that work over load is the great cause of stress with 98.6% which is the highest of all the causes of stress according to the survey that was conducted. Also the study shows that 84.5% of employees are de-motivated and have reduced productivity as an impact of job-related stress. The percentage of respondents with the tendency to quit is 39.4% which implies that employees are less likely to quit their jobs when they have work-related stress.