Effect of Greece’s New Reforms and Unplanned Organizational Changes on the Stress Levels of Primary School Teachers

As a result of the global economic crisis, a number of new policies have been implemented in Greece’s public sector including salary and benefit reductions, redundancies, relocations, and performance assessments using the forced distribution method. To determine the effects of newly imposed legal and operational rules on stress, valid responses from 367 primary teachers were selected. Socioeconomic and working variables such as Sex, Age, Work Experience, Educational Level, Working Status, Type of Employment, Salary, Teaching Class, and the Number of Students in the Class room were initially considered. Logistic regression was applied given that perceived stress (i.e., the dependent variable) was identified as a binary variable. It was found that occupational insecurity is higher in teachers who receive low salaries, teach more than one grade, and do not hold a managerial position. Those who teach lower grades and classes with higher numbers of students feel more anxious because of performance appraisals using the forced distribution method. It was also found that permanent teachers and those on low salaries feel more stressed because of the reduction of salary and benefits. This study reveals that the factors increasing perceived stress under unplanned organizational changes are related to work variables and exogenous factors that teachers cannot control. These factors are the reduction of wages, job insecurity, and assessments using the forced distribution method. Further proposals are cited regarding the factors that may buffer the effects of teachers’ stress and insecurity.