Combining Workload and Academic Performance: TalTech Thesis

This master's thesis investigates the relationship between workload and academic performance among international students at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech). The study explores how various factors, including full-time and part-time work, and the nature of employment, influence academic outcomes. The research employs a qualitative case study approach, using semi-structured interviews with 17 students from TalTech's School of Business and Governance to gather data. The thesis addresses research questions concerning the role of work in academic performance, the impact of workload and work type, differences between bachelor's and master's students, and potential solutions for better combining work and study. The findings highlight the challenges faced by international students in balancing their academic and professional lives, emphasizing the need for flexible learning programs and effective time management strategies. The thesis concludes with recommendations for students, universities, and policymakers to support international students in achieving academic success while managing their workloads effectively. The study also emphasizes the importance of self-management skills in mitigating the negative effects of workload on academic performance.

COMBINING WORKLOAD AND ACADEMIC
PERFORMANCE: CASE OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AT
TALLINN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
Masters' thesis
International Business Administration
I hereby declare that I have compiled the thesis independently
and all works, important standpoints and data by other authors
have been properly referenced and the same paper
has not been previously presented for grading.
The document length is12388words from the introduction to the end of conclusion.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................................3
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................5
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................7
In order to fulfill the aim, the following research questions were formulated:.....................10
2. LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................................11
2.2 Theoretical review on workload and time management......................................................11
The multiple resource theory.................................................................................................11
The 80/20 rule........................................................................................................................13
Parkinson's law......................................................................................................................14
2.3 Impacts of workload on academic performance..................................................................15
2.3.1 Academic performance of working and non-working students....................................15
2.3.2 Full and part-time work and its impacts on academic performance.............................17
2.3.3 Nature of work and academic performance..................................................................18
2.3.4 Differences between bachelor and master’s students in terms of how workload affect
academic performance...........................................................................................................19
2.5 Reasons for student's engagement in whole or part-time work...........................................21
2.6 Summary..............................................................................................................................22
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..............................................................................................24
3.1 Research design and sample................................................................................................24
3.2 Data collectionmethod.........................................................................................................25
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4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION..............................................................................................28
4.1 Discussion............................................................................................................................34
DATA INTERPRETATION.........................................................................................................36
Findings.........................................................................................................................................45
5. CONCLUSIONAND RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................................48
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................52
Reflection.......................................................................................................................................54
Appendices....................................................................................................................................60
Appendix I: Interview quide......................................................................................................60
Appendix II: Interview recordings.............................................................................................61
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ABSTRACT
This thesis study tries to establish what might be the role of workload on the academic
performance of international students in Estonia. The research aims include determining the
reason of having differences in academic performance ofworking and non-working students,
exploring how workload (full or part-time) influence academic performance, how does the nature
of work (related or not related to the study program) put the influences on academic performance
between bachelor and master students and how international students can combine their
workload and study and improve academic performance. To facilitate the achievement of the
research aims, various approaches are used to gather relevant information that will provide
answers to the research questions. The author will utilize the qualitative case study method and a
descriptive research design to help fulfill the aims and objectives of this research and obtain
answers to the research questions. A descriptive research design will be appropriate for this study
because the data collected will not be manipulated easily, neither will the subject under study.
This research will, use both primary and secondary sources due to limited data and resource
constraints. The data was collected using interview from a sample of 17 participants from Tallinn
University of Technology. The purpose of the semi-structured interviews was to exploring how
TalTech School of business governence international students combine work and study and
maintain academic performance. All selected sample came from department of school of
business and governance of Tallinn University of Technology. From the responses and analyses
of the interview guide, it can be agreed that there is a difference between the working and non-
working students in terms of their performance in academics. Among all the 17 respondents who
were used after random sampling , none gave a negative answer on whether there is a difference
in performance. write this correctly what is appropriate here please International students often
face various types of difficulty when studying in the host country and when working and
studying simultaneously. The international students of the department of school of business and
governess at Tallinn University of technology are no exception. Flexible learning and working
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programs are a good recommendation for international students to successfully combining work
and study and developing academic performance .
Keywords: Workload, academic performance, international students, working and non-working
students, part-time, full-time, policy makers.
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INTRODUCTION
Thirst for good knowledge has led many people to search for jobs to meet their needs and pay for
their school fees. Over the past investment in knowledge has been seen to yield promising
interests to an individual (Mora et al. 2020). Although learning is much significant in gaining
skills and knowledge, the data indicates that many students are not able to enroll in their courses
due to lack of finance. Lack of finance is one factor affecting the learning process all over the
world, International students have established working while learning as a strategy for
maintaining them in their schools. According to ERR (2020), data indicates that more than 5,500
international students' study in Estonia. According to Lang (2012), to be able to sustain
themselves in school more than three-quarters of the international students have looked for
employment in Estonia. This study tries to establish how TalTech business and governance
international students combine working and studying and offering solutions how to improve their
academic performance.
Working while studying is not new. The main problem of the students who are employees is to
divide the available time between school and work. A successful student who is an employee
needs to have good time management skills or else either work or school life will be negatively
affected. Study conducted by Tetteh and Attiogbe (2019) indicated that combining both work
and schooling leads to less time for studies and this negatively affects the performance of a
student. Additionally, this study also found that finding time for studies is difficult as the student
has other work requirements and this affects the learning process of the student.
Various forms of employment affect learning in different ways. Some students are employed on
a full-time basis while others are employed on a part-time basis. According to Lang (2012), data
indicate that international students who work on a full-time basis show low performance in their
academics as compared to those students who work part-time. In the modern days, students are
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not just students but workers. Many people decide to work while learning for them to be able to
meet their needs that are in many times more than the pocket money or the income that their
parents have. A study conducted by Humphrey (2006), on the effects of part-time working
indicated that there is a notable difference between students who work part-time, students who
work full time, and students who do not work while learning. This thesis will explain these three
classes of students and how they perform academically while they areworking.
Studies conducted by Santoso et al. (2020), found that students who can possess a higher self-
management skill can perform well both in school and at work. The study put more emphasis on
the need for self-management in work while learning. Students who can self-manage themselves
have minimal academic stress as compared to those students who have lower self-management
skills. Students with low Self- management tend to be demotivated and their performance is
affected negatively. When student lack self-motivation, he is less interested in learning and doing
school work (Mora et al. 2020). Self-management is an essential discipline element applied by
many international students in Estonia to avoid low performance in both school and work.
However, in some instances, a student may have good self-management but the workload can
exceed and thus his performance in school is negatively affected.
International students who engage in work as you study schedule are left with less or no time to
glam their academic studies, affecting their academic performance. According to Muluk (2017),
having less time studying means low test scores and overall grades. However, students who work
full time trying to balance their work and study time by learning during their free time out of
work. As a result, such students tend to record low grades due to a lack of enough time to
concentrate on their studies. Needless to say, the pressure that these students handle as they try to
balance their time is too much (Fan Smith 2017). Additionally, various surveys have indicated
that the academic output of those students who engage in either part-time or full-time jobs is not
equivalent to that of those students who do not have part-time or full-time employment.
While the advantages of engaging in such arrangements (part-time jobs) outweigh their
drawbacks, students prefer undertaking an extra chore which in return affects their academic
performance (Fan Smith 2017). Those students who work more than twenty hours a week and
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receive less or no support from their families negatively impact their academic performance.
Education offers a foundation of development from which most of the economic and social well-
being is built. Education acts as a critical aspect of increasing economic efficiency and social
consistency (Beerkens et al 2011). Thus, increasing the value of education helps to raise the poor
from poverty. Care should therefore be exercised when determining the nature of the job and
location to ensure the educational needs are also taken care of (Simón et al.2017). Many students
who work while learning is economically disadvantaged. Although they can meet their needs,
there are many social and academic effects of working whole learning on the undergraduate
students (Corona et al. 2017). According to Humphrey (2006), studies that have been conducted
over time have indicated that those students who work while learning are likely to score less as
compared to those students who are not working. One of the major reasons for this discrepancy
is that working students have a high workload that either makes them feel tired or at some time
stressed and thus they are unable to study. Other students concentrate more on work-life and
forget their main intention was to learn not to work and thus their academic performance is
affected.
Student population in Tallinn University of Technology and Estonia, in general, constitutes a
considerable number of international students. The enrollment of international students is still
rising in the university. About 12.2% (over 5,500 students) of the students studying in Estonia
are international students, with 62% of this number coming from third-world countries
(ERR2020). Tallinn University of Technology has the largest number ofinternational students at
1,612 by 2020, which makes up 16% of the total student population. With about 62% of the
international students coming from third-world nations, most of these students consider working
on a full-time basis to get additional income sources to support their families besides covering
their expenses. add reference please. But Combing work and study is matter of big deal for them.
so, The research problem of current thesis is lack of information about how TalTech business
and governance international students combine working and studying qualitatively from students'
perspective.
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From those perspectives author developed The research aim, which is how TalTech business
and governance international students combine working and studying and offering solutions to
improve their academic performance.
In order to fulfill the aim, the following research questions were formulated:
1. What is the role of working in academic performance of business and governance
international students at Tallinn University of Technology?Q4, 5, 6
2. What is the role of workload (full or part-time) and nature of work in combining working
and studying of business and governance international students at Tallinn University of
Technology?Q7, 8, 9, 10
3. How do international bachelor and master students differ in terms of how they combine
working and studying in the area of business and governance at Tallinn University of
Technology?Q11, 12
4. Which are the solutions for better combining working and studying for business and
governance international students at Tallinn University of Technology?Q13
method …
structure of thesis …
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2. LITERATURE REVIEW
The main task features affecting academic performance are workload components that determine
how people perform their necessary work and how they understand the task. The demand for
tasks is the ratio of time necessary to perform a given task to time and the time available to fulfill
it (Kenny 2017). The workload is a combination of available operating system resources, the
demand for a task, and individuals' capacity. According to Kaviyarasi and Balasubramanian
(2018), workload effects and reduces an individual's ability. The performance of the student s
also determined the amount of work they do since some focus is on the work being done. An
increase in demand for tasks can lead to errors and an increase in response time. The high
workload, complexity, and performance reduction are considered two of the most critical factors.
Primary task performance tests measure the performance end product of the task. On the
opposite, secondary output measurements analyze residual or non-principal capital. According to
Kaviyarasi, Balasubramanian (2018), subjective procedures comprise scales that users respond to
measure the subjective effort necessary to complete a task. The Cooper-Harper Scale, NASA-
Load Index (NASATLX), and Subjective Workload Assessment Technique are widely and most
frequently used as subjective measurements (SWAT). Several theories that have been done can
explain the situation of performance of the working and non-working students. This part of the
paper will look at how different researchers have viewed students who learn while still working.
2.2 Theoretical review on workload and time management
The multiple resource theory
The multiple resource theory notes that individuals have a finite number of resources for mental
processes. These tools can be called an energy reservoir used for a range of mental operations,
from sensory-to-sensory perception (MacCann et al. 2020). This communal pool of expertise is
delegated to various tasks, methods, and processing. This thesis explores how complex
individual tasks can be translated into difficulties in processing and how dual-task success can be
impeded more by related tasks than unlike tasks (Kaviyarasi, Balasubramanian 2018). In
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psychology, multiplayer tools theory has been used to explain how people use television signals
and how people interpret product knowledge in dual-task success and applied areas, including
communication.
Initially, the roots of the several-recourse theory can be traced to of the 'single-channel
bottleneck' idea for the transmission of human information, which restricted the ability to attain
two high-speed operations in combination to be achieved on their own. Costa et al. (2018) claim
that such a vision was very prominent in studying high-speed tasks, indicating that time is a
minimal resource that cannot be shared among tasks. They wrote a paper describing the idea that
human beings have a finite, central processor of ability that can be shared to some extent among
tasks, instead of a not split, non-divisible time resource.
In our culture, numerous roles are prevalent. Issues such as the hazards associated with mobile
phones when driving require us to consider how much such dual-task success can lead to reduced
capacity to share time. One solution to this understanding is the multiple resource theory. In my
view, two seeds were created to create the idea of multiple resources. An available mental effort
pool assists human success. The definition of progressive initiative contrasted markedly with the
then all or no single-channel bottleneck vision. The models of Kahneman highlighted task
demand for these smaller resources, the scarcity of resources available for completing tasks, and
the consequent suffering from them (Wickens2021). In the final chapter, however, Kahneman
notes other 'structural intervention' sources, which could not be considered by pure request for
resources or the 'undifferentiated capability' model.
Two similar terms, often confused, are multiple resource theory and mental workload. They are
overlapping but separate. To differentiate between them, note that the multi-resource model's
architecture consists of the demand, resource superimposition, and assignment politics three
components (Costa et al. 2018). The definition of mental workload often concerns the first,
characterizing human capital demand, whether individual or multiple, as tasks. Critically, this
condition can be coupled theoretically with one of the two work demand "regions." The first is
that demand is smaller than the capability of available resources (Wickens2021). This is the
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