Influence of Spirituality on Burnout and Job Satisfaction: A Study of Academic Professionals in Oman

Foreign employment could be an opportunity for many at one side; on the other side it brings challenges in forms of cross-cultural differences, unfamiliarity of situation or people (Koteshwari and Bhattacharya, 2007). Professionals including teachers working in foreign countries experience different levels of role insufficiency and interpersonal strain than those who are at their homeland (Alkhadher and Al-Naser, 2006). A study on non-native English teachers reported high level of job stress (Mousavi, 2007). In contrast Coulter and Abney (2009) observed that expatriate teachers were less prone to emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and feelings of being overwhelmed and loss of interest. However in the specific case of Oman there are evidences that in comparison to their homeland counterparts Indian teachers experience high stress (Deosthalee, 2002). Expatriates in the middles east normally encounter greater workload which results into burnout as well as poor mental and physical health (Naithani and Jha, 2010). Also they face ch allenges on the cultural and social fronts (ORC, 2007). For employment purpose foreigners from different parts of the world come to the Middle East where they may find a hierarchical social structure among expatriates from various countries. Local people enjoy the highest status, followed by skilled westerns and Arabs from other countries; Asians occupy the lowest position among whom Indians are placed slightly higher than Sri Lankans and Bangladeshis (Malecki and Ewers, 2007). The social division affects the s ocial interaction which may affect the psychological energy of an individual.A study on burnout among expatriate teachers can be important because of its two sided impact on the performance of educational institutions. It can affect the individual teachers as well as students of the institution in which they work. Burnout can also affect the economic performance of the institution by the loss of teaching time and increased cost of replacing teachers (Wilson, 2002). On the other hand job satisfaction has been perceived to be essential to the organizational performance (Judge, Thoresen, Bono and Patton, 2001). It is not only an important predictor of employee turnover, absenteeism and job performance (Anton, 2009) but also it is found to be a major determinant of labor market mobility (Freeman, 1978). Burnout affects job satisfaction negatively (Williams, Konrad Thomas , Scheckler William, Pathman Donald, Linzer Mark, McMurry Julia, Gerrity Martha and Schwartz Mark, 2000; Hendrix, Ovalle and Troxler, 1985; Ford, 1985; and Ejere, 2010). An employee's satisfaction with his/her job is affected by various organizational and work related demands. Employees deal with the increasing demands at workplace by slowing down the work speed or decelerate; in the subsequent stages this may cause fatigue and stress. Burnout causes response in three dimensions overwhelming exhaustion, feeling of cynicism and detachment from the job, and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment (Maslach, Schaufeli and Leiter, 2001). It influences the productivity of an employee and reduces the work efficacy as well as sense of achievement. Employees facing stress may decide to distance themselves from stress causing job and they perceive their jobs as being unattractive (Dierendonck, Schaufeli and Buunk, 2001). Much like other employees burnout among teachers affects their job performance negatively (Kalyani, Panchanada and Parimala, 2009). If number of publications in a year were taken a performance indicator then teachers having high burnout give a low performance than the average (Takahashi and Takahashi, 2010). Teachers explicitly report that high stress reduces the collegiality and commitment to work; they are not being able to perform their roles and responsibilities efficiently and finally they 'close down' their efforts that they put for fulfilling their roles (Gillespie, Walsh, Winefield, Dua and Stough, 2001). …