ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTIFICATION, ENGAGEMENT, AND BURNOUT IN PAKISTANI UNIVERSITY FACULTY

Abstract

Objectives: This study examined the relationships among organizational identification, employee engagement, and burnout among university faculty members in Pakistan and tested employee engagement as a mediating mechanism. Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional correlational design was used with 180 faculty members (90 men, 90 women) from public and private universities in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, recruited through purposive sampling. Organizational identification was assessed with the six-item Organizational Identification Scale; employee engagement with the 17-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale; and burnout with the 33-item work-related Burnout Assessment Tool, combining core and secondary symptoms. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha, Pearson correlations, simple linear regression, PROCESS Model 4 mediation with 5,000 bootstrap samples, independent-samples t tests, and one-way ANOVA.
Results: Organizational identification was positively associated with employee engagement, r = .596, p < .001, and negatively associated with burnout, r = - .570, p < .001. Employee engagement was negatively associated with burnout, r = -.578, p < .001. The indirect effect of organizational identification on burnout through employee engagement was significant, B = -.228, 95% bootstrap CI [-.328, -.135]. Gender differences were found for organizational identification and employee engagement but not burnout; age-group differences were not significant for the three central variables.
Conclusions: The findings support a model in which stronger organizational identification is associated with greater engagement and lower burnout among Pakistani university faculty. Given the cross-sectional design, results are interpreted as associations rather than causal effects.