BURNOUT AND ALIENATION. CHAPTER VHl

Transcription

1 BURNOUT AND ALIENATION CHAPTER VHl

2 BURNOUT AND ALIENATION This chapter examines the perspectives of alienation on burnout. It also examines the concept of alienation and studies on alienation that have a bearing on the problem of the present study. The process model of alienation provides the background for the hypotheses that attempt to examine the effect of alienation on burnout. In the nineteenth century, the analysis of social and organizational conditions had given rise to the concept of alienation as a distinctly identified pattern of certain experiences (Durkheim, 1933; Marx, 1973; Weber, 1976). Several contemporary writers perceived the concept most useful of social and organizational conditions (Horowitz, 1966, Korman, 1977). The term alienation is derived from Alienare (Latin) which means to make something on others to take away. Atleast three references have been identified with regard to the usage of the term Alienare. Alienare refers to the transfer of something to another person. Secondly, it is used in connection with mental disorders Thirdly, it is used in connection with interpersonal estrangement to cause a warm relationship with another to cool, to cause a separation to occur, to make one-self disliked. In contemporary literature, the term is best used to refer to a wide range of types of dissatisfaction, dishormony and dissatisfaction showing the feature of deriving from or involving feelings of alienation of some sort (Schacht, 1971). Alienation refers to a condition in which

3 68 man, in his everyday life, denies part of his being in order to survive (Marx, 1973). When the individual is alienated, s/he feels separated or estranged from the kind of life of which s/he is capable. Alienation is regarded as the opposite end of 'conformity alienation' continum (Parsons, 1952, 1967). Alienation manifess itself in terms of dissatisfaction from popular cultural standards (Parsons, 1968). Alienated person is also regarded as one who has been extranged from, made unfriendly toward, his society and culture it carries (Nettler, 1957). Clark (1959) hold that alienation is a psychological aspect of an individual. Alienation is generally used to refer to some form of separation of the individual from some aspect of society (Parsons, 1967). Alienation is also regarded as the degree to which man feels powerless to achieve the role he has determined to be right fully in his specific situations. Alienation can be studied within a specific social system rather than within the broader frame work of society (Clark, 1959). Social isolation in the work process and quality of personal experience or a mode of personal self expression are considered to be consisting the multidimensional aspects of alienation (Dean, 1960). Alienation, as a multidimensional concept, receives support in other studies using factor analysis (Neal & Retting, 1963, 1967). Alienation may be regarded as expilicit rejection of traditional culture (Keniston, 1965). Alienation forms a part of more generalized alienated outlook that embraces attitudes toward society, self, others, groups, the nature of knowledge and the structure of the universe, deep and pervasive mistrust of commitment, a pessimistic view of human

4 69 nature, anger, scorn and contempt, strong existential feelings of isolation and meaninglessness in life, of the burden of boredom, and of the impossibility of certainty, implicit positive value upon intellectual passion, search for awareness, intensity, honesty-, solitude, responsiveness, spontaneity and individuality. The alienated views himself as a detached observer and interpersonal relationships are characterised by ambivalence. The alienated appears to be confused, disoriented, depressed, unusually open to the negative in himself and perceives himself as hostile, angry, impulsive and dejected. A general application of alienation to the individual in the broader concept of society has been attempted by Seeman (1959). He classifies alienation into five distinguishable facets viz., powerlessness, self estrangement, normlessness, isolation (or cultural estrangement) and meaninglessness. Powerlessness refers to the expectancy or probability held by the individuals that theirown behaviour cannot determine the occurrence of the outcomes, or the reinforcement s/he seeks. The degree of dependence of the given behaviour upon anticipated future awards, that is upon rewards that lie outside the activity itself provides an estimate of self estrangement. The high expectancy on socially unapproved behaviour is required to achieve given goals cannoting normlessness. Isolation refers to assigning low reward values to goals or beliefs that are highly valued in the given society. Meaninglessness refers to the state in which s/heis unclear as to what s/he is to believe when the individuals minimal standards for clarity are not met. Another investigator suggests that powerlessness, meaninglessness and normlessness are predisposing conditions to alienation, and

5 70 alienation itself is composed of essence of social isolation and selfestrangement (Faunce, 1968). Blauner (1964) refers to alienation as a quality of personality experience or a mode of personal self-expression. Estrangement or separation between part of the whole personality and significant aspects of the world of experience are regarded as alienation. The review of various definitions pointed out that trait alienation refers to a mental state of an individual characterised by any one or combination of the feelings such as powerlessness, selfestrangement, meaninglessness, normlessness and social isolation which are almost a personality quality or a predisposition. State alienation refers to the individual's reaction to his/her work characterised by powerlessness, selfestrangement, cultural estrangement, normlessness and meaninglessness. Research Questions 3.1 Whether a significant relationship exists between the scores of the individuals on the Burnout Inventory and on the Trait Alienation Questionnaire? 3.2 Will there be significant differences between the scores of the High and the Low Groups on trait alienation on the Burnout Inventory? 3.3 Will there be significant differences between the scores of the High and Low Groups on burnout on the Trait Alienation Questionnaire?

6 Whether the profiles of burnout for the High and the Low Groups on trait alienation will be parellel? 3.5 Whether the profiles of burnout for the High and the Low Groups on trait alienation will be at the same mean level? 3.6 Whether the 'pooled' profiles of burnout for the High and the Low Groups on trait alienation combined will be perfectly flat? 4.1 Whether a significant relationship exists between the scores of the individuals on the Burnout Inventory and on the State Alienation Scale? 4.2 Will there be significant differences between the scores of the High and Low Groups on state alienation on the Burnout Inventory. 4.3 Will there be significant differences between the scores of the High and the Low Groups on burnout on the State Alienation Scale? 4.4 Whether the profiles of burnout for the High and the Low Groups on state alienation will be parallel? 4.5 Whether the profiles of burnout for the High and the Low Groups on state alienation will be at the same mean level? 4.6 Whether the 'pooled' profiles of burnout for the High and the Low Groups on state alienation combined will be perfectly flat? The literature cited in the previous section suggests that alienation has been used in different senses. Vendal (1981). Joseph (1981), Devi (1982), Sunandini (1985), and Michael (1985) have further

7 72 adduced evidences to show that the term is used in different senses by sociologists, psychologists and other social scientists to explain a wide variety of phenomena. Several studies have been undertaken in organizational settings (Dean, 1961, Pearline, 1962, Kornhauser, 1965, Aiken & Hage, 1966, Jacques, 1970, Anderson, 1971, Bartolome, 1972, Ramey, 1972, Form, French & Caplan, 1973, Kohn, 1976, Joseph, 1981, Thirunavukkarasu, 1987). The findings emphasise that when an individual perceives to have lost his/her control over his/her self and is constrained to act according to the forces external to him/her, s/he feels alienated. Alienation is no longer confined to worker and all sections of personnel experience alienation under condition just cited. Various personality characteristics have been reported in literature associated with alienation. Included among the most commonly identified characteristics are anxiety (McClosky& Schaar, 1965, Tolor & Leblanc, 1971)? low self esteem ( McClosky & Schaar, 1965; Johnson, 1969; Whittaker & Watts, 1969); social isolation (Whittaker & Watts, 1969); expression of hostile and aggressive feelings ( McClosky & Schaar 1965; Tolor and Lablanc, 1971; Farmer & Harvey, 1974) and dogmatism (Beatty, 1972, Jacobson, 1972, Pestonjee & Singh, 1978, Sexton, 1983). The Berkeley Planning Associates (1977) define burnout as job alienation. The burnout scale published by them assesses alienation from clients, the project, co-workers, the job and opportunities in the job. Burnout on this scale is having the highest correlation with job satisfaction.

8 73 Alienation is closely associated with burnout. Alienating role or job contributes to burnout phenomenon (Udai Pareek, 1988). A study on the personnel of a social service agency reveals that burnout and alienation are highly and positively related. The findings of the study also suggest that these two concepts may be interchangeable and the work place experience can interact with individual needs to produce alienation and burnout. These interactions can affect employees non-work lives (Kelly, 1983). A study of 134 elementary regular and special education teachers shows that teachers with high levels of occupational stress who had a low level of burnout felt less alienated and those with high levels of occupational stress and a high level of burnout felt more alienated. The findings also suggest that alienation was significantly correlated with levels of stress, emotional exhaustion and physical illness (Holt, 1985). Another study examined the relationship of alienation with burnout among 69 nurses aides and 18 licensed practical nurses. The findings suggest that the total alienation score on the alienation test accounted for 30% of the variance for licensed practical nurses and 17% of the variance for nurses aides ( Haley, 1986). Another study attempted to explain the prevalence of burnout tendency among 400 randomly selected faculty members in the State University and Community College System of Tennessee (Youree, 1984). The findings reveal that 301 respondents scored normal on enthusiasm and moderatoly high on frustration and alienation. Thu lurngulng

9 74 analysis of the literature on alienation leads us to the following hypotheses. Hypotheses 3.1. A significant relationship will exist between the scores of the individuals on the Burnout Inventory and on the Trait Alienation Questionnaire. 3.2 There will be significant differences between the scores of the High and the Low Groups on trait alienation on the Burnout Inventory There will be significant differences between the scores of the High and the Low Groups on burnout on the Trait Alienation Questionnaire The profiles of burnout for the High and the Low Groups on trait alienation will be parallel The profiles of burnout for the High and the Low Groups on trait alienation will be at the same mean level The pooled' profiles of burnout for the High and the Low Groups on trait alienation combined will be perfectly flat A significant relationship will exist between the scores of the individuals on the Burnout Inventory and on the State Alienation Scale There will be significant differences between the scores of the High and the Low Groups on State alienation on the Burnout Inventory.

10 There will be significant differences between the scores of the High and the Low Groups on burnout on the State Alienation Scale The profiles of burnout for the High and the Low Groups on state alienation will be parallel The profiles of burnout for the High and the Low Groups on state alienation will be at the same mean level The pooled profiles of burnout for the High and the Low Groups on state alienation will be perfectly flat. Summary The meaning and the work on alienation reported in the literature are reviewed in this Chapter. The various studies reporting meaningful relationship between alienation and a host of psychological variables suggest that alienation may be regarded as an expectancy variable which has heuristic value for the present study. When an individual feels alienated, s/he experiences a sense of powerlessness, self-estrangement, cultural estrangement, meaninglessness, normlessness and social isolation. It is plausible that alienation may remain to be one of the sources to contribute burnout. The research questions and hypotheses relating alienation to burnout are logically derived and stated in this chapter.