Organization of work, pleasure and suffering

of employees in public and privte universities

of Pakistan – a Case study of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa Universities
Introduction

Changes in the world of work from the productive restructuring of the 1970s and 1980s,
with the flexibility of the economy and the implementation of neoliberal ideology, brought
impacts for the entire working class, even reaching university professors. The neoliberal
logic, based on the policy of retraction of the State, resulted in the reduction of public
policies, the dismantling of income distribution mechanisms, the supremacy of the interests
of the financial system and the privatization of public services. The new production system,
which was imposed from then on, needs to be able to meet the fluctuations of an
increasingly flexible and demanding market, bringing workers the need to produce new
performances (Mancebo, 2007). According to the author, flexibility brought with it the end
of regular working hours, the increase in part-time, temporary or subcontracted workers, in
addition to the continuous request for new qualifications from workers. As a result,
increasingly low wage levels, rising unemployment, loss of labor rights, job insecurity and
intensification of work processes are observed. In this context, it is imperative for
universities to adapt to the new demands of this economic model, which intends to
transform them into another market organization (Coutinho, Dal Magro & Budde, 2011).

There was a considerable increase in the number of professors in federal higher education
as a result of government programs such as Reuni (Support Program for Restructuring and
Expansion Plans of Federal Universities), whose main objective was to increase access and
permanence in higher education. Another government program in this line was the
Expansion of the Federal Higher Education Network, which began in 2003 with the
interiorization of federal university campuses and has already enabled the creation of more
than 100 new campuses .(Brazil, 2010). Borsoi (2012) points out that there has been a
significant increase in the demand for teaching work in the last twenty years and an
insignificant increase in the number of effective teachers in federal universities. Thus,
without disregarding the importance of the quantitative increase of public universities, it is
necessary to analyze the quality of what has been created, both from the perspective of the
quality of teaching and research and from the perspective of their impacts on the health of
professors. It is due to this last approach that this research is justified.

The increase in teaching work in scope and intensity is another important issue regarding
changes in the routine of teaching activities, which can be observed, for example, by the
significant increase in the number of students in relation to teachers. In this case, Bosi
(2007) points to a 50% increase in the average number of students for each professor
between 1998 and 2004, demonstrating a growth in the number of students that is
disproportionate to the increase in the number of professors in public universities. The
author also points out that the pressure exerted on these professors to be productive
(classes, guidance, projects, publications), quantified and qualified by criteria informed
outside the university, culminates in violating a basic principle of the public university:
autonomy. Contradictory demands are imposed on them:
From the perspective of the Psychodynamics of Work (PdT), Mendes (2007b) analyzes the
consequences of new forms of work organization in the context of flexible accumulation and
productive restructuring and attests to the existence of social pathologies related to
work. Among them, he highlights overload as a pathology in which the game of social
domination governed by the ideology of excellence and performance makes workers submit
to demands that go beyond their physical or psychological conditions. Either through the
discipline of hunger, in which the meaning of work is "breadwinner", or through the
centrality of work, which leads to the need for achievement and recognition for work, the
worker assumes the position of considering that all possibilities of work must be taken
advantage of. In that direction, there is also the pathology of voluntary servitude, which
refers to the consent to certain work practices, including those that generate suffering and
based on conformism and submission without protests, as a way of presenting oneself as an
adapted, integrated and effective worker. Both pathologies, consented to and legitimized by
the naturalization and trivialization of suffering and injustice, enable capital to exploit
workers, transforming their suffering into productivity.

University professors are not immune to productivism. There is an effort by these workers
to be considered as belonging to an elite class, which is achieved through participation in
postgraduate programs and the number of orientations, articles and books published (Bosi,
2007).

The theory of PdT is the basis on which this study is based on the analysis of teachers'
experiences in their work. It is a research approach developed in the 1990s, in France, by
Christophe Dejours and has as its object "the study of the dynamic relationships between
work organization and processes of subjectivation" (Mendes, 2007a, p. 30), being central to
this, understanding how the organization of work mobilizes and engages the subject in its
dynamics. According to Dejours (1996), the organization of work comprises, on the one
hand, the division of tasks in its operative mode, which affects the issue of interest and
boredom at work; on the other hand, it encompasses the division of men, which include
issues of hierarchy and power relations, reaching the relationships that workers establish at
work.

In this approach, working implies "gestures, know-how, engaging the body, mobilizing
intelligence, the ability to reflect, interpret and react to situations; it is the power to feel,
think and invent", referring to if, therefore, to the "engagement of the personality to
respond to a task delimited by pressures (material and social)" (Dejours, 2004, p. 28). For
the author, work is always filling the gap between the prescribed work and the real work,
the prescribed being what is predetermined by rules, regulations and manuals, which never
handles the real, that is, the prescriptions are never comprehensive enough to encompass
the concrete reality of the work situation. So,

This mobilization can also be understood as suffering, referring to a series of psychic

regulation mechanisms, that is, a state of struggle of the subject against the sickening
forces linked to the organization of work. According to Dejours and Abdoucheli (2009), the
presence of suffering does not necessarily imply the existence of a disease. Therefore, there
are two types of suffering related to the organization of work: creative and
pathogenic. Pathogenic suffering happens when there is no longer any margin of freedom
that the subject can explore to transform or improve the organization of work, since the
pressures are rigid, fixed and unavoidable, leading the worker to repetition and generating
weariness, frustration, a feeling of impotence and even illness. Creative suffering, on the
other hand, happens when suffering can be transformed into creativity, thus contributing to
the subject's resistance to destabilization. In this case, the work would be favorable to the
health of the worker. According to Mendes (2007a, p. 34), "in order to transform a job that
causes suffering into a pleasant job, it is necessary that the organization of work provides
greater freedom to the worker to rearrange his operating mode, use his practical
intelligence, engage whether in the collective", so that it is possible to identify actions
capable of promoting experiences of pleasure. Another possibility for work to favor mental
balance is when its content is a source of sublimatory satisfaction. In both cases, the
difficulties are easily accepted, because, even if the work generates some suffering,

The subject's relationship with the organization of work can lead to experiences of pleasure
and suffering, as the subjectivity of the working subject gives meaning to their work
experiences. When suffering prevails in these experiences, and the worker is unable to re-
signify it, defensive strategies are formulated to prevent illness or alleviate the suffering
caused by work (Silva & Freitas, 2011). They arise when the worker manages to transform
the way he experiences his work reality that causes him suffering, creating new ways of
dealing with his daily life, even if this does not generate changes in his real work
environment (Mendes, 2007a). The caveat is that, to the extent that they work as an
"anesthesia", allowing you to ignore suffering and deny its causes,

Mendes (2007b) points out that, even in a context where working conditions are precarious,
it is possible to experience pleasure when the organization of work allows the worker to
develop the mobilization of practical intelligence and when there is public space for speech
and cooperation . The mobilization of practical intelligence refers to breaking the rules to
achieve the prescribed work in the search for creative solutions to real work situations. The
public space of speech occurs when workers have the opportunity to publicly express their
opinion and be heard by others. In this sense, workers create a space and share practices
and/or work experiences in the organization, thus being able to be recognized. Cooperation
is a joint construction to produce an idea, service or product; goes through the construction
of solidarity and trust between the members of the group. Under these circumstances,
experiences of suffering can turn into creative suffering.

Based on these principles, the teaching activity in public universities can be seen as a type
of work whose nature still provides the experience of pleasure. Coutinho et al. (2011) point
out that what is observed is that the current characteristics of the university professor's
work can lead him to experience a paradox in relation to the feelings aroused. On the one
hand, there is suffering related to the precariousness of working conditions and, on the
other, pleasure for the possibility of producing knowledge, for the recognition obtained in
the academic space and for the autonomy in carrying out their attributions. In this sense,
this work can provide identity, fulfillment, recognition and freedom, allowing the worker to
be the subject of action and not a subject dominated by work,

Suffering and pleasure are not mutually exclusive properties. In the subject's relationship
with work, the coexistence of these poles can be observed, as one can be transformed into
the other or both can exist at the same time. Suffering, inherent to human existence, can
take a pathogenic or creative path (Neves & Silva, 2006). In the teaching activity, the
authors claim that through regulatory strategies, teachers can give a creative response to
the suffering that work causes as they invest in transforming reality. The meaning of work is
presented as a fundamental aspect for the experience of pleasure, since it is not configured
only as satisfaction (which would be linked to meeting needs), but as fulfillment.

It is based on this perspective that this research proposed to understand the relationship
between the organization of work and the experiences of pleasure and suffering of
professors on a campus in the interior of a federal public university, based on the
perspective of the PdT. For this, it was necessary to examine the activities carried out by
the professors of that institution, analyzing the responsibilities attributed to these
professionals and their relationship with their work. We also sought to understand the
hierarchy and professional relationships experienced by these professors and how they
perceive and experience working conditions.

Rationale

This study will investigate this issue in university teachers and administrative staff. Teaching is an
intellectual activity that requires constant innovation. The contemporary competitive world requires
university employees and teachers to be committed to the organization in which they work, in such a
way that they are able to deal with new didactic forms of teaching that accompany the dynamic job
market. Issues such as qualification requirements for teaching professionals, established by the
Ministry of Education, and the growing number of universities in large centers have increased even
more the requirements in relation to intellectual improvement and quality of these professionals.

It is clear, therefore, that this profession is linked to stressors that encompass objective, subjective
and social aspects. During the exercise of their function, the teaching professional deals directly with
other people and constantly faces problems related to students, socio-political and welfare issues, in
addition to economic difficulties (Codo & Vasques-Menezes, 2000). The low investment in education
often puts the teacher in a conflict situation, because in addition to perceiving a low salary, he needs
to use a substantial part of it in didactic materials to improve his classes.

In order to keep up with the demands of the highly competitive market, in addition to organizing
activities related to education itself, extracurricular activities and school materials, the teacher also
needs to act in the administrative part of planning and recycling, in investigative and guidance
activities, among others. others (Carlotto & Palazzo, 2006). However, when he could participate in
institutional decisions and curriculum restructuring, that is, in the structural aspects of his work, he is
separated from the process, a fact that tends to generate conflicts that can lead to illness. Therefore,
several authors have dedicated themselves to understanding the variables that contribute to the
development of burnout .

For example, Carlotto and Câmara (2008) carried out a survey of Brazilian research, in several
areas, with health and education professionals, police officers, firefighters and students, and found
that the category of teacher is the one that presents the second greatest development of
the burnout syndrome . Sabancı (2009) asserts that burnout significantly affects the health of the
school and all these findings demonstrate the importance of developing more complex studies
involving the burnout variable.

Faced with the complexity that involves the work of university professors and administrative staff, it
is necessary to understand the phenomena that permeate the health of university
employees. Therefore, the present research was dedicated to analyzing the burnout construct in an
integrated manner, considering the multiplicity of factors related to it, with the intention of broadening
the theoretical perspectives on the antecedent and mediating variables that lead teachers to develop
burnout syndrome. Burnout.

This study is developed with the objective of analyzing the mediational power of affective
organizational commitment in the relationship between perception of justice and burnout . From this
perspective, this work presents an understanding of the theoretical model adopted both to verify
whether there is a relationship between the antecedent variable 'perception of organizational justice'
and burnout and to investigate whether the variable 'affective commitment' mediates this
relationship.
Method

This research is of a qualitative nature, which is characterized by its comprehensive and

interpretative aspect, enabling the understanding of the interrelationships that emerge from
a given context (Alves-Mazzotti & Gewandsznajder, 1999). The case study with university
employees from KP universities adopted as a study technique restricted to one or a few
units, having depth and detail as characteristics (Vergara, 2014).

The criteria for searching for research subjects will be: being a tenured professor on
a campus in the interior of the federal public university studied for at least three years
(period corresponding to the probationary period), administrative staff of all cadres and
grades working on contract/permanent basis. In addition, with the aim of making the
sample more heterogeneous, a professor from each of the five major areas of knowledge
present on campus was interviewed.in question: Exact Sciences, Human Sciences, Biological
Sciences, Linguistics and Agricultural Sciences.

The subjects were invited from the network of acquaintances of one of the researchers
(provided that the stated criteria were met) and the interviews were carried out based on
their willingness to provide information.

Data collection Tools

The following measurement scales will be used to investigate the theoretical questions regarding the
presented constructs: Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI); Organizational Justice Perception Scale
(EPJO) and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ).

1. The MBI was created by Maslasch, Jackson and Leiter (1996), and, in this study, the version
translated by Codo (1999) was used, with some adaptations for application to the studied
population. This instrument consists of an inventory consisting of 22 items divided into three
dimensions – emotional exhaustion, cynicism and ineffectiveness, whose measurement
scale ranges from 0 (never) to 6 (every day). As an example of the three dimensions, there
are the items: "I feel exhausted by my work" – item 8; "I'm worried that this job is hardening
me emotionally" – item 11; "I can finally understand how my students feel about things" –
item 4. The factorial analysis of the MBI confirmed its 22 items distributed in the three
dimensions – emotional exhaustion, α = 0.90; cynicism, α = 0.79; and ineffectiveness, α = 0,
2. The EPJO, an instrument constructed, checked for accuracy and validated by Mendonça et
al. (2003), measures the perception of organizational justice on a scale ranging from 1
(completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree). It also encompasses three dimensions –
perception of distributive justice, α = 0.91; perception of procedural justice, α = 0.90; and
perception of interactional justice, α = 0.84 – and presents statistically accepted reliability
coefficients and high taxonomic power to measure the proposed constructs, data that were
confirmed in this study.
3. The OCQ validated in Brazil by Borges-Andrade et al. (1989), in its reduced version, with a
scale ranging from 1 (totally disagree) to 7 (totally agree), to analyze affective organizational
commitment. It is a unifactorial scale that in this study presented α = 0.79.
4. Human Resource Management Scale This study employed three separate scales to
measure the four HRM practices: (i) recruitment and selection, (ii) training and
development, (iii) performance appraisal and (iv) rewards and benefits in Jordanian
 organisations. First, the Edgar and Geare (2005) scale was considered to be appropriate to
measure recruitment and selection and training and development practices.
5. Job Satisfaction Scale This study measured job satisfaction by using the Spector (1997)
Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) scale, which assesses nine facets of job satisfaction as well
as the overall satisfaction. The scale consists of nine subscales using a summated rating
scale format which appears to be the most popular scale for measuring job satisfaction.
6. Organisational Commitment Scale The current study employed the revised three
component scales of affective, continuance and normative commitment developed by
Meyer et al., (1993), to measure the organisational commitment among the frontline
employees. The organisational commitment scale consists of three subscales and eighteen
items (six items for each subscale). The scale uses a seven point Likert scale format
ranging from (1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree).
7. Work Value Scale The current study employed Matic‘s (2008) scale to measure the
employees‘ work values. The work value scale consists of three sub-scales. The
participants were asked to think of their work values, and then to indicate whether that
criteria was ‗1 = very important‘, ‗2 = somewhat important‘, or ‗3 = not important.‘

For data collection, a semi-structured interview will be used, based on the categories of the
Psychodynamic Analysis of Work (APDT). The average duration of each interview will be
approxamtely 30 minutes.

Mendes and Araújo (2012) propose the Clinical Analysis of Work (ACT) as a method to
organize the material collected in the collective sessions, consisting of three stages, namely:
Analysis of Clinical Devices (CDA), APDT and Analysis of Work Mobilization Work Collective
(AMCT). In the case of this research, as no collective meetings will be held, but an
adaptation of the psychodynamic work clinic method, with the use of individual interviews,
only Step II of the method, APDT, will be followed. This stage corresponds to the structuring
of three axes of analysis. Axis I concerns the organization of prescribed work and real work,
covering the following topics: types of tasks; division of labor; norms and rules; times and
rhythms; technical requirements; relations with peers, managers and clients; management
style; responsibilities and risks. Axis II concerns subjective mobilization and includes the
following themes: creative suffering; practical intelligence; discussion
space; cooperation; recognition. Axis III refers to suffering, defenses and pathologies and
includes the themes: pathogenic suffering; individual defense strategies; collective defense
strategies; types of pathologies; physical and psychosocial harm.

Data analysis

The proposed study model presented a dependent variable composed of three dimensions –
exhaustion, cynicism and ineffectiveness –, an independent variable composed of three factors –
perception of distributive, procedural and interactional justice –, and a mediating variable – affective
organizational commitment.

The mediational effect of the variable was interpreted based on the theory proposed by Baron and
Kenny (1986), according to which, in order to analyze the mediational effect of a variable, the
following conditions must be met: the relationship between the predictor variable ( VI) and the
criterion variable (DV) must be significant (step 1); the predictor variable (VI) must be related to the
mediator variable (VMe) (step 2); the mediator must relate to the criterion variable (DV) after the
effect of the predictor variable (VI) has been controlled (step 3); the strength of the association
between the predictor (VI) and criterion (DV) variables should be reduced when the mediator is
considered in the model (step 4).

Following these conditions, at first, the influence of VI (perception of distributive, procedural and
interactional justice) on DV ( burnout in each dimension separately – emotional exhaustion, cynicism
and ineffectiveness) was analyzed. Then, the regression was performed including VI (perception of
distributive, procedural and interactional justice) on the mediating variable (affective organizational
commitment). Afterwards, the analysis was carried out including all the variables, such as VI
(perception of distributive, procedural and interactional justice) and DV ( burnout in each dimension
separately – exhaustion, cynicism and ineffectiveness). Finally, a confirmatory study of the
mediational model was carried out, using the Sobel test, proposed by Baron and Kenny (1986).

Data analysis will be carried out through the systematic procedures of content analysis by
Bardin (1977), which consists of a series of communication analysis techniques, seeking to
describe the content of messages that allow the inference of knowledge within the approach
used. to support this research.

The interviews will be recorded, transcribed in full and generated the material to be
analyzed. The analysis was performed by the three researchers. The constructed categories
resulted from the investigation of the interviews, with the researchers being open to
knowing what could emerge from the narratives. Data analysis will begin with the
codification of the interview themes, which were named and discussed among the team. In
addition to the content analysis guidelines, the three axes of the APDT were also guidelines
for the systematization and interpretation of data. The themes were grouped into
categories, based on the familiarity of their content.

The research was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Goiás
under protocol number 136/2013.