Burnout and self‐employment: a cross‐cultural empirical study

This study examined the differences between full‐time self‐employed and organizationally employed individuals in Canada (n = 248) and Pakistan (n = 306) in terms of overall burnout and its three dimensions (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and lack of accomplishment), turnover intentions and non‐work satisfaction. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire from Canadian employees in Montreal and Pakistani employees in Lahore. One‐way analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance were used to analyse the data. The self‐employed reported significantly higher overall burnout, emotional exhaustion, lack of accomplishment, non‐work satisfaction and turnover intention than the organizationally employed in both countries. No significant differences were found between self‐employed and organizationally employed in terms of depersonalization in both countries. Results are discussed in light of previous empirical evidence on self‐employment and the quality of work and non‐work life from cross‐cultural perspectives. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.