Occupational Role Stress, Compassion Fatigue and Work Engagement in Lawyers

Abstract

Lawyers play a crucial role in society by upholding justice, ensuring fair treatment, and advocating for individual rights. However, the demands of their profession can be overwhelming. The study was aimed to assess the relationship between occupational role stress, compassion fatigue and work engagement in lawyers and to investigate how occupational role stress and compassion fatigue predict work engagement of lawyers. It was hypothesized that occupational role stress and compassion fatigue will negatively impact work engagement in lawyers. A cross-sectional research design was used to obtain a convenient sample of 218 lawyers with the age range of (22-78) years with a mean of 34.76 and standard deviation of 10.5 from the different courts of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Measures, including Occupational Role Stress Scale (Pareek, 1983a), Compassion Fatigue Test (Figley & Stamm, 1996), and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-9 (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004) were used along with the demographic information sheet. Results of correlation analysis showed that occupational role stress and compassion fatigue were significantly negatively correlated with work engagement. Regression analysis showed similar results where occupational role stress and compassion fatigue significantly negatively predicted work engagement. These findings suggest that legal organizations should implement suitable interventions to mitigate occupational role stress and compassion fatigue, thereby enhancing lawyers' work engagement. Such measures will not only benefit legal professionals but will also reinforce the pursuit of justice in society, ultimately strengthening the justice system of Pakistan and promoting a better and just future.