Using the Concept of Work Alienation as a Lens to Explore Academic Females’ Experiences at King Saud University

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to explore the experience of Saudi women working in academia by using the concept of alienation as a lens. With this aim, there were three research questions: • To what extent, and in what ways, are dimensions of alienation relevant in understanding the situation of women in academia in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? • How do women working in academia in Saudi Arabia experience gender segregation? • How are these dynamics affected by the new ways of working (notably, Saudi Vision 2030) and the technological innovations introduced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic? The paper begins with a literature review, which established the starting point for answering the research questions. After that, a qualitative methodology was selected to collect and analyse the research data. Data collection took place via face-to-face and Zoom interviews. The study comprised 33 female academics working at King Saud University. Ten of those interviewees were interviewed more than once to collect more data about the Covid-19 pandemic. Thematic analysis was used to highlight codes and develop themes from the data. The results and discussion show that alienation is a valuable concept in exploring phenomena related to women in the workplace. Academic careers were found to have positive features, but these were based on employees’ culturally determined points of view. Aspects such as the level of autonomy enjoyed by the participants, the degree to which they felt they were under control and their sense of meaningfulness is better identified from employees’ perspectives within a specific context. The results also indicate that negative feelings, such as sadness, should not always be understood as a sign of alienation. In contrast, sadness and tiredness arose in informants as an indication of high engagement with their work. Further recommendations include more exploratory studies to enrich the concept of alienation and to provide organisations with an understanding of specific issues rather than just symptoms.