Arab Journal of Administration, Vol. 46, No. 3, September 2026 1 Antecedents of Job Burnout in Saudi Arabian Labor Market * This article was submitted in October 2022, and accepted for publishing in April 2023. © Arab Administrative Development Organization- League of Arab States, 2026, pp 1-8، DOI:10.21608/AJA.2023.170816.1341 Abdelmohsen A. Nassani Professor in Business Administration College Nassani@ksu.edu.sa Ibrahim M. AlFraih College of Business Administration 442911336@student.ksu.edu.sa King Saud University Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Abstract Job burnout has become one of the biggest concerns for employees in the Saudi labor market, especially with high work demand. Although many studies have addressed job burnout as a negative impact. However, a few studies were conducted for the Saudi Arabian labor market to study the job burnout antecedents. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of total reward and leadership as independent variables on job burnout, employee engagement as a mediator, and the correlation between all variables. The study was conducted on employees from all sectors and various industries in the Saudi employment market, includ- ing all nationalities. The data was collected using electronic questionaries, and there were 238 respondents. Moreover, the collected data was analyzed through descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviations, and cor- relation) along with applying reliability analysis to the data and fnally performing path analysis. This study is useful for employers because it demonstrates that in order to get employees engaged, it is necessary to provide them with professional leadership and compensation to reduce job burnout. Keywords: Total Reward, Leadership, Employee Engagement, Job Burnout, Saudi Arabia. Introduction Economic growth in Saudi Arabia creates a lot of business and investment opportunities, which drive a massive amount of work and complexity, along with diferent reward schemes and a lack of potential leaders, which might cause job burnout. In recent years, the concept of job burnout has gained attention among hu- man capital practitioners and business leaders. Managers worry about job burnout, one of several variables that lower employee enthusiasm and productivity (Charoensukmongkol, P. et al., 2016). Long working hours, work-home confict, role ambiguity, lack of management support, poor self-efcacy, and many years of expe- rience can also lead to burnout, according to research (Sndenaa, E., et al., 2015). Moreover, the event hampers personal and social functioning in the workplace, which has substantial implications for the worker, others afected by them, and the organization. Burnout can cause some people to resign, but others will stay but ac- complish the bare minimum (Leiter, M. P. et al., 2003). While organizational growth must address job burnout, examining job burnout’s causes is important since understanding its development mechanisms is essential for intervention (Li, Y. et al., 2020). Research on social support and occupational burnout has been conducted, al- though numerous factors need further study. First, previous studies combined emotional weariness, deperson- alization, and a perceived lack of personal success into one measure of burnout. The outcome variable was this combination (Charoensukmongkol, P. et al., 2016). Due to the lack of sufcient studies addressing job burnout