Factors affecting Arab academics’ perceptions of their career choice: insights from Jordan, Iraq, and Bahrain

This research addresses a critical gap in the current academic literature by focusing on the under-researched factors influencing satisfaction, commitment, and motivation among academic staff, particularly within Arab countries. This research seeks to comprehensively understand academic career decision-making in the Arab world, considering diverse cultural and social perspectives. This work contributes to the broader discourse on the academic landscape and the variations within the Middle Eastern region. The qualitative approach was followed, and data were collected from 59 interviews conducted in three countries: 20 interviews in Jordan, 19 interviews in Bahrain, and 20 interviews in Iraq. The findings indicate that the factors that motivate faculty members to engage in academia, the satisfaction factors, are mostly intrinsic, while dissatisfaction and challenges factors are mostly extrinsic. Results also indicate no differences in motivators or satisfaction factors among nationalities; nonetheless, there were some differences in career challenges among Arab countries. Further, the results revealed that not all career challenges were perceived as dissatisfaction factors, as factors that generate dissatisfaction go beyond mere challenges. Although the main factors that generate satisfaction, as well as dissatisfaction, are similar to those in the research literature, there are some new ones linked to culture and legal systems.