The Stress–Burnout Relationship: Examining the Moderating Effect of Physical Activity and Intrinsic Motivation for Off-Job Physical Activity

an article by Sandrine Isoard-Gautheur, Clément Ginoux and Philippe Sarrazin (Université Grenoble Alpes, Switzerland) and Markus Gerbe (University Issue 7 (July 2019)of Basel, Switzerland) published in Workplace Health & Safety Volume 67 Issue 7 (July 2019)

Abstract

Current research highlights the need to critically examine the factors that can reduce the relationship between work stress and burnout to improve employee health and well-being, as well as to create healthier workplaces.

The objective of this study was to enhance insight into the association between stress and job burnout by testing the moderated moderating effect of off-job physical activity (PA) and intrinsic motivation for off-job PA on this association.

A total of 369 university staff (70% females) completed a web survey comprising measures of perceived stress, job burnout, PA, and intrinsic motivation for PA. A three-way conditional process model revealed that the “Stress × PA” interaction was significant for cognitive weariness, and that the three-way interaction between “Stress × PA × Intrinsic Motivation for PA” was significantly related to job burnout, and to cognitive weariness.

The results highlight

1. that stress was associated with higher levels of job burnout;
2. that under a high stress condition, PA was negatively linked to cognitive weariness; and 
3. that intrinsic motivation for PA reinforced the positive moderating effect of PA on the stress–burnout relationship, especially when stress is high.

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Stress and Health Outcomes: Do Meaningful Work and Physical Activity Help?

an article by Suzanne H. Lease and Emily L. Brown (The University of Memphis, TN, USA) and Christina L. Ingram (Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA) published in Journal of Career Development Volume 46 Issue 3 (June 2019): June 1, 2019

Abstract

The negative effects of stress and burnout on mental and physical health are widely known, as are the beneficial effects of physical activity.

While the organizational literature emphasizes the value of meaningful work for employers and employees alike, the stress-buffering role of meaningful work in combination with physical activity is not known.

The present study examined the

1. mediating role of burnout in the relationships between perceived stress and health risk behaviors (i.e., poor diet, tobacco use, and alcohol use) and depressive symptoms and
2. moderating roles of meaningful work and physical activity on the relationships between perceived stress and health outcomes.

Participants were 229 employed adults. Perceived stress predicted physical health risk behaviors and depressive symptoms, but the direct and indirect negative effects of stress were stronger when meaningful work scores were lower. Findings offer support for the development of interventions that include enhancing work meaningfulness.

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Is Your Best Leading to Burnout?

a post by Margarita Tartakovsky for the Weightless blog [via World of Psychology]



I recently came across a quote on Instagram that resonated with me: “Friendly reminder that ‘doing your best’ does not mean working yourself to the point of a mental breakdown.” It resonated with me because often that’s exactly what I do. Because if I have more to give, I think I must give it. I must give it everything I have. Everything. It’s as though I’m a well, and I must empty myself of all my water.

Years ago, every day that I’d come home from middle school I’d go straight to my room, sit at my pink desk and start doing homework. I’d refuse to come out or eat dinner until I was done. This was how I worked, and this is similar to how I work today. I keep thinking that unless I’m mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted, then I need to keep working and writing and producing (and even after I’ve past that point).

Even though I know intellectually that I don’t need to earn rest or self-care (no one does), I still go through those motions. I still act like a drill sergeant. I still act like a bully toward myself. I still start wondering why I can’t do as much as such and such person, and I conclude that it’s because there’s obviously something wrong with me.

Continue reading

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The role of emotional dissonance and emotional intelligence on job-stress, burnout and well-being among nurses

an article by Bilal Afsar and Mariam Masood (Hazara University, Mansehra, Pakistan) and Sadia Cheema (National College of Business Administration and Economics, Lahore, Pakistan) published in International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management Volume 9 Number 2 (2017)

Abstract

Although emotional dissonance has been broadly investigated in the literature, the relationship of emotional dissonance and emotional intelligence with job-stress, burnout and well-being in nursing profession requires further exploration.

This study examines the extent to which emotional dissonance and emotional intelligence are associated with job-stress, burnout and well-being among nurses working in public sector hospitals of Pakistan.

The moderating role of emotional intelligence is evaluated as a key factor in the rescue of healthcare workers from job-stress and burnout thus increasing job retention.

Data were collected from 379 nurses working in public sector hospitals of Pakistan through a cross-sectional quantitative research design. The results show that both emotional dissonance and emotional intelligence have significant effects on nurses' perceived job-stress, burnout and well-being.

The moderating effect of emotional intelligence is also confirmed.

These findings provide additional evidence for the important effects that emotional dissonance and emotional intelligence can have on nurses' job-stress, burnout and well-being. The potential benefits of emotional intelligence in the nurses' emotional work have been explored.

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Job crafting and motivation to continue working beyond retirement age

an article by Philipp Wolfgang Lichtenthaler and Andrea Fischbach (Deutsche Hochschule der Polizei, Munster, Germany) published i Career Development International Volume 21 Issue 5 (2016)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how promotion- and prevention-focused job crafting impacts the motivation of older employees to continue working beyond retirement age. The authors hypothesised that promotion-focused job crafting (i.e. increasing social and structural job resources, and challenging job demands) relates positively and prevention-focussed job crafting (i.e. decreasing hindering job demands) relates negatively with motivation to continue working after reaching the official retirement age, and that these relationships are sequential mediated by work sense of coherence and burnout.

Design/methodology/approach
Data from 229 older employees (mean age=55.77) were analysed using structural equation modelling.

Findings
Promotion-focused job crafting was positively and prevention-focused job crafting was negatively related with employees’ work sense of coherence, which was predictive of employees’ burnout, which in turn was predictive of motivation to continue working beyond retirement age.

Research limitations/implications
Despite the cross-sectional study design, the results unfold how promotion- and prevention-focused job crafting are related with motivation to continue working beyond retirement age through work sense of coherence and burnout.

Practical implications
Given today’s ageing and shrinking workforce, older employees working beyond their official retirement age are a necessity for organisations’ functional capability. The results suggest that organisations should encourage employees’ promotion-focused job crafting and limit prevention-focused job crafting. Promotion-focused job crafting facilitates employees’ work sense of coherence, which keeps them healthy and motivates older employees to continue working beyond retirement age.

Originality/value
This study adds to the literatures on job crafting and motivation to continue working beyond retirement age and explicates intervening processes in this relationship.

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Work-Related Communication Technology Use Outside of Regular Work Hours and Work Life Conflict: The Influence of Communication Technologies on Perceived Work Life Conflict, Burnout, Job Satisfaction, and Turnover Intentions

an article by Kevin B. Wright (George Mason University, Fairfax, USA), Bryan Abendschein (University of Illinois at Urban–Champaign, USA), Kevin Wombacher (University of Kentucky, USA) and Michaela O’Connor, Megan Hoffman, Molly Dempsey, Christopher Krull, Audrey Dewes and Audrey Shelton (Saint Louis University, USA) published in Management Communication Quarterly Volume 28 Number 4 (November 2014)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate employee perceptions of the influence of communication technology use outside of regular work hours on perceptions of work life conflict, burnout, turnover intentions, and job satisfaction.

An online survey of 168 employees from more than 30 companies in a Midwestern city was conducted to assess relationships among these variables.

The results indicated that hours of work-related communication technology use outside of regular work hours contributed to perceptions of work life conflict.

However, positive attitudes toward communication technologies predicted decreased work life conflict. Controlling for worker age, perceived life stress, and attitudes toward communication technologies, work life conflict was found to predict job burnout and job satisfaction, but not turnover intentions.

The authors discuss implications of the study findings for management practices, limitations of the study, and directions for future research.

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The value of psychological flexibility: Examining psychological mechanisms underpinning a cognitive behavioural therapy intervention for burnout

Joda Lloyd and Frank W. Bond (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK) and Paul E. Flaxman (City University, London, UK) published in Work & Stress: An International Journal of Work, Health & Organisations Volume 27 Issue 2 (2013)

Abstract

Little is known of the mechanisms by which interventions for burnout work.

Employees of a UK government department were randomly assigned to either a worksite group-based CBT intervention called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; n=43), which aimed to increase participants’ psychological flexibility, or a waiting list control group (n=57).

The ACT group received three half-day sessions of training spread over two and a half months. Data were collected at baseline (T1), at the beginning of the second (T2) and third (T3) workshops, and at six months’ follow up (T4).

Consistent with ACT theory, analyses revealed that, in comparison to the control group, a significant increase in psychological flexibility from T2 to T3 in the ACT group mediated the subsequent T2 to T4 decrease in emotional exhaustion in that group.

Consistent with a theory of emotional burnout development, this significant decrease in emotional exhaustion from T2 to T4 in the ACT group appeared to prevent the significant T3 to T4 increase in depersonalization seen in the control group. Strain also decreased from T2 to T3 in the ACT group only, but no mediator of that improvement was identified.

Implications for theory and practice in the fields of ACT and emotional burnout are discussed.

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Burnout and impaired cognitive functioning: The role of executive control in the performance of cognitive tasks

an article by Stefan Diestel and Klaus-Helmut Schmidt (Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors at the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany) and Marlen Cosmar (Institute for Work and Health of the German Social Accident Insurance, Dresden, Germany) published in Work & Stress: An International Journal of Work, Health & Organisations Volume 27 Issue 2 (2013)

Abstract

Burnout patients often report deficits in cognitive control, and there is a need to understand the processes involved.

Drawing on recent findings, we hypothesised that emotional exhaustion and task-related demands on executive control would interact in predicting performance in tasks requiring the updating and monitoring of working memory as well as the inhibition of prepotent (dominant or automatic) responses. In accordance with recent conceptualisations of burnout, we focused on emotional exhaustion as the core symptom of burnout.

The sample comprised 81 employees recruited from nursing homes for elderly care in Germany, who participated in a laboratory study involving cognitive tasks. Based on a median split, participants were divided into two groups: those with high burnout and those with low burnout.

In line with our hypotheses, the high exhaustion participants performed less well than those with low exhaustion only when tasks put high demands on their executive control. As predicted, high levels of emotional exhaustion were associated with more errors and longer reaction times when demands on executive control were high, whereas no performance differences were found when both tasks put low demands on executive control.

The implications for practice are discussed.

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Workplace bullying and psychological health at work: The mediating role of satisfaction of needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness

an article by Sarah-Geneviève Trépanier (Université du Québec à Montréal, Quebec, Canada) and Claude Fernet and Stéphanie Austin (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada) published in Work & Stress: An International Journal of Work, Health & Organisations Volume 27 Issue 2 (2013)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate how exposure to workplace bullying undermines psychological health at work.

Drawing on self-determination theory, this study proposes and tests a model in which the experience of workplace bullying predicts poor psychological health at work (higher burnout and lower work engagement) through lack of satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness).

The results of this study, conducted among 1,179 nurses in Quebec, Canada, provide support for the model.

Workplace bullying negatively predicted work engagement through employees’ unsatisfied needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness.

Workplace bullying also positively predicted burnout, via lack of satisfaction of employees’ need for autonomy. Invariance analysis also confirmed the robustness of the model across gender and job status. Implications for workplace bullying research and managerial practices are discussed.

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How do job characteristics contribute to burnout? Exploring the distinct mediating roles of perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness

an article by Claude Fernet, Stéphanie Austin, Sarah-Geneviève Trépanier and Marc Dussault (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada) published in European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology Volume 22 Issue 2 (2013)

Abstract

This study aimed to better understand the psychological mechanisms, referred to in the job demands–resources model as the energetic and motivational processes, that can explain relationships between job demands (role overload and ambiguity), job resources (job control and social support), and burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment).

Drawing on self-determination theory, we examined whether psychological resources (perceived autonomy, competence, and relatedness) act as specific mediators between particular job demands and burnout as well as between job resources and burnout.

Participants were 356 school board employees.

Results of the structural equation analyses provide support for our hypothesised model, which proposes that certain job demands and resources are involved in both the energetic and motivational processes – given their relationships with psychological resources – and that they distinctively predict burnout components.

Implications for burnout research and management practices are discussed.

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Work-family conflicts, threat-appraisal, self-efficacy and emotional exhaustion

an article by Wendy Glaser and Tracy D. Hecht (Concordia University, Montreal, Canada) published in Journal of Managerial Psychology Volume 28 Issue 2 (2013)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine associations between work-family conflicts, threat appraisals, self-efficacy, and emotional exhaustion. Threat appraisal was hypothesised to mediate relations between work-family conflicts (work-to-family and family-to-work) and emotional exhaustion. Self-efficacy was hypothesised to moderate relations between work-family conflicts and threat appraisal, with relations expected to be weaker for individuals high in self-efficacy.

Design/methodology/approach
University employees (n=159; 67 percent female) participated in this non-experimental study. Data were gathered via questionnaire. Two-thirds of participants completed measures of work-family conflicts and threat-appraisal a few weeks prior to completing measures of self-efficacy and emotional exhaustion; remaining participants completed one cross-sectional survey.

Findings
Observed relations were consistent with predicted mediation hypotheses. Contrary to predictions, self-efficacy did not moderate relations between work-to-family conflict and threat-appraisal and the relation between family-to-work conflict and threat-appraisal was stronger for those with higher self-efficacy. Self-efficacy was negatively related to emotional exhaustion.

Practical implications
Organisations should foster positive work-family climates to help alleviate work-family conflicts. Managers should demonstrate compassion when dealing with employees who have serious family concerns, as even efficacious individuals may find such situations threatening.

Originality/value
This research integrates stress theories with research on the work-family interface. The relevance of threat appraisal and the role of self-efficacy are highlighted.

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“Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!“ Interpersonal strain at work and burnout

Laura Borgogni, Chiara Consiglio, and Alessandri Guido (University of Rome “Sapienza” Italy) and Wilmar B. Schaufeli (Utrecht University, the Netherlands) published in European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology Volume 21 Number 6 (December 2012)

Abstract

Interpersonal strain represents the feeling of discomfort and disengagement in the relationships with people at work resulting from exceeding social requests and pressures.

This article has three aims

1. to introduce the Interpersonal Strain at Work scale (ISW);
2. to examine its construct validity and reliability, and its relationship with the Maslach Burnout Inventory exhaustion and cynicism; and
3. to test the generalizability of the ISW across different work settings.

Multilevel CFA on two samples of call centre agents (5,407) and hospital professionals (753), nested in 191 and 43 units, respectively, confirmed the good psychometric properties of the ISW and its distinctiveness from established burnout dimensions. The generalisability of ISW was also supported. Interpersonal strain at work seems to be a promising construct to recapture the interpersonal nature of the burnout syndrome that was lost when the concept of burnout was extended beyond the human services.

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Predicting employees’ satisfaction and burnout from managers’ attachment and caregiving orientations

an article by Sigalit Ronen (Trident University International, Cypress, USA) and Mario Mikulincer (The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzlyia, Israel) pubslished in European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology Volume 21 Number 6 (December 2012)

Abstract

In recent years, there have been initial attempts to apply attachment theory to account for leader-follower relationships and leaders’ contribution to followers’ performance.

Drawing on this theoretical framework, we examined the relationships between managers’ attachment orientations and subordinates’ job satisfaction and burnout.

Data were collected from 85 work groups from 71 organisations consisting of 483 subordinates and their 85 direct managers from a variety of job roles.

Hierarchical linear modelling analyses indicated that managers’ attachment insecurities predicted higher job burnout and lower job satisfaction among subordinates, and that ineffective caring orientation of the managers mediated these links.

Findings further showed that subordinates’ attachment insecurities were associated with burnout and job dissatisfaction. Implications for leadership research and for the design of organisational intervention as well as future research directions are discussed.

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Do you want me to be perfect? Two longitudinal studies on socially prescribed perfectionism, stress and burnout in the workplace

an article by Julian H. Childs and Joachim Stoeber ( University of Kent, Canterbury, UK) published in Work & Stress: An International Journal of Work, Health & Organisations Volume 26 Issue 4 (November 2012)

Abstract

Stress and burnout in the workplace have a negative impact not only on individuals but also on organisations, clients and customers and are estimated to be of high cost to a country’s economy. To help identify employees at high risk, it is important to know what individual differences contribute to stress and burnout.

Two longitudinal studies were conducted to examine whether individual differences in socially prescribed perfectionism (individuals’ perceptions that others have perfectionistic expectations of them) contribute to employees’ role stress and predict increases in burnout symptoms (exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy).

Study 1 investigated 69 healthcare service provision employees in the UK over a six-month interval, and Study 2 investigated 195 school teachers in the UK over a three-month interval.

In both studies, socially prescribed perfectionism predicted increases in role stress and inefficacy over time.

Moreover, in Study 2, socially prescribed perfectionism also predicted increases in exhaustion and cynicism over time.

The findings indicate that individual differences in socially prescribed perfectionism may be a contributing factor to stress and burnout in the workplace.

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Impaired cognitive performance and responsiveness to reward in burnout patients: Two years later

an article by Arno van Dam (Institute for Mental Health, Bergen op Zoom, the Netherlands), Ger P.J. Keijsers, Eni S. Becker and Paul A.T.M. Eling (Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands) published in Work & Stress: An International Journal of Work, Health & Organisations Volume 26 Issue 4 (November 2012)

Abstract

Relatively little is known about the course of symptoms in patients suffering from burnout and even less about the status of their cognitive functioning.

We followed 40 burnout patients and 40 healthy controls who had participated in a previous study on the effect of motivational interventions on cognitive performance in an experimental task and repeated these measurements two years later (T2).

The burnout patients, who had received psychological treatment, showed substantial improvement regarding burnout symptoms and cognitive performance at T2. The pre-post-effect size for symptom reduction was large.

Importantly, cognitive performance and responsiveness to motivational interventions improved to normal levels. The patients no longer fulfilled the criteria for burnout or any other psychiatric disorder. Despite these improvements, burnout patients still experienced more exhaustion, general fatigue, depressive symptoms and general distress in comparison to healthy controls and compared to normed groups.

The same pattern was observed with regard to cognitive performance: performance improved but remained below normal levels. Perceived job competence, involvement in work and responsiveness to rewards had returned to normal levels. The results indicate that although recovery from burnout is possible, symptoms may persist over the long term (here, two years). This should be taken into consideration by employers.

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Cross-lagged associations between perceived external employability, job insecurity, and exhaustion: …

Testing gain and loss spirals according to the Conservation of Resources Theory

 an article by Nele De Cuyper (Organizational and Personnel Psychology, K.U. Leuven, Belgium), Anne Mäkikangas and Saija Mauno (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), Ulla Kinnunen (University of Tampere, Finland) and Hans De Witte (Organizational and Personnel Psychology, K.U. Leuven, Belgium and North-West University, South-Africa) published in Journal of Organizational Behavior (Special Issue: Coping with Economic Stress) Volume 33 Issue 6 (August 2012)

Abstract

This study investigates perceived external employability (PEE) as a personal resource in relation to job insecurity and exhaustion. We advance the idea that PEE may reduce feelings of job insecurity and, through felt job insecurity, also exhaustion. That is, we probe the paths from PEE to job insecurity and from job insecurity to exhaustion. We furthermore account for possible reversed causality, so that exhaustion → felt job insecurity and felt job insecurity → PEE.

This aligns with insights from the Conservation of Resources Theory, which is built on the assumption of resource caravans passageways and associated gain and loss spirals. We based the results on a sample of 1,314 workers from two Finnish universities. Respondents participated twice in the study with a time lag of one year. We found that PEE related negatively to felt job insecurity and vice versa. Similarly, there was a reciprocal positive relationship between felt job insecurity and exhaustion.

We conclude that PEE may prevent feelings of insecurity and, through reduced job insecurity, also exhaustion.
Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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The Psychic Cost of Doing Wrong: Ethical Conflict, Divestiture Socialization, and Emotional Exhaustion

an article by John D. Kammeyer-Mueller and Lauren S. Simon (University of Florida) and Bruce L. Rich (California State University, San Marcos) published in Journal of Management Volume 30 Number 3 (May 2012)

Abstract

Many employees feel ethically conflicted at work, but research has yet to identify the specific mechanisms that give rise to this sense of ethical conflict.

The authors propose that ethical conflicts occur when companies encourage employees to behave counter to their own sense of right and wrong during the process of organizational socialization. Employees who are subject to these pressures experience psychological distress.

The authors’ study of 371 early career lawyers found that divestiture socialization was positively related to ethical conflict and that ethical conflict was related to higher emotional exhaustion and lower career fulfilment. Ethical conflict partially mediated the relationship between divestiture socialization and emotional exhaustion.

Narrative comments provided by respondents reinforced the relationship between divestiture socialization and ethical conflict.

Hazel’s comment:
I wasn't sure about the phrase “divestiture socialization” and found this article by Van Maanen, J. and E. H. Schein from 1979 helpful. I hope you do to (or maybe you didn’t need it!)

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