Burnout is characterized by emotional exhaustion, physical fatigue, and cognitive weariness, resulting from prolonged exposure to work-related stress. The authors review the accumulated evidence suggesting that burnout and the related concept of vital exhaustion are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular-related events. The authors present evidence supporting several potential mechanisms linking burnout with ill health, including the metabolic syndrome, dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis along with sympathetic nervous system activation, sleep disturbances, systemic inflammation, impaired immunity functions, blood coagulation and fibrinolysis, and poor health behaviors. The association of burnout and vital exhaustion with these disease mediators suggests that their impact on health may be more extensive than currently indicated.

The authors studied certain aspects of the construct validity of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS), the most popular measure of burnout, and that of the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure (SMBM). These burnout measures were compared with respect to their psychometric characteristics and factorial validity in two groups of professionals, human service and other professionals (N ϭ 196 and 226, respectively), who completed questionnaires at work. As hypothesized, the confirmatory factor analyses supported a two-factor and a three-factor structure invariance across the two groups considered for the SMBM and the MBI-GS, respectively, with superior fit found for the SMBM.

We quantitatively integrated 169 samples (N= 35,265 employees) that have been used to investigate the relationships of the following 7 work‐related stressors with job performance: role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, job insecurity, work–family conflict, environmental uncertainty, and situational constraints. Overall, we obtained a negative mean correlation between each job performance measure and each stressor included in our analyses. As hypothesized, role ambiguity and situational constraints were most strongly negatively related to performance, relative to the other work‐related stressors. Analysis of moderators revealed that (a) the negative correlation of role overload and performance was higher among managers relative to nonmanagers; (b) publication year moderated the relation of role ambiguity and role overload with performance, although in opposite directions; (c) the correlations obtained for published versus unpublished studies were not significantly different; and (d) using the Rizzo et al. scale of role ambiguity and role conflict decreased the magnitude of the correlations of these stressors with performance, relative to other scales. Theoretical contributions, future research directions, and practical implications are discussed.

A quantitative and qualitative review of existing literature on working hours and health was carried out. Meta‐analyses were performed on 21 study samples. Results indicated small, but significant positive mean correlations between overall health symptoms, physiological and psychological health symptoms, and hours of work. Qualitative analysis of 12 other studies supported these findings of a positive relationship between hours of work and ill‐health. Different factors which may obscure the relationship between health and hours of work are discussed, together with other moderating influences. Taking these into account it is proposed that the results of the meta‐analyses together with the qualitative analysis offer support for a link between hours of work and ill‐health.

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We quantitatively integrated 169 samples (N = 35,265 employees) that have been used to investigate the relationships of the following 7 workrelated stressors with job performance: role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, job insecurity, work-family conflict, environmental uncertainty, and situational constraints. Overall, we obtained a negative mean correlation between each job performance measure and each stressor included in our analyses. As hypothesized, role ambiguity and situational constraints were most strongly negatively related to performance, relative to the other work-related stressors. Analysis of moderators revealed that (a) the negative correlation of role overload and performance was higher among managers relative to nonmanagers; (b) publication year moderated the relation of role ambiguity and role overload with performance, although in opposite directions; (c) the correlations obtained for published versus unpublished studies were not significantly different; and (d) using the Rizzo et al. scale of role ambiguity and role conflict decreased the magnitude of the correlations of these stressors with performance, relative to other scales. Theoretical contributions, future research directions, and practical implications are discussed.Psychosocial stressors at work represent a ubiquitous and multifaceted phenomenon (Lazarus, 1993); several theoretical frameworks predict that they affect employee attitudes and behaviors (Jex & Crossley, 2005). Most past meta-analytical reviews of these relationships focused only on the linkages of role conflict and role ambiguity with job performance, none of

The burnout syndrome denotes a constellation of physical fatigue, emotional exhaustion, and cognitive weariness resulting from chronic stress. Although it overlaps considerably with chronic fatigue as defined in internal medicine, its links with physical illness have not been systematically investigated. This exploratory study, conducted among 104 male workers free from cardiovascular disease (CVD), tested the association between burnout and two of its common concomitants--tension and listlessness--and cardiovascular risk factors. After ruling out five possible confounders (age, relative weight, smoking, alcohol use, and sports activity), the authors found that scores on burnout plus tension (tense-burnout) were associated with somatic complaints, cholesterol, glucose, triglycerides, uric acid, and, marginally, with ECG abnormalities. Workers scoring high on tense-burnout also had a significantly higher low density lipoprotein (LDL) level. Conversely, scores on burnout plus listlessness were significantly associated with glucose and negatively with diastolic blood pressure. The findings warrant further study of burnout as a predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

This review focuses on the conceptual meaning of burnout and on some of the major antecedents, symptoms, and consequences of burnout in work organizations. Burnout is viewed as an affective reaction to ongoing stress whose core content is the gradual depletion over time of individuals' intrinsic energetic resources, including the expression of emotional exhaustion, physical fatigue, and cognitive weariness (Shirom, 1989). The review starts with a critical analysis of the major conceptual approaches to burnout. Given the complexity of this construct and the controversy over its operational definition (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001), this conceptual analysis is essential for understanding the phenomenon of burnout. Because in this field of research there are few attempts to theoretically posit burnout's relationships with other variables (Moore, 20001, I proceed in the next section to theoretically interrelate stress at work and burnout. The following sections cover the empirical literature on burnout. Typically, empirical studies on burnout are based on a cross-sectional study design and measure burnout by asking respondents to complete a self-report questionnaire. In this review, preference is given to longitudinal studies on burnout because they provide more credence to cause and effect statements. To summarize the empirical evidence available on burnout, I shall rely on the few metaanalytic studies of burnout and on the narrative, mostly occupation-specific literature reviews. The sections that follow deal with personality traits associated with burnout, burnout and job performance, burnout and health, burnout at the organizational level of analysis, and approaches to reduce burnout in work organizations.This review focuses on burnout of employees in work organizations, excluding research that deals exclusively with nonemployment settings (e.g., athletes' burnout; Dale & Weinberg, 1990). In the same vein, I shall not cover research that deals with burnout in life domains other than work, like crossover of burnout among marital partners (e.g., Pines, 1996;Westman & Etzion, 1995). This review gives preference to research that investigated work-related antecedents of burnout rather than to studies in which burnout has been associated with stresses in other life spheres (e.g.,