Effort–reward imbalance and burnout among humanitarian aid workers

Abstract

This study sought to examine stress-related working conditions-defined in terms of effort-reward imbalance (ERI)-and their association with burnout among a large, international sample of humanitarian aid workers. Descriptive statistics were applied to cross-sectional survey data (N=1,980) to profile ERI and burnout and Pearson's χ tests were used to characterise associated socio- and occupational-demographic factors. Associations between ERI and burnout were established using binary logistic regression to generate odds ratios and 95 per cent confidence intervals adjusted for potential confounding variables. For high emotional exhaustion, the prevalence rate was 36 per cent for women and 27 per cent for men, whereas the proportions for high depersonalisation and low personal achievement were 9 and 10 per cent and 47 and 31 per cent, respectively. Intermediate and high ERI was associated with significantly increased odds of high emotional exhaustion; the findings were mixed for depersonalisation and personal achievement.

Effort-Reward Imbalance and Job Strain: A Composite Indicator Approach

“…The upper tertile was classified as a high job strain group and the middle and lower tertiles were combined to produce a low job strain group. In accordance with previously published studies [11,12,18], social support scores were also divided into tertiles, with the lowest tertile classified as a low social support group.…”

“…Each regression model was adjusted for age, marital status, and pay grade. All regression models were run separately for males and females because previous humanitarian aid worker studies have shown gender differences in stress-related variables [11,12].…”

“…In the humanitarian context, psychosocial risk assessment research and practice remains in its infancy; for example, there is no research on the JDC model to date. However, there is an emerging evidence base indicating a high prevalence of stress-related health problems [11,12,13,14,15] and associations between psychosocial stressors (ERI) and stress-related health problems (burnout, heavy drinking) [11,12]. As stress in different occupations may be marked by different types of psychosocial stressors [16,17] and have a multitude of organizational sources, it may be beneficial to include characteristics of both these leading psychosocial work environment models in efforts to assess and control stress.…”

Caring for the mental health of humanitarian volunteers in traumatic contexts: the importance of organisational support

“…In addition to routine exposure to traumatic events (Strohmeier & Scholte, 2015), humanitarian workers experience demanding working conditions, long working hours, separation from family members, interpersonal conflicts within teams, negative response from communities they serve, safety and security concerns, and financial hardship (Cardozo et al, 2013;Ehrenreich & Elliott, 2004). Therefore, apart from traumatic exposure, those work-related demands with limited organizational support were shown to contribute explicitly to the humanitarian workers' psycho-morbidity (Jachens, Houdmont, & Thomas, 2019).…”

Burnout and associated occupational stresses among Chinese nurses: A cross-sectional study in three hospitals

“…To our knowledge, two studies [15,16] have been conducted to illustrate the relationship between effort-reward imbalance and burnout, one involving global humanitarian aid workers and other involving nurses in the Netherlands. No study was found to report the relationship between effort-reward imbalance and favorability to the work environment among Chinese nurses.…”