Job-related burnout: A review.

Abstract

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.,

Unhealthy and present: Motives and consequences of the act of presenteeism among Taiwanese employees.

“…Burnout is a multifaceted emotional syndrome of exhaustion, representing chronic reactions and negative affective response to prolonged stress at work (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001;Shirom, 2003). In a rare longitudinal three-wave study, Demerouti et al (2009) found that exhaustion had a reciprocal relation with presenteeism in a sample of Dutch nurses.…”

Burnout among Turkish high school teachers working in Turkey and abroad: A comparative study

“…This 12-item questionnaire evaluates three burnout dimensions: physical fatigue (PF) (4 items, e.g., "I feel physically drained"), emotional exhaustion (EE) (4 items, e.g., "I feel emotionally burned out at work") and cognitive weariness (CW) (4 items, e.g., "I have difficulty thinking about complex things"). Responses are rated on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 for never to 7 for always (Melamed, et al, 1999;Shirom, 2003).…”

Comparative Analysis of the Relationship between Job Burnout and General Health of Male and Female High School Teachers in Zabol

“…Job burnout is a state of chronic emotional state including three components of cognitive, physical and emotional fatigue [5]. Job burnout could be defined as a consequence of chronic reduction of one's ability resources arising from long-term exposure to stress, especially job stressors.…”