Is Burnout Static or Dynamic? A Career Transition Perspective of Employee Burnout Trajectories

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dunford, Benjamin B.; Shipp, Abbie J.; Boss, R. Wayne; Angermeier, Ingo; Boss, Alan D.
• 署名单位: Purdue University System; Purdue University; Texas A&M University System; Texas A&M University College Station; Mays Business School; University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder; University of Washington; University of Washington Bothell
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/a0027060
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 637-650
• 关键词: BURNOUT; change; trajectory; career transitions; time

摘要

Despite decades of theory and empirical research on employee burnout, its temporal and developmental aspects are still not fully understood. This lack of understanding is problematic because burnout is a dynamic phenomenon and burnout interventions may be improved by a greater understanding of who is likely to experience changes in burnout and when these changes occur. In this article, we advance existing burnout theory by articulating how the 3 burnout dimensions should differ in their pattern of change over time as a result of career transition type: organizational newcomers, internal job changers (e.g., promotions or lateral moves), and organizational insiders (i.e., job incumbents). We tested our model in a broad sample of 2,089 health care employees, with 5 measurement points over 2 years. Using random coefficient modeling, we found that burnout was relatively stable for organizational insiders but slightly dynamic for organizational newcomers and internal job changers. We also found that the dimensions of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were more sensitive to career transition type than reduced personal accomplishment. Finding some differences among different types of employees as well as the dimensions of burnout may begin to explain longstanding inconsistencies between theory and research regarding the dynamics of burnout, offering directions for future research that address both dynamism and stability.