Reducing Burnout and Resignations among Frontline Workers: A Field Experiment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Linos, Elizabeth; Ruffini, Krista; Wilcoxen, Stephanie
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Georgetown University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION RESEARCH AND THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1053-1858
• DOI: 10.1093/jopart/muab042
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 473-488
• 关键词: perceived social support; public-service motivation; PERSON-ORGANIZATION FIT; JOB DEMANDS; MENTAL-HEALTH; turnover intention; EMPLOYEE TURNOVER; self-esteem; RESOURCES; stress

摘要

Government agencies around the world struggle to retain frontline workers, as high job demands and low job resources contribute to persistently high rates of employee burnout. Although four decades of research have documented the predictors and potential costs of frontline worker burnout, we have limited causal evidence on strategies that reduce it. In this article, we report on a multicity field experiment (n = 536) aimed at increasing perceived social support and affirming belonging among 911 dispatchers. We find that a 6-week intervention that prompts dispatchers to share advice anonymously and asynchronously with their peers in other cities reduces burnout by 8 points (0.4 standard deviations) and cuts resignations by more than half (3.4 percentage points) 4 months after the intervention ended. We provide supporting evidence that the intervention operates by increasing perceived social support and belonging in an online laboratory experiment (n = 497). These findings suggest that low-cost belonging affirmation techniques can reduce frontline worker burnout and help agencies retain workers, saving a mid-sized city at least $400,000 in personnel costs.