Week 9

Question 1

Define burnout

Answer 1

A state of exhaustion in which one is cynical about the value of one’s occupation and doubtful of one’s capacity to perform

Exhaustion, cynical, and doubtful are the three dimensions that are positively correlated

Question 2

Emotional exhaustion are…

Answer 2

Feelings of being emotionally drained by one’s work

Question 3

Cynicism is where a person is…

Answer 3

Negatively or a excessively detached response to the work itself and/or to the individuals with whom employees interact with while performing their job

Question 4

Doubtful about one’s capacity to perform (lack of personal accomplishment inefficacy is where…

Answer 4

A decline in one’s feelings of competence and of successful achievement at work

Question 5

How can you measure burnout?

Answer 5

Burnout is typically measured via questionnaires

For example the athlete burnout questionnaire (ABQ)

Question 6

What are the long lasting consequences of burnout in job performance?

Answer 6

• Withdrawal behaviours such as lateness, absence, and quitting
• Requiring extra time and effort to perform the job
• Increased demands on other staff

Question 7

What are the long lasting consequences of burnout in health problems?

Answer 7

• Anxiety and depression
• Sleep disturbance
• Memory impairment
• Neck pain, headaches, respiratory infections
• Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease

Question 8

What are some situation factors that can induce burnout?

Answer 8

Job characteristics such as role ambiguity, role conflict, and role stress

Question 9

What is some evidence supporting the situational factors affecting burnout?

Answer 9

Lower task autonomy and task identity relate to higher burnout in Nigeria

Question 10

How does the Job Demands-Control Model of mental strain explain burnout?

Answer 10

This explains that high demands with low job autonomy lead to mental strain

Question 11

How does the Job Demands-Resources Model explain burnout?

Answer 11

Burnout is a response to imbalances between demands on the individual and their resources to deal with those demands

Question 12

How does the Conservation of Resources Model explain burnout?

Answer 12

Burnout arises as a result of persistent threats to available resources

Question 13

What are the benefits of using the Job Demands-Resources Model?

Answer 13

• It has a greater inclusion of situational factors affecting well-being
• It focuses on positive as well as negative outcomes of well-being
• Distinction between workplace and personal resources

Question 14

How does the Job Demands-Resources Model work?

Answer 14

High resources can lead to high work engagement, low cynicism, and greater motivation

Demands have the strongest relation with exhaustion

High demands lead to burnout, but resources can act as a buffer

Therefore of we have a scale that measures burnout, and a scale that measures the amount of resources, the correlation should be negative

Question 15

What is the Conservation of Resources Theory?

Answer 15

It stats with the premise that individuals strive to obtain and preserve resources (resources are anything that has value or that individual

Question 16

How does Conservation of Resources Theory relate to burnout?

Answer 16

In studies of organisational behaviour, resource loss has primarily been applied to understand stress and burnout

Stress is predicted to occur as a result of circumstances that represent a threat of resource loss, an actual loss of resources required to sustain the individual, and the lack of reasonable gain following resource investments

Burnout occurs due to prolonged experience of low resources and high demands, which leads to an erosion of other resources

Because of this depletion of resources it depletes all other resources confronting the threat or loss

As consequences are negative people strive to engage in behaviours that prevent loss

Question 17

What study supports individual factors?

Answer 17

Job performance-based esteem: When an individual’s personality is mainly based on achievements at work, the vulnerability for negative health consequences is assumed to be elevated when exposed to negative experiences at work

Question 18

What are the 5 personality traits affecting burnout?

Answer 18

Neuroticism - Has a moderate to strong positive correlation with each of the three dimensions of burnout (doubt, emotional exhaustion, and cynicism)

Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and agreeableness - Have moderate negative correlations with each of the three dimensions if burnout

Openness to experience - Has very weak negative correlations with the three dimensions

Question 19

How do you deal with burnout?

Answer 19

Once in burnout it is difficult to get out without help

Structural or organisational burnout interventions can help by:

1) Identifying and reducing demands, and hindering job characteristics (Job characteristics model)

2) Identifying and increase job resources that foster work engagement and help coping with the job demands (Job demands-resources model and Conservation of resources model)

3)nTraining managers to better supervise their employees, offer adequate constructive feedback and establish clear goals for employees (Job characteristics model)