Investigating effort–reward imbalance and work–family conflict in relation to morningness–eveningness and shift work

Abstract

An increasingly older workforce and a growing emphasis on jobs involving interaction with computers have resulted in a need to more carefully examine the relationship between ageing and computer-based work. In this study, a sample of 394 subjects ranging in age from 20-75 years performed a computer task across a 3-day period. Three different types of computer-based jobs (data entry, information retrieval, and accounts balancing) performed at three large US companies were simulated. Age differences in the subjective experience of stress, workload, and bodily discomfort were evaluated. The results indicated that age effects for these measures varied according to task. The older subjects perceived greater workload for the more mentally challenging problem-solving oriented accounts balancing task (Which involved a graphical user interface) than the younger participants, even with increased exposure to the task. However, the older subjects generally experienced less stress than the younger subjects on an information retrieval task that involved a more socially interactive telephone component. A positive relationship between the frustration component of workload and the measure of stress was also found, suggesting an important link between the constructs of stress and workload. Overall, the outcomes of this study provide important insights into design interventions intended to accommodate older as well as younger persons in the workforce.     

Job stress,burnout and substance use among urban transit operators: The potential mediating role of coping behaviour

Abstract

Urban transit operators, compared to other occupational groups, have higher rates of mortality and morbidity. A major risk factor is the highly stressful objective environment. This study used structural equation modelling to test a model hypothesizing that transit operators’ coping behaviours in responding to daily job hassles mediate the associations of work stress with burnout and substance use. The study sample consisted of 1231 transit operators who participated in the San Francisco MUNI Health and Safety Study. The results showed a direct and strong association between transit operators’ daily job stress and symptoms of occupational burnout even when a series of controls and coping behaviours were considered. In addition, use of “disengage-deny” and escapist strategies to cope with job stress was positively associated with burnout; the job stress–burnout association was partially mediated through such coping practices. Daily job stress was related to substance use only indirectly and mediated through burnout and use of “disengage-deny” and escapist coping strategies. “Disengage-deny” coping strategies might help reduce substance use whereas escapist coping strategies might increase such use. Overall, our findings suggest that coping behaviour may be an important correlate of transit operators’ ill health. Interventions enabling healthy coping behaviours may help reduce health risks for this occupational group.     

Testing whether reduced cognitive performance in burnout can be reversed by a motivational intervention

It has been suggested that the motivation to spend effort is decreased in burnout patients, resulting in reduced cognitive performance. A question that remains is whether this decreased motivation can be reversed by motivational interventions. We investigated this by examining the effect of a motivational intervention on cognitive performance. We presented 40 burnout patients in The Netherlands and 40 matched healthy controls with a complex attention task. As expected, in a first block of trials the performance of the burnout patients was poorer than that of healthy controls. Subsequently, we provided the participants with fake positive feedback about their performance and announced that we would financially reward those who performed best in a subsequent block of trials. Contrary to the healthy controls, the burnout patients did not improve their performance and experienced more aversion to spend effort. The study demonstrated that impaired cognitive performance in burnout patients could not be reversed by motivational interventions, which is in line with contemporary theories on burnout that state that physiological changes in burnout may underlie a relatively long-term decrease in motivation. The implication of these results is that in practice employers and therapists might need to accept that there could be a reduction in cognitive performance in employees with burnout.     

Burnout and impaired cognitive functioning: The role of executive control in the performance of cognitive tasks

Abstract

Burnout patients often report deficits in cognitive control, and there is a need to understand the processes involved. Drawing on recent findings, we hypothesized that emotional exhaustion and task-related demands on executive control would interact in predicting performance in tasks requiring the updating and monitoring of working memory as well as the inhibition of prepotent (dominant or automatic) responses. In accordance with recent conceptualizations of burnout, we focused on emotional exhaustion as the core symptom of burnout. The sample comprised 81 employees recruited from nursing homes for elderly care in Germany, who participated in a laboratory study involving cognitive tasks. Based on a median split, participants were divided into two groups: those with high burnout and those with low burnout. In line with our hypotheses, the high exhaustion participants performed less well than those with low exhaustion only when tasks put high demands on their executive control. As predicted, high levels of emotional exhaustion were associated with more errors and longer reaction times when demands on executive control were high, whereas no performance differences were found when both tasks put low demands on executive control. The implications for practice are discussed.     

企业中层管理者工作倦怠的成因及其干预措施

工作倦怠是管理心理学和组织行为学的研究热点之一.如何降低工作倦怠,留住所需人才已成为企业关注的焦点.文章从静态因素和动态因素两个方面入手,对工作因素、组织因素、个体因素、个体认知和个体与组织匹配等影响企业中层管理者工作倦怠的主要因素进行分析,并提出了相应的干预措施.     

饭店员工工作倦怠的结构及其分异规律研究

实证研究结果表明：饭店员工的工作倦怠能够很好的用Maslach-GS的三个维度表示;饭店员工的工作倦怠主要体现在衰竭维度,而其无效能感和疏离感不强;不同人口学特征的饭店员工在工作倦怠三个维度上的得分有显著性差异。     

高校辅导员职业倦怠影响因素及对策研究

职业倦怠是指在以人为服务对象的职业领域中,个体由于长期遭受到情绪和人际关系紧张源而产生的反应.高校辅导员是典型的助人职业,其职业倦怠日益凸现,研究发现高校辅导员达到中等程度的职业倦怠,且主要组织影响因素为工作压力、组织公平和社会支持,因此对辅导员开展生涯规划管理、做好工作压力管理、良好的组织支持、科学民主的政务公开制度、入职培训将有效降低其职业倦怠水平。     

Does job complexity mitigate the negative effect of emotion-rule dissonance on employee burnout?

In interactions with clients or patients, human service workers are at risk of experiencing discrepancies between felt and organizationally mandated emotions (i.e. emotion-rule dissonance). Given the documented detrimental effects of such discrepancies on employee strain, the present study investigated whether job complexity mitigates the relation between emotion-rule dissonance and employee burnout using data from a two-wave panel study of eldercare workers (N?=?583, 16-month time lag). Structural equation modelling revealed that emotion-rule dissonance at Time 1 preceded emotional exhaustion and depersonalization at Time 2. Beyond that, employees whose work offered job complexity were found to suffer less from emotional exhaustion and depersonalization when encountering discrepancies between felt and stipulated emotions compared to employees who conducted noncomplex work. Thus, designing complex tasks appears to be a crucial starting point for alleviating employee burnout in jobs that provoke emotion-rule dissonance.     

导游职业倦怠的原因及对策研究

我国导游职业倦怠现象产生于20世纪90年代,其产生的原因中不合理的薪酬制度和零、负团费旅游接待模式下导游背负的巨大经济压力以及职业前景的缺乏是最主要的根源,政府主管部门、旅行社、导游自身和社会应积极采取对策化解导游职业倦怠,确保我国旅游业持续健康地发展.     

Organizational climate and burnout in a New Zealand social service agency

A two-phase study was conducted on the relationship between organizational climate variables and burnout among personnel in a multifunction community service agency. Initial interviews with a small pilot sample identified major sources of stress, which were then incorporated into a second-phase questionnaire to all staff. Multiple regression analyses illustrated that perceived interactions between head office administrators and sections of the agency contributed significantly to emotional exhaustion, whereas perceptions of within-section interactions and involvement in decision-making had a positive impact on personal accomplishment. Perceived communication levels, however, were negatively related to personal accomplishment. The findings suggest the importance of organizational variables and highlight strategies for burnout reduction and effective stress management in human service organizations.