The Differential Impacts of Collective Psychological Ownership and Membership Identification on Work Burnout and Engagement

Work burnout and engagement are big concerns among workers in social services profession. While the job demands-resources (JD-R) model has been a key perspective in explaining burnout and engagement, there are few studies on the psychological mechanism of the model. In particular, the role of collective psychological ownership (CPO) and membership identification (MI), emerging constructs in workplace wellbeing, are to be explored. The study aimed to explore the roles of CPO and MI in explaining work burnout and engagement in a JD-R model framework. Through snowball and convenience sampling methods, an online self-report survey was conducted in 2016. Totally 761 full-time social service workers in Shenzhen and Guangdong Province, China completed the questionnaire. Bivariate and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed.

The results reveal the differential impacts of CPO and MI on burnout and engagement in the JD-R model framework: (1) Job resources and CPO contribute most additional R square to the models predicting work engagement; (2) Job resources and MI contribute most additional R square to the models predicting burnout; (3) CPO partially mediates the relationship between job resources and burnout; and (4) CPO partially mediates the relationship between job demands and work engagement.

In conclusion, CPO and MI appear to be distinct constructs with differential impacts on work burnout and engagement. Furthermore, CPO appears to have a significant role in the psychological mechanism of the JD-R model in explaining work burnout and engagement.