The experience of burnout has been the focus of much research during the past few decades. Measur... more The experience of burnout has been the focus of much research during the past few decades. Measures have been developed, as have various theoretical models, and research studies from many countries have contributed to a better understanding of the causes and consequences of this occupationally-specific dysphoria. The majority of this work has focused on human service occupations, and particularly health care. Research on the burnout experience for psychiatrists mirrors much of the broader literature, in terms of both sources and outcomes of burnout. But it has also identified some of the unique stressors that mental health professionals face when they are dealing with especially difficult or violent clients. Current issues of particular relevance for psychiatry include the links between burnout and mental illness, the attempts to redefine burnout as simply exhaustion, and the relative dearth of evaluative research on potential interventions to treat and/or prevent burnout. Given that the treatment goal for burnout is usually to enable people to return to their job, and to be successful in their work, psychiatry could make an important contribution by identifying the treatment strategies that would be most effective in achieving that goal.
Burnout research over the past 30 years has yielded both knowledge and tools to apply to interven... more Burnout research over the past 30 years has yielded both knowledge and tools to apply to interventions at unit and organizational levels. Examples of innovative partnerships between researchers and practitioners point to the importance of multi-level approaches in generating relevant and effective solutions to the burnout problem. Burnout became an issue of interest over 35 years ago when, quite independently, a practitioner (Freudenberger) and a researcher (Maslach) began to write about this previously unrecognized phenomenon. And it has now been 30 years since the publication in the Journal of Organizational Behavior of the major research measure of burnout, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI; Maslach & Jackson, 1981). From the beginning, there was a high degree of interest in " what can we actually do about burnout? " —in other words, how can any new knowledge gained through research be applied to the design of effective interventions? Conflicting pressures from the worlds of both academic research and workplace practice confronted the first burnout researchers. Practitioners were impatient with the slow pace of research and its " ivory tower " nature, but burnout research would get derogated within academia as " pop psychology, " or as simply " old wine in new bottles, " or as too applied rather than basic research. Burnout research was exploratory at first, very bottom-up and anchored in people's experiences. Several themes emerged from this research on human service professions, including the key responses of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization to the overload of these demanding jobs, as well as a decline in one's sense of personal accomplishment. The development of a standardized measure of burnout was the necessary and significant next step to advance the research field. Two of us, Maslach and Jackson (1981), took on that psychometric challenge and developed the MBI, which assessed the three themes listed earlier. Its most recent version, the MBI-General Survey was developed for use in all occupations, not just human services, and the definitional terms of the three dimensions were expanded to exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy (Schaufeli, Leiter, Maslach, & Jackson, 1996). The MBI has been translated into many languages and has been the leading measure to assess burnout in research around the world; for example, in Schaufeli and Enzmann's (1998) literature review, 90 per cent of the studies had used the MBI. As we refined our theoretical framework for burnout, we conceptualized people's psychological relationship to their job as a continuum between the negative experience of burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy) and
Even though work-related factors have been found to play a crucial role in predicting presenteeis... more Even though work-related factors have been found to play a crucial role in predicting presenteeism, studies investigating established theoretical frameworks of job design features and in particular underlying mechanisms are still very scarce. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of the Areas of Worklife (AWS; Leiter & Maslach, 2004) on presenteeism. We examined mental and physical health as the underlying process of this relationship and assessed two presenteeism outcome measures and their relationship to each other, i.e., the frequency of the act of presenteeism and work productivity. Using a cross-sectional design, the study was conducted in a sample of 885 employees from German public service. Results showed that the influence of some, but not all, Areas of Worklife (workload, control, reward, and values) on both the act of presenteeism and health-related lost productivity was mediated by health indicators (well-being and musculoskeletal complaints). Moreover, we found a relationship between health-related lost productivity and acts of presenteeism. The present research clarifies the importance of work-related factors as antecedents of sickness presenteeism. The findings of our study also emphasize the necessity to combine both the act of presenteeism and health-related lost productivity into presenteeism research and prevention. Presenteeism should be included as a measure in health prevention interventions because it reflects a crucial part of employee health that is not covered by other measures.
This paper explores the nature and development of health care organizations in terms of a model o... more This paper explores the nature and development of health care organizations in terms of a model of organizational healthiness. The model places particular emphasis on the psychosocial subsystems which describe the subjective organization. These represent the perceived internal functioning of the organization in terms of task completion, problem solving and staff development. The implications of such a model for the
... The study also addressed the issue of individual differences in the burnout response and focu... more ... The study also addressed the issue of individual differences in the burnout response and focused on the need to systematically investigate the relaive importance of situational versus personality variables in future burnout research. ...
Modern organizations expect their employees to be proactive, show initiative, take responsibility... more Modern organizations expect their employees to be proactive, show initiative, take responsibility for their own professional development and to be committed to high quality performance standards. They need employees who feel energetic and dedicated–ie, who are engaged with their work. It is therefore not surprising that the past decade has witnessed a sharp rise in scientific studies on engagement. The work engagement research discussed in this book offers evidence for the incremental validity of engagement over and above ...
The experience of burnout has been the focus of much research during the past few decades. Measur... more The experience of burnout has been the focus of much research during the past few decades. Measures have been developed, as have various theoretical models, and research studies from many countries have contributed to a better understanding of the causes and consequences of this occupationally-specific dysphoria. The majority of this work has focused on human service occupations, and particularly health care. Research on the burnout experience for psychiatrists mirrors much of the broader literature, in terms of both sources and outcomes of burnout. But it has also identified some of the unique stressors that mental health professionals face when they are dealing with especially difficult or violent clients. Current issues of particular relevance for psychiatry include the links between burnout and mental illness, the attempts to redefine burnout as simply exhaustion, and the relative dearth of evaluative research on potential interventions to treat and/or prevent burnout. Given that the treatment goal for burnout is usually to enable people to return to their job, and to be successful in their work, psychiatry could make an important contribution by identifying the treatment strategies that would be most effective in achieving that goal.
Burnout research over the past 30 years has yielded both knowledge and tools to apply to interven... more Burnout research over the past 30 years has yielded both knowledge and tools to apply to interventions at unit and organizational levels. Examples of innovative partnerships between researchers and practitioners point to the importance of multi-level approaches in generating relevant and effective solutions to the burnout problem. Burnout became an issue of interest over 35 years ago when, quite independently, a practitioner (Freudenberger) and a researcher (Maslach) began to write about this previously unrecognized phenomenon. And it has now been 30 years since the publication in the Journal of Organizational Behavior of the major research measure of burnout, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI; Maslach & Jackson, 1981). From the beginning, there was a high degree of interest in " what can we actually do about burnout? " —in other words, how can any new knowledge gained through research be applied to the design of effective interventions? Conflicting pressures from the worlds of both academic research and workplace practice confronted the first burnout researchers. Practitioners were impatient with the slow pace of research and its " ivory tower " nature, but burnout research would get derogated within academia as " pop psychology, " or as simply " old wine in new bottles, " or as too applied rather than basic research. Burnout research was exploratory at first, very bottom-up and anchored in people's experiences. Several themes emerged from this research on human service professions, including the key responses of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization to the overload of these demanding jobs, as well as a decline in one's sense of personal accomplishment. The development of a standardized measure of burnout was the necessary and significant next step to advance the research field. Two of us, Maslach and Jackson (1981), took on that psychometric challenge and developed the MBI, which assessed the three themes listed earlier. Its most recent version, the MBI-General Survey was developed for use in all occupations, not just human services, and the definitional terms of the three dimensions were expanded to exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy (Schaufeli, Leiter, Maslach, & Jackson, 1996). The MBI has been translated into many languages and has been the leading measure to assess burnout in research around the world; for example, in Schaufeli and Enzmann's (1998) literature review, 90 per cent of the studies had used the MBI. As we refined our theoretical framework for burnout, we conceptualized people's psychological relationship to their job as a continuum between the negative experience of burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy) and
Even though work-related factors have been found to play a crucial role in predicting presenteeis... more Even though work-related factors have been found to play a crucial role in predicting presenteeism, studies investigating established theoretical frameworks of job design features and in particular underlying mechanisms are still very scarce. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of the Areas of Worklife (AWS; Leiter & Maslach, 2004) on presenteeism. We examined mental and physical health as the underlying process of this relationship and assessed two presenteeism outcome measures and their relationship to each other, i.e., the frequency of the act of presenteeism and work productivity. Using a cross-sectional design, the study was conducted in a sample of 885 employees from German public service. Results showed that the influence of some, but not all, Areas of Worklife (workload, control, reward, and values) on both the act of presenteeism and health-related lost productivity was mediated by health indicators (well-being and musculoskeletal complaints). Moreover, we found a relationship between health-related lost productivity and acts of presenteeism. The present research clarifies the importance of work-related factors as antecedents of sickness presenteeism. The findings of our study also emphasize the necessity to combine both the act of presenteeism and health-related lost productivity into presenteeism research and prevention. Presenteeism should be included as a measure in health prevention interventions because it reflects a crucial part of employee health that is not covered by other measures.
This paper explores the nature and development of health care organizations in terms of a model o... more This paper explores the nature and development of health care organizations in terms of a model of organizational healthiness. The model places particular emphasis on the psychosocial subsystems which describe the subjective organization. These represent the perceived internal functioning of the organization in terms of task completion, problem solving and staff development. The implications of such a model for the
... The study also addressed the issue of individual differences in the burnout response and focu... more ... The study also addressed the issue of individual differences in the burnout response and focused on the need to systematically investigate the relaive importance of situational versus personality variables in future burnout research. ...
Modern organizations expect their employees to be proactive, show initiative, take responsibility... more Modern organizations expect their employees to be proactive, show initiative, take responsibility for their own professional development and to be committed to high quality performance standards. They need employees who feel energetic and dedicated–ie, who are engaged with their work. It is therefore not surprising that the past decade has witnessed a sharp rise in scientific studies on engagement. The work engagement research discussed in this book offers evidence for the incremental validity of engagement over and above ...
Uploads
Papers by Michael P. Leiter