Burnout as a predictor of all-cause mortality among industrial employees: A 10-year prospective register-linkage study

Objective: Burnout, a psychological consequence of prolonged work stress, has been shown to coexist with physical and mental disorders. The aim of this study was to investigate whether burnout is related to all-cause mortality among employees. Methods: In 1996, of 15,466 Finnish forest industry employees, 9705 participated in the 'Still Working' study and 8371 were subsequently identified from the National Population Register. Those who had been treated in a hospital for the most common causes of death prior to the assessment of burnout were excluded on the basis of the Hospital Discharge Register, resulting in a final study population of 7396 people. Burnout was measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey. Dates of death from 1996 to 2006 were extracted from the National Mortality Register. Mortality was predicted with Cox hazard regression models, controlling for baseline sociodemographic factors and register-based health status according to entitled medical reimbursement and prescribed medication for mental health problems, cardiac risk factors, and pain problems. Results: During the 10-year 10-month follow-up, a total of 199 employees had died. The risk of mortality per one-unit increase in burnout was 35% higher (95% CI 1.07-1.71) for total score and 26% higher (0.99-1.60) for exhaustion, 29% higher for cynicism (1.03-1.62), and 22% higher for diminished professional efficacy (0.96-1.55) in participants who had been under 45 at baseline. After adjustments, only the associations regarding burnout and exhaustion were statistically significant. Burnout was not related to mortality among the older employees. Conclusion: Burnout, especially work-related exhaustion, may be a risk for overall survival. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Job characteristics and burnout among aging professionals in information and communications technology

The aim of this Study was to examine the relationship between job characteristics and burnout, i.e., exhaustion, cynicism and lack of professional efficacy, in a sample of 115 (49- to 61-yr.-old) information and communications technology professionals. Questionnaire survey data were collected at two time points. In 1995 (Time 1), higher quantitative overload and lower job control were associated with higher exhaustion. Job control was negatively associated with lack of professional efficacy. In 2001 (Time 2), quantitative overload and information overload were positively associated with exhaustion, but with job control negatively. Use of new information Was negatively associated with cynicism. In addition, job control and use of new information were negatively associated with lack of professional efficacy. job characteristics at Time 1 were not significantly associated with burnout at Time 2 when job characteristics at Time 2 were controlled.

Spontaneous Attention to Faces in Asperger Sndrome using Ecologically Valid Static Stimuli

Previous eye tracking research on the allocation of attention to social information by individuals with autism spectrum disorders is equivocal and may be in part a consequence of variation in stimuli used between studies. The current study explored attention allocation to faces, and within faces,
by individuals with Asperger syndrome using a range of static stimuli where faces were either viewed in isolation or viewed in the context of a social scene. Results showed that faces were viewed typically by the individuals with Asperger syndrome when presented in isolation, but attention to the eyes was significantly diminished in comparison to age and IQ-matched typical viewers when faces were viewed as part of social scenes. We show that when using static stimuli, there is evidence of atypicality for individuals with Asperger syndrome depending on the extent of social context. Our findings shed light on the previous explanations of gaze behaviour that have emphasised the role of movement in atypicalities of social attention in autism spectrum disorders and highlight the importance of consideration of the realistic portrayal of social information for future studies.

Burnout and behavior-related health risk factors:results from the population-based Finnish Health 2000 study

To explore the relationship between burnout and behavior-related health risk factors.

Resilience and Burnout in Child protection social work: Individual and organisational themes from a systematic literature review

Child protection social work is acknowledged as a very stressful occupation, with high turnover and poor retention of staff being a major concern. This paper highlights themes that emerged from findings of sixty-five articles that were included as part of a systematic literature review. The review focused on the evaluation of research findings, which considered individual and organisational factors associated with resilience or burnout in child protection social work staff. The results identified a range of individual and organisational themes for staff in child protection social work. Nine themes were identified in total. These are categorised under ‘Individual’ and ‘Organisational’ themes. Themes categorised as individual included personal history of maltreatment, training and preparation for child welfare, coping, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction. Those classified as organisational included workload, social support and supervision, organisational culture and climate, organisational and professional commitment, and job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The range of factors is discussed with recommendations and areas for future research are highlighted.

Book Review - Social Work Under Pressure: How to Overcome Stress, Fatigue and Burnout in the Workplace

Book review: Social Work Under Pressure: How to Overcome Stress, Fatigue and Burnout in the Workplace, by Kate van Heugten, London and Philadelphia, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2011, 224 pp., 

Measuring burnout among UK social workers: A Community Care study

Preface Extract: This research was commissioned and funded by Community Care as part of our Stand Up For Social Work campaign. Previous surveys of readers had suggested caseloads, vacancies and stress levels were all on the increase. Community Care decided to do a more scientific examination of burnout on a large scale to assess the real impact of budget cuts and increasing demand on social workers across the UK.

Employee 'words' on high involvement work practices, value congruence and burnout

This article examined the impact of perceived high involvement work practices (HIWPs) on person-organization value congruence (P-O fit) and long term burnout. The study was conducted in a Canadian general hospital. Findings from structural equation modeling (N = 185) revealed that perceived HIWPs were significantly positively associated with P-O fit. While there was no direct effect of HIWPs on burnout, P-O fit fully mediated the relationship between perceptions of HIWPs and burnout. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of HIWPs influence on P-O fit and burnout.

Perceptions of high involvement work practices and burnout: investigating the mediating role of procedural justice and role overload and the moderating role of colleague support

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of employees’ perceptions of high involvement work practices (HIWPs) on burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation) via the mediating role of role overload and procedural justice. Further, perceived colleague support was hypothesised to moderate the effects of role overload and procedural justice on these outcomes.

Design/Methodology
The study was conducted on a random sample of unionised registered nurses (RNs) working in the Canadian public health care sector, stratified by mission and size of the institution to ensure representativeness. Of the 6546 nurses solicited, 2174 returned a completed questionnaire, resulting in a response rate of 33.2%. To test our hypotheses we conducted structural equation modelling (SEM) in Mplus version 6.0 (Muthen and Muthen, 1998 – 2010) with Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimation.

Results
The results showed that procedural justice and role overload fully mediated the influence of HIWPs on burnout. Moreover, colleague support moderated the effects of procedural justice and role overload on emotional exhaustion but not depersonalisation.

Limitations
The study used a cross-sectional research design and is conducted among one occupational group (i.e. nurses).

Research/Practical Implications
The findings question the dark side of HRM in the health care context. They also contribute to the lack of theoretical and empirical work dedicated to understanding the ‘black box’ problem (Castanheira and Chambel, 2010).

Originality/Value
The study employs a well-known theoretical perspective from the occupational health psychology literature to the HR field in order to contribute to the lack of theorising in the HR-well-being link.

Perceptions of high involvement work practices, person-organization fit and burnout: a time lagged study of health care employees

Previous research demonstrates that high-involvement work practices (HIWPs) may be associated with burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalization); however, to date, the process through which HIWPs influence burnout is not clear. This article examined the impact of HIWPs on long-term burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalization) by considering the mediating role of person-organization fit (P-O fit) in this relationship. The study used a time-lagged design and was conducted in a Canadian general hospital among health care personnel. Findings from structural equation modeling (N = 185) revealed that perceived HIWPs were positively associated with P-O fit. There was no direct effect of HIWPs on burnout; rather, P-O fit fully mediated the relationship between employee perceptions of HIWPs and burnout. This study fills a void in the HR and burnout literature by demonstrating the role that P-O fit has in explaining how HIWPs alleviate emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.