Psychological Science ›› 2015, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (4): 911-915.

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A Longitudinal Analysis of the Developmental Process of Job Burnout

  

  • Received:2013-12-26 Revised:2014-07-14 Online:2015-07-20 Published:2015-07-20

员工工作倦怠的发展模型:来自纵向研究的证据

黄杰1,游旭群2,王延松3,鲍旭辉1   

  1. 1. 陕西师范大学
    2. 陕西师范大学心理学院
    3. 西安音乐学院
  • 通讯作者: 游旭群

Abstract: Job burnout is a three-dimensional syndrome in response to chronic work-related stressors, including emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. It is clear that a good understanding of the developmental process of burnout could facilitate its early recognition and intervention. Several models have been proposed for the development of burnout, among which the Leiter’s model (1988), Golembiewski’s model (1996), Lee’s model (1993), van Dierendonck’s model (2001), and Taris’ model (2005) are most influential. However, there is a conceptual reason for not accepting these models, as it is remarkable that none of the these models so far explicitly treats depersonalization as a coping strategy. We argue that depersonalization is a dysfunctional coping strategy, thereby leading to an increased emotional exhaustion and decreased personal accomplishment. Thus it seems that the developmental models for the causal effects among the three burnout dimensions should be extended to include the effects of depersonalization on the emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment. Based on the theoretical and empirical evidence, we propose a new developmental model of burnout that explicitly includes the path from depersonalization to emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment.   The primary purpose of this study is to compare the six developmental models of burnout, including the Leiter’s model, Golembiewski’s model, Lee’s model, van Dierendonck’s model and Taris’ model and the model proposed in this study. In this study, we conducted a full panel design with three waves in 263 participants, and burnout was measured by means of the Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The final sample consists of 263 participants with an average age of 34.67 years, including 44% males and 56% females. The preliminary analysis shows that the attrition of participants is at random, thus it will not affect the validity of the results. Structural equation modeling analysis shows that T1 emotional exhaustion affects T2 depersonalization (=0.12); T2 depersonalization affects T3 emotional exhaustion (=0.11); depersonalization affects reduced personal accomplishment at both T2 (=0.17) and T3 (=0.20). The present longitudinal study confirms that depersonalization plays an important role in the development of burnout. To our knowledge, the present research is the first to provide reliable longitudinal evidence for the conceptualization of burnout as a developmental process in Chinese participants. It has been suggested that the psychological withdrawal in the form of depersonalization is a dysfunctional coping strategy. This study extends and enhances current knowledge about the development of burnout in several respects, and we also believe that the findings have important implications for the preventive interventions with regard to burnout.

Key words: Job burnout, developmental model, longitudinal analysis, depersonalization

摘要: 采用Maslach工作倦怠量表(MBI-GS)对263名企业员工一年内的三个等距时间点(T1,T2,T3)的工作倦怠进行测量,纵向研究中国文化背景下工作倦怠的发展规律,并比较工作倦怠发展的六种因果模型。研究结果表明,去人性化影响成就感降低,且这种影响具有跨时间一致性;但是情绪衰竭和去人性化相互影响的跨时间一致性较低,T1情绪衰竭影响T2去人性化,但是T2情绪衰竭对T3去人性化的影响不显著;T1去人性化对T2情绪衰竭的影响不显著,但是T2去人性化影响T3情绪衰竭。研究结果表明,去人性化在工作倦怠的发展中具有非常重要的作用。

关键词: 工作倦怠, 发展模型, 纵向研究, 去人性化