RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Employees who engage in proactive burnout prevention can prevent burnout by changing aspects of the work, home, and personal domain. However, these proactive behaviors may be impeded by high initial levels of burnout. Based on the conservation of resources theory and the dual-pathway proactivity model, resources were expected to play a vital role in the relationship between proactive burnout prevention and burnout through two distinct processes: a resource-generation process in which proactive burnout prevention negatively affects burnout through an increase in resources, and a resource-depletion process in which proactive burnout prevention is hindered because high initial levels of burnout negatively affected resources. METHODS: A two-wave longitudinal panel design was used in which 617 employees, mainly employed in government agencies, healthcare and education, were asked to complete an online survey twice with an interval of 1 month. RESULTS: Results of structural equation modelling showed clear evidence for the resource-generation process in the work, home, and personal domain, and only limited evidence for the resource-depletion process. Solely in the personal domain a small negative indirect effect of burnout on proactive burnout prevention through personal resources was found. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study confirm that employees can proactively prevent burnout by investing in resources, yet proactive actions should be taken before increased burnout-complaints impede employees to do so. This study contributes to scientific knowledge on proactive behaviors and burnout prevention by investigating the mechanism underlying the temporal relationship between proactive burnout prevention and burnout. An important practical implication of this study is that it highlights that more attention should be given to employees' self-initiated actions to prevent burnout, as proactive burnout prevention can effectively reduce levels of burnout.
Asunto(s)
Agotamiento Profesional , Agotamiento Profesional/prevención & control , Humanos , Encuestas y CuestionariosRESUMEN
Given the detrimental effects of burnout for individuals and organizations, it is of crucial importance to better understand the self-initiated actions employees take to prevent burnout. While such proactive burnout prevention is likely to reduce burnout complaints, these activities may also be frustrated by high burnout levels. This means that proactive burnout prevention and burnout can negatively affect each other over time. The present study used a four-wave longitudinal panel design to investigate temporal relationships between proactive burnout prevention and burnout over 3, 6 and 9 weeks. Participants were 165 employees in the financial services industry who provided data on all four measurement occasions. The outcomes of structural equation modelling provided support for the hypothesized combined effects model compared to the lagged and reversed effects models. The findings suggest that proactive burnout prevention can help to prevent burnout, while engagement in these behaviours may be hindered by high initial levels of burnout. Employees should therefore intervene before their resource pool becomes too depleted and they lack the energy or mental strength to invest resources, in order to proactively retain or regain resources.
Asunto(s)
Agotamiento Profesional , Agotamiento Profesional/prevención & control , Humanos , Estudios Longitudinales , Encuestas y CuestionariosRESUMEN
Proactive burnout prevention refers to a set of proactive behaviors employees may engage in to prevent burnout. Findings of a previous exploratory qualitative study indicated that employees who had to deal with high demands engaged in specific proactive behaviors in the work, home, and personal domain in order to prevent burnout. To further examine proactive burnout prevention in longitudinal quantitative research and to be able to investigate its effectiveness, an inventory for assessing these kinds of behaviors is necessary. The goal of this study was twofold: 1) to develop an inventory to assess employees' proactive burnout prevention behaviors and examine its factorial validity, 2) to explore the broader nomological network of proactive burnout prevention behaviors by examining its convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. A two-wave longitudinal survey (T1: N = 343; T2: N = 201) was conducted. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis showed that proactive burnout prevention can be reliably assessed with 40 items that load on 12 factors, indicating 12 separate proactive burnout prevention behaviors. Moreover, exploration of the convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of the proactive burnout prevention inventory showed promising results, as expected relationships were confirmed for most behaviors. Further research is needed to substantiate the findings and examine the effectiveness of proactive burnout prevention.
Asunto(s)
Agotamiento Profesional , Salud Laboral , Agotamiento Profesional/prevención & control , Agotamiento Profesional/psicología , Análisis Factorial , Humanos , Encuestas y CuestionariosRESUMEN
Extensive evidence indicates that burnout can have detrimental consequences for individuals as well as organizations; therefore, there is a great need for burnout prevention. While burnout prevention interventions initiated by the employer have previously been studied, the proactive behaviors employees deploy themselves to prevent burnout have received less research attention. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative interview study was to enhance our understanding of the self-initiated actions employees undertake to prevent burnout, using the model of proactive motivation and conservation of resources theory as theoretical frameworks. Findings indicated that most participants reported to engage in specific kinds of proactive burnout prevention behaviors. The reported self-initiated proactive actions were aimed at maintaining and/or increasing resources and/or reducing demands in the work, home, and personal domain. The study contributes to the literature by linking the proactive motivation process to the prevention of burnout and by focusing on both work and non-work factors. Results of this study can be used in further research into the (effectiveness of) employees' proactive burnout prevention behaviors and serve as a starting point for developing interventions aimed at enhancing proactive burnout prevention.