Seventy-two employees working in an engineering firm completed a series of surveys assessing their level of job burnout, number of recent stressful life and work events experienced, level or aerobic fitness, and the degree to which each was overweight. A significant and positive relationship was found between the number of stressful work events experienced and job burnout. Multiple regression analysis showed that the number of stressful work events experienced, level of aerobic fitness, and percentage of pounds overweight jointly and significantly contributed to the relationship with job burnout. A discussion of these results and their implications for future research is included.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Rehabilitation therapists are at risk for burnout as a result of their emotionally challenging and stressful jobs. No South African studies could be found that focus on burnout in therapists who work in the field of rehabilitation. This study attempted to determine the prevalence of burnout amongst a select group of therapists in South Africa i.e. therapy staff employed by Life Rehabilitation. In addition, contributing factors to burnout in this environment, current management of the problem and suggestions for future management were explored. A descriptive design which used both quantitative and qualitative methods was utilised. Forty-nine therapists and seven managers participated in the study. No sampling was done. Quantitative data was collected through a demographic coding sheet and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Data were statistically analysed and a p value of < 0.05 was deemed statistically significant. Interview schedules were used to guide the qualitative interviews on participants’ understanding of burnout, contributing factors, its impact on the therapists and company as well as management strategies. Qualitative data was analysed according to the inductive method. Regarding burnout prevalence in each of the subsections of the MBI, 57.14% of the therapy staff had high levels of Emotional Exhaustion (EE), 20.4% reported depersonalisation (DP) and 38.77% had low levels of Personal Accomplishment (PA). The variables associated with high burnout scores were: male gender (p=0.0238) (PA), absence of children (P=0.02994) (EE), (p=0.03895) (PA), ≤ four years tertiary education (p=0.03640) (PA), ≤ R15 000 income (p=0.02262) (PA), not working weekends (p=0.02882) (DP), none or poor coping skills (p=0.03180) (EE), high overwhelming work load (p=0.03972) (EE), (p=0.01227) (DP), overwhelming/too small patient load (p=0.02365) (EE), high administration load (p=0.00302) (PA), seldom achievable deadlines (p=0.03693) (DP), postponed contact with patients (p=0.02023) (DP), (p=0.01164) (PA) and a poor work environment (p=0.02162) (EE), (p=0.04034) (DP). The qualitative data identified the following factors as causes of burnout: relationship challenges, lack of planning and coping skills, personality type, disempowerment, the nature of rehabilitation work, private health care environment, ethical dilemmas, time pressures, lack of rewards, lack of space and resources, uncertainty/change, lack of support from management and high workload. The following burnout management strategies emerged from the qualitative data: psycho-social intervention, team building, decrease in workload/increase in staff, adjustment of administrative workload, acknowledgement of staff through salaries and other rewards, adjustment to leave package, improved orientation and induction of staff, “time-out” opportunities, development of staff and managers, improved treatment facilities, feedback from discharged patients as well as implementation of burnout monitoring systems and development of a burnout policy and burnout management system. Recommendations to Life Rehabilitation focus on practical strategies regarding the detection, prevention and management of burnout in therapists. The groundwork has been done through this research. Successful strategic implementation will depend on the leadership of the organisation and without these key players and all the other role players involved, commitment in terms of time, money and allocation of resources it will remain an academic exercise. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die gevaar bestaan dat gesondheidswerkers hulle kan “uitbrand” as gevolg van die emosioneel uitmergelende aspekte van hul werk en die kroniese inspanning waaraan hulle blootgestel word. Geen Suid-Afrikaanse studies kon gevind word wat op uitbranding van die terapeut of die terapeut-assistent in die rehabilitasieveld fokus nie. Hierdie studie het die oogmerk om die prevalensie van uitbranding onder ’n selektiewe groep terapeute, die terapeute in diens van Life Rehabilitasie in Suid Afrika, te bepaal. Ter aanvulling van die prevalensie van uitbranding, is die bydraende faktore van uitbranding in hierdie omgewing, die huidige bestuur van die probleem en voorstelle vir toekomstige bestuur ondersoek. ’n Beskrywende studie-ontwerp, wat sowel kwantitatiewe as kwalitatiewe metodes insluit, is vir data-insameling en -ontleding gebruik. ’n Steekproef is nie gebruik nie. Nege-en-veertig terapeute en sewe bestuurders het aan die studie deelgeneem. Die demografiese inligting is met behulp van ’n demografiese kodeblad ingesamel en maak deel uit van die kwantitatiewe data. ’n P waarde van < 0,05 is as statisties beduidend beskou. Daar is van die Maslach Uitbranding-Inventaris (Maslach Burnout Inventory) gebruik gemaak om die prevalensie van uitbranding te bepaal. Onderhoudskedules is gebruik tydens die kwalitatiewe onderhoude waartydens deelnemers se begrip van uitbranding, die bydraende faktore en die impak op die terapeute en maatskappy, asook die bestuurstrategieë te bepaal. Die kwalitatiewe data is volgens die induktiewe metode ontleed. Aangaande die dimensies van uitbranding, het die studie bevind dat 57,14% van die terapeute hoog getoets het vir emosionele uitputting (EU), 20.4% het in die hoë kategorie vir depersonalisasie (DP) geval en 38,77% het lae vlakke van persoonlike vervulling (PV) gehad. Die veranderlikes wat met hoë uitbranding-tellings verband gehou het, was manlike geslag (p=0.0238) (PV), gebrek aan kinders (p=0.02994) (EU), (p=0.03895) (PV), ≤ vier jaar tersiêre opleiding (p=0.03640) (PV), ≤ R15 000 inkomste (p=0.02262) (PV), geen werk oor naweke (p=0.02882) (DP), geen of min bybly-vermoëns (p=0.03180) (EU), hoë, oorweldigende werklas (p=0.03972) (EU), (p=0.01227) (DP), oorweldigende of ontoereikende pasiënt-belading (p=0.02365) (EU), hoë administratiewe werklas (p=0.00302) (PA), selde bereikbare spertye (p=0.03693) (DP), uitgestelde kontak met pasiënte (p=0.02023) (DP), (p=0.01164) (PV), ’n swak werksomgewing (p=0.02162) (EU), (p=0.04034) (DP). Die hoof-oorsake van uitbranding is faktore wat met individue, pasiënt/werk, bestuur en administrasie verband hou. Strategieë is geïdentifiseer wat gebruik kan word om uitbranding konstruktief in hierdie omgewing te bestuur en sluit psigiese-sosiale behandeling, spanverbeteringe, werk/pasiënt aanpassings, erkenning van personeel, verlofaanpassings, vakansietyd-geleenthede, personeelontwikkeling en bestuursverbetering, asook die implementering van moniteringsisteme en beleidsontwikkeling in. Aanbevelings vir Life Rehabilitation is onder meer praktiese strategieë vir die opsporing, voorkoming en bestuur van uitbranding onder terapeute. Die aanvoorwerk is deur hierdie navorsing gedoen. Suksesvolle implementering van die strategieë sal van die leierskap in die organisasie afhang. Sonder hierdie en ander sleutelfigure, hul toegewydheid ten opsigte van tyd, geld en toewysing van middele sal dit slage akademise waarde hê.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Thesis (doctoral)--Fernuniversität, Hagen. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [154]-165).

The border between common and vexation matter of person behaviour we are accustomed to is very slight. The topic of my diploma paper "Vexation at the workplace" becomes very actual and constantly the bigger problem in the contemporary modern society. Everyday mentally terror at the workplace, vexation among the colleagues, systematically made malignancies through which the superiors attack their inferiors (or vice-versa) is a problem that belongs serious incoveniences both to its victims and the company. My diploma paper is above all focused on the sophisticated and malicious area of work-vexation that is called the mobbing. Marginally I mention other forms of vexation and the bossing. I made my exploration at the public service environment as the work-vexation is usually put together with it. Primarily I point the legal and moral side of the mobbing and its psychological and social aspects. Secondarily I mark the mobbing as a job-psychological phenomenon, its influence to the company itself and consequences between it and some modern society trends (teamwork, power, burn-out syndrome, internet technologies). Supposing to become the managers we should make effort to eliminate the mobbing. As only the workplace without the vexation brings the satisfaction that can results in higher level of the work productivity, economic profit and the the incapacity of work decreasement. Thereby the mobbing affects the whole life of its victim and also that anyone of us can become the victim it is necessary to solve this problem urgently and constantly.

Le travail contemporain est de plus en plus reconnu comme une expérience ambivalente, c'est-à-dire porteuse de satisfactions intrinsèques pour l'individu et des moyens pour s'accomplir et, en même temps, à l'origine de souffrances et malaises psychologiques divers : burn-out, stress, anxiété, dépression, etc. Prenant appui sur les contributions conjointes de l'approche française de la sociologie de l'individu et des sociologies du travail et de la santé mentale, l'objectif de la thèse est de poser un regard renouvelé sur les processus sociaux derrière les retombées foncièrement ambivalentes de l'expérience du travail contemporain. De la même manière que la sociologie a toujours reconnu le rôle irrémédiablement central joué par le travail dans la socialité moderne, la thèse postule que la société a toujours dû trouver les moyens de l'enchâsser, sa valeur morale comme son potentiel d'envahissement pratique, dans le reste de la vie sociale. La société a sans cesse eu à confectionner pour cela des mécanismes sociaux aptes à réguler le poids du travail sur la vie des gens : les freins et contrepoids du travail. Ces derniers réfèrent à l'ensemble des composantes de la socialité qui régissent la part de lui-même que l'individu engage dans le travail, ce qui revient à en baliser l'emprise objective et subjective sur l'existence. Cette recherche doctorale pose l'hypothèse que c'est en retraçant quelques-unes des transformations qu'ont connues les freins et contrepoids du travail, depuis la période fordiste (1940-1970) jusqu'à nos jours, qu'elle pourra éclaircir ce qui par-delà les normes et injonctions managériales amène les contemporains à se mobiliser si intensément vis-à-vis du travail et à accorder autant d'importance à ses rétributions expressives (reconnaissance, accomplissement de soi, etc.). Deux formes de « pathologie » professionnelle, le surmenage professionnel et le burn-out, respectivement liées à l'expérience du travail taylorien et contemporain (ou post-taylorien), lui servent d'ancrage empirique. À partir d'un corpus d'enquêtes interrogeant la plainte du surmenage professionnel et du burn-out, puisé à même la littérature existante, la thèse porte un éclairage sur certaines difficultés susceptibles d'avoir participé aux conditions d'apparition du surmenage professionnel et du burn-out au cours de l'histoire, au Québec et en France. Plus précisément, l'étude comparée de leur plainte cherche à voir si l'une ou l'autre des difficultés qu'elle recèle laisse deviner certaines transformations qu'auraient connues les freins et contrepoids du travail, entre la période fordiste et la période post-fordiste actuelle, et à en traduire certaines conséquences possibles pour l'individu de chacune des époques concernées. / Contemporary work is recognized as an ambivalent experiment, i.e. carrying intrinsic individual satisfactions and the means to achieve them and, at the same time, bringing various kinds of sufferings and psychological sicknesses: burn out, stress, anxiety, depression, etc. Our thesis is based on joint contributions of industrial sociology, mental health sociology and the French branch of individual sociology, and its purpose is to give a renewed approach on the social processes of the experiment of contemporary work. In the same manner as sociology always recognized the central part played by work in modern sociality, the thesis postulates that the society always had to find the ways to fit it into social life (both its moral value and its potential of practical invasion). For this purpose the society unceasingly had to create social mechanisms able to control the part of work on the life of people: brakes and counterweights of work. They refer to whole components of sociality which govern the personal part an individual engages in work, marking out the objective and subjective influence on the existence. Our research hypothesis is: by recalling some transformations within the brakes and counterweights of work since Fordism (1940-1970) until nowadays, we will be able to clarify what, beyond managerial standards and injunctions, leads our contemporaries to be mobilized so intensely with respect to work and to grant such importance to its expressive remunerations (recognition, oneself achievement, etc). Two forms of professional “pathology”, professional overwork and burn out, linked to the experiment of Taylorist work and contemporary work (or post-Taylorist), are used as empirical anchoring. Starting from a corpus of investigations questioning the complaint of burn out and professional overwork (drawn on the existing literature), the thesis casts new light on certain difficulties which took part in the appearance of professional overwork and burn out during the History, in Quebec and in France. More precisely, the compared study of their complaint seeks to see whether one or other difficulty lets guess some transformations which the brakes and counterweights of work would have known, between Fordism and the current post-Fordism, and to bring out some possible consequences for an individual of each period concerned.

Univ., Diss.--Mannheim, 2003. / Literaturverz. S. [233] - 247.

The purpose of this study is to identify factors that protect social workers and other clinicians from experiencing burnout. Many things contribute to job burnout among clinicians. Some examples of contributing factors include a shortage of government funding, heavy caseloads, and a lack of autonomy. However, this study will look at workplace factors that are more amendable to change in the agency's environment.

Sammanfattning Stressrelaterad psykisk ohälsa såsom utmattningssyndrom, är en komplex problematik som varit mycket omdebatterad. Åtskilligt är publicerat i ämnet, men bara ett fåtal studier finns där personer med utmattningssyndrom själva fått möjligheten att beskriva orsakssambanden. Olika förklaringsmodeller och perspektiv beskrivs i litteraturen, men den rådande uppfattningen om varför människor drabbas utgår ofta från ett arbetsrelaterat perspektiv. Vi ville utforska om den rådande föreställning i ämnet stämmer överens med den uppfattning människor som drabbats av utmattningssyndrom har om orsakerna till symtomen. Vår ansats var även att undersöka om det kan finnas fler eller andra orsakssamband till utmattningsprocessen.   Vårt syfte med studien är; dels undersöka hur individer med utmattningssyndrom upplever vilka orsaker som är av betydelse för utmattningsprocessen, dels försöka beskriva och analysera dessa utsagor i ett vidare perspektiv.   Till studien valdes en kvalitativ metod och data samlades in med hjälp av intervjuer utifrån specifika forskarfrågor. Sju respondenter med utmattningssyndrom och närbesläktade stressrelaterade diagnoser deltog.   Resultatet visar att utlösande faktorer kopplade till bland annat arbetet är en orsak i utmatt-ningsprocessen, Studiens resultat visar också att bakomliggande faktorer är om möjligt ännu viktigare och som presenteras i Bohlin-Hogen-Henner modellen. Bakomliggande orsaker menar vi kan vara påfrestande och belastande livshändelser i uppväxten, vilka kan bidra till oförmåga att tillgodose egna behov och en prestationsbaserad självkänsla. Genomgående mönster har visat sig vara problematik med gränssättningen, det vill säga, dysfunktionell gränssättning som är en konsekvens av de olika bakomliggande faktorerna och har en avgörande betydelse för utmattningsprocessen. / Abstract Stress related psychological health-problems such as burn-out syndrome are complex issues which have been much debated. Much have been published on this topic but only a handful of studies have been conducted where individuals diagnosed with burn-out syndrome have been given the opportunity to describe the cause-effect of their condition. Different explanations and perspectives are described in the literature concerning this topic but the current view as to why people are afflicted by burn-out syndrome is based on a work-related perspective. We wanted to explore if the current view on the topic is in accordance with the diagnosed individuals view on the causes of their symptoms. Our intention was also to investigate into the possibility that there could be more or other causality behind the burn-out process.     The purpose of this study is twofold. First, to investigate how individuals with burn-out syndrome rate different causes in terms of importance to their process of burning out. Second, to try to describe and analyze these statements in a wider context.   For this study, we chose to use a qualitative methodology. Data were collected from interviews where adapted research questions were asked. Seven respondents diagnosed with burn-out syndrome or other stress related disorders participated.   The results show that work-related factors often are the triggers for the process of burning out, but hidden factors, such as conditions in the childhood and traumatic life events which can contribute to performance-based self-esteem, are even more significant. Overall patterns for burn-out syndrome show an inability to create personal boundaries, “dysfunctional personal boundaries”. This dysfunction is, in our opinion, the consequence of the hidden factors and in itself plays a crucial role in the burn-out process.

Zugl.: Düsseldorf, Universiẗat, Diss., 2008.