Counselling services as provided by non-professional counsellors have been in place for a
number of decades. Counselling traumatised people demands a significant amount of
emotional investment from the counsellor. A neglected area as far as non-professional
counsellors in South Africa is concerned, is the well-being of the counsellors. Burnout as well
as its antithesis, work engagement, are two possible transactional outcomes impacting on the
well-being of these counsellors. The measurement of burnout and work engagement requires
valid and reliable measuring instruments. The dearth of research studies in the area of
burnout and work engagement, together with the unique contribution of non-professional
counsellors in organisational settings, has led to the primary focus of this study being the
exploration of the experience of this group of counsellors doing trauma counselling in
financial institutions in South Africa.
A lack of norms for the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS),
and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) for non-professional counsellors doing
trauma counselling makes the identification of burnout and work engagement within this
specialist environment difficult. Consequently, investigating the reliability and validity of the
MBI-HSS and the UWES would result in the standardisation of these specific measuring
instruments, therefore contributing to the identification of burnout and work engagement with
non-professional trauma counsellors. Some of the factors that could play a role in the
prevalence of burnout and work engagement are secondary traumatic stress, the demands of
counselling, lack of resources, personal consequences, social support and sense of coherence. The objectives of this research were to standardise the MBI-HSS and UWES for non-professional
counsellors as well as to develop and test a causal model of burnout and work
engagement for this specialist group.
The research method involved four separate articles, each consisting of a brief literature
overview and an empirical study. A cross-sectional design, whereby a sample is drawn from a
population at a particular point in time, was used. The data for this study was collected from
168 non-professional counsellors, employed by three of the major banks in South Africa. The
MBI-HSS, UWES, Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ) as well as a Self-Report
Questionnaire (SRQ) and a biographical questionnaire were administered. Descriptive
statistics, analysis of variance, correlations, canonical analysis, and structural equation
modelling were used.
Structural equation modelling confirmed a three-factor model of burnout (emotional
exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment). In contrast with research
findings confirming the three-factor model of the UWES (vigour, dedication and absorption),
a one-factor model for the UWES was confirmed for non-professional counsellors. The
internal consistency of the scales for the MBI-HSS and UWES was found to be satisfactory
and in line with reported findings in the literature.
Structural equation analysis showed that the lack of resources and job demands predicted the
core of burnout, namely emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation. The conflicts and
pressures that are already associated with the everyday work of non-professional counsellors
are likely to be magnified by the counselling role. Non-professional counsellors continually
face conflicts created by the fact that they are accountable to large organisations, but
professionally, ethically and morally devoted to their clients (the victims of trauma who are
being counselled by them). They must balance the competing, and sometimes opposing
demands of several parties such as trauma victims, employees, families and communities. To
add to these circumstances it is important to remember that counselling is not the main job
objective of the non-professional counsellors. Counselling is seen as an "add-on" to their job
description and is in most instances not part of their performance measurement/assessment.
Work engagement was related to low burnout scores, while personal accomplishment was
associated with work engagement. High sense of coherence had a mediating effect on burnout
and a positive effect on work engagement. This study seems to emphasise that job demands
have a more negative effect on engagement when sense of coherence is low than when sense
of coherence is high. Conversely, it is assumed that sense of coherence provides functions
such as increased perception of coping capacity or minimised stress appraised, which
decreases the effects of stress on an individual.
Recommendations for the organisations and future research were made. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/424 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Fourie, Lukas Albertus |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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