The Influence of Organizational and Individual Factors on Employee Burnout

In: Žurnal sociologii i social'noj antropologii: ˜Theœ journal of sociology and social anthropology, Band 27, Heft 4, S. 7-39

Abstract

Over the past few years, the problem of burnout has become widespread. Despite the growing number of publications and studies, most of them focus primarily on the psychometric properties of burnout, and they are more descriptive than explanatory in nature. In publications, there is a noticeable dominance of psychological approaches and research at the individual level, which entails practical recommendations for changing the attitudes and behavior of workers, making improvements at specific workplaces, without affecting more fundamental decisions at the level of the organization as a whole. The article discusses the results of an empirical study, the purpose of which is to determine the presence and nature of the relationship between a number of organizational and individual factors and the components of burnout among employees of an industrial company. Data were collected through a survey of 915 employees in February-March 2022. To identify the relationships between factors and such components of burnout according to the model of K. Maslach and colleagues, such as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduction of personal achievements, three regression models were built, which showed a fairly high explanatory power. As a result of statistical analysis of the collected data, factors were identified that both increased and decreased the likelihood of burnout among employees of the company under study, including a breakdown by three components of burnout. Organizational factors such as fair remuneration, adequate workload, the ability to rely on coworkers for help, and intensive communication were among the factors that reduced overall burnout. Individual factors such as low status in the management hierarchy (workers and specialists) and men with minor children have proven to reduce emotional exhaustion. The scientific value of the study lies in drawing attention to the factors of burnout at work as one of the manifestations of the state and behavior of an employee in an industrial company, which is still very rarely an empirical object of research.