Toward a differentiated view of burnout: Personal and organizational mediators of job satisfaction and stress

Higher levels of involvement with clients were associated with decreased resistance to the stresses of human service work while general job involvement was associated with increased resistance to such stress.

Abstract

This study examined the relationships between the characteristics of the human service work environment, workers' attitudes towards their jobs, and their reported attitudes and behaviors towards clients. The sample consisted of 168 workers employed in a range of human service programs in the Northeast. Job-enriching characteristics were found to be related to workers' levels of job involvement, job satisfaction, and personal accomplishment, but had little relationship to reported levels of emotional exhaustion. Job stressors were clearly associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion, but were not related to levels of work involvement or accomplishment. Feedback from clients was central to determining the amount of accomplishment workers felt and their commitment to clients. By contrast, feedback from staff strongly related to workers' job satisfaction. Finally, higher levels of involvement with clients were associated with decreased resistance to the stresses of human service work while general job involvement was associated with increased resistance to such stress.