Relationships between professional burnout and job demands, resources among industrial workers in Lithuania

Abstract

Objectives Burnout can negatively impact both workers’ health and safety outcomes in organization (Smith et al., 2020). Safety issues are especially significant in industrial sector that is seeking for evidence-based interventions to diminish professional burnout. So, the current study was oriented to identify the main risk and protective factors that predicted professional burnout among industrial workers in Lithuania. Job demands-resources model (Bakker, Demerouti, 2014, 2017) was used to list the main factors that could be related to employees’ physical, emotional and mental exhaustion. It was hypothesized that job demands should be associated with higher professional burnout, and that job resources should reduce the negative impact to strain of employees. Materials and Methods 249 industrial workers (74 percent males and 23,4 percent females, 2,6 percent did not indicate their gender) and 74 administrative workers (46 percent males and 54 percent females) from one organization filled up a self-administered questionnaire in a cross-sectional survey. Perceived job demands, resources and professional burnout were measured with COPSOQ II (Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire, National Centre for the Working Environment, 2007) scales. Results Findings revealed that there were no significant differences of level of professional burnout between industrial and administrative workers. Results of linear regression analysis showed that work pace, quantitative demands at work alongside with work-family conflict acted as risk factors for the professional burnout among industrial workers. Even bigger possibilities for development (aspect of job resources) predicted their higher professional burnout. However, only emotional requirements predicted professional burnout of administrative workers. Conclusions Results of the study identified significant risk factors for employees’ physical, emotional and mental exhaustion. Further research should pay attention to additional protective factors for professional burnout, maybe other than job resources.