Author’s Accepted Manuscript Positive resources for combating job burnout among Chinese telephone operators: Resilience and psychological empowerment Xiaohong Tian, Chunqin Liu, Guiyuan Zou, Guopeng Li, Linghua Kong, Ping Li www.elsevier.com/locate/psychres
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To appear in: Psychiatry Research Received date: 27 October 2014 Revised date: 22 May 2015 Accepted date: 24 May 2015 Cite this article as: Xiaohong Tian, Chunqin Liu, Guiyuan Zou, Guopeng Li, Linghua Kong and Ping Li, Positive resources for combating job burnout among Chinese telephone operators: Resilience and psychological empowerment, Psychiatry Research, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.05.073 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting galley proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Positive resources for combating job burnout among Chinese telephone operators: resilience and psychological empowerment Xiaohong Tian, Chunqin Liu, Guiyuan Zou, Guopeng Li, Linghua Kong, Ping Li * School of Nursing, Shandong University, Jinan, China
*Corresponding author at: School of Nursing, Shandong University, 44 Wenhua West Road, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, P.R. China. Tel: +86-531-88382002; Fax: +86-53182942003. Email address: [email protected]
Abstract Job burnout is a major concern within the service industry. However, there is a lack of research exploring positive resources for combating burnout among telephone operators. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between resilience, psychological empowerment, and job burnout, and the mediating role of psychological empowerment. A cross-sectional survey of 575 telephone operators was conducted in 2 call centers in Shandong Province, China. Self-report questionnaires were used to assess job burnout symptoms, resilience, and psychological empowerment. Hierarchical linear regression was performed to analyze the degree to which resilience and psychological empowerment are associated with job burnout, and the mediating role of psychological empowerment. The results showed that resilience and psychological empowerment had significant “net effects” on job 1
burnout, which may represent positive resources for combating job burnout. Psychological empowerment may partially mediate the relationship between resilience and job burnout. Thus, interventions focused on resilience and psychological empowerment may be useful options for managers concerned about burnout. Keywords: telephone operator; job burnout; psychological empowerment; resilience; mediating role
1. Introduction Job burnout is a response to chronic work-related stress, and it is regarded as a major public health concern. It is common in jobs with a high degree of social interaction or demands, and in the helping professions (Maslach et al., 2001) such as social work, teaching, and healthcare. Job burnout has been shown to have a negative impact on occupational indicators, such as job performance, job satisfaction, absenteeism, and staff turnover (Linnerooth and Mrdjenovich, 2011). Furthermore, burnout symptoms have been linked to a variety of mental and physical health problems such as depression, insomnia, and gastrointestinal disturbances (Lee et al., 2011). Thus, burnout may lead to a number of adverse effects and it is consequently of interest to managers. Telephone operators are at risk for job burnout, as they work in emotionally demanding situations and are regularly exposed to client complaints (Xu et al., 2010). The prolonged contact and continuous service provided by telephone operators to clients can be emotionally draining and extremely stressful. Moreover, with the rapid 2
development of the communications industry and the upsurge in telecommunications, work demands, business problems, competition, and operators’ burdens are increasing. Therefore, telephone operators are likely to experience burnout. Despite the number of studies on the factors contributing to burnout in high-risk groups, relatively few have explored the prevalence of burnout among telephone operators, which led us to focus on this group.
With the development of positive psychology, researchers have begun to focus on the important role of positive factors in combating burnout. Resilience, defined as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, and even significant sources of threat (Southwick and Charney, 2012), has been investigated as a potential protective factor against job burnout. Resilience attenuates the negative effects of stress (Jacelon, 1997; Ong et al., 2006), lowers the risk for psychiatric disorders and physical disease (Richardson, 2002), promotes one’s ability to “bounce back” following stress, adversity, and trauma (Tugade et al., 2004; Wagnild, 2009; Patel and Goodman,2007), and maintains stable levels of psychological and physical functioning in the face of stress (Bonanno, 2004). Studies suggest that job burnout can be reduced by increasing individuals’ resilience (García and Calvo, 2012; Nedrow et al., 2013), as individuals with high levels of resilience are less affected by workplace stressors and consequently less susceptible to job-related burnout.
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Furthermore, the positive effects of cognition and work attitudes, such as psychological empowerment (PE), can also help employees combat job stress and burnout (Vardi, 2000). PE, which is generally understood to be a psychological response to empowered work environments, is composed of four cognitions (meaning, competence, autonomy, and impact) and reflects the degree to which an individual feels motivated and competent to actively fulfill work expectations (Spreitzer, 1995). Many studies have defined PE as a potentially protective factor against the deleterious effects of work-related stressors on burnout, which are negatively related to work-related strain and burnout (Laschinger et al., 2006; Cavus et al., 2010). Therefore, increasing PE may effectively reduce job burnout.
Resilience and PE seem to play important and positive roles in combating job burnout. Nevertheless, their mechanisms are not well understood according to the research literature. The existing evidence shows that employees with higher levels of resilience are more likely to experience feelings of greater empowerment (Pines et al., 2012), which in turn, positively influences work behavior, job performance, and job burnout symptoms (Boudrias et al., 2012). Thus, we deduce that resilience could have an impact on job burnout through PE, namely, that PE might mediate the relationship between resilience and job burnout.
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In light of the above discussion, the purpose of this study is to test the following hypotheses among Chinese telephone operators: 1) resilience and PE are negatively associated with burnout symptoms; and 2) PE mediates the association between resilience and job burnout. We expect that our findings of this study will provide scientific evidence for the prevention and intervention of job burnout in telephone operators.
2. Methods 2.1.Study design and participants This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 600 telephone operators in 2 call centers, which were selected from a multi-center mobile communication company in Shandong Province, China. The primary responsibility of the telephone operators is to provide non face-to-face communication services, such as consultation, handling complaints, and business marketing. Participants were informed orally and in writing of the purpose of this research project, and were invited to participate in our study by answering a hardcopy of a self-administered questionnaire, which they completed in the break room following their shift. We obtained 575 completed questionnaires (effective response rate: 95.8%). The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Shandong University, and informed consent was obtained from all participants before the commencement of the survey. 2.2. Measures 5
2.2.1. Demographic and work-related factors A self-report questionnaire was used to collect the following demographic and work-related information: gender, age, education, marital status, economic status, work years, work shift (rotating shift, day shift), and group leader (yes, no).
2.2.2. Job burnout
Burnout symptoms were assessed using the Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS), which was originally developed by Maslach et al. (1996), and then translated it into Chinese and revised it (Li and Shi, 2003). It consists of 15 items divided into three subscales: Emotional Exhaustion (EE; 5 items), Cynicism (CY; 4 items), and Reduced Personal Accomplishment (PA; 6 items). All items are scored on a 7-point frequency rating scale ranging from “never” to “every day.” We used the mean of the scores on the items to assess job burnout; higher scores indicate higher levels of job burnout. Scores < 3 indicate lower burnout, 3–5 indicate moderate burnout, and > 5 indicate severe burnout (You et al., 2014). The Chinese version of the MBI-GS has been widely used in Chinese studies and has demonstrated satisfactory reliability and validity (Peng et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2012a; Wu et al., 2007). The internal consistency coefficients for the three subscales ranged from 0.88 to 0.93 in this study.
2.2.3. Resilience Resilience was measured using the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10) (Wang et al., 2010). The 10 items of the CD-RISC-10 (Campbell-Sills et al., 2007) were extracted from the original 25-item scale (Connor et al., 2003). 6
Each item is rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 (“not all true”) to 4 (“true nearly all of the time”), and higher scores indicate higher resilience. The CD-RISC (CDRISC-10) is thought to measure one latent factor of “resilience.” The CD-RISC10 has been shown to have good reliability (Notario-Pacheco et al., 2011; Tran et al., 2013), and its reliability and validity in the Chinese population were documented in Wang's study (Wang et al., 2010). The internal consistency coefficient of scale in this research was 0.89.
2.2.4. Psychological empowerment PE was measured using the Chinese version of the Psychological Empowerment Scale (PES), an adaptation (Li et al., 2006) of Spreitzer’s (1995) instrument. The PES is a 12-item questionnaire that measures employees’ perceptions of meaning, competence, autonomy, and work impact, which are the four dimensions of PE. On a 5-point Likert scale, employees rate the degree to which they perceive each item as a current problem; higher scores indicate a greater degree of psychological empowerment. The internal consistency coefficient of the four subscales ranged from 0.83 to 0.90 in this study.
2.3. Statistical analysis Statistical analyses were conducted using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 19.0 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the socio-demographic characteristics of the sample. Student’s t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to test the differnences of job burnout among the categorical socio-demographic characteristics. Pearson’s correlations were performed to examine the correlations among the continuous 7
variables. Hierarchical linear regression was performed to explore the effects of resilience and psychological empowerment on burnout symptoms. Statistical significance for all analyses was set to P < 0.05 (2-tailed). Finally, we examined whether psychological empowerment mediated the relationship between resilience and burnout using hierarchical regression models. Specifically, we conducted a set of hierarchical regression analyses to determine whether the following conditions of mediation (Baron et al., 1986) were met: (1) whether the independent variable was significantly correlated with the dependent variable; (2) whether the independent variable was significantly correlated with the mediator; (3) whether the mediator was correlated with the dependent variable; and (4) whether the relationship between the independent variable and dependent variable was attenuated by the inclusion of the mediator in the regression model. Moreover, if the strength of the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable decreased, but still differed from zero, after the mediator was added, partial mediation was considered to have occurred (Frazier et al., 2004). The Sobel test (Sobel, 1982; Preacher and Leonardelli, 2003) was conducted to examine whether the mediating effect was significant. All variables were linearly transformed to reduce multicollinearity. In addition, regression analyses were assessed for multicollinearity by calculating tolerance and variance inflation factors (VIFs). The diagnostic test showed that tolerance was well above the guideline of 0.2, whereas the VIF was well below 5 in all the regression analyses, indicating that there were no problems with multicollinearity in the data.
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3. Results 3.1. Participant characteristics Demographic characteristics are presented in Table 1. The sample consisted of 575 telephone operators (533 females, 42 males), ranging in age from 18 to 34 (mean = 24.90 ± 2.65). The Pearson’s correlations showed that age was associated with job burnout scores (r = -0.100, P < 0.05). The results of the t-tests and ANOVAs showed that job burnout scores differed significantly with respect to marital status, economic status, work years, and group leader position (P < 0.05). The job burnout scores were significantly higher in unmarried telephone operators than the married ones. Telephone operators who worked 1–3 years and those of a lower economic status had higher scores on burnout. In addition, telephone operators who did not work as group leaders were more susceptible to job burnout. There were no significant differences in job burnout scores on the other socio-demographic variables. 3.2. Descriptive statistics and correlations Descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) for resilience, PE, and job burnout are shown in Table 2. The mean of the MBI-GS total scores was 2.68 ± 0.98， and the means of the subscale scores from high to low were as follows: EE (3.06 ± 1.38), PA (2.55 ± 1.17), and CY (2.40 ± 1.45). As shown in Table 3, the telephone operators reported varying levels of burnout: emotional exhaustion was found to be most prevalent (48% had moderate or severe levels of burnout), followed by reduced personal accomplishment (43.7% had moderate or severe levels of burnout). 9
Table 2 also displays a correlation matrix reflecting the relationships among resilience, PE, and burnout. The resilience scores were positively correlated with the PE scores (r = 0.40, P < 0.001), and negatively correlated with the burnout scores (r = -0.50, P < 0.001); the PE scores were also negatively correlated with the burnout scores (r = -0.51, P < 0.001). 3.3. Regression analyses Resilience and PE were entered sequentially into the regression equations after controlling for socio-demographic variables (i.e. age, marital status, economic status, work years, and group leader). The results indicated that resilience and PE were associated with job burnout in telephone operators. As shown in Table 4, resilience had a significant effect on job burnout (β = -0.466, P < 0.001, R2 = 0.309); specifically, higher levels of resilience were associated with a substantially lower risk of job burnout. Resilience accounted for 20.8% of the variance for burnout. When PE was entered into the analysis, we found that it significantly predicted (β = -0.348, P < 0.001, R2 = 0.407) job burnout and an increase in the amount of variance accounted for by the model (ΔR 2 = 0.098). Following this, a set of analyses were performed to examine the mediating effect of PE on the relationship between resilience and burnout. As presented in analysis 2 (Table 4), resilience was significantly associated with PE (β = 0.377, P < 0.001). Similar to the previous results, resilience and PE significantly predicted burnout. When PE was introduced into the regression model in analysis 3 (Table 4), the coefficient for resilience decreased from -0.466 to -0.335, which means that the main effect of resilience on burnout decreased. However, resilience was still a significant predictor, indicating the relationship between resilience and burnout may be partially 10
mediated by PE. The results of the Sobel test confirmed the mediating effect of PE (Z = -6.84, P < 0.001). The mediation effect was -0.131 (0.377 × -0.348), and the proportion of variance was 28.2% (0.377 × -0.348 /-0.466).
4. Discussion The primary objective of this study was to examine the associations between resilience, PE, and job burnout, and to explore further the internal mechanism of burnout in telephone operators. The results demonstrate that resilience and PE are positive resources for combating job burnout symptoms, and confirm the mediating role of PE on the association between resilience and burnout symptoms. These findings indicated that more than one third of the telephone operators in the study suffered from moderate or severe levels of burnout. Among the burnout symptoms, emotional exhaustion was the most frequently reported, which is consistent with findings of previous studies of telephone operators (Xu et al. 2010), but different from results of studies of health promoters, in which the most frequently reported symptom was reduced personal accomplishment (Wang et al., 2012a; Wang et al., 2012b; Li et al., 2014). This difference may due to the sample characteristics and the nature of the work in both occupations. Most of the participants in this study were young females, and they provided non-face-to-face service, which required them to communicate actively and continuously and to engage the other person in a positive interaction, which might be the reasons why they were more susceptible to emotional exhaustion. The findings of previous studies suggested that resilience decreases the impact of workplace stressors and has the potential to combat job-related burnout (Nedrow et al., 11
2013). Our results indicate a negative association between resilience and job burnout symptoms, which lends credence to this claim. Individuals with high resilience might possess specific characteristics, such as a sound perspective on reality, a strong capacity for self-reflection, a responsible nature, a high tolerance for negative feelings (Vanderpol, 2002), and abundant personal resources (e.g., positive personal and professional relationships). According to the Conservation of Resources Theory (Zwack et al., 2013), high resilience can mobilize one’s internal and external protective factors in times of adversity, thus conferring resistance to pressure (Kumpfer et al., 2006). For example, the adoption of positive cognition and effective coping strategies to reduce the influence of work events should attenuate the effects of negative feelings and burnout. In addition, we found a negative correlation between job burnout and PE. Specifically, greater empowerment was associated with a lower degree of job burnout, which is consistent with previous findings (Cavus et al., 2010; Boudrias et al., 2012). Individuals with a high level of PE are more motivated and competent to fulfill their work expectations (Spreitzer, 1995). Moreover, they may derive greater meaning from work and are better equipped to cope with future change initiatives, which promote the individual’s potential and reduce burnout; therefore, PE reduces job burnout. Some researchers have noted that meaning and competence are empowering cognitions that are most strongly related to burnout, and that this association goes beyond the effects of stressors (Boudrias et al., 2012). This study is the first to examine PE as a mediator through which resilience influences burnout in Chinese telephone operators. Consistent with our hypothesis, the results indicated that PE may partially mediate the relationship between resilience and job burnout. This means that resilience may directly and positively affect job 12
burnout, and may confer a protective effect on job burnout though PE. Stress resilience is the product of one’s interpretive style and influences PE (Larrabee et al., 2010). It follows that individuals who are more resilient at work may be more likely to experience higher levels of PE (Pines et al., 2012), which in turn, reduces their burnout symptoms. This study suggests that in the process of staff management, managers should not only consider employees’ job performance, but also pay attention to their psychological state, professional identity, and thoughts regarding their abilities. Effective strategies should be implemented with Chinese telephone operators to improve their work-related PE and enhance their ability to recover from stress, as both of these factors may reduce job burnout. Before conclusions can be drawn, the limitations of this study must be acknowledged. First, our study used a cross-sectional design, making it difficult to understand the dynamic interplay between resilience and burnout. This also limits the ability to infer a causal relationship between them. Although the study’s hypotheses were built upon a solid theoretical and empirical foundation, prospective and longitudinal studies are necessary to confirm our results. Second, the Sobel test is widely used but it has limitations. Although the direct effect between resilience and job burnout decreased significantly when PE was added to the regression model, the magnitude of effect was modest. Third, the confounding factors in our study were mainly work-related sociodemographic variables, although there are many factors that might have influenced the development of burnout. Therefore, in future studies, the inclusion of depression and other factors (e.g., demands, work engagement) would permit a better understanding of job burnout. However, the strength of the present study is that we focused our attention on Chinese telephone operators and explored 13
PE as a mediator through which resilience influences burnout, which further elucidated the relationships of resilience, PE and job burnout.
Conclusions
This study suggests that Chinese telephone operators suffer from varying degrees of burnout and the results support the position that PE might partially mediate the association between resilience and job burnout, which may broaden the perspectives of administrators in staff training and management. We expect that our results will provide a platform to transition current research from exploring job burnout to addressing the development of intervention strategies. Future research that focuses on resilience interventions and PE management provide useful options for managers concerned about burnout.
Acknowledgements The study was supported by grants from the Shandong Province Postdoctoral Innovation Foundation (201303096) and Innovation Foundation for Young Talent Team of Shandong University (IFYT15010). We are thankful for the generous contributions of the research participants and the staff who assisted with data collection during the study.
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TABLES
Table1 Demographic characteristics of the overall sample of 575 Chinese telephone operators, 2013 Demographic variables
n
%
Female
533
92.7
Male
42
7.3
Married
182
31.7
Unmarried/single
393
68.3
Junior college or lower
219
38.1
College or higher
356
61.9
Abundance
92
16.0
Balance
363
63.1
Insufficiency
120
20.9
≤1 year
131
22.8
1-3 years
243
42.2
3-5 years
138
24.0
≥5 years
63
11.0
Gender
Marital status
Education
Economic status
Working years
19
Work shift a Rotating shift
538
93.6
Day shift
37
6.4
Yes
68
11.8
No
507
88.2
Group leader
b
a “Work shift” means their working time is fixed in daytime or rotated. b
“Yes” means the telephone operator is a group leader
Table 2 Means, standard deviations and correlation matrix for resilience, psychological empowerment and burnout (Chinese telephone operators, 2013)
1.PE
α
x±s
0.8 8
39.82±7.6 4
2. Meaning 0.8 3
1
2
3
10.33±2.5 0.79** * 4
20
4
5
6
7
8
9
3. 0.8 Competenc 4 e
11.54±2.2 0.69** 0.48** * * 2
4. Autonomy
0.8 5
10.10±2.7 0.82** 0.52** 0.43** * * * 4
5. Impact
0.9 0
7.84±2.63 0.71** 0.39** 0.24** 0.47**
6. Resilience
0.8 9
26.52±6.1 0.40** 0.32** 0.35** 0.35** * * * * 8
7. Burnout
0.8 9
2.68±0.98
*
0.9 3
3.06±1.38
0.9 2
2.40±1.45
0.88 2.55±1.17
0.18* **
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
0.82** 0.71** ** ** ** ** ** ** * * 0.45 0.46 0.25 0.38 0.24 0.36 *
10.PA
*
0.81** ** ** ** ** ** ** * 0.39 0.37 0.24 0.37 0.19 0.35 *
9. CY
*
0.51** 0.49** 0.36** 0.43** 0.27** 0.50** *
8. EE
*
*
*
*
*
*
0.61** 0.13** 0.18** ** ** ** ** ** ** * * 0.32 0.27 0.32 0.21 0.18 0.40 *
*
*
*
*
*
PE: Psychological empowerment; EE: emotional exhaustion; CY: cynicism; PA: reduced personal accomplishment. *** p
PII: DOI: Reference:
S0165-1781(15)00385-6 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.05.073 PSY8992
To appear in: Psychiatry Research Received date: 27 October 2014 Revised date: 22 May 2015 Accepted date: 24 May 2015 Cite this article as: Xiaohong Tian, Chunqin Liu, Guiyuan Zou, Guopeng Li, Linghua Kong and Ping Li, Positive resources for combating job burnout among Chinese telephone operators: Resilience and psychological empowerment, Psychiatry Research, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.05.073 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting galley proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Positive resources for combating job burnout among Chinese telephone operators: resilience and psychological empowerment Xiaohong Tian, Chunqin Liu, Guiyuan Zou, Guopeng Li, Linghua Kong, Ping Li * School of Nursing, Shandong University, Jinan, China
*Corresponding author at: School of Nursing, Shandong University, 44 Wenhua West Road, Jinan, Shandong, 250012, P.R. China. Tel: +86-531-88382002; Fax: +86-53182942003. Email address: [email protected]
Abstract Job burnout is a major concern within the service industry. However, there is a lack of research exploring positive resources for combating burnout among telephone operators. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between resilience, psychological empowerment, and job burnout, and the mediating role of psychological empowerment. A cross-sectional survey of 575 telephone operators was conducted in 2 call centers in Shandong Province, China. Self-report questionnaires were used to assess job burnout symptoms, resilience, and psychological empowerment. Hierarchical linear regression was performed to analyze the degree to which resilience and psychological empowerment are associated with job burnout, and the mediating role of psychological empowerment. The results showed that resilience and psychological empowerment had significant “net effects” on job 1
burnout, which may represent positive resources for combating job burnout. Psychological empowerment may partially mediate the relationship between resilience and job burnout. Thus, interventions focused on resilience and psychological empowerment may be useful options for managers concerned about burnout. Keywords: telephone operator; job burnout; psychological empowerment; resilience; mediating role
1. Introduction Job burnout is a response to chronic work-related stress, and it is regarded as a major public health concern. It is common in jobs with a high degree of social interaction or demands, and in the helping professions (Maslach et al., 2001) such as social work, teaching, and healthcare. Job burnout has been shown to have a negative impact on occupational indicators, such as job performance, job satisfaction, absenteeism, and staff turnover (Linnerooth and Mrdjenovich, 2011). Furthermore, burnout symptoms have been linked to a variety of mental and physical health problems such as depression, insomnia, and gastrointestinal disturbances (Lee et al., 2011). Thus, burnout may lead to a number of adverse effects and it is consequently of interest to managers. Telephone operators are at risk for job burnout, as they work in emotionally demanding situations and are regularly exposed to client complaints (Xu et al., 2010). The prolonged contact and continuous service provided by telephone operators to clients can be emotionally draining and extremely stressful. Moreover, with the rapid 2
development of the communications industry and the upsurge in telecommunications, work demands, business problems, competition, and operators’ burdens are increasing. Therefore, telephone operators are likely to experience burnout. Despite the number of studies on the factors contributing to burnout in high-risk groups, relatively few have explored the prevalence of burnout among telephone operators, which led us to focus on this group.
With the development of positive psychology, researchers have begun to focus on the important role of positive factors in combating burnout. Resilience, defined as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, and even significant sources of threat (Southwick and Charney, 2012), has been investigated as a potential protective factor against job burnout. Resilience attenuates the negative effects of stress (Jacelon, 1997; Ong et al., 2006), lowers the risk for psychiatric disorders and physical disease (Richardson, 2002), promotes one’s ability to “bounce back” following stress, adversity, and trauma (Tugade et al., 2004; Wagnild, 2009; Patel and Goodman,2007), and maintains stable levels of psychological and physical functioning in the face of stress (Bonanno, 2004). Studies suggest that job burnout can be reduced by increasing individuals’ resilience (García and Calvo, 2012; Nedrow et al., 2013), as individuals with high levels of resilience are less affected by workplace stressors and consequently less susceptible to job-related burnout.
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Furthermore, the positive effects of cognition and work attitudes, such as psychological empowerment (PE), can also help employees combat job stress and burnout (Vardi, 2000). PE, which is generally understood to be a psychological response to empowered work environments, is composed of four cognitions (meaning, competence, autonomy, and impact) and reflects the degree to which an individual feels motivated and competent to actively fulfill work expectations (Spreitzer, 1995). Many studies have defined PE as a potentially protective factor against the deleterious effects of work-related stressors on burnout, which are negatively related to work-related strain and burnout (Laschinger et al., 2006; Cavus et al., 2010). Therefore, increasing PE may effectively reduce job burnout.
Resilience and PE seem to play important and positive roles in combating job burnout. Nevertheless, their mechanisms are not well understood according to the research literature. The existing evidence shows that employees with higher levels of resilience are more likely to experience feelings of greater empowerment (Pines et al., 2012), which in turn, positively influences work behavior, job performance, and job burnout symptoms (Boudrias et al., 2012). Thus, we deduce that resilience could have an impact on job burnout through PE, namely, that PE might mediate the relationship between resilience and job burnout.
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In light of the above discussion, the purpose of this study is to test the following hypotheses among Chinese telephone operators: 1) resilience and PE are negatively associated with burnout symptoms; and 2) PE mediates the association between resilience and job burnout. We expect that our findings of this study will provide scientific evidence for the prevention and intervention of job burnout in telephone operators.
2. Methods 2.1.Study design and participants This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 600 telephone operators in 2 call centers, which were selected from a multi-center mobile communication company in Shandong Province, China. The primary responsibility of the telephone operators is to provide non face-to-face communication services, such as consultation, handling complaints, and business marketing. Participants were informed orally and in writing of the purpose of this research project, and were invited to participate in our study by answering a hardcopy of a self-administered questionnaire, which they completed in the break room following their shift. We obtained 575 completed questionnaires (effective response rate: 95.8%). The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Shandong University, and informed consent was obtained from all participants before the commencement of the survey. 2.2. Measures 5
2.2.1. Demographic and work-related factors A self-report questionnaire was used to collect the following demographic and work-related information: gender, age, education, marital status, economic status, work years, work shift (rotating shift, day shift), and group leader (yes, no).
2.2.2. Job burnout
Burnout symptoms were assessed using the Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS), which was originally developed by Maslach et al. (1996), and then translated it into Chinese and revised it (Li and Shi, 2003). It consists of 15 items divided into three subscales: Emotional Exhaustion (EE; 5 items), Cynicism (CY; 4 items), and Reduced Personal Accomplishment (PA; 6 items). All items are scored on a 7-point frequency rating scale ranging from “never” to “every day.” We used the mean of the scores on the items to assess job burnout; higher scores indicate higher levels of job burnout. Scores < 3 indicate lower burnout, 3–5 indicate moderate burnout, and > 5 indicate severe burnout (You et al., 2014). The Chinese version of the MBI-GS has been widely used in Chinese studies and has demonstrated satisfactory reliability and validity (Peng et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2012a; Wu et al., 2007). The internal consistency coefficients for the three subscales ranged from 0.88 to 0.93 in this study.
2.2.3. Resilience Resilience was measured using the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10) (Wang et al., 2010). The 10 items of the CD-RISC-10 (Campbell-Sills et al., 2007) were extracted from the original 25-item scale (Connor et al., 2003). 6
Each item is rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 (“not all true”) to 4 (“true nearly all of the time”), and higher scores indicate higher resilience. The CD-RISC (CDRISC-10) is thought to measure one latent factor of “resilience.” The CD-RISC10 has been shown to have good reliability (Notario-Pacheco et al., 2011; Tran et al., 2013), and its reliability and validity in the Chinese population were documented in Wang's study (Wang et al., 2010). The internal consistency coefficient of scale in this research was 0.89.
2.2.4. Psychological empowerment PE was measured using the Chinese version of the Psychological Empowerment Scale (PES), an adaptation (Li et al., 2006) of Spreitzer’s (1995) instrument. The PES is a 12-item questionnaire that measures employees’ perceptions of meaning, competence, autonomy, and work impact, which are the four dimensions of PE. On a 5-point Likert scale, employees rate the degree to which they perceive each item as a current problem; higher scores indicate a greater degree of psychological empowerment. The internal consistency coefficient of the four subscales ranged from 0.83 to 0.90 in this study.
2.3. Statistical analysis Statistical analyses were conducted using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 19.0 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the socio-demographic characteristics of the sample. Student’s t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to test the differnences of job burnout among the categorical socio-demographic characteristics. Pearson’s correlations were performed to examine the correlations among the continuous 7
variables. Hierarchical linear regression was performed to explore the effects of resilience and psychological empowerment on burnout symptoms. Statistical significance for all analyses was set to P < 0.05 (2-tailed). Finally, we examined whether psychological empowerment mediated the relationship between resilience and burnout using hierarchical regression models. Specifically, we conducted a set of hierarchical regression analyses to determine whether the following conditions of mediation (Baron et al., 1986) were met: (1) whether the independent variable was significantly correlated with the dependent variable; (2) whether the independent variable was significantly correlated with the mediator; (3) whether the mediator was correlated with the dependent variable; and (4) whether the relationship between the independent variable and dependent variable was attenuated by the inclusion of the mediator in the regression model. Moreover, if the strength of the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable decreased, but still differed from zero, after the mediator was added, partial mediation was considered to have occurred (Frazier et al., 2004). The Sobel test (Sobel, 1982; Preacher and Leonardelli, 2003) was conducted to examine whether the mediating effect was significant. All variables were linearly transformed to reduce multicollinearity. In addition, regression analyses were assessed for multicollinearity by calculating tolerance and variance inflation factors (VIFs). The diagnostic test showed that tolerance was well above the guideline of 0.2, whereas the VIF was well below 5 in all the regression analyses, indicating that there were no problems with multicollinearity in the data.
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3. Results 3.1. Participant characteristics Demographic characteristics are presented in Table 1. The sample consisted of 575 telephone operators (533 females, 42 males), ranging in age from 18 to 34 (mean = 24.90 ± 2.65). The Pearson’s correlations showed that age was associated with job burnout scores (r = -0.100, P < 0.05). The results of the t-tests and ANOVAs showed that job burnout scores differed significantly with respect to marital status, economic status, work years, and group leader position (P < 0.05). The job burnout scores were significantly higher in unmarried telephone operators than the married ones. Telephone operators who worked 1–3 years and those of a lower economic status had higher scores on burnout. In addition, telephone operators who did not work as group leaders were more susceptible to job burnout. There were no significant differences in job burnout scores on the other socio-demographic variables. 3.2. Descriptive statistics and correlations Descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) for resilience, PE, and job burnout are shown in Table 2. The mean of the MBI-GS total scores was 2.68 ± 0.98， and the means of the subscale scores from high to low were as follows: EE (3.06 ± 1.38), PA (2.55 ± 1.17), and CY (2.40 ± 1.45). As shown in Table 3, the telephone operators reported varying levels of burnout: emotional exhaustion was found to be most prevalent (48% had moderate or severe levels of burnout), followed by reduced personal accomplishment (43.7% had moderate or severe levels of burnout). 9
Table 2 also displays a correlation matrix reflecting the relationships among resilience, PE, and burnout. The resilience scores were positively correlated with the PE scores (r = 0.40, P < 0.001), and negatively correlated with the burnout scores (r = -0.50, P < 0.001); the PE scores were also negatively correlated with the burnout scores (r = -0.51, P < 0.001). 3.3. Regression analyses Resilience and PE were entered sequentially into the regression equations after controlling for socio-demographic variables (i.e. age, marital status, economic status, work years, and group leader). The results indicated that resilience and PE were associated with job burnout in telephone operators. As shown in Table 4, resilience had a significant effect on job burnout (β = -0.466, P < 0.001, R2 = 0.309); specifically, higher levels of resilience were associated with a substantially lower risk of job burnout. Resilience accounted for 20.8% of the variance for burnout. When PE was entered into the analysis, we found that it significantly predicted (β = -0.348, P < 0.001, R2 = 0.407) job burnout and an increase in the amount of variance accounted for by the model (ΔR 2 = 0.098). Following this, a set of analyses were performed to examine the mediating effect of PE on the relationship between resilience and burnout. As presented in analysis 2 (Table 4), resilience was significantly associated with PE (β = 0.377, P < 0.001). Similar to the previous results, resilience and PE significantly predicted burnout. When PE was introduced into the regression model in analysis 3 (Table 4), the coefficient for resilience decreased from -0.466 to -0.335, which means that the main effect of resilience on burnout decreased. However, resilience was still a significant predictor, indicating the relationship between resilience and burnout may be partially 10
mediated by PE. The results of the Sobel test confirmed the mediating effect of PE (Z = -6.84, P < 0.001). The mediation effect was -0.131 (0.377 × -0.348), and the proportion of variance was 28.2% (0.377 × -0.348 /-0.466).
4. Discussion The primary objective of this study was to examine the associations between resilience, PE, and job burnout, and to explore further the internal mechanism of burnout in telephone operators. The results demonstrate that resilience and PE are positive resources for combating job burnout symptoms, and confirm the mediating role of PE on the association between resilience and burnout symptoms. These findings indicated that more than one third of the telephone operators in the study suffered from moderate or severe levels of burnout. Among the burnout symptoms, emotional exhaustion was the most frequently reported, which is consistent with findings of previous studies of telephone operators (Xu et al. 2010), but different from results of studies of health promoters, in which the most frequently reported symptom was reduced personal accomplishment (Wang et al., 2012a; Wang et al., 2012b; Li et al., 2014). This difference may due to the sample characteristics and the nature of the work in both occupations. Most of the participants in this study were young females, and they provided non-face-to-face service, which required them to communicate actively and continuously and to engage the other person in a positive interaction, which might be the reasons why they were more susceptible to emotional exhaustion. The findings of previous studies suggested that resilience decreases the impact of workplace stressors and has the potential to combat job-related burnout (Nedrow et al., 11
2013). Our results indicate a negative association between resilience and job burnout symptoms, which lends credence to this claim. Individuals with high resilience might possess specific characteristics, such as a sound perspective on reality, a strong capacity for self-reflection, a responsible nature, a high tolerance for negative feelings (Vanderpol, 2002), and abundant personal resources (e.g., positive personal and professional relationships). According to the Conservation of Resources Theory (Zwack et al., 2013), high resilience can mobilize one’s internal and external protective factors in times of adversity, thus conferring resistance to pressure (Kumpfer et al., 2006). For example, the adoption of positive cognition and effective coping strategies to reduce the influence of work events should attenuate the effects of negative feelings and burnout. In addition, we found a negative correlation between job burnout and PE. Specifically, greater empowerment was associated with a lower degree of job burnout, which is consistent with previous findings (Cavus et al., 2010; Boudrias et al., 2012). Individuals with a high level of PE are more motivated and competent to fulfill their work expectations (Spreitzer, 1995). Moreover, they may derive greater meaning from work and are better equipped to cope with future change initiatives, which promote the individual’s potential and reduce burnout; therefore, PE reduces job burnout. Some researchers have noted that meaning and competence are empowering cognitions that are most strongly related to burnout, and that this association goes beyond the effects of stressors (Boudrias et al., 2012). This study is the first to examine PE as a mediator through which resilience influences burnout in Chinese telephone operators. Consistent with our hypothesis, the results indicated that PE may partially mediate the relationship between resilience and job burnout. This means that resilience may directly and positively affect job 12
burnout, and may confer a protective effect on job burnout though PE. Stress resilience is the product of one’s interpretive style and influences PE (Larrabee et al., 2010). It follows that individuals who are more resilient at work may be more likely to experience higher levels of PE (Pines et al., 2012), which in turn, reduces their burnout symptoms. This study suggests that in the process of staff management, managers should not only consider employees’ job performance, but also pay attention to their psychological state, professional identity, and thoughts regarding their abilities. Effective strategies should be implemented with Chinese telephone operators to improve their work-related PE and enhance their ability to recover from stress, as both of these factors may reduce job burnout. Before conclusions can be drawn, the limitations of this study must be acknowledged. First, our study used a cross-sectional design, making it difficult to understand the dynamic interplay between resilience and burnout. This also limits the ability to infer a causal relationship between them. Although the study’s hypotheses were built upon a solid theoretical and empirical foundation, prospective and longitudinal studies are necessary to confirm our results. Second, the Sobel test is widely used but it has limitations. Although the direct effect between resilience and job burnout decreased significantly when PE was added to the regression model, the magnitude of effect was modest. Third, the confounding factors in our study were mainly work-related sociodemographic variables, although there are many factors that might have influenced the development of burnout. Therefore, in future studies, the inclusion of depression and other factors (e.g., demands, work engagement) would permit a better understanding of job burnout. However, the strength of the present study is that we focused our attention on Chinese telephone operators and explored 13
PE as a mediator through which resilience influences burnout, which further elucidated the relationships of resilience, PE and job burnout.
Conclusions
This study suggests that Chinese telephone operators suffer from varying degrees of burnout and the results support the position that PE might partially mediate the association between resilience and job burnout, which may broaden the perspectives of administrators in staff training and management. We expect that our results will provide a platform to transition current research from exploring job burnout to addressing the development of intervention strategies. Future research that focuses on resilience interventions and PE management provide useful options for managers concerned about burnout.
Acknowledgements The study was supported by grants from the Shandong Province Postdoctoral Innovation Foundation (201303096) and Innovation Foundation for Young Talent Team of Shandong University (IFYT15010). We are thankful for the generous contributions of the research participants and the staff who assisted with data collection during the study.
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TABLES
Table1 Demographic characteristics of the overall sample of 575 Chinese telephone operators, 2013 Demographic variables
n
%
Female
533
92.7
Male
42
7.3
Married
182
31.7
Unmarried/single
393
68.3
Junior college or lower
219
38.1
College or higher
356
61.9
Abundance
92
16.0
Balance
363
63.1
Insufficiency
120
20.9
≤1 year
131
22.8
1-3 years
243
42.2
3-5 years
138
24.0
≥5 years
63
11.0
Gender
Marital status
Education
Economic status
Working years
19
Work shift a Rotating shift
538
93.6
Day shift
37
6.4
Yes
68
11.8
No
507
88.2
Group leader
b
a “Work shift” means their working time is fixed in daytime or rotated. b
“Yes” means the telephone operator is a group leader
Table 2 Means, standard deviations and correlation matrix for resilience, psychological empowerment and burnout (Chinese telephone operators, 2013)
1.PE
α
x±s
0.8 8
39.82±7.6 4
2. Meaning 0.8 3
1
2
3
10.33±2.5 0.79** * 4
20
4
5
6
7
8
9
3. 0.8 Competenc 4 e
11.54±2.2 0.69** 0.48** * * 2
4. Autonomy
0.8 5
10.10±2.7 0.82** 0.52** 0.43** * * * 4
5. Impact
0.9 0
7.84±2.63 0.71** 0.39** 0.24** 0.47**
6. Resilience
0.8 9
26.52±6.1 0.40** 0.32** 0.35** 0.35** * * * * 8
7. Burnout
0.8 9
2.68±0.98
*
0.9 3
3.06±1.38
0.9 2
2.40±1.45
0.88 2.55±1.17
0.18* **
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
0.82** 0.71** ** ** ** ** ** ** * * 0.45 0.46 0.25 0.38 0.24 0.36 *
10.PA
*
0.81** ** ** ** ** ** ** * 0.39 0.37 0.24 0.37 0.19 0.35 *
9. CY
*
0.51** 0.49** 0.36** 0.43** 0.27** 0.50** *
8. EE
*
*
*
*
*
*
0.61** 0.13** 0.18** ** ** ** ** ** ** * * 0.32 0.27 0.32 0.21 0.18 0.40 *
*
*
*
*
*
PE: Psychological empowerment; EE: emotional exhaustion; CY: cynicism; PA: reduced personal accomplishment. *** p
