Reviewing thirty-five years of research into burnout Schaufeli et al. (2009:205) refer to the metaphor of burnout as ‘the draining of energy…the smothering of a fire or the extinguishing of a candle.’ When Maslach and Jackson (1981) first developed the multi-dimensional construct of burnout it struck a chord both with both the psychological community and practitioners who related to the commonality of the burnout experience. Indeed, in countries with evolved social support systems, burnout has been developed into an accepted medical diagnosis (Schaufeli et al., 2009).
Initially Maslach and Jackson defined burnout as ‘a syndrome of emotional exhaustion and cynicism that occurs frequently among individuals who do ‘people- work’ placing burnout firmly in the arena of human service workers (Maslach and Jackson, 1981:99). However, it is more latterly recognised as a phenomenon relating to other forms of work, such as managers, entrepreneurs or mentors, or those in the creative industries. As a result, the concept of burnout became more centred on the notion of a depletion of resources that support psychological coping (Schaufeli et al., 2009). This recognition of burnout as a wide spread phenomenon across all occupations has been attributed to a number of cultural developments. Firstly, with the professionalisation of traditional helping professions that were once viewed as
34 vocational or as a ‘calling’, where workers engaged in social commitment and shared collective values. These roles became a source of disillusion as personal values clashed with organisational and institutional utilitarian values. This has gone on to erode employee resilience as individuals view 21st century mission statements and
organisation values with scepticism. Indeed, present-day public-sector organisations often espouse ideals that are beyond the reach of their limited resources. This imbalance of demand and resources creates exhaustion and reduces the sense of personal achievement and professional efficacy in the workforce (Potter et al., 2007 cited in Schaufeli et al., 2009). Next came the empowerment of the individual and the loss of professional authority of occupations such as nursing, teaching and police officers. This saw an increase in expectation and demand for service, empathy and compassion – increasing emotional demands on the individual service provider whilst also creating a reduction in recognition of effort and gratitude. Indeed, a lack of reciprocity is known to contribute to burnout at three levels of social exchange – with recipients, colleagues, and the organisation (Schaufeli, 2006). Lastly is the breakdown of traditional institutions and social communities such as the church, neighbourhoods and families as a result of ‘flexible capitalism’ (Sennett, 1998 cited in Schaufeli et al., 2009:207). This has led to a social fragmentation where community support has been eroded in favour of individualism, leading to individuals creating their own personal and occupational identity as society no longer provides them an established and shared definition. As a result, a ‘narcissistic culture’ has developed where individuals are self-absorbed and demand immediate gratification, but ultimately remain unsatisfied (Lash, 1979 cited in Schaufeli et al., 2009:208). Maslach and Jackson (1979) began their exploration into burnout whilst studying 142 American police officers and their families, where they became interested in their cognitive coping strategies. The study explored how police officers struggled to deal with the emotional consequences of their work; the psychological impact that this had on them, and how this transferred into the family home. They found that officers that experienced burnout were more often angry with their wives and their children than those that were not burned-out, whereas those suffering emotional exhaustion wanted to be alone and became emotionally-distant from their families. Along with
35 research into other human service professions, Maslach and Jackson developed a rich picture of how individuals lost their energy and the sense of meaning they once took from their work; highlighting how emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment are all linked (Maslach and Jackson, 1981; Hawkins 2001; Schaufeli et al., 2009).
From this Maslach and Jackson (1981) developed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), which is recognized as the leading measure of burnout, and has been translated and validated in numerous languages (Iwanicki and Schwab, 1981; Maslach et al., 1996, Maslach and Leiter, 2016). Through conducting extensive in- depth interviews and using an iterative process to explore the rich data, Maslach and Jackson (1981) designed the MBI instrument which identifies a three-dimensional construct (Maslach and Jackson, 1981; Schaufeli et al., 2009):
Emotional Exhaustion (EE) Depersonalisation (DP)
Diminished Personal Accomplishment (PA)
(Maslach and Jackson, 1981).
Emotional Exhaustion is described as a feeling ‘of being overextended and depleted
of one's emotional and physical resources’ (Maslach and Leiter, 2016:351). Employees may feel drained and lacking in energy to face the day or the people that they service. Depersonalisation is also referred to as cynicism, which is a negative and hostile attitude, linked to a loss of idealism – and is often in response to Emotional Exhaustion. Depersonalisation can begin as a form of self-protection and emotional buffer but can lead to dehumanisation and lead to employees feeling that their clients deserve their life situations (Maslach and Jackson, 1981; Hawkins, 2001; Maslach and Leiter, 2016). Diminished Personal Accomplishment is also referred to as Professional Inefficacy and is experienced in a decline in confidence in personal competence and productivity. Employees will have a growing sense of inadequacy and inability to carry out their role (Maslach and Leiter, 2016). Also, Maslach and Jackson (1979; 1981; Hawkins, 2001) found that high scores of burnout were indicative of employee intention to quit. Burnout is also related to decreased job
36 performance and physical and mental health problems, and therefore is the concern of both the individual and the organisation (Jeung et al., 2018).
The original study into police officers by Maslach and Jackson (1979) has since been partially replicated by Hawkins (2001) with 442 officers in four police departments. In this study more than 1/3 of officers scored high for emotional exhaustion and over 50% scored high on depersonalisation, for lack of personal accomplishment again, 1/3 of officers were high (Hawkins, 2001). Indeed, there are many studies that examine burnout in police officers (Van Gelderen et al., 2007; Chapman, 2009; Houdmont; 2013; Kenworthy et al., 2014). A more recent study into the relationship between psychosocial hazards exposure and burnout in UK custody officers found that almost half of participants were suffering with high emotional exhaustion, and a similar figure for depersonalisation, whilst almost 66% were found to experience low personal accomplishment (Houdmont, 2013).
Burnout and emotional labour have been explored in a number of studies (Chapman, 2009; Morris and Feldman, 1996; Zpaf, 2002). Morris and Feldman (1996) found that employees experienced burnout when engaging with emotional dissonance for an extended period of time, a position supported by Zapf (2002) who found emotional dissonance to be positively associated with burnout (Jeung et al, 2008). In reviewing the extant literature on burnout as a consequence of emotional labour Jeung et al. (2018) found indications that the complexity of interactions, through confliction and tensions between emotional display requirements, were most likely to increase likelihood of burnout via the resulting emotional dissonance. However, a shortage in supervisor support and preventative systems also contributed to this outcome. Grandey et al., (2004) found that customer aggression positively related to emotional exhaustion, with those threatened by customer aggression more likely to engage with surface acting – a useful study as it can be assumed that police officers experience their fair share of customer aggression. As it is, Jeung et al. (2018), argue that the differing factors of emotional labour in predicting burnout have not been sufficiently addressed.
37