چكيده لاتين :
Background and aims: Job burnout is a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal
stressors on the job. Energy depletion (exhaustion), depersonalization and reduced professional efficacy
are considered to be characteristic components of burnout. Emotional exhaustion is the central
dimension of burnout and refers to feelings of being emotionally depleted due to over-extension.
Cynicism or depersonalization, is the interpersonal dimension of burnout that develops as a protection
against feelings of exhaustion. When the exhaustion becomes too overwhelming for the individual, he or
she detaches from the work and becomes cynical and disconnected from clients and co-workers.
Reduced personal accomplishment refers to the feeling of loss of efficiency and productivity at work
(also termed loss of professional efficacy). Maslach and Goldberg (1998) propose that the
interrelationship between emotional exhaustion and depersonalization is a causal one whereby feelings
of emotional exhaustion lead to depersonalization. The third dimension, reduced personal
accomplishment, is posited to develop separately. A considerable body of research has examined the
negative effects of job burnout on employees and their organizations. The consequences, or costs of
burnout are seen most consistently in various forms of job withdrawal (decreased commitment, job
dissatisfaction, turnover, and absenteeism), with the implication of a deterioration in the quality of care
or service provided to clients or patients. As such, it has been recognized as a major problem worldwide.
Studies emphasize the importance of the identification of predictive factors of this phenomenon for the
purposes of prevention and intervention. There are a number of studies detailing factors related to job
burnout. These factors can be categorized into professional traits, social organization traits, and personal
traits. Maslach (1988) found that personality traits and dimensions could justify burnout. He concludes
that job burnout is associated with neuroticism and psychological profile of work-related fatigue. In
addition to personality traits, basic psychological needs satisfaction is essential for the growth and wellbeing
of employees in the workplace. Social determinant theory emphasizes the needs for autonomy,
competence and relatedness. Autonomy refers to the experience of volition and self-endorsement of
one’s behavior, competence refers to the desire to master one’s environment and attain valued outcomes
within it and the need for belongingness or elatedness is defined as the human striving for close and
intimate relationships and the desire to achieve a sense of communion and belongingness. Several
empirical studies have found basic need satisfaction to associate positively with individual’s optimal
functioning in terms of well-being, attitudes and behavior, employees’ well-being, job satisfaction,
intrinsic and autonomous work motivation, time spent voluntarily at work, performance evaluations,
vigour and dedication, whereas it has associated negatively with emotional exhaustion. Psychological
flexibility, a key construct of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), has recently been found to
be an important determinant of mental health and behavioral effectiveness in the workplace. It refers to
people’s ability to focus on their current situation and based upon the opportunities afforded by that
situation, take appropriate action towards achieving their goals and values, even in the presence of
challenging or unwanted psychological events (e.g., thoughts, feelings, physiological sensations, images,
and memories). Psychological flexibility has been found to enhance employees’ ability to handle work
strain and to reduce employee burnout. In line with these findings and the mentioned arguments, this
research was conducted with the aim of studying the relationship between personality traits, workrelated
basic psychological needs satisfaction, work-related psychological flexibility with job burnout.
Methods: This is a practical descriptive- correlation research. Its statistical population consisted of all
staff who worked in Islamic Azad University branch of NajafAbad, from whom 200 employees (144
men and 56 women) were selected randomly by cluster sampling method. Data were collected using Neo
Personality Scale (NEO-FFI-R) (Costa and MacCrae, 1991); Work-related Basic Need Satisfaction Scale
(Van den Broeck, 2010); Work-related Acceptance and Action Quesionnaire (WAAQ) (Bond et.al,
2013) and Job Burnout scale (Maslach & Jackson, 1981). The 60-item NEO Five-Factor Inventory
(NEO-FFI) was developed to provide a concise measure of the five basic personality factors
(neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience). For each
scale, 12 items were selected from the pool of 180 NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) items. The
items are rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (completely agree) to 5 (completely disagree). Higher scores in every personality factor indicate greater levels of that personality factor.
Work-related Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (WAAQ) is a 7-item scale that measures
psychological flexibility in relation to the workplace. The items reflect the extent to which people can
take goal-directed action in the presence of difficult internal experiences (e.g., “I am able to work
effectively in spite of any personal worries that I have,” “I can still work very effectively, even if I am
nervous about something,” “I can work effectively, even when I doubt myself”). The items are rated on a
7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (never true) to 7 (always true). Higher scores indicate greater
levels of work-related psychological flexibility. Work-Related Basic Need Satisfaction Scale (W-BNS)
was developed by Van den Broeck et al. (2013). The scale contains 16 items, and is a 5-point Likert-type
(from 1 = completely disagree to 5 = completely agree). W-BNS has three sub-dimensions: competency
need, relatedness need and autonomy need. The “competency need” sub-dimension implies individiual’s
feeling himself/ herself competent at work (Sample Item: I feel competent in my job). The “relatedness
need” sub-dimension implies individiual’s need to build relationships with others and to avoid loneliness
and isolation at work (Sample Item: At work I feel part of a group). The “autonomy need” subdimension
is related to individual’s initiating activities, making decisions and choices independently at
work (Sample Item: I feel free to do my job the way I think it could best be done). The Maslach burnout
index (MBI) is designed to assess the three components of the burnout syndrome: emotional exhaustion,
depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. There are 22 items, which are divided into
three subscales. The items are written in the form of statements about personal feelings or attitudes (e.g;
“I feel burned out from my work”, “I don’t really care what happens to some recipients”). The items are
answered in terms of the frequency with which the respondent experiences these feelings, on a 7-point
scale, ranging from “never having those feelings” (0) to “having those feelings every day” (6). The nine
items in the emotional exhaustion subscales assess feelings of being emotionally overextended and
exhausted by one’s work. The five items in the depersonalization subscale measure an unfeeling and
impersonal response toward recipients of one’s service, care, treatment, or instruction. For both the
emotional exhaustion and depersonalization subscales, higher mean scores correspond to higher degrees
of experienced burnout. The eight items in the personal accomplishment subscale assess feelings of
competence and successful achievement in one’s work with people. In contrast, to the other two
subscales, lower mean scores on this subscale correspond to higher degrees of experienced burnout. Data
were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation), Pearson correlation coefficient
and multiple regression analysis (stepwise method) with SPSS software (v. 21).
Results: Mean and (standard deviation) scores for research variables were: neuroticism = 32.20 (6.78),
extraversion = 42.38 (5.74), agreeableness = 44.11 (5.10), conscientiousness = 48.36 (5.64), openness to
experience = 35.95 (4.25), autonomy = 17.65 (3.69), competence = 15.97 (2.43), relatedness = 21.43
(4.16), psychological flexibility = 33.74 (6.96), emotional exhaustion = 14.46 (11.93), depersonalization
= 3.95 (4.95), reduced personal achievement = 10.8 (9.11) and job burnout = 33.22 (18.15). Pearson
correlation analysis results indicated that there is a negative relationship between autonomy (r=-0.49,
p<0.01), competence (r=-0.36, p<0.01) and relatedness (r=-0.46, p<0.01) with job burnout. Also there is
a significant negative relationship between work-related psychological flexibility with job burnout (r=-
0.38, p<0.01), emotional exhaustion (r=-0.26, p<0.01), depersonalization (r=-0.28, p<0.01), and
decreased personal achievement (r=-0.26, p<0.01). Among personality traits, extraversion (r=-0.51,
p<0.01), conscientiousness (r=-0.35, p<0.01) and agreeableness (r=-0.29, p<0.01) were negatively and
significantly related to job burnout. There was a positive and significant relationship between
neuroticism and job burnout (r=0.43, p<0.01). Moreover, stepwise regression analysis results revealed
that extraversion, autonomy, conscientiousness, relatedness and psychological flexibility with negative
relationship have a significant role in predicting staff job burnout (p<0.05). In total 45% of job burnout
variance was explained by these variables. Emotional exhaustion was predictable respectively via
autonomy and relatedness. These variables can predict 44% of emotional exhaustion variance
significantly (p<0.001). Results also showed that extraversion and conscientiousness can predict 25% of
decreased personal achievement (p<0.001). Finally, conscientiousness and psychological flexibility can
predict 12.1% of depersonalization variance significantly (p<0.001).
Conclusion: According to the results of the current study, it can be concluded that Psychological
flexibility, basic psychological needs satisfaction and personality traits, particularly extraversion have a
key role in job burnout development, and thus should regularly be considered in burnout research and
therapy. Based on the results of this study, it is suggested that managers choose staff with high level of
extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and flexibility and low level of neuroticism. They also
should change the working environment conditions so that the basic needs of employees be met.