AKINPELU ABIOLA

Introduction

Job burnout has been a source of concern for many researchers due to its implication for
individuals and the organization as a whole.
Organizations are constantly faced with rapid changes in development and the need to keep up
with these changes in order to compete effectively among their contemporaries. In the light of
these changes, more responsibilities are placed on employees as well as the pressure to meet up
with the expectations of their employers which in turn increases the stress levels of employees in
their workplace. Job burnout can be described as response to the emotional and interpersonal
stress of ones job over a period of time (Maslach et al 2001).
This paper aims to review the previous studies carried out to analyze the effect of Job burnout as
well as its impact on employee performance. For the aim of this literature review, the target
article is The Study on the Effects of Organizational members Job burnout.
With the aid of the University database, a search was conducted in ABI Inform and Web of
Science using the keywords Job Burnout Performance where I was able to identify suitable
articles by reviewing their abstract. I also identified five related articles in addition to the target
article. This was in order to achieve more information as well as establish if the target article has
adequately addressed the impact of Job burnout on employee performance.
Various studies and different measures have been developed by researchers on Job burnout. The
most popular measure developed was the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) which was
developed by Maslach and Jackson in 1981. Another study was developed in 1986 which was the
MBI Human Services Survey for employees in the Human Service industry which was
developed by Maslach, Jackson and Leiter. In order to expand the study of Job burnout to all
industries, Maslach et al (1996) developed the MBI General Survey (MBI-GS).
Researchers have expressed opinion on the psychometric limitation of Maslach Burnout
Inventory (MBI) as it focuses only on the affective component of exhaustion but failed to capture
the physical and the cognitive component in order to capture exhaustion as a result of stress.
Demerouti, Bakker, Kantas, and Vardakou in 2002 developed a similar scale to MBI named the
Oldenbrg Burnout Inventory which measures only two scales namely exhaustion and
disengagement.
According to the target article, the phase and the sequential model remains the major model in
the study of Job burnout. The phase model postulates that there are three dimensions of job
burnout which include; inefficacy, depersonalization and exhaustion. The sequential model
however argued that there are sequences to the phases of burnout which starts from exhaustion
and proceeds to cynicism which leads to inefficacy. Two hypotheses were developed for the test
which include;

AKINPELU ABIOLA

Hypothesis

For the effect of burnout on performance, the components of Job burnout identified were
exhaustion and disengagement as specified in the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) was
used. The Hypotheses are as follows;
Hypothesis1: Organizational members job burnout will be more negatively associated with Job
performance
Hypothesis 1a: Organizational members exhaustion will be more negatively associated with Job
performance.
Hypothesis 1b: Organizational members disengagement will be more negatively associated with
Job performance.
For the practical analysis, 100 questionnaires were distributed to Korean employees in two cities
in Korea namely; Busan and Gyeongnam, Korea. Out of which 100 were returned but three were
found unsuitable as a result of some unanswered questions in the questionnaire. The target article
used the following statistical techniques in their study which include the following; descriptive
analysis, reliability test, factor analysis, discriminate analysis, correlation analysis, multi
regression analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis.
Critical Analysis of Target Article
From the result of the analysis, Hypothesis 2 predicted that job burnout would be negatively
related with job performance. But, Hypothesis 2a not predicted (=-0.065, p>0.1). Hypothesis 2b
predicted disengagement would be negatively related with job performance (=-0.335, p<0.001).
Thus, Hypothesis 2a is not supported, and Hypothesis 2b is supported. Therefore, Hypothesis 2 is
partially supported. We can conclude that disengagement as a result of job burnout was related to
low performance.
In this study, there seems to be no existing relationship between exhaustion and performance.
However, studies shows a relationship between job disengagement and performance. From the
results, Job burnout will impact negatively on job satisfaction. Also effects of job disengagement
due job burnout was found to be linked to poor or low performance. One of the limitations of the
research is the small sample size used in the study therefore one cannot make a general
conclusion from a sample of a hundred questionnaires administered. Also, only two communities
had access to the questionnaire which shows that the opinions expressed only represents a few
people in the community. Another limitation of the study is that it failed to analyze other factors
that may be responsible for Job burnout.
For the purpose of future research, other qualitative methods should be adopted to ensure the
reliability of the study carried out.

AKINPELU ABIOLA

Analysis of Other Related Literature

A meta-analysis study conducted by Zimmerman and Swider (2010), to analyze the dimensions
of job burnout( emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment) and its
effects on performance. The study identified 115 research studies carried out. The authors
analyzed the dimensions of job burnout which include; emotional exhaustion, depersonalization
and personal accomplishment in relation to job performance. The result showed that the three
dimensions of job burnout had a correlation value of 0.36 with job performance. Also the study
analyzed whether the relationship between job burnout and performance were task specific or
general performance measure.
In another study which focused on the antecedents and effects of Job burnout among Services
Personnel in India. The study analyzed the different dimensions of burnout (emotional
exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment) in relation to individual
performance developing individual hypothesis. 200 questionnaires were administered to software
professionals working in different firms but only 75 questionnaires were used for the analysis.
All the variables were measured using a Likert scale. Reliability measurement were used for the
variables in the study with the aid of Cronbach Alpha values Alpha estimates varied from 0.6014
for depersonalization and 0.8465 for emotional exhaustion. From the results of the study, the
hypotheses were predicted right except for emotional exhaustion which tends to improve
performance as a result of the need for employees to prove their worth in the workplace.
(Advani, Sarang, Kumar and Rohtas 2005).