The Impact of Interpersonal Environment on Burnout and Organizational Commitment

Author(s): Michael P. Leiter and Christina Maslach

Source: Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Oct., 1988), pp. 297-308
Published by: John Wiley & Sons
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2488088
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 JOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Vol. 9,297-308 (1988)

The impact of interpersonal

environmenton burnout and
organizationalcommitment1
MICHAEL P. LEITER
Psychology Department, Acadia University, Canada

AND

CHRISTINA MASLACH
Psychology Department, Universityof California, Berkeley, U.S. A.

Summary Organizational commitment and burnout were related to interpersonal relationships of

nurses in a small general hospital. Regular communication contacts among personnel
were differentiated as supervisor or coworker contact, and these categories were further
differentiated into pleasant and unpleasant contacts. The results were consistent with a
view of burnout in which emotional exhaustion leads to greater depersonalization which
subsequently leads to diminished personal accomplishment. Interpersonal contact with
personnel in the organization was related to the development of burnout at each stage.
Patterns of pleasant and unpleasant contacts with supervisorsand coworkers were related
to the three aspects of burnout in a distinct manner. High burnout was related to
diminished organizational commitment, which was also related to aspects of the
interpersonal environment of the organization. The results are discussed in the context of
a comprehensive approach to psychological adjustment to a worksetting.

Introduction
In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the phenomenon of burnout, particularly in
human services professions. Burnout appears to be a response to interpersonal stressors on the
job, in which an overload of contact with people results in changes in attitudes and behaviours
towards them. More specifically, burnout has been defined as a syndrome of emotional
exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment, which can occur
among individuals who work with people in some capacity (Maslach and Jackson, 1986, 1984a).
Emotional exhaustion refers to feelings of being emotionally overextended and drained by one's
contact with other people. Depersonalization refers to an unfeeling and callous response toward
these people, who are usually the recipients of one's service or care. Reduced personal

'This research was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Please
address requests for reprints to Michael Leiter, Psychology Department, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia,
Canada BOP IXO.

0894-3796/88/040297-12$06.00 Received 2 December 1986

? 1988 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Revised 9 April 1987
298 M. P. LEITER AND C. MASLACH

accomplishment refers to a decline in one's feelings of competence and successful achievement in

one's work with people. These three aspects of the burnout syndrome have been the focus of
numerous research studies investigating the causes and outcomes of burnout (see Maslach and
Jackson, 1986).
Virtually all discussions of burnout have proposed that it is a product of both personal and
environmental factors, and various studies have looked at one or both of these categories.
However, the bulk of the research evidence to date suggests that environmental factors,
particularlycharacteristicsof the work setting, are more strongly related to burnout than are such
personal factors as demographic and personality variables (e.g. Burke, Shearer and Deszca, 1984;
Golembiewski and Scicchitano, 1983; Maslach and Jackson, 1984b). Consistent with the analysis
of burnout in interpersonal terms, many of the work characteristics that have been linked to
burnout involve contact with other people, whether they be clients or coworkers. Thus, for
example, burnout has been correlated with a greater percentage of time in direct care of clients
(Lewiston, Conley and Blessing-Moore, 1981; Maslach and Jackson, 1982), more difficult client
problems (Meadow, 1981; Pines and Maslach, 1978), caseload (Maslach and Jackson, 1984b;
Maslach and Pines, 1977), and a low degree of peer support (Burke et al., 1984;Jackson, Schwab
and Schuler, 1986; Maslach and Jackson, 1982). In some cases, interactions with coworkers have
been-cited as the most important sources of job stress and burnout (Gaines and Jermier, 1983;
Leiter and Maslach, 1986). These findings suggest that contact with people can be a major source
of distress, frustration, or conflict in human services professions, and that such a negative
experience can be an important element in an employee's satisfaction with the job and
commitment to continue working in it.
Such negative interpersonal experiences contrast with the many positive and rewardingaspects
of contact with coworkers, which have been discussed most extensively in the research literature
on social support in the work setting (Beehr, 1985; House, 1981). Different types of support have
been identified (such as emotional versus instrumental), as have different sources of support (such
as coworker, supervisor, spouse). Contact with people, whether it be number of people and/or
frequency of contacts, has been one primary measure of social support, and consequently such
contact has been presumed to be positive in nature. However, recent analyses have pointed out
that contact is not always supportive (Barrera, 1985; Brodsky, 1976), an argument that is borne
out by the burnout research cited above. Thus, one goal of the present study was to assess both
positive and negative contacts on the job, and to investigate their separate contributions to
burnout and organizational commitment.
In line with the distinction between different sources of social support, the current study
distinguished between two different types of job contacts: coworkers and supervisors. It seemed
reasonable to assume that the nature of the contact between two fellow employees would not be
the same as that between an employee and his or her supervisor. For example, positive contact
with a supervisor might involve praise, guidance, and promotions, while positive contact with a
coworker might refer more to friendship, help, and comfort. It is conceivable that these different
types of positive contact would have different relationships to burnout and commitment, and that
a similar argument could be made with regard to negative contacts.
Interpersonal contacts are often negative because of various conflicts between the people
involved. There may be disagreements about how the job is to be carried out, or there may be
multiple demands that cannot be easily met. Conflict can also stem from organizational sources
(e.g. institutional policies) or intra-individual sources (e.g. the worker's personal values) which
clash with competing job demands. Work environments that are characterized by high levels of
role conflict are more difficult and unpleasant settings in which to work and require much more
effort (thus leading to greater exhaustion). Such environments produce a greater level of burnout
 INTERPERSONAL ENVIRONMENT 299

among the employees (Jackson et al., 1986; Schwab and Iwanicki, 1982), and burnout, in turn,
should produce a lower level of organizational commitment.
Organizational commitment refers to employee identification with, and involvement in, a
particular organization (Mowday, Steers and Porter, 1979). Higher levels of commitment are
reflected in lower rates of turnover (Price and Mueller, 1981; Steers, 1977), and are also believed
to be related to enhanced productivity and better delivery of services. It seems reasonable to
postulate that the experience of burnout would lead employees to he less committed to the
organization, and thus more likely to quit their job. If employees are feeling emotionally
exhausted by their work, are developing depersonalized views of the people they serve, and are
feeling that they are not accomplishing much, then they would probably become less enthusiastic
and accepting of the organization's goals, less dedicated to achieving them, and more prone to
withdrawing from work (both psychologically and physically). Thus, organizational commitment
may be the mediating variable in the link that has been found between burnout and both turnover
and job withdrawal (Jackson et al., 1986; Lazaro, Shinn and Robinson, 1984; Maslach and
Jackson, 1984b).
Similarly, burnout may be an important mediating variable between interpersonal aspects of
the work environment and organizational commitment. Previous research has found that role
conflict and interpersonal contacts (as operationalized in terms of communication networks) are
predictors of commitment (Eisenberg, Monge and Miller, 1983; Morris and Sherman, 1982),
although the underlying dynamic has not really been specified. It could be argued that burnout is
the key factor here, in that it is a likely response to interpersonalstressors and conflict, which then
instigates withdrawal from the organization.
For the most part social support at work has been considered as moderating the relationship
between job stressors and stress reactions of workers. In some circumstances, however, it may be
useful to conceive of the social environment as a direct contributor to workers' reactions to a
worksetting. To explore the role of social contacts, this study took place in a small hospital which
was fairly homogeneous in regard to stressors. While it is recognized that a wide variety of
stressors (caseload, access to resources, etc.) contribute to job stress, a comprehensive exploration
of burnout can benefit from an exploration of direct relationships between the social environment
of a worksetting and burnout.

Hypotheses
This analysis of interpersonal aspects of the work environment rests on the general assumption
that role conflict and contacts with other employees influence the level of burnout, which, in
turn, influences level of organizational commitment. More specifically, this analysis leads to the
following set of predictions about the relationships among these variables.
First of all, it is postulated that contacts with other employees in the organization will be
predictive of the three different aspects of burnout. Contacts are defined in terms of a mutual
choice by both of the relevant employees, and not simply in terms of the self-report of one of
them. Negative contacts (that is, contacts that are unpleasant or stressful in some way) are
potentially stressful and will be directly related to higher levels of emotional exhaustion and
indirectly with depersonalization, but unrelated to levels of personal accomplishment.
Depersonalization is expected to be negatively related to pleasant coworker and supervisor
contact, because the absence of such contact diminishes a worker's capacity to cope with
exhaustion and stress. In contrast, personal accomplishment will be related only to the presence of
positive contacts (contacts that are pleasant or supportive). Because supervisors are in a position
to provide instrumental as well as emotional support (Beehr, 1985), contacts with supervisors may
300 M. P. LEITER AND C. MASLACH

show different relationships to burnout than do contacts with coworkers. In addition to

interpersonal contacts, the presence of role conflict is expected to be related to burnout. Based on
previous research findings, role conflict should be most strongly predictive of the emotional
exhaustion aspect of burnout.
A second set of hypotheses has to do with the interrelationships among the three aspects of the
burnout syndrome. According to earlier theorizing (Maslach and Jackson, 1982), emotional
exhaustion is likely to be the first phase of burnout, given that it is a response to the emotional
stressors of the job. Once emotional exhaustion occurs, an individual may attempt to cope with it
by detaching him or herself from others and developing a depersonalized response to them. Thus,
emotional exhaustion should be a predictor of depersonalization. Once depersonalization occurs,
the individual should begin to feel less successful on the job and should evaluate him or herself less
positively in terms of actual accomplishments. Thus, depersonalization should be a predictor of
level of personal accomplishment. In other words, the presence of emotional exhaustion will only
lead to a sense of reduced personal accomplishment if depersonalization occurs as a mediating
variable. It should be noted that these hypotheses about the interrelationshipsof the three aspects
of burnout stand in contrast to those postulated by Golembiewski and Munzenrider (1984), in
which depersonalization is predicted to lead to decreases in personal accomplishment, which
subsequently lead to higher levels of emotional exhaustion.
Finally, it is hypothesized that scores on the three aspects of the burnout syndrome will predict
levels of organizational commitment. That is, higher levels of emotional exhaustion and
depersonalization, and lower levels of personal accomplishment, will each be related to lower
levels of commitment. It is also expected that organizational commitment will be positively
correlated with pleasant supervisor and coworker contact, and negatively correlated with both
types of unpleasant contact. It is unclear whether the relationships of organizational commitment
with the communication variables will be independent of organizational commitment with the
burnout scales.

Method
Subjects
Subjects were 52 of 74 nurses and support staff (49 females and three males) of a small private
hospital in an urban area of Northern California. The hospital comprised an emergency room and
an inpatient facility which was divided into a seven-bed cardiac care/intensive care unit and a
general ward. Inpatients were predominantly persons recuperating from surgery in a nearby
general hospital. Emergency room patients were largely members of the health plan with which
the hospital was associated, as well as persons admitted as police emergencies. Support staff were
full-time workers of the hospital from other clinical areas: radiology and physical therapy.
The hospital was one unit of a large health care service with hospitals and clinics throughout the
western United States. It was closely associated with an outpatient facility a mile away. Doctors
and some of the support staff divided their time between the two locations, but nurses and the
support staff participating in the study worked only in the hospital. In addition to direct service
staff, persons working in billing, personnel, dietary, and general administration also worked at the
hospital, but did not take part in the study. Participants were differentiated as supervisors, who
included the director of nursing, the assistant director and six supervisorswho regularlycovered a
given shift and as coworkers who comprised the remaining subjects.
 INTERPERSONAL ENVIRONMENT 301

Instruments
Burnout was measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach and Jackson, 1981, 1986).
This is a 22-item measure which produces three scores: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization
and personal accomplishment. In this sample, Cronbach's coefficient alpha for emotional
exhaustion was 0.91, for depersonalization, 0.63, and for personal accomplishment, 0.73.
Role conflict was measured by a scale developed by Rizzo, House and Lirtzman (1970). This
measure has been widely used in organizational research, and appears to be the most valid
measure of role conflict available (Van Sell, Brief and Schuler, 1981). In this sample, the
coefficient alpha was 0.76 for role conflict.
Organizational commitment was measured by a short version of the Organizational
Commitment Questionnaire (Mowday et al., 1979). Following a suggestion by these authors, the
current study used only the items which were scored in a positive direction. This scale produces
one score, organizational commitment (alpha = 0.83), which is indicative of the extent to which a
subject values the organization for which he or she works.
Interpersonal contacts were measured using a procedure developed by Leiter and Meechan
(1986). Subjects reviewed a list of all organizational employees and indicated those with whom
they had ongoing, regular interactions concerning work, administrative, or personal issues. For
two subjects to be considered as being in regular contact with one another, both of them had to
report independently that they had such contacts. The restriction to reciprocal citations
introduced an element of objectivity into the measure of interpersonalcontact, in that a subject's
perception of a relationship had to match the perception of the other member of the dyad. The
total number of contacts was differentiatedinto coworker contacts and supervisorcontacts. There
was generally a high degree of reciprocity in the reporting of communication contacts. On the
average 77 per cent of reported contacts were reciprocated;reciprocation rates ranged from 50 per
cent to 100 per cent with most falling between 75 per cent and 85 per cent.
After identifying their regular contacts, subjects were then asked to rate each of these
relationships as being generally pleasant, neutral or unpleasant. Thus, within the category of
coworker contacts, a distinction was made between number of pleasant contacts and number of
unpleasant contacts. A similar distinction was made for supervisor contacts as well.

Procedure
The experimenters first discussed the study with the person in charge of staff development at the
hospital, and subsequently with the director of nursing. Next, the experimenters attended a series
of nursing staff meetings at which they described the goals and methods of the study and
demonstrated the computer procedure. The experimenters informed subjects that the study was
an outside research project examining relationships between organizational design and job stress,
and that participation was voluntary. The hospital was promised a report at the end of the study
summarizing general findings. Individuals were to be given an opportunity at the end of the study
to see their scores on the questionnaires.The experimentersassured subjects that individual scores
would be kept confidential.
An Epson QX-10 microcomputer provided by the experimenter was used to administer the
questionnaires. The first screen presented a brief description of the study and provided
instructions for entering answers into the computer. The subjects were then asked to identify
themselves in a list of participants' names. Subsequently they completed the Maslach Burnout
Inventory, the Role Conflict Scale, the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, and the
interpersonal contacts measure. Subjects completed the questionnaires during working hours
302 M. P. LEITERAND C. MASLACH

whenever their work schedules permitted. The programme required that the subject complete all
forms in one session, which lasted from 20 to 55 minutes.

Results
The analysis of the relationship between communication involvement and burnout involved
examining correlations. This procedure was supplemented by multiple regressions analyses when
to test the extent to which correlations are independent of one another. In these analyses only the
data from the 44 nurses and support staff were used, because the definition of a supervisor or a
coworker contact was not consistent across the supervisors and coworkers. That is, references by
supervisors to supervisors had a different meaning than did references by nurses to the
supervisors: The supervisors were referringto contacts with administrative colleagues, while the
nurses were referringto contact with people who were in charge of their work. Table 1 displays the
Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficients among the variables in the study, as well as
their means and standard deviations.

Table 1. Zero-order correlations

Mean S. D. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 Emotional exhaustion 21.63 13.41
2 Depersonalization 7.52 5.65 0.49*
3 Personal accomplish. 41.32 6.64 -0.15 -0.35*
4 Role conflict 22.47 8.35 0.65* 0.26 -0.11
5 Organizational commit. 45.00 9.26 -0.52* -0.37* 0.36* -0.34*
6 Pleasant coworkers 22.98 12.67 0.17 -0.27 0.37* 0.19 0.15
7 Unpleasant coworker 1.20 2.11 0.24 0.09 -0.12 0.05 -0.28* 0.19
8 Pleasant supervisor 7.41 5.63 -0.11 -0.15 0.19 -0.18 0.29* 0.32* 0.17
9 Unpleasant supervisor 0.57 0.98 0.58* 0.32* -0.10 0.47* -0.60* 0.20 0.21 -0.20
*p<0.05, N= 44.

Burnout
The findings confirmed two of the predictions concerning emotional exhaustion. It was positively
related to role conflict (r = 0.65, p < 0.05) and unpleasant supervisor contact (r = 0.58, p < 0.05),
but the expected negative correlation with pleasant supervisorcontact was absent (r = -0.1 1, n.s.).
A multiple regression analysis confirmed the expectation that role conflict and unpleasant
supervisor contacts were each independently related to emotional exhaustion as predicted (see
Table 2). Together the two predictor variables accounted for 50 per cent of the variance in
emotional exhaustion (adjusted R2 = 0.502, F(2,4l)= 22.67, p < 0.001).
In addition to the positive relationship with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization was
expected to have negative relationships with both types of pleasant contact. Depersonalization
was related to pleasant coworker contact (r = -0.27, p < 0.05) as expected, but not pleasant
supervisor contact (r = -0. 15, n.s.). It was positively correlated with unpleasant supervisor contact
(r = 0.32, p < 0.05). In a multiple regression analysis only positive coworker contact was
significantly related with depersonalization in combination with emotional exhaustion (adjusted
2
R = 0.334, F(2,4l) = 11.81,p < 0.001).
In addition to its relationship with depersonalization, personal accomplishment was expected
to be correlated with pleasant supervisor contact and pleasant coworker contacts. As Table 1
 INTERPERSONAL ENVIRONMENT 303

Table 2. Multiple regression analyses of burnout

Variable Beta T Significance
Emotional exhaustion
Role conflict .501 4.145 p < 0.001
Unpleasant supervisor .315 2.555 p < 0.005
Unpleasant coworker .145 1.332 p > 0.05
Depersonalization
Emotional exhaustion .556 4.285 p < 0.001
Positive coworker -.373 -2.727 p < 0.01
Positive supervisor .030 0.225 p> 0.05
Personal accomplishment
Depersonalization -.394 -2.911 p < 0.05
Positive coworker .291 2.149 p < 0.05

indicates, personal accomplishment and pleasant coworker contacts are positively correlated (r =
0.37, p < 0.05), however the relationship with supervisor contacts was not significant (r = 0.19,
n.s.). Table 2 presents a multiple regression analysis on personal accomplishment in which
depersonalization was entered on the first step. Only positive coworker was significantly related to
personal accomplishment in combination with depersonalization (adjusted R2 = 0.2 19, F(2,4) =
7.02, p < 0.05).
As predicted, the three MBI subscales were related to one another in a manner consistent with
Maslach and Jackson's (1980) theory of burnout. Emotional exhaustion was positively correlated
with depersonalization (r = 0.49, p < 0.05), which was negatively related to personal
accomplishment (r = -0.30, p < 0.05). Emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment were
unrelated (r = -0. 15, n.s.).

Organizationalcommitment
The next part of the analysis examined the relationship of organizational commitment with the
three burnout scales. As Table 1 indicates, all three of the burnout scales were correlated with
organizational commitment in the expected directions (emotional exhaustion, -0.52;
depersonalization, -0.37; personal accomplishment, 0.36). In addition, organizational
commitment was negatively correlated with both unpleasant coworker (r = -0.28, p < 0.05), and
supervisor(r = -0.60, p < 0.05) contacts, and positively related with pleasant supervisorcontacts (r
= 0.29, p < 0.05) but not correlated with pleasant coworker contacts (r = 0.15, n.s.).
A multiple regression was performed to determine if the relationships of organizational
commitrmlernt with the burnout scales was independent of the relationships betweeniorganizational
commitment and the communication variables. When entered together in a regressiornanalysis,
emotional exhaulstion and peirsonal accomplishment each contributed to the prediction of
organizational commitment (adjusted R2 - 0.321, F(2,41) = 11.159, p < 0.001). Depersonalization

Table 3. Multiple regression:Organizational commitment

Variable Beta T Significance
Emotional exhaustion -0.295 -2.103 p < 0.05
Personal accomplishment 0.273 2.273 p < 0.01
Negative supervisor -0.499 -3.664 p < 0.001
Positive coworker 0.281 2.272 p < 0.01
Depersonalization 0.125 0.855 p > 0.05
304 M. P. LEITER AND C. MASLACH

did not make a significant contribution to predicting organizational commitment after the other
two variables were entered (see Table 3).
This analysis also indicated that unpleasant supervisor contacts and pleasant coworker contact
would account for a substantial portion of the variance in organizational commitment after the
two burnout subscales were entered (see Table 3). The four variables account for 49 per cent of the
variance in organizational commitment (adjusted R2 = 0.491, F(4,39)= 11.364,p < 0.001).

Unpleasant Unpleasant
Coworker Supervisor
Contact Contact

.15 .32 .47

Pleasant Pleasant
Coworker Supervisor
Contact Contact l RlEmotional . Re
Exhaustion ( Conflict
.28 .30 -.39
.56

-.30
Depersonalization

{ -.35 .13 -.50

Personal O27 rganizational |

Accomplishment C2 Commitment

Figure 1. Burnout model

Figure 1 displays a revised version of the model developed in the Introduction. Significant
correlations are displayed in bold print; nonsignificant relationships are indicated with dotted
connecting lines. In this figure three lines are added: The significant direct relationships of
unpleasant supervisor contact with role conflict and organizational commitment, and that of
pleasant coworker contact with organizational commitment.
 INTERPERSONAL ENVIRONMENT 305

A correlational analysis was performed to provide a more specific perspective on the pleasant
and unpleasant aspects of coworker relationships. All 52 subjects were used in this analysis
because the supervisor and coworkers contacts were not differentiated. The average commitment
and burnout scores of each subject's contacts were computed; these average scores were then
correlated with the subjects' scores. The analysis indicates that subjects who were committed to
the organization tended to interact with coworkers who were also high on organizational
commitment (r = 0.50, p < 0.01) as well as high on personal accomplishment (r = 0.43, p < 0.01).
Further, subjects who were high on personal accomplishment were interacting more often with
coworkers who were committed (r = 0.22,p < 0.05). Subjects who depersonalized clients tended to
maintain more contacts with coworkers who were high in emotional exhaustion (r = 0.23, p <
0.05) and lower in personal accomplishment (r = -0.26, p < 0.05). The emotional exhaustion level
of subjects was unrelated to the scores of their contacts on any of the four measures.

Discussion
The results of this study provide general support for the hypotheses proposed above, although
with some exceptions. Emotional exhaustion was more prevalent for subjects with a negative
interpersonal work environment (i.e. more role conflict and more unpleasant contacts with
supervisors). Personal accomplishment and depersonalization were each related to pleasant
interpersonal contact with coworkers, although in different directions. The data were consistent
with the predicted relationships among the three aspects of burnout. The results support the
expected relationships between burnout and organizational commitment; in addition, two aspects
of burnout (emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment) each made an independent
contribution to the prediction of commitment. A post hoc analysis suggests that there are direct
negative relationships between unpleasant supervisor contacts and organizational commitment
and a positive relationship with pleasant coworker contacts and organizational commitment, in
addition to the relationship with burnout. Together, the results suggest that interpersonal
relationships at work may be instrumental in explaining the variation in stress reactions within a
worksetting which is homogeneous in regard to job stressors.

Burnout
The findings for emotional exhaustion indicate that it is related to both role conflict and
unpleasant contacts with supervisors. These two predictors are correlated with one another,
suggesting that role conflict is one aspect of unpleasant supervisor contacts. Role conflict is more
concerned with formal aspects of a job, in that it measures the extent to which workers perceive
supervisors to be making irreconcilable demands on their time and resources. This relationship is
consistent with Beehr (1985), who suggested that supervisor contact is more likely to comprise
instrumental support, affecting the conditions which lead to job stress. In contrast, coworker
contact provides more emotional support which helps a worker cope with existing stressors. This
analysis extends this concept by indicating that unpleasant contact with supervisors is associated
with at least one organizational stress, role conflict. Role conflict may be the occasion of
unpleasant interactions with persons to whom a worker is accountable, but a worker may also
have unpleasant encounters with supervisors which have little to do with that worker's role
definition. The independent contribution of both role conflict and unpleasant supervisor contact
indicates that each of these sources of interpersonal stress may be important for the development
of emotional exhaustion.
306 M. P. LEITER AND C. MASLACH

In the current study, participants rated most of their relationships positively. The mean number
of pleasant contacts was 39.51, while the mean number of unpleasant contacts was 1.77. This
difference may indicate that the interpersonal environment of this organization was pre-
dominantly pleasant, or that participants were disinclined to note any unpleasant relation-
ships unless the relationships were strongly salient. The difference may also indicate that
members of this organization had a large degree of choice concerning their interpersonal
relationships. As one subject remarked while completing the interpersonal contacts measure,
'Why would I spend my time talking to someone I don't like?'In any case, the results indicate that
the presence of only a few ongoing unpleasant contacts may be sufficient to influence the level of
emotional exhaustion.
Depersonalization was higher for employees who had higher levels of emotional exhaustion
and who had more unpleasant contact with supervisors and less pleasant contact with coworkers.
The relationship between depersonalization and unpleasant supervisor contact may be circular, in
that workers who depersonalize may receive poor evaluations from their supervisors due to their
impersonal treatment of patients. The unpleasant encounters in turn may increase the stress on
the worker. The multiple regression analysis suggests that unpleasant supervisor contact is
partially mediated through emotional exhaustion. Some aspects of unpleasant supervisor contact
may be especially pertinent to depersonalization. For instance, supervisors may be partially
responsible for creating a more dehumanized, impersonal work environment through their
interpretationof hospital policy.
The analysis of contact scores suggests that the relationship of depersonalization with coworker
contacts may be more complex than indicated by the absence of a correlation between the two
variables. Although workers who depersonalize did not rate more of their coworker contacts as
unpleasant, their interpersonalcontacts were more likely to be experiencing emotional exhaustion
and diminished personal accomplishment. These relationships indicate that workers were not
simply aggregating according to their tendency to depersonalize, but that their depersonalization
was consistent with the exhaustion and discouragement experienced by the workers and those
around them.
As expected, personal accomplishment was negatively correlated with depersonalization. The
results are consistent with the following sequence: (1) Stressful interactions with supervisors
increase the workers' feelings of emotional exhaustion; (2) high levels of exhaustion lead to
depersonalization, unless the workers have frequent supportive contact with their coworkers; (3)
as depersonalization persists, the workers' feelings of accomplishment in their work diminish,
although supportive interpersonalcontact with coworkers may help to decelerate this process.

Organizationalcommitment
The results are consistent with the expectation that burnout leads to reduced organizational
commitment. Although each of the three aspects of burnout were significantly correlated with
organizational commitment, they did not all display a unique relationship with organizational
commitment when entered into a multiple regression. The relationship between commitment and
depersonalization appears to be redundant with that of the other two aspects of burnout. It may
be, as suggested earlier, that the role of depersonalization is in mediating the development of
reduced personal accomplishment, and thus it does not have an independent contribution to make
to the level of commitment.
A post hoc analysis suggests that there is an important direct relationship between unpleasant
supervisor contacts and organizational commitment, in addition to the predicted indirect
influence mediated through emotional exhaustion. That is, ongoing negative interactions with
 INTERPERSONAL ENVIRONMENT 307

supervisors may adversely affect organizational commitment in ways other than through
increased burnout. For example, a worker may find hassles with supervisors to be sufficient cause
to dislike a worksetting without experiencing burnout in the process. According to this
perspective, burnout is one path leading from unpleasant supervisor contact to organizational
commitment, but not the only one. Similarly, supportive contact with coworkers may enhance
commitment to an organization in ways independent of its relationships with burnout.
In addition, the analysis of contact scores indicates that committed workers interacted more
often with other workers who were committed, and workers who were indifferent towards the
organization interacted more often with like-minded coworkers. Further, it appears that the level
of personal accomplishment experienced by both subjects and their contacts was related to
organizational commitment. This is another way in which aspects of coworker contact affect
organizational commitment directly, in addition to the effects mediated through a subject's
burnout level.
In conclusion, this study provides a more complete analysis of workers' adjustment to a
worksetting and provides direction for developing a comprehensive model of burnout and
organizational commitment. First, it clarifies relationships of interpersonalcontacts with burnout
by differentiating between pleasant and unpleasant contacts. Secondly, the examination of
contact scores allows a more precise delineation of what is occurring in coworker relationships
which are pertinent to the development of burnout and organizational commitment. Thirdly, it
provides a framework for explaining the variation of stress reactions in a worksetting which is
homogeneous in regard to job stressors. Finally, the study provides a viable perspective on the
relationship between burnout and organizational commitment, two concepts which are receiving
attention in current organizational research. Research indicates that both of these measures are
related to aspects of the interpersonal environment of an organization, as well as to an important
organizational outcome, turnover. To avoid conceptual confusion, it is essential to specify the
relationship of burnout and organizational commitment to one another and with these other
variables. The research reported here furthers this process, and provides direction for subsequent
analyses of the contribution of coworker and supervisor relationships to burnout and
commitment.

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