An exploration of the relationships between psychological capital (hope, optimism, self-efficacy, resilience), occupational stress, burnout and employee engagement

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Occupational stress and Burnout are serious problems in current day organisations.To this end organisations should actively promote positive psychological health andoccupational wellbeing in order to harness the full potential of their workforce andincrease organisational performance. Studies from the emerging field of PositivePsychology hypothesize that personal resources, like the constructs of PsychologicalCapital (i.e. Hope, Optimism, Self-Efficacy and Resilience), may contribute todecreased Stress (Avey, Luthans & Jensen, 2009), Burnout (Schaufeli & Bakker,2001) and increased work Engagement (Avey, Wernsing & Luthans, 2008).Moreover, it has been proven that the Psychological Capital (PsyCap) constructs arestate-like and can be developed (Luthans, Avey & Patera, 2008). It may, therefore,be vital for organisations to identify and develop these positive PsyCap factors,which might moderate the effect of Occupational stress on Burnout, as well as curbthe initial experiences of Occupational stress and the subsequent development ofBurnout in their employees. The presence of PsyCap may also lead to increasedEngagement, which is also known to be associated with less Burnout.The aims of this study were to explore the relationships between Burnout, EmployeeEngagement, Occupational stress and PsyCap in the South African context, as wellas to determine whether PsyCap plays a moderating role in the Occupational stress,Burnout relationship. A non-experimental research design (i.e. exploratory surveystudy) was used to explore the relationships between these four constructs. In thisstudy, Burnout was defined as a condition characterised by fatigue and exhaustion,divided into Personal Burnout ('the degree of physical and psychological fatigue and exhaustion experienced by the person), Work-related Burnout ('the degree ofphysical and psychological fatigue and exhaustion that is perceived by the person asrelated to his/her work) and Client-related Burnout ('the degree of physical andpsychological fatigue and exhaustion that is perceived by the person as related tohis/her work with clients) (Kristensen, Borritz, Villadsen & Christensen, 2005, p.197). Employee Engagement was defined as 'a positive, fulfilling, work-related stateof mind that is characterized by vigour, dedication, and absorption (Schaufeli,Salanova, Gonzalez-Roma & Bakker, 2002, p.74). Occupational stress isexperienced when an imbalance exists between people's perceived environmentaldemands and their perceived ability to cope with these demands (Cooper, Clarke &Rowbottom, 1999). Lastly, PsyCap was described as a second-order construct whichincluded Hope, Optimism, Self-efficacy and Resilience (Luthans, Youssef & Avolio,2007).A convenience sample of 209 permanent employees and support staff of a mediumsize construction company within the Western Cape, South Africa, participated in theresearch. The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI; Kristensen et al., 2005), theUtrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2003), thePerceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen, Kamarck & Mermelstein, 1983) and thePsychological Capital Questionnaire-Self Rater Version (PCQ-24; Luthans, Avolio &Avey, 2007) were administered.Consistent with previous research, significant negative relationships were evidentbetween all three dimensions of Burnout and Occupational stress. This indicates thathigher Occupational stress is associated with an increased propensity to developPersonal-, Work- and Client Burnout. This was expected as it is known that Burnoutdevelops in reaction to prolonged Stress. The correlational results further revealedthat higher levels of Hope, Optimism, Self-efficacy and Resilience (and the PsyCaptotal score) were associated with lower levels of Occupational stress and Burnout.This suggests that increased levels of PsyCap may probably lead to decreasedlevels of Occupational stress and Burnout. As expected, multiple moderate positivecorrelations were evident between the PsyCap sub-dimensions, empiricallyconfirming the discriminant and convergent validity of the dimensions in the South African context. This implies that by developing one of the constructs, the others arealso likely to increase. As hypothesised, both Occupational Stress and Burnout wasfound to relate negatively to Employee Engagement. The results further revealedthat higher PsyCap was related to higher Engagement levels and that Optimism andSelf-efficacy, as PsyCap sub-dimensions, emerged as the two strongest predictorsof Employee Engagement. These results suggest that the development of PsyCapmay hold multiple benefits (e.g. increasing Engagement, lessening Stress andsubsequent Burnout). Lastly, PsyCap did indeed emerge as a moderator in therelationship between Occupational stress and Personal- and Work Burnoutrespectively. This suggests that although Occupational stress is inevitable in anywork environment, PsyCap as a personal coping resource, can buffer thedevelopment of Burnout over the long term. Limitations of the study as well assuggestions for future research were discussed.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University