The relation between social capital and burnout: a longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVES: Although social capital approach has showed its merits in predicting well-being and health in the working environment, studies examining the relation between social capital and burnout are scarce and limited to cross-sectional studies in the health care sector. This study aims to explore the longitudinal relationship between workplace social capital and burnout in a Belgian company in the energy sector. An additional aim was to assess whether the relation between workplace social capital and the dimensions of burnout was independent of job characteristics, i.e., the level of decision-making autonomy and task variety, and demographical variables. METHODS: Analyses are conducted on the questionnaire data of 473 workers who participated at the two waves (2013 and 2014) of a longitudinal study. RESULTS: The results showed a negative relation between social capital and distance and a positive relation between social capital and competence, after 1-year follow-up and after adjustments for baseline levels of the respective burnout dimension. In contrast with the literature, no relation between social capital and emotional exhaustion was found after adjustment for baseline level of emotional exhaustion. After additional adjustments were made for the job characteristics 'decision-making autonomy' and 'task variety', the relation between social capital and competence disappeared. CONCLUSIONS: This study delivered evidence for the lagged relation between social capital and distance, even after controlling for demographical and job characteristics. Therefore, the findings suggest that organizations should pay attention to strategies enhancing social interaction, enabling to increase the levels of support, reciprocity, sharing and trust, in the prevention of burnout.

Emotional job resources and emotional support seeking as moderators of the relation between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion: a two-wave panel study.

In the present study, the relation between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion was investigated, as was the moderating role of emotional job resources and emotional support seeking on this relation. We hypothesized a positive lagged effect of emotional job demands on emotional exhaustion, and proposed that this relation is weakened by the availability of emotional job resources. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that this stress-buffer effect of emotional job resources would be stronger for employees high on emotional support seeking (3-way interaction). A 2-wave survey study with a 1-year time lag was conducted among 711 employees in the technology sector. Results showed that emotional job demands are least likely to result in emotional exhaustion when employees are provided with high emotional job resources and score high on emotional support seeking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

The impact of effort-reward imbalance and learning motivation on teachers' sickness absence.

The aim of this study was to analyse the impact of the effort-reward imbalance and learning motivation on sickness absence duration and sickness absence frequency among beginning teachers in Flanders (Belgium). A total of 603 teachers, who recently graduated, participated in this study. Effort-reward imbalance and learning motivation were assessed by means of self-administered questionnaires. Prospective data of registered sickness absence during 12 months follow-up were collected. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. An imbalance between high efforts and low rewards (extrinsic hypothesis) was associated with longer sickness absence duration and more frequent absences. A low level of learning motivation (intrinsic hypothesis) was not associated with longer sickness absence duration but was significantly positively associated with sickness absence frequency. No significant results were obtained for the interaction hypothesis between imbalance and learning motivation. Further research is needed to deepen our understanding of the impact of psychosocial work conditions and personal resources on both sickness absence duration and frequency. Specifically, attention could be given to optimizing or reducing efforts spent at work, increasing rewards and stimulating learning motivation to influence sickness absence.

Job resources and matching active coping styles as moderators of the longitudinal relation between job demands and job strain.

BACKGROUND: Only in a few longitudinal studies it has been examined whether job resources should be matched to job demands to show stress-buffering effects of job resources (matching hypothesis), while there are no empirical studies in which the moderating effect of matching personal characteristics on the stress-buffering effect of job resources has been examined. PURPOSE: In this study, both the matching hypothesis and the moderating effect of matching active coping styles were examined with respect to the longitudinal relation between job demands, job resources, and job strain. METHOD: The study group consisted of 317 beginning teachers from Belgium. The two-wave survey data with a 1-year time lag were analyzed by means of structural equation modeling and multiple group analyses. RESULTS: Data did not support the matching hypothesis. In addition, no support was found for the moderating effect of specific active coping styles, irrespective of the level of match. CONCLUSION: To show stress-buffering effects of job resources, it seems to make no difference whether or not specific types of job demands and job resources are matched, and whether or not individual differences in specific active coping styles are taken into account.