Mediator Role of Work Stress Between Burnout and Job Related Affective Wellbeing: A Case of Public Employees
Selver Yıldız Bağdoğan, Ülviye Tüfekçi Yaman, Kadriye Burcu Öngen Bilir, Serpil AytaçBoth stress and burnout among employees are serious workplace problems. Work stress and burnout also affect employees’ feelings towards work and their well-being. Employees’ positive feelings towards work determine their attitude towards general life. For this reason, developing positive feelings towards work can also lead to a decrease in the stress and burnout experienced by the employee. In this study, the relationship between burnout and job-related affective well-being among public sector employees was examined. In addition, this study considers whether job stress has a mediator effect between these two variables. 172 people participated in the study using the questionnaire method. Pearson Correlation Analysis was performed for the relationship between variables. In order to determine the mediator effect analyzes were performed in Structural Equation Modeling. According to the results of the analysis, there is a significant and negative relationship between job related affective well-being and burnout; significant and clear relationship between work stress and burnout. In addition, the stress variable was found to play a partial mediator role in explaining the relationship between job-related affective well-being and burnout. In other words, it is necessary to understand stress in order to explain the relationship between job well-being and perceptions of employees and burnout.
Tükenmişlik ve İşe İlişkin Duygular Arasında İş Stresinin Aracı Rolü: Kamu Çalışanları Örneği
Selver Yıldız Bağdoğan, Ülviye Tüfekçi Yaman, Kadriye Burcu Öngen Bilir, Serpil AytaçÇalışanlar arasında stres ve tükenmişlik kavramları önemli işyeri sorunları arasında yer alır. Yaşanan iş stresi ve tükenmişlik, çalışanların işe karşı duygularını dolayısıyla iyilik hallerini de etkiler. Çalışanların işe karşı olumlu duygular beslemesi, genel yaşama karşı tutumunu da belirler. Bu sebeple işe karşı geliştirilen duygular, çalışanın yaşadığı stresin ve tükenmişliğin azalmasına da yol açabilir. Bu çalışmada tükenmişlik, işe ilişkin duygular ve iş stresi kavramları ele alınmıştır. Çalışmada kamu sektöründeki çalışanlar arasındaki tükenmişlik ve işe ilişkin duygular arasındaki ilişkiler incelenmiş, iş stresinin bu iki değişken arasında aracı etkisinin bulunup bulunmadığına bakılmıştır. Anket yönteminin kullanıldığı çalışmada 172 kişi katılımcı olarak yer almıştır. Araştırmada değişkenler arasındaki ilişki için Pearson Korelasyon Analizi ve değişkenler arasındaki aracı etkiyi tespit edebilmeye yönelik Yapısal Eşitlik Modellemesi içinde analizler gerçekleştirilmiştir. Yapılan analiz sonuçlarına göre işe ilişkin duygular ve tükenmişlik arasında anlamlı ve negatif yönlü; iş stresi ile tükenmişlik arasında anlamlı ve pozitif yönlü bir ilişki mevcuttur. Ayrıca stres değişkeninin işe ilişkin duygular ile tükenmişlik arasındaki ilişkiyi açıklamada kısmi aracılık rolünü üstlendiği görülmüştür. Diğer bir deyişle çalışanların işe ilişkin iyilik halleri ve algıları ile tükenmişlik arasındaki ilişkiyi açıklamak için iş stresini de anlamak gerekir.
Conditions in the workplace have an effect on employees’ emotions while at work. Employees’ positive emotions affect their commitment and feelings both to life and to work life. Positive or negative emotions determine attitudes and perceptions in the workplace such as satisfaction, motivation, burnout and stress. The main concepts of this study are work stress, burnout and positive and negative emotions related to work, in other words, well-being.
While the pressure experienced during the day and at the workplace remains at a certain level, it provides healthy stimuli but when it goes below or above a certain level it causes stress (Makin, & Lindley, 1995, s. 13; Keser, 2014, s. 20). According to Selye, the father of stress research, stress is the “body’s non-specific response to any request coming to it” (Selye, 1973, s. 692; Selye, 1976).
Since the 1970s, one of the most mentioned concepts along with work stress is burnout. The person experiencing burnout feels that his energy is decreased and exhausted. Therefore, stress cannot be reduced or, at least, it might only be removed with great difficulty. However, the sources of stress here are different from the others. Because the stress that causes burnout results from the employee’s interaction with the workplace and the employees there (Maslach, 2003; Singh, Goolsby, & Rhoads, 1994, s. 558; Özdemir, Kılıç, Özdemir, Öztürk ve Sümer, 2003, s. 14).
Another variable in our study, job related affective well-being, is a concept that expresses positive feelings towards work (Morrissy, Boman, & Mergler, 2013). Job related affective well-being increases employee satisfaction with positive emotions (Diener, Sandvik, & Pavot, 1991). Danna and Griffin (Danna, & Griffin, 1999) state that this must be looked at in order to explain job satisfaction. Determining satisfaction in the workplace is crucial for employees’ well-being.
This study aims to investigate whether stress has a mediating effect on burnout and job related affective well-being of public sector employees. Research data were collected from 172 public employees. Three scales were used in this study: (1) “Job Stress Scale” developed by House and Rizzo (1972) and adapted to Turkish by Efeoğlu (2006); (2)“Maslach Burnout Inventory” developed by Maslach ve Jackson (1981) and adapted to Turkish by Ergin (1992); (3) “Job-Related Affective Well-Being Scale-JAWS” developed by Katwyk, Fox, Spector, & Kelloway (2000) and adapted to Turkish by Bayram, Kuşdil, Aytaç & Bilgel (2004).
The mean age of the participants was 37.79 years (sd = 8.956 years), and the age range was between 23 and 60 years. 40.1% of the participants were female and 59.9% were male. According to the reliability analysis results, the reliability levels of all scales were significant within the acceptable values range (C. Alpha Values; Work stress: 0.83; Burnout: 0.87; JAWS: 0.92).
According to the results of the Pearson correlation analysis between job stress, burnout and job related affective well-being (JAWS), there was a negative and significant relationship between JAWS and burnout (r = -0.80, p <0.00); a negative and significant relationship between JAWS and work stress (r = - 0.48, p <0.01); and a positive and significant relationship between burnout and work stress (r = 0.60, p <0.01).
In this study, stress assumes the mediation role of explaining the relationship between JAWS and burnout. The benefit of fit indices obtained from the structural equation model established to examine the mediating role of the stress variable in the relationship between jaws and burnout indicate that the model fits to an acceptable level: ꭓ2 / sd =4.00, RMSEA= 0.058, GFI=0.90, CFI=0.93, SRMR=0.055. According to the measurement model, JAWS negatively affects burnout (β= -0.93, t=-8,08, p<0,05). When JAWS and stress were included in the structural equation model, a significant relationship was found between JAWS and burnout. As desired, β coefficient was low (β= -0,79, t= -5,02 p<0,05). According to Baron and Kenny (1986), this result shows a partial mediating effect. Thus, stress variable partially mediates job related affective well-being and burnout.
However, the significance of the decrease in β values was analyzed by the Sobel Test (Z = 7.64387946, p = 0.00002972) to speak of the strictly mediator effect. The significance of Sobel Test confirms the existence of the partial mediating effect of the stress variable between these variables.
Work stress and burnout are common concepts both in working life and in the literature. However, it is less common in the literature to investigate these concepts together with job related affective well-being. In our study, there was a significant and negative relationship between burnout and job related affective well-being, work stress and job related affective well-being. There was a significant and positive relationship between work stress and burnout. In the study, while explaining the relationship between job related affective well-being and burnout, it was clear that job stress played a partial mediating role. When we look at the previous studies on the subject, it is also possible to see that the obtained findings coincide with the results of our study.