Abstract: Job Burnout and Psychological Well-Being Among Human Service Workers: A Systematic Review of Literature (Society for Social Work and Research 20th Annual Conference - Grand Challenges for Social Work: Setting a Research Agenda for the Future)

Schedule:

Thursday, January 14, 2016: 3:45 PM

Meeting Room Level-Meeting Room 12 (Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel)

* noted as presenting author

Erica Leeanne Lizano, PHD, MSW, MPA, Assistant Professor, California State University, San Bernardino, Whittier, CA

Brooklyn Levine, PhD, MSW, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Purpose

Though rewarding, working in helping professions can be challenging. As vehicles for change, human service workers make great emotional investments when working with clients/consumers, a process that can lead to feelings of emotional exhaustion, cynicism and a feeling that no matter the effort, you make little progress at work. A synthesis of findings can provide a greater understanding of the impact of the three dimensions of job burnout on psychological well-being of human service workers. This study systematically reviews and synthesizes findings from studies examining the impact of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment (i.e. job burnout) on the psychological well-being of human service workers.

Methods

A comprehensive search of peer-reviewed literature was conducted using a variation of key search terms that allowed for the specification of a job burnout term coupled with an employee well-being and human service worker population term. A computerized search of the aforementioned key terms yielded a total of 43 abstracts. Four databases ProQuest, Social Work Abstracts, PsycInfo, and JSTOR and one search engine, Google scholar were used to carry out the search. Following the selection of 43 studies based on their abstract, each study article was reviewed in its entirety to determine if the study met inclusion criteria. The final count of studies was 8. The review focused on the following inclusion criteria: 1.) The study examined at least one or all dimensions of job burnout (e.g. emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment) as an independent variable related to a form of employee well-being as an outcome; 2.) The study was published between the years 1970 and 2014, 3.) The study focused on a human service employee population, 4.) The study was a quantitative or qualitative primary research article, 5.) The study was published in a peer-reviewed journal, and 6.) The study was published in English.

Results

Findings from the studies reviewed suggest that emotional exhaustion consistently impacts the psychological well-being of human service workers. The relationship between cynicism, personal accomplishment, and psychological well-being was found to be less consistent. Most of the studies examining the relationship between job burnout dimensions and psychological well-being were largely cross-sectional and used relatively small sample sizes.

Implications

The findings from these studies give insight into the differential impact of the job burnout dimensions on worker well-being. This review provides evidence that job burnout poses a risk to the well-being of human service workers. More specifically, the evidence points to the dangers of emotional exhaustion. Any efforts made in workforce management strategies that are attempting to protect the well-being of human service workers should seek to protect workers against emotional exhaustion.