Job demands and burnout : the multilevel boundary conditions of collective trust and competitive pressure

Bunjak, Aldijana (author), Černe, Matej (author), Nagy, Noemi (author), Bruch, Heike (author)

Do high job demands help employees to stay challenged at work, or do they challenge their well-being? Despite burnout being an ever-pressing matter in contemporary workspaces, the understanding of the link between job demands and burnout remains limited, especially considering the important multilayered role of context in organizations. Our study develops an integrated perspective on the antecedents of burnout, rather than viewing various elements in isolation. Specifically, we uncover a three-way interaction among job demands, collective trust, and competitive pressure across the three levels of study via a multilevel analysis of 5485 employees, nested into 2872 units in 89 German organizations. The three-way interaction of individual-level job demands with unit-level collective trust depends on the magnitude of competitive pressure at the organizational level. In a condition of low organizational-level competitive pressure, unit-level trust can mitigate the positive effect of individual job demands on burnout. Our findings indicate that job demands can be a double-edged sword, bringing with them both benefits and burdens. From a practical perspective, we provide guidance for organizations on how to maintain high job demands by emphasizing collective trust and open communication about organizational-level competitive pressure to mitigate burnout at work.

• Language: English
• Keywords: job, career, burnout, collective trust, competitive pressure, job demands, multilevel analysis
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: In print
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-133855
• UDC: 331.3
• ISSN on article: 0018-7267
• DOI: 10.1177/00187267211059826
• COBISS.SI-ID: 83125507
• Publication date in RUL: 17.12.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Human relations
• Shortened title: Hum. relat.
• Publisher: SAGE, The Tavistock Institute
• ISSN: 0018-7267
• COBISS.SI-ID: 25576448

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 16.12.2021

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: delovno mesto, kariera, izgorelost

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Funding programme: Raziskovalni projekt - temeljni
• Project number: J5-2555
• Name: Oblikovanje organizacije v digitalni dobi

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Funding programme: Raziskovalni program
• Project number: P5-0410
• Name: Digitalizacija kot gonilo trajnostnega razvoja posameznika, organizacij in družbe