Research on burnout has tended to explore the organisational factors associated with this condition. However, an important factor that is often overlooked is the relationship between burnout and personality. We explored this relationship in South African university students. The participants completed the Basic Traits Inventory — Short, the Maslach Burnout Inventory — Student Survey and a biographical questionnaire. The results revealed several significant relationships between personality traits and burnout with personality explaining a sizeable degree of variance in burnout. Neuroticism, Extroversion and Conscientiousness demonstrated a relationship with all three burnout constructs (emotional exhaustion, cynicism and professional efficacy). Personality traits explained 13% of the variance in emotional exhaustion, 12.8% of the variance in cynicism and 24.8% of the variance in professional efficacy.

The purpose of this study was to document the development of the South African Career Interest Inventory and to examine the structural validity of Holland’s circular/hexagonal model in the South African context. The validity of Holland’s model was investigated in a sample of 985 university students in Study 1 and 175 university students and adults in Study 2. The randomization test of hypothesized order relations and covariance structure modeling were used to investigate the fit of a tight circular ordering and four circumplex models. The randomization test found good fit for the tight circular ordering in both the studies. Covariance structure modeling demonstrated unsatisfactory fit across the four circumplex models in Study 1 but satisfactory fit in Study 2. The results suggest that the structural validity of Holland’s circular ordering model in South Africa is tenable. Recommendations for research and practice are presented.

Burnout is conceptualized and measured as a three-dimensional construct consisting of emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and personal efficacy. Research suggests that the personal efficacy scale be replaced by a personal inefficacy scale. The purpose of this study was to explore (a) differences in the general factor saturation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey when efficacy or inefficacy items are included, (b) the strength of the correlations of the efficacy versus inefficacy scales with emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and (c) the reliabilities of the different subscales. Two unrestricted maximum likelihood item factor analyses with bifactor rotations were conducted on data collected from 522 South African university students. The results indicate that the inefficacy scale loads more strongly on a general burnout factor than does the efficacy scale, the inefficacy scale correlates more strongly with the exhaustion and cynicism scales, and the inefficacy scale is more reliable than the efficacy scale. Jointly this implies that the inefficacy scale, rather than the efficacy scale, should be used in the measurement of burnout.

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