Purpose Recent research highlights the necessity to critically examine the factors that can reduce the relationship between job stressors, such as job demand and burnout, to create healthier workplaces. This study aims to explore how five types of motivations (extrinsic motivation-social, extrinsic motivation- material, introjected, identified and intrinsic motivation), in combination with extraversion trait influence the impact of job demands on job burnout. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a set-theoretic approach named fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to analyze the data collected from 84 employees working in an research and development department of a public organization. Findings Findings revealed two distinct configurations. First, the absence of intrinsic and identified motivations lead to job burnout if extraverted participants suffer from high job demands. Second, non-extraverted participants reported high job burnout in the presence of high job demands, although all five types of motivations drove them. Practical implications This study suggests managers need to consider personalized preventive actions, depending on the level of extraversion trait when they try to motivate their employees who are dealing with high levels of job demands. Originality/value The emerging trend in social science suggests adopting linearity assumptions to study social phenomena is inconsistent with the reality of human behavior. Thus, this study used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to examine the complex interplay among all five types of motivations, extraversion trait, job demands, which contribute to burnout.