<p>Association between transformational leadership and occupational burnout and the mediating effects of psychological empowerment in this relationship among CDC employees: a cross-sectional study</p>

Abstract

Purpose: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is playing a vital role in protecting public health and safety. However, few studies have researched on the occupational burnout of CDC employees in the world. Previous studies have reported that transformational leadership could improve the level of psychological empowerment and ameliorate burnout of the employees. In this study, we aimed to analyze the association between transformational leadership and burnout and to test the mediating role of psychological empowerment in this relationship among CDC employees in China. Methods: Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Service Survey, Transformational Leadership Questionnaire, and Psychological Empowerment Scale were used to measure burnout, transformational leadership, and psychological empowerment. A total of 385 CDC employees (effective response rate: 96.25%) were included in the study. We analyzed the association between transformational leadership and three subscales of burnout with hierarchical linear regression analyses. The mediating role of psychological empowerment was finally examined by asymptotic and resampling strategies. Results: Transformational leadership was negatively associated with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment after controlling sociodemographic and working context characteristics. Transformational leadership and psychological empowerment, respectively, accounted for 9.3% and 12.3% of the variance in emotional exhaustion; 8.5% and 16.7% of the variance in depersonalization; and 6.7% and 10.0% of the variance in reduced personal accomplishment. We found that psychological empowerment played a partially mediating role on the relationship between transformational leadership and burnout. The proportion of psychological empowerment’s mediating effect was 41.56% for emotional exhaustion, 50.62% for depersonalization, and 44.32% for reduced personal accomplishment. Conclusions: It was suggested that transformational leadership could decrease the risk of burnout by the pathway of promoting the employee’s psychological empowerment. Interventions focusing on transformational leadership and psychological empowerment should be of significance to cut burnout.

Working conditions and health status of 6,317 front line public health workers across five provinces in China during the COVID-19 epidemic: a cross-sectional study

“…However, our survey results also indicated a lack of appreciation by the affected communities regarding the work performed by the public health workers [ 33 ]. Our data showed that although the workers received a high level of support from family and colleagues, they received relatively little support from society.…”

“…Our data showed that although the workers received a high level of support from family and colleagues, they received relatively little support from society. In contrast with the work of physicians and nurses, the work performed by public health workers is not widely understood and respected by the public [ 33 ]. During the epidemic, the types of prevention and control work performed by the public health workers, such as the isolation of close contacts (at home or designated hotels) and home inspections, were very likely to elicit negative emotions and even objections in communities.…”

Working condition and health status of 6,317 front line public health workers during the COVID-19 epidemic across 5 provinces in China: a cross-sectional study

“…Self-reported depression (21.3%) and anxiety (19.0%) among participants in our study were substantially higher than those of hospital medical staff in daily work in China (18.3% and 14.7%), using the same measurements and cut-off points. 34 Furthermore, in our study, a larger proportion of CDC workers reported mental health problems and poor physical health than PHI workers, as they might bear more responsibilities in regional disease prevention, 26 and had longer working hours. In studies targeting medical workers during SARS epidemic, 38.5% of hospital workers dealing with SARS patients developed symptomatic depression, 12 while in MERS-Cov epidemic, two thirds of medical workers reported psychological problems.…”

Working condition and health status of 6,317 front line public health workers during the COVID-19 epidemic across 5 provinces in China: a cross-sectional study

“…However, our survey also indicated a lack of appreciation of the communities toward the work performed by the public health workers [33]. Our data showed that support from family and colleagues is high, whereas the support from society is relatively low.…”

“…Our data showed that support from family and colleagues is high, whereas the support from society is relatively low. Compared with physicians and nurses, the work by the public health workers is not widely understood and respected by the public [33]. During the epidemic, prevention and control work that they were engaged in, such as the isolation of close contacts (at home or designated hotels) and home inspections, was very likely to cause negative emotions and even objection in the community.…”