<p>Burnout as a State: Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Relationship Between Exhaustion and Disengagement in a 10-Day Study</p>

Abstract

Background: Burnout has been traditionally seen as a chronic and stable state in response to prolonged stress. However, measures of momentary burnout are not well established, even though the within-person approach suggests that the symptoms of burnout may vary from day to day for the same employee. The aim of this study is to examine the daily inter-and intra-personal variability of the symptoms of burnout and the cross-lagged relationship between two components of burnout, exhaustion and disengagement. Methods: An online diary study over 10 consecutive workdays was conducted among 235 civil servants (75% women, average tenure of 15 years). Daily burnout was measured with the eight-item Oldenburg Burnout Inventory. Results: The intra-class correlation coefficients indicate that, although significant betweenperson variability exists, most of the burnout variance is within persons. Using the random intercept cross-lagged panel (RI-CLP) model to control for these between-person differences, mainly insignificant "pure" within-person cross-lagged relationships between exhaustion and disengagement were revealed. Moreover, day-today autoregressive effects were weaker than same-day residual correlations. Conclusion: This is one of the first studies to use daily diaries and the RI-CLP model to study burnout, including the separation of the more stable and more dynamic parts of each component. When stable parts were controlled for, the same-day relationships between exhaustion and disengagement were more pronounced than day-today effects. This might suggest stronger situational influences than carryover mechanism. Thus, conceptualizing burnout in terms of daily symptoms may shed promising insights into how it develops and add implications for pro-healthy changes in the workplace.

Financial Insecurity During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Spillover Effects on Burnout–Disengagement Relationships and Performance of Employees Who Moonlight

“…We contend that the strength of an individual’s financial insecurity is likely to intensify the interaction of burnout toward work disengagement. However, it must be noted that earlier studies have realized a weak relationship between these two variables ( Basinska and Gruszczynska, 2020 ). Researchers argued that this can be deducted as an employee’s rational response.…”

Using Residual Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling to Explore the Relationships among Employees’ Self-Reported Health, Daily Positive Mood, and Daily Emotional Exhaustion

“…Basinska and Gruszczynska [ 6 ] claimed that the traditional research approach failed to recognize the chronic, enduring, and dynamic nature of job burnout, therefore longitudinal studies were preferred. However, there is a new approach regarding job burnout as also being changeable over a shorter time frame [ 7 ].…”

“…However, there is a new approach regarding job burnout as also being changeable over a shorter time frame [ 7 ]. This approach could be called as state approach assuming that emotional exhaustion or burnout experiences may vary within the same employee from one moment or day to another as a response to specific events at work [ 6 , 7 ]. Therefore, job burnout as indicated by emotional exhaustion can be conducted in a daily diary method.…”

Within- and between-person factor structure of the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory: Analysis of a diary study using multilevel confirmatory factor analysis

“…Seen from this perspective, positively worded items can be regarded as referring to work engagement and as such may represent either the opposite, positive pole of burnout or the concept independent from burnout [ 50 , 51 ]. Thus, a version including only negatively framed items, as proposed by some researchers [ 47 , 49 ], is most valid to measure burnout, particularly in intensive longitudinal designs, such as diary studies, in which short instruments are necessary to reduce the burden on participants [ 52 ].…”

“…For this reason, job burnout is often reduced to exhaustion [ 60 , 61 ]. A review of within-person studied showed that 33% to 65% of the variance in job burnout could be assigned to within-person factors and 35% to 77% to between-person components [ 52 ]. Thus, alongside well-recognised interpersonal differences in burnout, short-term within-person variability is also substantial and worthy of more systematic investigation.…”