Development of a Burnout Policy After Taking the Risk and Protective Factors of Burnout Into Account: Literature and Empirical Research”

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Development of a Burnout Policy After Taking the Risk and Protective Factors of Burnout Into Account: Literature and Empirical Research” “DEVELOPMENT OF A BURNOUT POLICY AFTER TAKING THE RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS OF BURNOUT INTO ACCOUNT: LITERATURE AND EMPIRICAL RESEARCH” Aantal woorden / Word count: 25.055 Marie Simoens Stamnummer / Student number: 01205884 Promotor / Supervisor: Prof. dr. Dirk Buyens Masterproef voorgedragen tot het bekomen van de graad van: Master’s Dissertation submitted to obtain the degree of: Master of Science in Business Engineering AcademieJaar / Academic year: 2016 - 2017 “DEVELOPMENT OF A BURNOUT POLICY AFTER TAKING THE RISK AND PROTECTIVE FACTORS OF BURNOUT INTO ACCOUNT: LITERATURE AND EMPIRICAL RESEARCH” Aantal woorden / Word count: 25.055 Marie Simoens Stamnummer / Student number: 01205884 Promotor / Supervisor: Prof. dr. Dirk Buyens Masterproef voorgedragen tot het bekomen van de graad van: Master’s Dissertation submitted to obtain the degree of: Master of Science in Business Engineering AcademieJaar / Academic year: 2016 - 2017 Confidentiality agreement I declare that the content of this Master’s Dissertation may be consulted and/or reproduced, provided that the source is referenced. Marie Simoens I Summary in Dutch Deze masterproef werd voorgelegd tot het behalen van de graad van ‘Master of Science in Business Engineering’. ZiJ beoogt in de eerste plaats een antwoord te formuleren op de vraag hoe organisaties het groeiende burn-outprobleem proberen aan te pakken. Dit werk bestaat uit twee delen, nameliJk een literatuurstudie gevolgd door een empirisch onderzoek. De literatuurstudie bestaat uit drie hoofdstukken die elk een belangriJk deelaspect belichten. Het eerste hoofdstuk legt voornameliJk uit wat burn-out precies is, wat andere gerelateerde ziektes ziJn en of er specifieke sectoren ziJn waarin het fenomeen voorkomt. Aansluitend wordt er ingezoomd op risico- en protectieve factoren. Er kunnen factoren gedetermineerd worden op zowel het organisatie- als het individuele niveau. Deze thesis spitst zich vooral toe op het organisatieniveau. Het tweede hoofdstuk definieert wat een algemeen bedriJfsbeleid is en wat psychosociale risico’s ziJn. In combinatie met de factoren uit het vorige hoofdstuk is het mogeliJk daarmee een specifiek burn-outbeleid uit te werken. Het laatste hoofdstuk behandelt de financiële kosten voor een bedriJf, die onlosmakeliJk verbonden ziJn met burn-out. Voor het empirische deel werd een kwalitatief onderzoek opgezet. BiJ 21 ziekenhuizen, zowel algemene als psychiatrische, werd er een gestructureerd diepte-interview afgenomen. HierbiJ worden vooral meningen, interpretaties en overtuigingen van de respondenten verworven. Kwalitatief onderzoek impliceert ook dat er geen statistische gegevens gegenereerd worden. Op basis van de onderzoeksvraag en de literatuurstudie konden zeven hypothesen naar voor geschoven worden. Na een opsomming van de belangriJkste vertekeningen die de resultaten kunnen beïnvloed hebben, wordt de eigenliJke analyse uitvoerig toegelicht. TiJdens het onderzoek werd duideliJk dat ziekenhuizen grotendeels op de hoogte ziJn van de risico- en protectieve factoren. Het ziekenhuismanagement relateert stiJgende verzuimkosten niet onmiddelliJk aan een toename van burn-outgevallen. Directe leidinggevenden bliJken een cruciale rol te spelen. ZiJ worden geacht alarmsignalen te kunnen detecteren biJ hun medewerkers en bovendien contact te behouden met werknemers die langdurig afwezig ziJn. Hoewel ziekenhuizen lijken vastgeroest te zitten in een hiërarchische structuur, beweren ze wel autonomie te creëren voor hun werknemers. De onderzoeksresultaten tenderen naar een invloed van digitalisering en van een koffiecultuur in het burn-outverhaal. Als besluit werd gesteld dat, hoewel het burn-outprobleem zeker onderkend wordt, er nog aanwiJsbare ruimte bliJft voor verbetering betreffende wat organisaties in het werk stellen om ermee om te gaan. II Abstract This master’s dissertation tries to find new relevant information about burnout. Namely, about how companies are trying to deal with this phenomenon. At the organizational level, there are a lot of unanswered questions that need to be resolved in order to come up with a burnout policy for companies. Furthermore, improved research is needed in this area since burnout has become a widely-discussed issue. The main reason for this is the fact that it is still a growing problem with no clearly defined solutions. A qualitative research was used to find out if and how companies are handling burnout. General and psychiatric hospitals in West and East Flanders were contacted and an in-depth interview was used to obtain information of higher management. It was a conscious choice to interview hospitals as they are part of the social sector, which is believed to be confronted with burnout the longest. Therefore, they are considered to be the furthest developed in finding ways to prevent burnout. Because the results are collected during a qualitative research, nothing can be statistically proven. It is however possible to gain important information about the perceptions, motivations and reasoning of the respondents. Therefore, the results are subjective. The answers that were given, were accurately analysed so that irrelevant information could be deleted. All the other information was placed together and related to the different hypotheses. After this study, it was clear that there are still improvements left that could be made to fight burnout. Hospitals seem mostly aware of the risk and protective factors of burnout. However, a solid burnout policy is not present yet in hospitals. Nowadays, burnout is mostly just a small part of a much larger psychosocial welfare policy. Contrary to what is mentioned a lot in the media, higher management does not particularly see the rising costs of absenteeism as an indicator of more burnout cases. Moreover, they are relying on executives who must receive alarm signals directly from employees. The role of executives seems to be an important role. Overall, hospitals still maintain a rather strict hierarchical structure with not much room for self-managing teams or job design yet. New concepts such as digitization and coffee culture are emerging, respectively as possible risk and protective factor. Hospitals do realize that some things must drastically change to prevent their organization from being flooded by burnout cases during the next few years. They claim to flatten their structure, giving more autonomy to their employees. However, there is still room for improvement regarding possible ways to deal with burnout. III Acknowledgements This master’s dissertation is submitted to obtain the degree of ‘Master of Science in Business Engineering’. It is the result of more than a year of research and took a lot of hard work, perseverance and effort. Moreover, it would not have been possible without the help and motivational speeches of certain people. Therefore, I would like to take a moment and thank them. First, a special thank you goes to my supervisor Prof. dr. Dirk Buyens, who was willing to assist and help me with this subJect. He was always reachable and took the time to come up with ideas and give advice and tips. Second, I would like to thank all the respondents of the hospitals who were willing to participate in my research. If they had not taken the time to answer my questions, my empirical research would not have been possible. Next, my parents should be thanked not only for their enormous support but also for the feedback they gave. Because they have been active in the social sector for years now, they could provide me with relevant information on how to touch this rather sensitive subJect. Lastly, I am also thankful to my family and closest friends for their support along the way. They gave me that little extra push when necessary. IV Index Confidentiality agreement .......................................................................................................... I Summary in Dutch .................................................................................................................... II Abstract ................................................................................................................................... III Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ IV Index ........................................................................................................................................ V List of abbreviations ............................................................................................................... IX List of tables ........................................................................................................................... IX List of figures .......................................................................................................................... IX Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 Part 1: Literature review ........................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1: Burnout ................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Definition ......................................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Stress and depression .................................................................................................... 4 1.3
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