International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 2, No. 2, April 2011 How does Personality Affect on Job Burnout? Mohammad Reza Akhavan Anvari, Nader Seyed Kalali, and Aryan Gholipour accomplishment by which the person comes to a negative Abstract—this research aims to study the effect of personality self-assessment (Maslach, & Leiter, 2005; Maslach, & traits on job burnout. In the research model, job burnout is Jackson, 1981; Pines, & Maslach, 1981). dependent variable and independent variables include Burnout is an important variable not only because that it is extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, openness to an index to show individuals' weak performance in experience and conscientiousness. To clarify the relationships among these variables, structural equation modeling (SEM) workplace but also because that it influences on individual's was conducted. The data was collected through questionnaire; attitudes, their physical and mental health and finally on their Participants were 248 workers from the staff of the Tehran behavior (Cordes, & Dougherty, 1993; Maslach, Schaufeli, Atiyeh Hospital. The results of structural equation model show & Leiter, 2001; Lee, & Ashforth, 1996; Maslach, 2003; negative impact of extraversion on job burnout (-0.08), negative Maslach, & Goldberg, 1998). impact of agreeableness on job burnout (-0.15), positive impact of conscientiousness on job burnout (0.02), positive impact of neuroticism on job burnout (0.22) and negative impact of openness on job burnout (-0.11). II. LITERATURE REVIEW Researches indicate that variables like self-efficacy, Index Terms—Big Five Model, Job Burnout, Personality and Structural Equation Modeling. self-esteem, locus of control, emotional stability, extraversion, conscientiousness, positive affectivity, negative affectivity, optimism, proactive I. INTRODUCTION personality (Bateman, & Crant, 1993) and hardworking impact highly on burnout (Alarcon, attendance in high stress Burnout term was coined by Herbert Freudenberger in workplaces (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001; Maslach, & 1974 to describe a special kind of job distress (Freudenberger, Jackson, 1984) In other words, High disharmony between job 1974). He used the term to describe gradual emotional nature and job holder's nature leads into burnout (Maslach, & depletion and missing the motivation and commitment in Leiter, 2005). young volunteer workers with high commitment who work in The aspects of burnout include: (1) emotional exhaustion a clinic (Freudenberger, 1974; Maslach, & Leiter, 2005). In which means energy discharge and consumption of 1976, Maslach mentioned to the phenomenon of indifference emotional resources. This dimension can be considered as the and disrespect of staff toward the organization’s clients after cornerstone of job burnout. (2) Depersonalization which long studies on the problems of social services staff (Maslach, separates workers from others and causes pessimism to 1976). Job burnout is a negative emotional reaction to job, colleagues, customers and organization. This dimension of created through long attendance in high stress workplaces the job burnout is prevalent among those staff who regularly (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001; Maslach, & Jackson, communicate to other persons (such as teachers, students, 1984) In other words, High disharmony between job nature customers, patients) to do their jobs. (3) Diminished personal and job holder's nature leads into burnout (Maslach, & Leiter, accomplishment by which the person comes to a negative 2005). self-assessment (Maslach, & Leiter, 2005; Maslach, & The aspects of burnout include: (1) emotional exhaustion Jackson, 1981; Pines, & Maslach, 1981). which means energy discharge and consumption of Burnout is an important variable not only because that it is emotional resources. This dimension can be considered as the an index to show individuals' weak performance in cornerstone of job burnout. (2) Depersonalization which workplace but also because that it influences on individual's separates workers from others and causes pessimism to attitudes, their physical and mental health and finally on their colleagues, customers and organization. This dimension of behavior (Cordes, & Dougherty, 1993; Maslach, Schaufeli, the job burnout is prevalent among those staff who regularly & Leiter, 2001; Lee, & Ashforth, 1996; Maslach, 2003; communicate to other persons (such as teachers, students, Maslach, & Goldberg, 1998). customers, patients) to do their jobs. (3) Diminished personal Mohammad Reza Akhavan Anvari , Postgraduate, Operations Research, III. LITERATURE REVIEW Faculty of Management, University of Tehran *(Corresponding Author) Researches indicate that variables like self-efficacy, Chamran Highway, Nasr Bridge P.O.Box 14155-6311, Tehran, Iran (email:[email protected]) self-esteem, locus of control, emotional stability, Nader Seyed Kalali , Postgraduate, Operations Research, Faculty of extraversion, conscientiousness, positive affectivity, Management, University of Tehran Chamran Highway, Nasr Bridge negative affectivity, optimism, proactive P.O.Box 14155-6311, Tehran, Iran (email: [email protected]) Aryan Gholipour , Associate Professor, Faculty of Management, personality (Bateman, & Crant, 1993) and hardworking University of Tehran Chamran Highway, Nasr Bridge P.O.Box 14155-6311, impact highly on burnout (Alarcon, said that many findings Tehran, Iran (email: [email protected]) 115 International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 2, No. 2, April 2011 of the research are homogenous to previous researches; experience and conscientiousness. Present research is however, no relationship was determined between conducted in winter to spring 2010 in Tehran Atiyeh private agreeableness/job performance and job burnout (Kim, 2007). hospital. Alarcon et al (2009) mentioned that structured studies on A. Scale the relationship between personality variables and burnout are rare (Alarcon, Eschleman, & Bowling, 2009).Since There are some scales to measure job burnout of which the authors confirm the lack of researches in this area, present most famous ones includes MBI questionnaire. This study addresses to investigate the effect of personality factors questionnaire was developed by Maslach in 1980s and then (big five personality model) on job burnout. So, the was revised later(Halbesleben, Jonathon, & Buckley, 2004). researchers formulate the research hypothesis as follow: A newer scale is Oldenburg job burnout inventory (OLBI) Extraversion has negative and significant impact on job designed to mitigate MBI bias; however, its conceptual burnout. foundation is based on MBI. Overall, more evidences are Agreeableness has negative and significant impact on job needed to determine OLBI validity and it is not yet possible burnout. to replace MBI with OLBI (Halbesleben, Jonathon, & Conscientiousness has negative and significant impact on Buckley, 2004). job burnout. In this research, questionnaire is used to measure variables. Neuroticism has positive and significant impact on job It is a 66-item questionnaire with Likert’s 5-point range and burnout. respondents’ general (demographical) information. The first Openness to experience has negative and significant 22 items address to study job burnout and it is actually impact on job burnout. Maslach standard questionnaire (MBI) to measure job Research conceptual framework is drawn by reviewing the burnout. The items in the questionnaire measure three literature and above mentioned hypothesis. Emotional dimensions of job burnout including emotional exhaustion (9 exhaustion, diminished personal accomplishment and items), diminished personal accomplishment (8 items) and depersonalization are the aspects of job burnout and depersonalization (5 items). In the second part, the 44-item extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness questionnaire of Big Five Personality Standard Model(Costa, and neuroticism are the personality aspects in the Big Five & McCrae, 1989) is providedwhich includes 8 items on Model. Figure 1 indicates research model. extraversion, 9 items on agreeableness, 9 items on conscientiousness, 8 items on neuroticism and 10 items on openness. Cronbach’s alpha is utilized to determine the questionnaire’s reliability whose rates for three aspects of job burnout namely emotional exhaustion, diminished personal accomplishment and depersonalization are 81.2%, 80.5% and 71.1% respectively. For other five variables namely Conscientious ness euroticism extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness and N Agreeablene ss conscientiousness, these rates are 70.2%, 72.6%, 75.5%, Openness to Openness to Experience Extraversion 82.1% and 71.7% respectively which show high reliability of the questionnaire. To determine the validity of various Job variables in mentioned questionnaire, second-order Burnout confirmatory factor analysis was used for exogenous variables and second-order confirmatory factor analysis for endogenous variables. on Depersonalizati Exhaustion Emotional B. Participants Participants were 248 workers from the staff of the Tehran Atiyeh Hospital. Among distributed questionnaires, 14.4% Diminished and 84.7% of respondents were male and female respectively. Personal Noteworthy, 0.9% of respondents did not determine their sex. Accomplishmen In the meantime, 65.3% of respondents were married, 33.1% were single and 1.6% did not determine their marital status. Figure 1. The conceptual framework of this research In terms of education, 21.2% were under diploma,