IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0143159.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Internal and External Factors Related to Burnout among Iron and Steel Workers: A Cross-Sectional Study in Anshan, China

Author

Listed:
  • Haiqiang Guo
  • Huifang Guo
  • Yilong Yang
  • Baozhi Sun

Abstract

Background: Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, cynicism and reduced professional efficacy, which can result from long-term work stress. Although the burnout level is high among iron and steel workers, little is known concerning burnout among iron and steel worker. This study aimed to evaluate the burnout and to explore its associated internal and external factors in iron and steel workers. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in iron and steel workers at the Anshan iron-steel complex in Anshan, northeast China. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 1,600 workers, and finally 1,300 questionnaires were returned. Burnout was measured using the Chinese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS). Effort-reward imbalance (ERI), perceived organizational support (POS), and psychological capital (PsyCap) were measured anonymously. A hierarchical regression model was applied to explore the internal and external factors associated with burnout. Results: Mean MBI-GS scores were 13.11±8.06 for emotional exhaustion, 6.64±6.44 for cynicism, and 28.96±10.39 for professional efficacy. Hierarchical linear regression analysis showed that ERI and POS were the most powerful predictors for emotional exhaustion and cynicism, and PsyCap was the most robust predictor for high professional efficacy. Conclusions: Chinese iron and steel workers have a high level of burnout. Burnout might be associated with internal and external factors, including ERI, POS, and PsyCap. Further studies are recommended to develop an integrated model including both internal and external factors, to reduce the level of ERI, and improve POS and workers’ PsyCap, thereby alleviating the level of burnout among iron and steel workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Haiqiang Guo & Huifang Guo & Yilong Yang & Baozhi Sun, 2015. "Internal and External Factors Related to Burnout among Iron and Steel Workers: A Cross-Sectional Study in Anshan, China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(11), pages 1-13, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0143159
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0143159
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0143159
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0143159&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0143159?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. van Vegchel, Natasja & de Jonge, Jan & Bosma, Hans & Schaufeli, Wilmar, 2005. "Reviewing the effort-reward imbalance model: drawing up the balance of 45 empirical studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(5), pages 1117-1131, March.
    2. Luthans, Fred & Luthans, Kyle W. & Luthans, Brett C., 2004. "Positive psychological capital: beyond human and social capital," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 45-50.
    3. Fred Luthans & Bruce J. Avolio & Fred O. Walumbwa & Weixing Li, 2005. "The Psychological Capital of Chinese Workers: Exploring the Relationship with Performance," Management and Organization Review, International Association of Chinese Management Research, vol. 1(2), pages 249-271, July.
    4. Luthans, Fred & Avolio, Bruce J. & Walumbwa, Fred O. & Li, Weixing, 2005. "The Psychological Capital of Chinese Workers: Exploring the Relationship with Performance," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(2), pages 249-271, July.
    5. Martinussen, M. & Richardsen, A.M. & Burke, R.J., 2007. "Job demands, job resources, and burnout among police officers," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 239-249.
    6. Jiaxi Peng & Xihua Jiang & Jiaxi Zhang & Runxuan Xiao & Yunyun Song & Xi Feng & Yan Zhang & Danmin Miao, 2013. "The Impact of Psychological Capital on Job Burnout of Chinese Nurses: The Mediator Role of Organizational Commitment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-1, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maxime Vachon & Marie Papineau & Gilles Dupuis & Pasquale Roberge, 2019. "Associations Between Systemic Quality of Life and Burnout Among French Canadian Workers," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 1193-1210, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ayatakshee Sarkar & Naval Garg & DK Srivastava & BK Punia, 2024. "Can Gratitude Counter Workplace Toxicity? Exploring the Mediating Role of Psychological Capital (PsyCap)," Business Perspectives and Research, , vol. 12(2), pages 261-276, April.
    2. Mohd Hizam Hanafiah, & Sheikh Usman Yousaf, & Bushra Usman,, 2017. "The influence of psychological capital on the growth intentions of entrepreneurs: A study on Malaysian SME entrepreneurs," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center, vol. 13(5), pages 556-569, December.
    3. Nasser Saad Al Kahtani & Sulphey M. M., 2022. "A Study on How Psychological Capital, Social Capital, Workplace Wellbeing, and Employee Engagement Relate to Task Performance," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, May.
    4. Yogesh Upadhyay & Dharmendra Kumar, 2020. "Leader–Member Exchange, Psychological Capital and Employees’ Creativity," Vision, , vol. 24(4), pages 406-418, December.
    5. Cixian Lv & Peijin Yang & Jingjing Xu & Jia Sun & Yuelong Ming & Xiaotong Zhi & Xinghua Wang, 2023. "Association between Urban Educational Policies and Migrant Children’s Social Integration in China: Mediated by Psychological Capital," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-18, February.
    6. Urmila Rani Srivastava & Vandana Maurya, 2017. "Organizational and Individual Level Antecedents of Psychological Capital and its Associated Outcomes: Development of a Conceptual Framework," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 42(3), pages 205-236, August.
    7. Welter, Chris & Scrimpshire, Alex, 2021. "The missing capital: The case for psychological capital in entrepreneurship research," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).
    8. Uju Violet Alola & Andrew Adewale Alola, 2018. "Can Resilience Help? Coping with Job Stressor," Academic Journal of Economic Studies, Faculty of Finance, Banking and Accountancy Bucharest,"Dimitrie Cantemir" Christian University Bucharest, vol. 4(1), pages 141-152, March.
    9. Şeşen, Harun & Sürücü, Lütfi & Maşlakcı, Ahmet, 2019. "On the Relation between Leadership and Positive Psychological Capital in the Hospitality Industry," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 182-197.
    10. Kathrin Heinitz & Timo Lorenz & Daniel Schulze & Julia Schorlemmer, 2018. "Positive organizational behavior: Longitudinal effects on subjective well-being," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(6), pages 1-15, June.
    11. Sylvia Kwok & Leveda Cheng & Daniel Wong, 2015. "Family Emotional Support, Positive Psychological Capital and Job Satisfaction Among Chinese White-Collar Workers," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 561-582, June.
    12. Ki-Seoung Lee & Yoon-Seo Kim & Hyoung-Chul Shin, 2022. "The Effect of Personal Environment Suitability and Work Environment of Luxury Hotels on Psychological Capital and Innovation Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-16, June.
    13. Jingyu Tak & Jeongeun Seo & Taewoo Roh, 2019. "The Influence of Authentic Leadership on Authentic Followership, Positive Psychological Capital, and Project Performance: Testing for the Mediation Effects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-18, October.
    14. Yu-Shan Chen & Chun-Ming Lien & Wei-Yuan Lo & Fuh-Shyong Tsay, 2021. "Sustainability of Positive Psychological Status in the Workplace: The Influence of Organizational Psychological Ownership and Psychological Capital on Police Officers’ Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-16, March.
    15. Badri Munir Sukoco & Les Tien-Shang Lee, 2017. "The Effects Of Psychological Capital And Team Strain On The Effectiveness Of Npd Teams: The Moderating Role Of Perceived Diversity Climate," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(04), pages 1-30, May.
    16. Jiaxi Peng & Xihua Jiang & Jiaxi Zhang & Runxuan Xiao & Yunyun Song & Xi Feng & Yan Zhang & Danmin Miao, 2013. "The Impact of Psychological Capital on Job Burnout of Chinese Nurses: The Mediator Role of Organizational Commitment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(12), pages 1-1, December.
    17. Hongyu Ma & Federico Topolansky Barbe & Yongmei Carol Zhang, 2018. "Can Social Capital and Psychological Capital Improve the Entrepreneurial Performance of the New Generation of Migrant Workers in China?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-16, October.
    18. Yajun Wu & Xia Kang, 2023. "Construct Validation and Prediction of the School Psychological Capital in Two Chinese Cultural Contexts," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, July.
    19. Rego, Arménio & Sousa, Filipa & Marques, Carla & Cunha, Miguel Pina e, 2012. "Authentic leadership promoting employees' psychological capital and creativity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 429-437.
    20. Nur Aimi Nasuha Burhanuddin & Nor Aniza Ahmad & Rozita Radhiah Said & Soaib Asimiran, 2022. "The Alchemy of Coaching: Psychological Capital as HERO within Coaches’ Selves," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-20, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0143159. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.