Job stress models for predicting burnout syndrome: a review

In Europe, the Council Directive 89/391 for improvement of workers’ safety and health has emphasized the importance of addressing all occupational risk factors, and hence also psychosocial and organizational risk factors. Nevertheless, the construct of “work-related stress” elaborated from Eu-OSHA is not totally corresponding with the “psychosocial” risk, that is a broader category of risk, comprising various and different psychosocial risk factors. The term “Burnout”, without any binding definition, tries to integrate symptoms as well as cause of the burnout process. In Europe, the most important methods developed for the work related stress risk assessment are based on the Cox’s transactional model of job stress. Nevertheless, there are more specific models for predicting burnout syndrome. This literature review provides an overview of job burnout, highlighting the most important models of job burnout, such as the “Job Strain”, the “Effort/Reward Imbalance” and the “Job Demands-Resources” models. The difference between these models and the Cox’s model of job stress is explored.