Professional Burnout: the Effect of the Discrepancy Between Expectations and Attainment on Social Workers in a Mental Hospital.

Burnout, a Syndrome which has gained attention as a problem among workers in helping professions, is defined as a phenomenon in which professionals lose energy and enthusiasm for their jobs. Idealism changes into mechanical practicability. Workers begin to depersonalize the clients they are helping. Burnout progresses until employees, disillusioned by feelings of powerlessness and vulnerability, may leave their jobs or profession. Until recently, workers in human services rarely expressed frustrations openly or protested about job conditions. Early writings about job stress focused on workers outside helping professions. Yet burnout is particularly devastating to workers in helping fields because frequently both personal ambitions and idealistic desires to help people are thwarted. Unlike industrial workers who tend to be less personally committed to their jobs, human service workers are frequently dedicated to ideals extending beyond the job into their lives. This research identifies some factors contributing to the Burnout Syndrome in helping professionals and develops suggestions for intervention and coping strategies. The study's central hypothesis is that burnout is a function of the relation of professionals' goals and expectations to their attainment or anticipated attainability. The greater the perceived discrepancy between goals and attainment, the greater the level of burnout predicted. To obtain information about burnout, 49 social workers employed in a mental health setting were interviewed via questionnaire about working situations, career experiences, rewards, frustrations, expectations and goals. Selected demographic information was obtained. To measure burnout, the Maslach Burn-out Inventory (MBI), 25 statements about job-related feelings, was administered. From the interviews, several items served as independent variables representing factors that might influence burnout. The dependent variable, burnout, was measured by mean scores of the 50 scales of the MBI, grouped into four subscales containing measures of frequency and intensity of occurrence of feelings. Selected influencing factors were used in an analysis of variance on the levels of experienced burnout. The data support the hypothesis that burnout is higher when the actual work on the job is different than expected work. A weaker relationship was found between high burnout and career goals. Other factors which related to higher levels of burnout included the following: holding a Master's degree, working half-time, job stress carried into after-work life, and personal office space limited, too noisy or unattractive. Less benefit appeared to be obtained from co-workers' support than was expected. However, relationships with supervisors were found significantly to influence burnout level. Workers who found their supervisors inaccessible and undependable experienced higher burnout levels. Workers who experienced close relationships with their supervisors distanced clients less. Strategies derived from the data to cope with burnout include the following: helping workers to set attainable expectations by presenting clearer pictures of job realities during college, learning to pursue goals within the confinements of "the system", and measuring "success" in ways that enhance opportunities for experiences to be rewarding. Administrators can select supervisors who establish open interpersonal relationships with workers.Ph.D.Educational psychologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/158131/1/8106177.pd