The Interrelationship Among Organizational Stress, Social Support and Burnout.

The overall objective of this study was to assess the impact of social support as a resource for minimizing job stress and burnout. The generative idea expounded upon was that perceived support from others is a key determinant in an employee's ability to effectively cope with stressful working conditions. In order to test for the impact of social support on job stress and burnout several analyses were conducted. First, an examination was made to identify the causes of job stress and burnout and second, an analysis was conducted to determine the significance of social support as a coping resource for individuals employed in highly stressful work environments. To underst and the meaning and impact of each relationship a questionnaire measuring job stress, social support and burnout, was administered to 134 teachers employed in an urban public school system. From the survey results, three major findings emerged: (1) Within an educational environment, burnout is correlated with multiple sources of stressful working conditions versus one major source. Of all the various types of stressful working conditions listed, three emerged as the strongest predictors of burnout: stress attributed to student violence, job design and role expansion. (2) The effects of social support on job stress and burnout varied. Teachers who identified nonwork related sources of support, particularly from friends experienced less job stress. On the other h and , work related support was more negatively correlated with burnout. (3) Institutionalized sources of support played a greater role in minimizing job stress and burnout than informal social support. In particular, flexibility in work schedules was identified as the key institutionalized type of support for reducing stress and burnout. In summary, the results indicated that teachers who perceived the organization as providing a company-wide support system aimed at giving them techniques and knowledge to protect themselves from burnout exhibited this syndrome less frequently than teachers with informal support as a primary coping resource for stress and burnout.PhDOccupational psychologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161045/1/8612646.pd