THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOB SATISFACTION AND JOB BURNOUT IN VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION COUNSELORS

The study sought to describe and compare levels of job burnout and job satisfaction in a sample of vocational rehabilitation counselors employed in private enterprise. Toward that purpose, 164 randomly selected vocational counselors filled out the Job Satisfaction Inventory (JSI) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Four hypotheses were tested: (1) The sample will show significantly low job satisfaction and significantly high job burnout. (2) There will be an inverse relationship between job satisfaction and job burnout as indicated by correlations between total JSI scores and each of the six MBI subscale scores. (3) There will be an inverse relationship between job satisfaction and job burnout as indicated by correlations between each of the eight JSI subscales and each of the six MBI subscales. (4) Specific JSI subscales will, in combination, make the most efficient (best) predictors of job burnout as measured by the MBI subscales. Hypothesis one was accepted strongly with respect to job satisfaction and only mildly with respect to job burnout as measured by the constructs. Hypotheses two and three were also accepted on the basis of examining correlation coefficients between JSI scores and each of the six MBI subscale scores. Hypothesis four was assessed by identifying those JSI subscales which contributed most to the total variance in each of the six MBI subscales. Predictive batteries were formed from the JSI subscales for each MBI subscale. The efficiency of prediction of the predictive batteries based on these selected JSI subscales was calculated by comparing the predicted MBI range for each individual with his or her predicted range for each of the six MBI scales and efficiency score was the percentage of correct predictions. Many of the efficiency ratios (scores) of prediction for the first four MBI subscales were in the sixties and low to middle seventies, indicating a fairly good efficiency of prediction. Finally, the total JSI scores were used as the dependent variable in the regression equation in which the six MBI subscales were the independent variables. The results suggest that the JSI and MBI constructs had considerable intersection for this sample, in turn suggesting that the two variables are not highly different constructs. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.