Abstract
Job burnout combines exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy into a syndrome that functions as an occupational condition undermining the quality of worklife. Burnout has negative implications for mental and physical well-being without being a disease in itself. Instead, burnout reflects a breakdown in the relationships that people maintain with their workplaces. Although burnout has been the focus of academic research and management consulting for nearly half a century, little progress has been made on defining effective interventions. Much of the research and advice pertaining to alleviating and preventing burnout focus on individual action, largely ignoring the predominant role of management practices, work demands, resource shortages, and strained personal relationships that research has consistently associated with the syndrome. Given the wide range of workplace processes and conditions that have been associated with burnout, there is a potential for a wide range of strategies worth exploring to test ways of alleviating the three dimensions of the burnout syndrome. Improving the quality of social encounters at work is one approach considered here.
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Leiter, M.P. (2022). Burnout. In: Brough, P., Gardiner, E., Daniels, K. (eds) Handbook on Management and Employment Practices. Handbook Series in Occupational Health Sciences, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29010-8_25
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