The impact of perceived organizational support on the relationship between job stress and burnout: a mediating or modera
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The impact of perceived organizational support on the relationship between job stress and burnout: a mediating or moderating role? Zhihua Xu 1 & Fu Yang 2
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract Compared to social support, organizational support in the job stress–burnout relationship has received little attention. Drawing on perceived organizational support (POS) theory and the notion of support as a stress buffer, this study examines the mediating and moderating effects of POS on the relationships between job stress and the three components of burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy) using a sample of 351 teachers in China. We found that job stress had significant main effects and indirect effects via POS on exhaustion and inefficacy, but not cynicism. The hypotheses of POS moderating effects of job stress on the three components of burnout were not supported. Moreover, job stress had a stronger effect on exhaustion among head teachers compared to non-head teachers and a stronger effect on inefficacy among non-head teachers. Exhaustion predicted cynicism, which predicted inefficacy. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. Keywords Job stress . POS . Exhaustion . Cynicism . Inefficacy
Introduction Primary and secondary school teachers face high stress due to reforms to basic education, the teacher appointment system, teachers’ bonuses being closely connected to students’ examination scores, difficulty in controlling students, society and parents’ high expectations for teacher performance, and career development, among other factors (Shi et al. 2005). If these stressors are not addressed effectively, it may lead to teachers experiencing job burnout, which is a psychological syndrome of exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy experienced in response to chronic job stress (Leiter and Maslach 1988; Leiter and Maslach 2004). Exhaustion refers to feelings of overextending oneself and draining one’s emotional and physical resources, cynicism refers to a negative, callous, or unfeeling response to various aspects of the job, and inefficacy * Zhihua Xu [email protected] 1
School of Law and Politics, Lingnan Normal University, No. 29, Cunjin Road, Chikan, Zhanjiang 524048, Guangdong Province, China
2
School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, No. 555, Liutai Road, Wenjiang, Chengdu 611130, Sichuan Province, China
refers to feelings of incompetency and reduction in work achievement and productivity. Teachers who experience burnout are likely to experience diminished patience and affection for their students, have decreased readiness in their course preparation, and have a low sense of control and achievement, all of which affect not only their own mental and physical health but also their students’ development (Zhao and Bi 2003). Therefore, to implement an effective intervention to prevent teacher burnout, it is of great importance to examine the mechanisms and boundary conditions regarding job stress
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