More than Job Demands or Personality, Lack of Organizational Respect Fuels Employee Burnout - Knowledge@Wharton
Some things seem so obvious to me after years in the business world, but I guess they aren't. Witness this study that takes a "contextual" look at employee burnout:
Organizational respect influences burnout above and beyond the effects of job demands and negative affectivity. Because existing studies conceptualize burnout as stemming from the job or the individual, rather than the organization, "the 'problem' from a managerial perspective is the person," the authors note. "Succumbing to burnout becomes a private affair of the employee, and not something of concern to the organization as a whole....This ignores the contextual sources of the problem."
To readers of Dilbert, or people who live in the Dilbert-verse, this is a "well-duh" observation, but I'm not aware of any large organization that really recognizes that it, not "the job" or "the employee" might be the cause of disaffection and burnout.
I think the reason for this is that organizations don't view themselves as "organisms". Instead, they view themselves as machines, with replaceable parts. With that view, it can't be the organization that's at fault, it's just a worn out "part" that has failed and needs to be replaced--even as they claim "our people are our greatest asset."
Poppycock!
With a "people as parts" metaphor, of course organizations won't really respect their people.
Any organizations that adopt a more holistic approach will surely outperform traditional, flawed, organizations.
Tags: creativity, culture, leadership, management, motivation, productivity, psychology, society
