Originals
The Relationship between Occupational Stress, Burnout, and Turnover Intention among Managerial Staff from a Sino-Japanese Joint Venture in Guangzhou, China
2013 Volume 55 Issue 6 Pages 458-467
Details
2013 Volume 55 Issue 6 Pages 458-467
Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the associations between occupational stress, burnout and turnover intention and explore their associated factors among managerial staff in Guangzhou, China. Methods: This cross-sectional study recruited 288 managerial employees from a Sino-Japanese joint venture automobile manufacturing enterprise in Guangzhou. The questionnaire included questions about sociodemographic characteristics, smoking, drinking and physical activity and the Chinese versio ns of the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI), Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ) and Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS). The response rate was 57.6%. Stepwise regression analysis was performed to examine the associations between burnout and occupational stress and turnover intention and related factors. Results: The respondents had a high level burnout on the personal accomplishment subscale and had a high prevalence of turnover intention. Neuroticism, psychoticism, job satisfaction, occupational stress and social support were strong predictors of emotional exhaustion. Psychoticism, passive coping, occupational stress, objective support, utilization of support, male gender and job satisfaction were strong predictors of depersonalization. Active and passive coping and job satisfaction were strong predictors of personal accomplishment. Job dissatisfaction and emotional exhaustion were strong predictors of turnover intention.Conclusions: High occupational stress and low job satisfaction were associated with high burnout, particularly in the emotional exhaustion and depersonalization dimensions. Low job satisfaction and high emotional exhaustion were associated with high turnover intention among employees. Personality traits, social support and coping style were also found to be associated with burnout.
(J Occup Health 2013; 55: 458–467)
Stress is an important element of life, and appropriate levels of stress can help an individual to overcome challenging situations. However, high levels of stress, if not managed, will result in emotional problems and ill health1). Stress-related symptoms range from mild medical unfitness to general unhappiness and anxiety to more serious impairments including drug dependency, excessive drinking, increased smoking, divorce, psychiatric problems and suicide2). There is a strong relationship between job satisfaction and stress. Increased levels of stress can lead to reduced job satisfaction. Occupational stress is defined as harmful physical and emotional responses incurred in the work environment. With jobs shifting from manufacturing industries to service industries, the psychological and emotional demands of work have increased, which have led to increased attention to work-related burn-out3).
Burnout is a comprehensive concept first proposed by Freudenburger in clinical psychology4). According to Maslach5, 6), burnout stemming from continuous work pressures that are not effectively handled comprises three dimensions: emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP) and reduced personal accomplishment (PA). The exhaustion component represents the basic individual stress dimension of burnout. It refers to feelings of being overextended and depleted of one's emotional and physical resources. The depersonalization component represents the interpersonal context dimension, which refers to a negative, callous or excessively detached response to various aspects of the job. The component of reduced efficacy or accomplishment represents the self-evaluation dimension, which refers to feelings of incompetence and a lack of achievement and productivity at work. Burnout has been associated with various forms of job withdrawal—absenteeism, intention to leave the job and actual turnover. However, for people who stay on the job, burnout leads to lower productivity and effectiveness at work.
Previous studies have indicated that turnover intention is the principle cognitive precursor of turnover behavior with great explanatory power and can also better reflect the real level of organization management problem than turnover behavior, which is easily affected by external factors7). Job satisfaction has been considered the most representative antecedent variable before turnover intention, and this has been shown in many empirical studies8). It has been argued that low levels of hardiness (hardy personality), poor self-esteem, an external locus of control and an avoid-ant coping style typically constitute the profile of a stress-prone individual5, 9). Research on the Big Five personality dimensions has found that burnout is linked to neuroticism5. The personality traits of neuroticism, psychoticism and introversion may be related to occupational stress, job dissatisfaction and unhealthy mental reaction10). Social support has been viewed as an important concept related to psychological well-being. Many studies have conceptually clarified this issue11, 12). However, there has been much less research on the association of coping style with occupational stress and burnout and on whether coping style moderates the effects of stress on burnout.
Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, is well known for its overcrowded population and its highly competitive and rapidly developing enterprises and businesses. Due to recent economic reform and opening up policy, many Sino-Japanese joint ventures have been established in Guangzhou, such as automobile manufacturing enterprises, since the 1990s. To date, Japanese companies have established production bases predominantly in coastal areas. About half of the Japanese companies active in China are located in the city of Shanghai, Guangdong Province, and the Yangtze Delta in Jiangsu Province. According to the 2001 Overseas Business Activities Yearbook, of 2,525 Japanese companies recorded, 663 (26.3%) were established in the city of Shanghai, followed by 352 in Jiangsu Province and 327 in Guangdong Province13). The three large automobile enterprises (Toyota, Nissan and Honda) in Guangzhou led to a establishment of a large number of automotive parts manufacturers. Currently, automobile manufacturing is part of the recent surge in profitable industries in Guangzhou14) and plays a major role in the Guangzhou economy.
Nowadays, employees need to have a working knowledge of business, finance and technology and multilanguage skills to do well in an increasingly globalized world. Accompanied by an improvement in the social security system and reform of labor and employment mechanisms in China, the phenomenon of voluntary turnover has extended gradually from state enterprises to joint venture sectors such as manufacturing industries. A survey in the early 1990s found low job satisfaction in employees in 37 Sino-Japanese joint ventures in China, and 56.6% of the employees intended to leave their current jobs15). A recent study based on the universalistic proposition and a sample of 152 respondents from a Sino-Japanese joint venture in Guangzhou discovered that organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) mediated the effects of retention-oriented compensation, formalized training with regard to intention to leave and provided a strong indication that the effects of human resource management (HRM) practices on intention to leave might be complex, as there might be some behavioral factors mediating the relationship14. In a Sino-Japanese joint venture, Chinese employees often work under Japanese management styles, with emphasis on quality and strict operation standards, and experience conflicts arising from cultural differences, which may lead a higher burnout level. Evidence from earlier studies suggested a positive association between burnout and work-related stress3, 16). However, there has not been any study on the relationship between occupational stress, burnout and turnover intention among employees in Sino-Japanese joint ventures in the literature. As this working population is unique and the number is increasing, it is interesting to investigate from the manager's perspective the factors that mediate the relationships between job stress, job burnout and turnover intention. This paper reports the first study in a Guangzhou Sino-Japanese joint venture on occupational stress, burnout and turnover intention among employees and the relationships between occupational stress, burnout and turnover intention and their associated factors.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted from April to May 2011 using an anonymous self-administered questionnaire to obtain information about occupational stress, job satisfaction, burnout, personality, coping style, social support and turnover intention in employees of a Sino-Japanese joint venture automobile manufacturing enterprise in Guangzhou. The company was established in 1998 and currently has two plants and about 7,000 Chinese employees. There were about 3,000 employees in one plant (2,500 workers, 500 managerial staff). The questionnaires were systematically distributed to the 500 managers in the plant by the human resource managers of the company. A total of 300 respondents returned the questionnaires. Among them, 12 subjects did not correctly complete the questionnaire and were excluded, leaving a total of 288 participants (the response rate was 57.6%) included in our analysis.
All participants were Chinese employees. They worked 176–184 hours per month (about 8 hours per weekday) under management of both Japanese expatriates and local managers (general and vice-general managers). Information on demographic characteristics including age, gender, years of employment, educational level, marital status, smoking, drinking and physical activity was collected. Self-perceived turnover intention was assessed by the question, “have you seriously considered leaving your present job in the past month?” The answer was scaled on six levels (1–6), ranging from “never” to “extremely often”. Participation was voluntary. Written informed consent was obtained, and confidentiality was strictly protected. The study was approved by the Guangzhou No. 12 Hospital Ethics Committee.
Occupational stress and job satisfactionWe used the Chinese version of the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI)17), as it has been well validated in other studies18). The stressors are measured by 40 items, and job satisfaction is measured by 12 items, both of which are scored on a 6-point Likert scale (1–6). For stressors, 1 indicates no stressful experience, and 6 indicates a very high stressful experience. For job satisfaction, 1 indicates strong disagreement, and 6 indicates strong agreement; higher scores indicate more satisfaction. In our sample, Cronbach's alpha coefficients of stressors and job satisfaction were 0.94 and 0.93, respectively.
BurnoutThe Chinese version of Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)19) includes 22 items on a 7-point Likert scale (0, never; 1, a few times a year or less; 2, once a month or less; 3, a few times a month; 4, once a week; 5, a few times a week; 6, every day). The items are grouped in three dimensions: (a) emotional exhaustion (EE), (b) depersonalization (DP) and (c) personal accomplishment (PA). High scores indicate high levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and high personal accomplishment. In our sample, Cronbach's alphas were 0.85 for EE, 0.78 for DP and 0.82 for PA. The subscales showed good internal consistency. The scores for each dimension were computed separately and coded as low, average or high using cutoff scores that separated the distribution into tertiles. The level of burnout experienced was categorized as follows: for EE, <16 was low, 17–26 was average and >27 was high; for DP, <6 was low, 7–12 was average and >13 was high; and for PA, < 31was low, 38–32 was average and >39 was high. Burnout was associated with higher scores on the EE and DP subscales and a lower PA score.
PersonalityThe Chinese version of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ; Gong et al.,1984)20) was used to assess the neuroticism, psychoticism and extraversion personality dimensions. Although the Chinese version of the EPQ had four subscales (neuroticism, psychoti-cism, extraversion and lie), we used the first three subscales for further analyses because the neuroticism, psychoticism and extraversion subscales represent three personality dimensions of Eysenck's Personality theory. In our sample, the Cronbach's alphas for neuroticism, psychoticism and extraversion were 0.80, 0.54 and 0.72, respectively.
Simple Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ)The SCSQ21) contains 20 items with two subscales (active and passive coping). The active coping index includes 12 items, and the passive coping index includes 8 items. Overall, the SCSQ active coping index was shown to be relatively valid, with a high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha of 0.89), while the SCSQ passive coping index had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.78. The response scale for each item is a 4-point Likert-type scale (0–3).
Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS)Social support was assessed by the participants) perception of support from their family or social members. The SSRS21) has ten items to evaluate total social support, the levels of objective (three items) and subjective support (four items) as well as the utility of support (three items). The SSRS was developed based on the concept of social support proposed by Cohen and Syme in 198512), which has been widely used in Chinese populations and yielded high reliability22). The items are rated using a 4-point Likert scale (1–4). The two-months test-retest reliability coefficients were 0.92 for total score and 0.89–0.94 for each item. The subscales also showed good reliability.
Statistical methodsAll data are presented as numbers, percentages, means and standard deviations (SD) as appropriate. The Pearson x2 test was used to compare categorical variables, and the t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to compare the means of occupational stress, job satisfaction, burnout, personality, coping style, social support and turnover intention. To determine the association between the measures, the Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated. To examine whether occupational stress and other factors were predictive of each of the 3 burnout dimensions and turnover intention, a total of 4 dependent or criterion variables were tested by stepwise multiple regression analysis. A p value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. All data analyses were conducted using SPSS 20.0 for Windows.
The mean age of the 288 subjects was 27.9 (SD=3.9) years, and their mean duration of employment was 5.0 (SD=4.0) years. Eighty percent were male. Table 1 shows no significant sex difference in age, years of employment, educational level, marital status and turnover intention (p>0.05) except for smoking, drinking and physical activity. In the past month, 60.4% of subjects had thoughts of leaving their work.
Descriptive statisticsTable 2 shows the scores for emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP) and personal accomplishment (PA), which were lower than those for the overall sample of the MBI-HSS subscales6,19) (n=l,106, mean (SD): 20.99 (10.75) for EE, 8.73 (5.89) for DP, 34.58 (7.ll) for PA) from the original instrument designed for service providers in the human services field. The overall sample utilized to norm the measure (n=ll,067) included individuals from the following subgroups: elementary and secondary education, postsecondary education, social services, medicine and mental health6, 23). In our subjects, the distributions of the different levels for EE, DP and PA were as follows: 43.4, 31.6 and 25.0%; 57.3, 25.3 and 17.4%; and 12.5, 26.7 and 60.8% for the low, average and high levels, respectively. Less than one out of ten (9.4%) respondents had high burnout in all three dimensions, and 75.0% did not have high burnout in any dimension. There were no sex differences except that males had greater depersonalization and lower utilization of support than females.
Occupational stress, job satisfaction, burnout and turnover intentionIn the total sample, age, education level, smoking, drinking and physical activity were not associated with occupational stress, job satisfaction, burnout and turnover intention. The group with 3–5 years of employment had lower job satisfaction than the group with <3 or >5 years of employment (table not shown).
Correlation between occupational stress, job satisfaction, personality, coping style, social support, burnout and turnover intentionTable 3 shows small to moderate correlation among the variables as expected, with the strongest between job satisfaction and turnover intention (r=-0.468, p<0.00l), followed by neuroticism and emotional exhaustion (r=0.432, p<0.00l).
Prediction of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment and turnover intentionFour stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted with individual characteristics as shown in Table 1, including occupational stress, job satisfaction, three personality dimensions, coping style and social support as predictor variables and turnover intention and the three dimensions of burnout as criterion (dependent) variables. The collinearity statistics for the 4 models shown in Table 4 (a)-(d) indicated no multicollinearity because the lowest tolerance was 0.82 and the maximum variance inflation factor (VIF) was l.22. Factors not included in the models did not contribute significantly to the explanation of the criterion variance.
Table 4 (a) shows that for emotional exhaustion, the 5 predictor variables accounted for 37% of the criterion variance. Neuroticism was the strongest predictor, followed by occupational stress and psychoticism as positive predictors and job satisfaction and social support as negative predictors.
For depersonalization, 7 predictors accounted for 35% of the criterion variance (Table 4 (b)). Psychoticism was the strongest predictor, followed by passive coping and occupational stress as positive predictors and utilization of support, objective support and job satisfaction as negative predictors. Males had higher DP scores than females.
Table 4 (c) shows that for personal accomplishment, active coping, passive coping and job satisfaction were significant predictors but accounted for only 15% of the criterion variance. Active coping and job satisfaction were positive predictors, and passive coping was a negative predictor.
| Characteristics | Female (n=57) % (n) | Male (n=231) % (n) | Total (n=288)% (n) | p value for sex difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age, years | ||||
| <26 | 24.6 (14 ) | 23.4 (54 ) | 23.6 (68) | 0.14 |
| 26–29 | 63.2 (36) | 52.4 (121) | 54.5 (157) | |
| >30 | 12.3 (7) | 24.2 (56) | 21.9 (63) | |
| Mean (SD) | 27.3 (3.3) | 28.0 (4.1) | 0.23 | |
| Range | 22–45 | 19–56 | ||
| Years of employment | 0.08 | |||
| <3 | 22.8 (13) | 19.9 (46) | 20.5 (59) | |
| <5 | 40.4 (23) | 25.5 (59) | 28.5 (82) | |
| >5 | 36.8 (21) | 54.5 (126) | 51.0 (147) | |
| Mean (SD) | 4.3 (3.4) | 5.2 (4.2) | 0.14 | |
| Range | 0.5–25.0 | 0.5–40.0 | ||
| Marital status | 0.09 | |||
| Married | 28.1 (16) | 40.3 (93) | 37.8 (109) | |
| Unmarried | 71.9 (41) | 59.7 (138) | 62.2 (179) | |
| Education level | 0.12 | |||
| High school | 3.5 (2) | 13.0 (30) | 11.1 (32) | |
| College | 87.7 (50) | 79.7 (184) | 81.2 (234) | |
| Graduate school | 8.8 (5) | 7.4 (17) | 7.6 (22) | |
| Smoking | 0.001 | |||
| Yes | 1.8 (1) | 19.5 (45) | 16.0 (46) | |
| No | 98.2 (56) | 80.5 (186) | 84.0 (242) | |
| Drinking | <0.001 | |||
| Yes | 12.3 (7) | 45.0 (104) | 38.5 (111) | |
| No | 87.7 (50) | 55.0 (127) | 61.5 (177) | |
| Physical activity | 0.03 | |||
| Never | 17.5 (10) | 7.8 (18) | 9.7 (28) | |
| Sometimes | 63.2 (36) | 60.6 (140) | 61.1 (176) | |
| Usually | 19.3 (11) | 31.6 (73) | 29.2 (84) | |
| Turnover intention | 0.20 | |||
| Never | 43.9 (25) | 38.5 (89) | 39.6 (114) | |
| Occasional | 45.6 (26) | 35.1 (81) | 37.2 (107) | |
| Sometimes | 7.0 (4) | 18.6 (43) | 16.3 (47) | |
| Often | 1.8 (1) | 3.9 (9) | 3.5 (10) | |
| Quite | 0.0 (0) | 2.2 (5) | 1.7 (5) | |
| Extremely | 1.8 (1) | 1.7 (4) | 1.7 (1.5) |
Data are expressed as percentages (%) or means (standard deviation). The p value for the t test or chi-square test is shown.
Table 4 (d) shows that job satisfaction was negatively associated with turnover intention and that emotional exhaustion was positively associated with turnover intention, and both together accounted for 24% of the criterion variance.
| Variables (range of score) | Female | Male | Total | p value for sex difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OSI | ||||
| Occupational stress (46–216)* | 128.6 (27.8) | 135.8 (27.9 ) | 134.4 (27.9) | 0.08 |
| Job satisfaction (22–72)# | 51.4 (9.l) | 50.7 (9.l) | 50.9 (9.l) | 0.62 |
| MBI | ||||
| Emotional exhaustion (0–50)* | 18.1 (8.6) | 19.5 (9.9) | 19.2 (9.6) | 0.32 |
| Depersonalization (0–24)* | 4.6 (4.4) | 6.9 (5.8) | 6.5 (5.6) | 0.01 |
| Personal accomplishment (0–47)# | 27.9 (9.5) | 28.3 (8.8) | 28.2 (8.9) | 0.76 |
| EPQ | ||||
| Neuroticism (20–80)* | 48.3 (12.8) | 47.6 (11.9) | 47.7 (12.1) | 0.70 |
| Psychoticism (30–90)* | 48.8 (10.4) | 48.7 (10.9) | 48.8 (10.8) | 0.96 |
| Extraversion (30–80)# | 55.4 (10.1) | 53.3 (9.9) | 53.7 (9.9) | 0.15 |
| SCSQ | ||||
| Active coping (8–50)# | 23.6 (5.8) | 24.3 (4.9) | 24.2 (5.1) | 0.39 |
| Passive coping (0–23)* | 8.3 (3.9) | 8.7 (4.5) | 8.7 (4.4) | 0.56 |
| SSRS | ||||
| Objective support (2–16)# | 8.9 (3.l) | 8.4 (2.9) | 8.5 (2.9) | 0.28 |
| Subjective support (5–32)# | 18.8 (4.9) | 19.9 (4.6) | 19.7 (4.7) | 0.13 |
| Utilization of support (3–12)# | 8.3 (1.7) | 7.7 (1.6) | 7.8 (1.7) | 0.02 |
| Total social support (ll–54)# | 36.1 (8.1) | 36.1 (6.8) | 36.1 (7.1) | 0.98 |
| Turnover intention (l–6)* | 1.7 (0.9) | 2.0 (1.1) | 1.9 (1.1) | 0.08 |
MBI=Maslach Burnout Inventory; EPQ=Eysenck Personality Questionnaire; SCSQ=Simple Coping Style Questionnaire; SSRS=Social Support Rating Scale.
| Variable | Emotional exhaustion | Depersonalization | Personal accomplishment | Job satisfaction | Turnover intention |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Occupational stress | 0.382*** | 0.316*** | −0.095 | −0.164** | 0.134* |
| Job satisfaction | −0.342*** | −0.244*** | 0.227*** | — | −0.468*** |
| Neuroticism | 0.432*** | 0.266*** | −0.197** | −0.165** | 0.097 |
| Psychoticism | 0.336*** | 0.399*** | −0.153** | −0.108 | 0.096 |
| Extraversion | −0.174** | −0.055 | 0.137* | 0.122* | 0.0ll |
| Active coping | −0.258*** | −0.192** | 0.329*** | 0.245*** | −0.145* |
| Passive coping | 0.308*** | 0.373*** | −0.170** | −0.122* | 0.105 |
| Objective support | −0.233*** | −0.256*** | 0.068 | 0.149* | −0.046 |
| Subjective support | −0.186** | −0.149* | 0.132* | 0.230*** | −0.094 |
| Utilization of support | −0.273*** | −0.269*** | 0.064 | 0.211*** | −0.14l* |
| Social support | −0.285*** | −0.269*** | 0.131* | 0.265*** | −0.115 |
| Turnover intention | 0.307*** | 0.249*** | −0.104 | −0.468*** | — |
This cross-sectional study on a Sino-Japanese joint venture automobile manufacturing enterprise in Guangzhou showed several significant findings related to job-related burnout. According to Maslach and Jackson19), a score above 26 for emotional exhaustion, above 12 for depersonalization and below 32 for personal accomplishment in the MBI subscales represented critical high levels of burnout. In our study, the mean scores of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization indicated that employees experienced a moderate level of burnout, which differed from the results from Lin24) showing that nurses in China experienced moderate levels of burnout in terms of emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment and low levels of depersonalization. On the other hand, 60.4% of our subjects had turnover intention. The results indicated that employees of the Sino-Japanese joint venture in Guangzhou had a high level burnout particularly on the PA subscale and had a high degree of turnover intention. Our prevalence of turnover intention was slightly higher than that reported in a previous study from about 10 years ago, which used similar research methods and found a prevalence of 56.6% turnover intention in 37 Sino- Japanese joint ventures in China15).
| Predictors | R*2 | F | p value | B | Beta | t | p value | Tolerance | VIF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (a) Emotional exhaustion | 0.37 | 7.48 | 0.007 | ||||||
| Constant | 8.93 | 1.82 | 0.07 | ||||||
| Neuroticism | 0.20 | 0.25 | 4.78 | <0.00l | 0.82 | 1.22 | |||
| Job satisfaction | −0.22 | −0.21 | −4.17 | <0.001 | 0.90 | 1.11 | |||
| Occupational stress | 0.08 | 0.23 | 4.47 | <0.001 | 0.88 | 1.13 | |||
| Psychoticism | 0.17 | 0.19 | 3.73 | <0.00l | 0.89 | 1.12 | |||
| Social support | −0.18 | −0.14 | −2.74 | 0.007 | 0.9l | 1.10 | |||
| (b) Depersonalization | 0.35 | 5.13 | 0.02 | ||||||
| Constant | 2.62 | 0.88 | 0.38 | ||||||
| Psychoticism | 0.14 | 0.27 | 5.39 | <0.001 | 0.90 | 1.11 | |||
| Passive coping | 2.21 | 0.22 | 4.24 | <0.00l | 0.88 | 1.14 | |||
| Occupational stress | 0.04 | 0.18 | 3.58 | <0.001 | 0.92 | 1.09 | |||
| Utilization of support | −0.37 | −0.11 | −2.15 | 0.03 | 0.86 | 1.17 | |||
| Objective support | −0.23 | −0.12 | −2.40 | 0.02 | 0.89 | 1.12 | |||
| Sex (male vs female) | −1.58 | −0.11 | −2.29 | 0.02 | 0.97 | 1.03 | |||
| Job satisfaction | −0.07 | −0.11 | −2.26 | 0.02 | 0.92 | 1.08 | |||
| (c) Personal accomplishment | 0.15 | 0.15 | 0.02 | ||||||
| Constant | 11.62 | 3.34 | 0.001 | ||||||
| Active coping | 6.18 | 0.29 | 5.22 | <0.00l | 0.94 | 1.06 | |||
| Passive coping | −2.44 | −0.15 | −2.75 | 0.006 | 0.98 | 1.02 | |||
| Job satisfaction | 0.13 | 0.14 | 2.41 | 0.02 | 0.93 | 1.08 | |||
| (d) Turnover intention | 0.24 | 9.15 | 0.003 | ||||||
| Constant | 4.05 | 10.52 | <0.001 | 0.88 | 1.13 | ||||
| Job satisfaction | −0.05 | −0.41 | −7.51 | <0.001 | 0.88 | 1.13 | |||
| Emotional exhaustion | −0.02 | 0.17 | 3.03 | 0.003 | 0.88 | 1.13 |
The males in our study had more depersonaliza-tion than females. Our finding is consistent with some past research5). The one small but consistent sex difference was that males often scored higher on cynicism, which could be related to gender role stereotypes. There were significant sex differences in the utilization of support. Our findings are consistent with other studies showing that women are more likely than men to use social support to cope with work stress25, 26). Another interesting finding of our study is that the group with 3 to 5 years of employment had the lowest job satisfaction compared with the group with <3 or >5 years of employment. The reason for this could be that people who have been working for several years would have acquired more experience and would expect more rewards and promotions. Job dissatisfaction may occur when there is a conflict between expectation and rewards.
With regard to the high rate in turnover intention, our analysis showed that job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion had predictive effects on turnover intention and that age, gender and years of service had no significant effect. Thus, effective interventions are needed to enhance job satisfaction of individuals, ensure that they feel well-rewarded for their efforts and ensure that they accept their work as valuable and important.
Our results showed that neuroticism and psychoti-cism were associated with emotional exhaustion and depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. Extraversion was associated with more personal accomplishment and less emotional exhaustion. Multiple regression analysis also showed that individuals with higher scores for neuroticism and psychoticism had more emotional exhaustion and that individuals with higher scores for psychoticism had more depersonalization. These are in agreement with findings reported in the literature10, 27, 28). These are challenging implications for occupational health professionals. Interventions should take into account culture, individual characteristics such as personality and job type-specific issues to reduce or eliminate work-related stress.
Social support improves the ability to manage stress and is effective in reducing burnout29, 3l). Our regression analysis found that social support could reduce emotional exhaustion. Utilization of support was associated with less turnover intention. Our findings are consistent with studies of burnout among teachers30) and traffic enforcement agents26). So, to reduce burnout and turnover intention in joint venture employees, it may be necessary to develop good human relationships with family and friends, cowork-ers and superiors.
Both the stress literature and burgeoning self-help literature in the popular press have demonstrated that people can indeed learn new ways of coping5, 32–35). Our employees who used active coping strategies had higher levels of personal accomplishment and job satisfaction, whereas use of passive coping strategies reduced personal accomplishment and job satisfaction and increased depersonalization. Similar results have been reported for coping styles and burnout5, 32–35). Those who are burned out cope with stressful events in a rather passive, defensive way, whereas active and confrontive coping is associated with less burnout. In particular, confrontive coping is associated with efficacy5). Empirical research has shown that active or problem focused coping is linked to increases in job satisfaction and decrease in exhaustion32, 33, 35). Previous studies have shown that direct action strategies reduced the relationship between excessive work demands and job satisfaction, and palliative coping strategies increased the relationship between stressor and depersonalization34). Several authors have suggested that coping training programs may be effective in improving the management of stressful events36–38). Employees can apply active coping strategies at work to reductions in burnout.
There are several limitations in our study. Firstly, our findings can only show association rather than causation because the information on occupational stress, burnout and turnover intention was cross-sectional, although it was unlikely that individuals had turnover intention before occupational stress and burnout. In addition, the validation of turnover intention with substantial outcomes was not assessed due to the cross-sectional design. Follow-up interviews for such validation are warranted. Secondly, as the data were self-reported, we cannot fully rule out reporting errors. More objective data to evaluate occupational stress and work-related burnout are needed in further studies. Thirdly, the response rate of the current study was moderately satisfactory (57.6%). As the employees who did not respond to our questionnaire survey might have been those who were busier and had higher occupational stress and work-related burnout, there might be some selection bias, which, if any, might have led to conservative estimates of the prevalence of occupational stress, burnout and turnover intention. Fourthly, as the questionnaires used in the current study like the OSI and SSRS may not be as popular as the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) and other scales, comparison between the results of our study and those from other studies may be limited. Moreover, even though the SCSQ and SSRS questionnaires showed good validity and reliability for screening of different coping styles and workplace stress in Chinese people and they have also been widely used in epidemiological studies21, 22, 39) in China, there is a lack of evidence showing the application of these instruments to other non-Chinese populations. Further epidemiological studies are warranted to examine the validity and reliability of these instruments in other ethnic populations. Fifthly, as the study sample was relatively young (mean=28 years)40), our results may not be generalized to older populations. Finally, our study was not aimed at assessment of the long-term health effects and possible social impacts of occupational stress, burnout and turnover intention. Given the high prevalences of occupational stress, burnout and turnover intention in our sample, further prospective studies are warranted.
In conclusion, this is the first study showing that occupational stress was significantly associated with work-related burnout and turnover intention among employees in a Sino-Japanese joint venture automobile manufacturing enterprise in Guangzhou. Our findings also point to the need to improve working conditions and work organization in order to increase job satisfaction and maintain employee productivity. Workload should be in line with a worker's capabilities, and resources and opportunities for social interaction among workers should be provided.
Both job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion are important factors for employee turnover intention. Whether personality traits, social support and coping style have mediation effects on occupational burnout through emotional exhaustion with further impact on job satisfaction and turnover intention deserves further research.
Acknowledgments: This study was funded by the Guangdong Province Health Department (A2012539) and Guangzhou Public Health Bureau (20l2lA0lll04). We appreciate the managerial staff of the Sino- Japanese joint venture in Guangzhou for recruiting the participants.
