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POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

College of ArtsDepartment of Psychology

“A Comparative Study of Occupational Stressors and Three

Factor Dimensions of Burnout among Human and Non-Human

Services.”

An Undergraduate Thesis

Presented to the Faculty of the Department of Psychology

College of Arts

Polytechnic University of the Philippines

Sta. Mesa, Manila.

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the course subject

PSYC 4013 – Research 1

Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Organizational Psychology III – 3

Presented by:

Armeña, Joseph B.

Cruz, Kristell A.

Llenares, Gonzalo

Peñoso, Micah Ann Nicole

Uy, Sunshine H.

Venzon, Regine D.

Tumbali, Mary Margaret D.

Presented to:

Prof. Jose M. Abat





dedicated and committed to doing their jobs. They typically have high energy levels,

positive attitudes and are high achievers.

Burnout is a major problem in helping occupations, people give a lot to others but

fail to take care of their selves in the process. Professionals in medicine social work,

emergency room health workers, law enforcement and education are especially prone

to burnout symptoms.

Of course, burnout can also affect people in other types of careers as well.

Jobs that promote burnout include ones in which workers do repetitive routine tasks,

never get much feedback or have a lot of responsibility but very little control.

Employees who are suffering burnout feel they are answerable for everything

that happens. They feel they receive very little cooperation from co-workers, and they

personally feel powerless to charge things. These feelings tend to make them assume

a martyr-like position, become resigned and apathetic, and focus on the worst aspects

of the job. Persons suffering from burnout often blame others or situation, rather than

taking action for change. How does burnout out happen? It can begin when a person

who has difficulty setting priorities and putting life into balance is confronted with a

stressful home or work environment.

Overtime, stress and the inability to cope with it lead to pessimism and early job

dissatisfaction. Workers in the early stages of burnout feel fatigued, frustrated

disillusioned and bored. They may suffer from symptoms of stress, such as: Increased

consumption of alcohol, caffeine and nicotine, abrupt speech, decreased eye contact

during conversations, changes in sleeping and eating habits, withdrawal from other

people, moodiness and irritability.

As burnout progresses, work habits begin to deteriorate. Affected workers

arrive late and leave early. Productivity drops. They become isolated and withdrawn





and avoid contact with co-workers and supervisors. They become increasingly angry,

hostile and depressed. Most suffer from physical symptoms of stress such as: chronic

fatigue, headaches, back pain, dry mouth and throat of difficulty swallowing, diarrhea

or constipation, rashes, hives or other skin problems, chest pains or heart palpitations,

nervous tics

In the final stages of burnout, workers experience in irreversible feeling of

detachment and total loss of interest in their jobs. Self-esteem is very low. Feelings

about work are totally negative and chronic absenteeism becomes a problem. At this

point, the only course of action is to change careers.

Burnout can occur in three major ways; the first is where the worker performs

essentially the same routine and uninspiring work day after day for years. This kind

of repetitious, boring, and uninteresting work is associated with feelings of

stagnation, helplessness and depression. A second kind of burnout occurs when a

person works at the same job for many years and following a period of modest

progress or improvement settles into a very prolonged period where there appear to

be no additional avenues or opportunities for progress. A third kind of burnout occurs

when the workers is daily overwhelmed with complex and varied tasks, being

continuously required to respond to a variety of urgent, demanding and changing

circumstances.

The key question to ask oneself is, “How do some other workers who are doing

the same job as others are avoid burnout?” The answer is mostly in terms of different

personality characteristics of workers. Some workers who are locked into doing

repetitious work do not suffer from it because their personality does not require a

great deal of variation, change and excitement while others with contrasting

personality traits are especially prone to suffer in routine and repetitious job

situations.





BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Stress itself is not dangerous. It is part of the wear and tear of everyday life and

cannot be avoided. Challenges and changes add spice to life, fire the imagination and

spur as to new achievements, if handled the right way. Many of the happiest and most

successful people are those who learned to respond to high levels of stress in a

balanced way (Achela- Caguiat 2001)

Dr. Alberto Romualdez (1998), Secretary of Health, in his article “Managing

Stress in the Workplace” cited that almost 51 percent of our total population, which

compromise the workplace. Is constantly exposed in an environment where stress is

the air we breathe. He also said that when absenteeism, poor performance and

destructive behavior happen, productivity is ultimately affected.

Most people can recognize when they are experiencing stress, but cannot so

easily identify its cause. Stress however is not that bad at all, according to De Vera

(1998). He pointed out that “stress protects us in many instances by priming the body

to react quickly to adverse situations. This stimulus help people respond to their

environment when situations call for quick physical reactions in response to threats”

Our response to stress seems to have originated in prehistoric man’s fight or

flight reactions to frightening situations. Today, we usually do not fight or leave; we

have been socialized to maintain the status quo. With the fast paced, high pressure life

that many of us lead- heavy work load in the office and family responsibilities at

home, many of us experience being stressed-out to the limit. Basically, we all have to

live with stress. But if it is not controlled right away, it can adversely called burnout.

Stress comes when any excessive amount of responsibility is combined with a

lack of control over such as factors as staffing level and job descriptions, which





usually are controlled by the management. Professor Karasek of University of

Massachusetts said “worker’s stress level can be determined by measuring the control

they have and psychological demands they face. Workers with a high degree of

control who face low demands have low stress while those with low control but high

demands experience high stress. As workers get more control and have higher

demands placed on them, they become more active and motivated to learn.





STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of occupational stressor and

job burnout on selected human service (call center agents) and non-human service

(factory workers) samples.

Specifically, it aims to answer the following:

1. What is the level of burnout among Human service (call center agents)?

2. What is the level of burnout among Non-Human service (factory workers)?

3. What are the sources of job related stress (occupational stressors) among human

service?

4. What are the sources of job related stress (occupational stressors) among non-

human service?

5. How does the level of burnout affect the performance of human service/non

human services in relation to civil status, age, educational attainment, length of

employment and position/designation in the work place?

6. Is there a significant difference between human service and non-human service in

terms of job burnout?

7. Is there a significant difference between human service and non human service in

terms of occupational stressors?

8. What are the coping mechanisms and stress reduction techniques adopted in their

workplace?





SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This study will focus on the comparative study of occupational stressors and

job burnout between Human service who are Call Center Agents that work on

Finance Account of Sykes Asia-Philippines and Non- Human service samples who

are factory workers that work on Production section at Unilever Philippines

The sources of stress and burnout were confined only to job-related factors.

Not all stress can attribute to workplace stress; many employees have stressed

caused by off-the-job factors, such as family problem. But stress that arises from the

role conflict between family and work are not included in the study. Personality

factors, such as Type A and Type B Behavior, most widely investigated person-

based characteristic that may influence stress related were also not included.

For human service samples, officers such as team leaders, call center agents

and supervisors are the direct respondents for this study. For non-human service

sample; workers such as factory workers who work on the production section are themain respondents for the study.

Target respondents came from the following institutions:

1. Call Center Industry (Human Service) - Prudential Life Insurance Account at

Sykes Asia-Philippines.

2. Factory Industry (Non- Human Service) - Production Section at Unilever

Philippines.





SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The intense involvement with clients required of professional staff in various

human service institutions includes a great deal of emotional stress and failure to cope

with it successfully. As such, stress can result to the emotional exhaustion syndrome

of burnout, in which staff lose all feeling and concern for their clients and treat them I

detached ways. As the range of services and the size of the client have increased, so

has the criticism that many of these services have become impersonal and even

dehumanizing experiences. Clients complain of being pushed around, ignored,

mistreated and deceived. (Maslach 1978)

Stress is major threat to modern organizations. Most of the studies on stress

and job burnout have been conducted internationally and locally among such group of

doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers, police officers etc. Who work with people

but there is however a noticeable lack of comparison between human service and

non-human service workers.

The call centers (human service samples)are a multi-billion pesos industry

where customer representatives are considered the “face” of the organization,

providing one – on – one service to customers over the telephone be it in tendering

technical support, exchanging info or ensuring customer satisfaction. Call center

employees usually interact with a diverse and geographically large population.

Although satisfying customers can provide substantial intrinsic rewards. Different or

angry customers are encountered often and absenteeism and burnout arecommon(Quesada 2008) on the other hand, factory workers(non-human service

samples) is becoming increasingly accountable for packaging, production services,

thereby, placing greater demands on the staff members responsible for quality

control, who then must assure





CHAPTER II- REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

FOREIGN LITERATURE

Over the past decades burnout has been defined in many ways and is largely

related to stress. Freuden Berger (1975) labeled out burnout as a sense of emotional

depletion and loss of motivation and is subtle process in which one is trapped in a

stake of mental fatigue, gradually being drained of all energy though not the same as

being depressed overworked, or mentally broken down. Brought about by way of life,

burnout is said to be a state of frustration from a relationship that failed to produced

the expected outcome/reward, and is closely associated with role conflict, role

ambiguity and role overload a sense of lineation, cynicism, impatience, negativism,

frustration and feelings of detachment.

Rossen (1194) defined burnout as “the complete depletion of a person’s

physical and intellectual resources caused by excessive efforts to attain certain

unrealistic, job-related-goals”. Often used in the discussion of stress, the phenomenon

of burnout can be viewed as an identifiable pattern in the behavior of certain

individual indicating extreme fatigue.

From the physiological viewpoint, stress is considered as “a nonspecific,

generalized bodily response” that results “when any demand is made on the body,

when after it is an environmental condition that we must survive or a demand that we

make on ourselves in order to accomplish a personal goal”(Selye 1993). Stress is also

considered as a form of tension brought about by extreme psychological demands thatwhen they believe to overwhelming employees, almost by instinct, engage in relief

actions to reduce then, which may not be conscious(voluntary).





Hendrix (1995) defined stress as an in comfortable cognitive state resulting from

exposure to stressor that can result in psychological and physiological strain. This

implies that one’s perceived stress can vary in intensity and that exposure to a

potential stressor does not necessarily result in the perception or feeling of stress.

Summers, De Cutiis (1995, p.114) also defined stress as the obvious feeling of

discomfort that an individual experience “when he/she is forced to deviate from

desired patterns of functioning” due to changes in the environment. Therefore job

stress can be viewed as the set of such (negative) feelings that can be felt due to

various aspects of the workplace.

Stress, as defined by Cumming’s and Werley (2001) refers to the reaction of

people to their environment and involves both physiological and psychological

responses to environment conditions, causing people to change/adjust their behavior.

It is generally viewed in terms of the people’s needs, abilities and expectations with

environmental demands, changes and opportunities, a good person environmentally

fit results in positive reactions, whole a poor fit leads to negative ones. It can be

positive on the other hand, when it occurs at moderate levels and contributes to

effective motivation, innovation and learning.

To sum up the definitions given for stress and burnout, it is safe to say that

although they are clearly different, they both go hand in hand. Stress is often

discussed in relation to burnout as the development of the latter rests on prolonged

periods of the former. Stress involves an action required to alleviate one’s condition.

Burnout therefore a form of unrelieved stress which unfolds into dimensions life

emotional exhaustion, cynicism, or depersonalization and reduced efficacy or lack of

personal sense of accomplishments. If stress is related to burnout, then it is worth

examining the factors affecting both stress and burnout, specifically the levels of

occupational stress and intensity of the job burnout dimensions felt by the employee.





. Dimensions and Stages of Job Burnout

Burnout, as explored by researchers, is said to proceed in stages and develop

according to different dimensions. Porteous (1997) cited five stages burnout namely:

(a) an initial enthusiasm with, and commitment to the job, (b) stagnation due to

irresolvable organizational problems, (c) frustration when things remain untreated, (d)

total apathy, towards the organization, and (e) disinterest accompanied by feelings of

attachment. In Grensings (1991) review of Veninga and Spradley’s book, The Work-

Stress Connection, five similar stages of burnout were identified: (a) the honeymoon

stage (the period when energy and job satisfaction are often felt at the beginning of

the job), (b) the fuel shortage stage (the period when the job novelty is beginning to

wear off and early symptoms of burnout are manifested), (c) the chronic symptom

stage (the period when symptoms become habitual and other symptoms begin to

develop as well), (d) the crisis stage (the period when symptoms have turned critical

and serious physical symptoms begin to develop), and (e) hitting stage (the final

period when the individual can no longer function on the job and finds that his or her

life is deteriorating in other aspects of the more poplar dimensions of burnout),

Maslach (1982), cited by Mejia (1995), pointed out in Figure 2 three identifiable

stages

(a)Exhaustion (a wearing out and depletion of energy; debilitation and fatigue), (b)

depersonalization (being cynical), and (c) reduced efficacy (negative changes in

attitude and responses to oneself and one’s personal achievements accompanied by

feelings of depression, low morale, withdrawal from co-workers and the organization,

reduced productivity, inability to cope with pressure, feelings of failure and low self-esteem).





. Figure 2

The Three Dimensions of Job Burnout (Maslach & Jackson, 1981)

The first stage is usually the characterized by a depletion of emotional energy,

with the feeling that one is inadequate to deal with the situation. The second stage is

often indicates a tendency to treat clients or patients as objects rather than people,

leading to a rather callous and cynical approach to their welfare. The last stage

mirrors a tendency to evaluate one’s behavior and performance negatively, resulting

to greater feelings of incompetence on the job and an inability to achieve performance

goal. To sum it up, burnout is said to occur when energy, involvement, and

effectiveness leads into fatigue, cynicism, and an inability to function productively,

wherein indifference and a reduced personal sense of competency are seen as the

most prevalent elements of the said syndrome, whose major cause is basically long-

term stress. Further expounding on the said dimensions, exhaustion is then presented

as the component of burnout that represents it’s basic individual stress dimension, and

refers to the feelings of being overextended and depleted of one’s emotional and

physical resources. The cynicism (or depersonalization component) represents the

interpersonal context dimension of burnout, which refers to a negative, callous, or

excessively detached response to various aspects of the job. The component of

Emotional

Cynicism and

Reduced Efficacy or

Lack of Personal Sense of





reduced efficacy or accomplishment represents the self-evaluation dimension of

burnout, which refers to the feelings of being overextended and depleted of one’s

emotional and physical resources. The cynicism (or depersonalization component)

callous, or excessively detached response to various aspects of the job. The

component of reduced efficacy or accomplishment represents the self-evaluation

dimension of burnout, and refers to the feelings of incompetence and a lack of

achievement and productivity at work (Maslach et al., 2001)

According to Maslach et al., (2001), exhaustion is the central quality of burnout

and the most obvious and manifestation of this complex syndrome, for when people

usually describe themselves or others as experiencing burnout, they are most often

referring to the experience of exhaustion. However, the fact that exhaustion is a

necessary criterion for burnout does not mean it is sufficient.

If one were to simply focus on the individual exhaustion component, one

would lose sight or the phenomenon entirely, as it would totally be out of context and

would fail to capture in the critical aspects of the relationships people have with their

work. Depersonalization is an attempt to put some distance between oneself and

customers or clients by actively ignoring the qualities that make them unique

individuals. This is because the demands seem more manageable when service

recipients are considered impersonal objects. People also use cognitive distancing by

developing indifference is cynical attitude when they are exhausted and discouraged.

Distancing is such an immediate reactions to exhaustion wherein a strong relationship

between exhaustion and depersonalization can be found. In efficacy (reduced personal accomplishment) appears to be a function, to some degree, or either

exhaustion or cynicism, or a combination of the two. Exhaustion and

Depersonalization interfere with effectiveness, since it is difficult to gain a sense of





.

accomplishment when feeling exhausted when helping people toward whom one is

indifferent.

Maslach and Leiter (1997), as cited by Maslach et al. (2001), further presented a

job-person fit framework in order to understand the said phenomenon. The model

focused on the compatibility, as well as the degree of match or mismatch between the

six domains of the environment of the employee. This means that the greater the gap

(mismatch) between the person and the job, the greater the livelihood of burnout,

which is said to arise from chronic mismatches between people and their work setting

in terms of some or all of this six areas. These six domains or areas that encompass

the major organizational antecedents of burnout are: work overload (when multiple

rules needing multi tasking places a considerable demand on the part of the

employee), lack of control (when company policies interfere with an individual

ability to set priorities, select approaches to one’s work, and make decision about job

issues), insufficient reward (when either extrinsic rewards-basic salary, fringe

benefits, incentives, or intrinsic rewards-prestige, praise, recognition, that an

employee works for are reduced or remove entirely), breakdown of a community

(when loss of job security and the transient nature of employment promote feelings of

isolation, or when machines and computers prevent employees from having

meaningful interactions with co-workers), absence of fairness (when trust, expenses,

and respect-the three key elements to a fair workplace are altogether missing or

absent, leading to employee stress and distrust towards the management), and

conflicting values (when the core values of the organization and the employee’s own

are compromised especially when enhanced productivity is f favored regardless of

corporate or mission statements.)





. According to Maslach et al., (2001), a mismatch in workload (generally an

excess in workload) may result from the wrong kind of work, or when people lack the

skills or inclination for a particular job. A mismatch in control occurs when there is

insufficient control or authority for that matter, over the resources needed to

effectively do one’s work. A mismatch in reward involves the lack of appropriate

rewards for what one does, which may be financial (e.g., salary and benefits), social

(e.g., recognition), intrinsic (e.g., pride in doing it well). A mismatch in community

occurs when people lose that positive connection with others, that shared sense of

membership in a group with a similar set of values, or when they find it difficult to

share praise, comfort, happiness and humor with others. Burnout takes place when

there is an absence or perceived equality in the workplace, which usually concerns

workload or pay, when there is cheating, or when evaluations are not done objectively

and promotions are given to undeserving employees. A mismatch in values occurs

when employees feel compelled to do unethical tasks which are not in conjunction

with their own set of values or when people are caught between conflicting values or

the held mission statement of the organization and the actual practice being done. To

conclude, a matched profile would include a sustainable workload, feelings of choice

and control; appropriate and meaningful and valued work.

Pennachio (2005) pointed out other dimensions of burnout, wherein the condition

is said to progress into the following stages: (a) alarm (e.g. stress of one’s energy

reserves). This does not occur in one light but is actually a multi-faceted phenomenon

and can be viewed from different angles. Moreover, it does not occur in an abrupt or

drastic manner but is slow and gradual processes that take time before it can be fully

felt by the individual experiencing it, and can be usually observed in the different

aspects of one’s work-life.





. One of the most popular instruments for measuring burnout was the Maslach

Burnout Inventory (MBI) Survey, which has evolved through the years. The Maslach

Burnout Inventory (1981), as cited by Porteous (1997) is one of the most frequently

quoted questionnaires that measures the intensity and frequency burnout, and contains

three subscales to measure emotional frequency burnout, and exhaustion,

depersonalization, and personal accomplishment with 22 items and rated on a 5-

period scale. However, Barnett, Brennan, and Gareis (1999) identified and corrected

two flaws in the Maslach Burnout Inventory (1981). The first is that items do purport

o assess feelings, but half do not directly concern feelings. The second is that

response categories are not inflating measurement error.

A study by Corcorn (1995) consisted of 300 female social workers from the

Texas Chapter of the National Association of Social of Social Workers. The study

examined the burnout dimensions (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and

decreased professional accomplishment) and occupational tedium (defined as any

prolonged chronic pressure, as opposed to burnout, which is due to specific emotional pressures found in work with people) and it’s dimensions (physical, emotional,and

mental exhaustion). The findings provided support for the psychometric properties of

both operational definitions of burnout.

The instruments’ proposed subscale structure was fairly reliable, although the

data suggest each scale is an internally consistent, single dimensional measure.

To sum it up, burnout is said to develop gradually into stages. Although

several authors have come up with different classifications, the employee starts with

an initial enthusiasm with the job, gets stressed out with various occupational factors,

feels more frustrated as the exhaustion takes its toll and remains unrelieved despite

different ways of coping, feels stagnant and helpless, develops a form of apathy or





cynicism towards the job, and doubts oneself in terms of one’s skills and abilities,

thus developing a low level of personal sense accomplishment.

Potential Sources of Stress

Environmental Factors

Just as environmental uncertainty influences the design of an organization’s

structure, it also influences stress levels among employees in that organization.

Indeed, evidence indicates that uncertainty is the biggest reason why people have

trouble coping with organizational changes. There are three main types of

environmental uncertainty: economic, political, and technological.

Changes in the business cycle create economic uncertainties. When the

economy is contracting, for example, people become increasingly anxious about their

job security. Political uncertainties don’t tend to create stress among North

Americans as they do for employees in countries like Haiti or Venezuela. Theobvious reason is that Canada and the United States have stable political systems, in

which change is typically implemented in an orderly manner. Yet political threats and

changes, even in these countries can induce stress. For instance, the threats by Quebec

to separate from Canada, or the difficulties of East Germany integrating with West

Germany, lead to political uncertainty that becomes stressful to people in these

countries. Technological change is a third type of environmental factor that can cause

stress. Because new innovations are a threat to many people and cause them stress.





. Organizational Factors

There is no shortage of factors within an organization that can cause stress.

Pressures to avoid errors or complete tasks in a limited time, work overload, a

demanding and insensitive boss, and unpleasant coworkers are a few examples.

We’ve categorized these factors around task, role and interpersonal demands.

Task demands are factors related to a person’s job. They include the design of

the individual’s job (autonomy, task variety, degree of automation), workingconditions, and the physical work layout. Assembly lines, for instance, can put

pressure on people when the line’s speed is perceived as excessive. Similarly,

working in an overcrowded room or in a visible location where noise and

interruptions are constant can increase anxiety and stress. Increasingly, as customer

service becomes ever more important, emotional labor is a source of stress. Imagine

being a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines or cashier at Tesco. Do you think you

could put on a happy face when you’re having a bad day?

Role demands relate to pressures placed on a person as a function of the

particular role she plays in the organization. Role conflicts create expectations that

may be hard to reconcile or satisfy. Role overload is experienced when the employee

is expected to do more than time permits. Role ambiguity is created when role

expectations are not clearly understood and the employee is not sure what he or she is

to do.

Interpersonal demands are pressures created by other employees. Lack of

social support from colleagues and poor interpersonal relationships can cause stress,

especially among employees with a high social need.





. Personal Factors

The typical individual works about 40 to 50 hours a week. But the experiences

and problems that people encounter in the other 120-plus nonwork hours each week

can spill over the job. Our final category, then, encompasses factors in the employee’s

personal life. Primarily, these factors are family issues, personal economic problems,

and inherent personality characteristics.

National surveys consistently show that people hold family and personal

relationships dear. Marital difficulties, the breaking off of a relationship, and

discipline troubles with children are examples of relationship problems that create

stress for employees that aren’t left at the front door when they arrive at work.

Economic problems created by individuals overextending their financial

resources are another set of personal troubles that can create stress for employees and

distract their attention from their work. Regardless of income level people some

people are poor money managers or have wants that always seem to exceed their earning capacity.

Studies in three diverse organizations found that stress symptoms reported

prior to beginning a job accounted for most of the variance in stress symptoms

reported 9 months later. This led the researchers to conclude that some people may

have inherent tendency to accentuate negative aspects of the world in general. If this

is true, then a significant individual factor that influences stress is a person’s basic

disposition. That is, stress symptoms expressed on the job may actually originate inthe person’s personality.





. Consequences of Stress

Stress shows itself in a number of ways. For instance, an individual who is

experiencing a high level of stress may develop high blood pressure, ulcers,

irritability, difficulty making routine decisions, loss of appetite, accident-proneness,

and the like. These symptoms can be subsumed under three general categories;

physiological, psychological, and behavioral symptoms.

Physiological Symptoms

Most of the early concern with the stress was directed at physiological

symptoms. This was predominantly due to the fact that the topic was researched by

specialist in the health and medical sciences. This research led to conclusion that

stress could create changes in metabolism, increase heart and breathing rates, increase

blood pressure, bring on headaches, and induce heart attacks.

The link between stress and particular physiological symptoms is not clear.

Traditionally, researchers concluded that there were few, if any, consistent

relationships. This is attributed to the complexity of the symptoms and the difficulty

of objectively measuring them. More recently, some evidence suggests that the stress

may have harmful physiological effects. For example, one recent study linked

stressful job demands to increase susceptibility to upper respiratory illnesses and poor

immune system functioning, especially for individuals who had low self-efficacy.

Psychological Symptoms

Stress can cause dissatisfaction. Job-related stress can cause job-related

dissatisfaction. Job dissatisfaction, in fact, is “the simplest and most obvious

psychological effect” of stress. But stress shows itself in other psychological states-

for instance, tension, anxiety, irritability, boredom, and procrastination.





The evidence indicates that when people are placed in jobs that make multiple and

conflicting demands or in which there is a lack of clarity about the incumbent’s

duties, authority, and responsibilities, both stress and dissatisfaction are increased.

Similarly, the less control people have over the pace of their work, the greater the

stress and dissatisfaction. Although more research is needed to clarify the

relationship, the evidence suggests that the jobs that provide a low level of variety,

significance, autonomy, feedback, and identity to incumbents create stress and reducesatisfaction and involvement in the job.

Behavioral Symptoms

Behavior-related stress symptoms include changes in productivity, absence,

and turnover, as well as changes in eating habits, increased smoking or consumption

of alcohol, rapid speech, fidgeting, and sleep disorder.

There has been a significant amount of research investigating the stress-

performance relationship. The most widely studied pattern in the stress-performance

literature is inverted-U relationship. This is shown in the diagram.

The logic underlying the inverted-U is that low to moderate levels of stress

simulate the body and increase its ability to react. Individuals then often perform their

tasks better, move intensely, or more rapidly. But too much stress places unattainable

demands on a person, which result in lower performance. This inverted-U pattern

may also describe the reaction to stress over time as well as to changes in stress

intensity. That is, even moderate levels of stress can have a negative influence on

performance over the long term as the continued intensity of the stress wears down

the individual and saps energy resources. An athlete may be able to use the positive

effects of stress to obtain higher performance during every Saturday’s game in the





fall season, or a sales executive may be able to psych herself up for her presentation

at the annual national meeting. But the moderate levels of stress experienced

continually over the long periods, as typified by the emergency room staff in a large

urban hospital, can result in lower performance. This may explain why emergency

room staffs at such hospitals are frequently rotated and why it is unusual to find

individuals who have spent the bulk of their career in such an environment. In effect,

to do so would expose the individual to the risk of “career burnout.”

In spite of the popularity and intuitive appeal of the inverted-U model, it

doesn’t get a lot of empirical support. At this time, managers should be careful in

assuming that this model accurately depicts the stress-performance relationship.





Stress in Human Services

Human service work is to a high degree dependent on the people who deliver

the service. To be good in providing good human service is dependent on very

different factors such as education, skills, competencies, abilities, motivation, goal-

orientation, passion, joy, interest, resources and not at least health and wellbeing.

Quality in the human services is especially vulnerable to an impairment of any kind,

hindering a person to deliver 100% service. The organizational structure of work andthe conditions under which work is done are more or less enabling or hindering for

the personal condition to be brought in

Burnout is often described as metaphor for suffering from doing ‘people

work’ (Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998; Kristensen et al., 2005a). Burnout as explicit

outcome of work related stress in human service work was first discussed in the

seventies (Freudenberger, 1974; Maslach, 1976). These first empirical descriptions of

burnout were based on observations made in the field of human service work. Today,

more than 5,500 empirical studies exist with the key word burnout in the title

(Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998). Nevertheless, we still cannot get a hold onto what is

responsible for burnout in human service work (Burisch, 2002).

It's easy to see why those of us who work in Human Services, charities, or

nonprofits burn out. We have excessively large caseloads with an ever-shrinking

resource budget available to assist our clients. This tight budget also forces us to work

under the constant fear of downsizing and the potential threat of job loss. Some of us

are subjected to forced overtime, on-call after hours, and other schedule imbalances

which blur the distinction between time at work and time off. We face overwhelming

caseload numbers. Some of our clients are violent or otherwise jeopardize our safety.

Unrelenting demands upon our time prevent us from taking meal or rest breaks. And

despite working at a frantic pace, our efforts are frequently not appreciated





by management or clients. Is it any wonder that workers in the Human Services have

high rates of burnout?

Burnout is common is human services positions, which traditionally hold high

stress job responsibilities. Managers can identify and prevent burnout by knowing the

meaning and signs of burnout, understanding the causes of burnout, developing

interventions to prevent burnout, and analyzing how they deal with their own

personal and work-related stress. Managers are the first line in controlling burnout

issues among employees, and must be able to intervene with staff as well as

themselves.

A recurring theme in burnout research is the assumption that people who

experience burnout must have been very engaged and enthusiastic about their work

(Pines et al., 1981; Schmitz, 1998, 1999). Besides methodological weaknesses has

this assumption shown to lead to equivocal results (Rösing, 2003). Traditionally,

people in human service occupations have been regarded as being more prone to

burnout than other job groups because of high communicative and emotional

demands connected to doing people work. (e.g. clients, patients, customers). At the

same time, many people working in human 18service professions seem to be highly

engaged and motivated to do the work they have chosen. However, the relationship

still remains somewhat unclear. Even though the theoretical body of work on

motivation and burnout in human service work is large, not much empirical research

on the relationship between these phenomena can be found (Rösing, 2003). In

Denmark, burnout has not been investigated in depth until the start of the PUMA

project (1999) (Danish acronym for Project on Burnout, Motivation and JobSatisfaction) an ongoing six-year prospective intervention study in the human

services sector (Kristensen et al., 2005a). One of the job groups with the highest

levels of personal, work related , and client related burnout and high sickness absence

at baseline and also later at three year follow up measured with the Copenhagen





emergent nations to initiate measures which would enhance health status of workers

as a cardinal factor in organizational growth

Burnout in the Human Service and Non-Human Service

Job Stress and Burnout are now recognized as serious problem in those fields

generally referred to as the service-oriented professions. It became a significant issue

during the last decade in both academic and research practice.

Burnout can attack any profession, including those who are in human service and

non-human service. When strikes, it exacts a cost not only from the employee, but

also from the company and its patrons. Unchecked it can spread to other company

staff members particularly if managers are the cause (Smith, Bybee and Raish 1998).

Whatever the causes, stress and burnout impact on individual and organization.

Today more employees in all types of organizations including Human Resource

and Non-Human service information center are reporting feeling stress or tension as a

result of their jobs. Part of the cause of stress among them is the increasing rate of

change within the profession. Organizational change of all types if too rapid and

frequent, may result in stress. Some worker fell the stress of what is known as role of

conflict when different groups of people hold different views about how the

employees should behave. There is tension between the professional and support staff

when roles are blurred and changing. In many work place the effect of down

sizinghas resulted in a smaller number of employees doing the same amount of work

(Stueart and Moran 1998).

Smith (1984) pointed but that those in call center and factory workers demands on

the job than other occupations intense. Interpersonal Relationships found in someother professions, the attempt to meet the urgent needs of their company users can be

difficult and frustrating. Most approaches dealing with occupational stress in the work

setting have involving listings of various sources of stress, such as, task(speed,

load/demands) role (conflict/ambiguity), physical environment (noise, temperature)





and social environment (Interpersonal Discord) (Blau 1981) Abrenica (1988) cited

the burnout is not a simple un dimensional problem, but rather a complex issue with

roots in Intrapsychic, Interpersonal, Occupational, Organizational, Historical, and

Social Phenomena.

Stress in the workplace has become the black plague of the twentieth century. And

as we move into twenty-first century stress at work is generally considered to be on

the increase a study on stress and burnouts needed because of its potential to disrupt,

limit, or ultimately end a person’s day to day functioning. These implications are

serious and should not be ignored. If left untreated, it can lead to permanent

incompetence not only as employees, but also people. No matter how healthy

individual employees are when they start out and work in dysfunctional system, they

will burnout.

Being an employee should make a definite commitment to secure the means of

help already available to other professionals.

Symptoms of Stress and Job Burnout

Stress is accompanied by a host of symptoms and when it turns negative for

the one experiencing it, leads to low morale, decreased productivity,interpersonal

conflict and frequent absenteeism (Asad and Khan, 2003). Another symptom of stress

is the rise of insurance claims and premiums due to illnesses (closely linked to

absenteeism) and in some cases, workplace accident (Scott, 1994). Other symptoms

when negative stress is found in the workplace are tardiness and absenteeism,

personality charges, shifts in work habits and it left untreated, job burnout (Maslach

et.al 2001)Among the major symptoms closely related to burnout involve become

apathetic towards work responsibilities, engaging in escapism of flight syndrome,

feeling that one is working harder and accomplishing less, feeling irritable,

developing physical pains, withdrawing from friends or loved ones, losing one’s



sense of humor, feeling tired most of the time and may have consumed greater

quantities of alcohol in the





past (Kossen, 1994). There is also said to be a direct link between heart attacks and

burnout, wherein, myocardial infractions are related to stress with the degree of work

satisfaction delineating the healthy individuals from the unhealthy ones (Angenen,

2003). Other physical symptoms of stress include chronic fatigue, insomnia,

dizziness, nausea, allergies, breathing difficulties and stiffness, flu, sore throat and

back pain. (Anejer, 2003). Behavioral and psychological symptoms are also

manifested in instances of absenteeism, job turn over, low productivity, reduced

overall effectiveness, decreased job satisfaction and lack of commitment to the job.

These affected work aspects sometimes spill over to an individual’s personal life

(Angerer, 2003).

Burned out employees are describes as easily fatigued and bored with their

work quick tempered. Cynical, hostile, pathetic, and usually have a difficult time

recognizing and catering to others problems and concerns. They begin to withdraw,

become rigid and concerns. They begin to withdraw, become rigid and inflexible and

are ineffective on the job. Eventually it becomes harder for them to think clearly and

function properly on the job, making even the slightest routine tasks seem harder to

accomplish than before (Grensing,1991) alcohol and prohibited drugs, which more

often than not intensify the problem rather than solve it, since the cure is only at the

superficial level (Angerer,2003). Sometimes psychological consequences of burnouts

lead to behavioral one’s like bullying, certain , its of violence and social aggression,

withdrawal for the job and actual turnover, while for those who decided to keep their

jobs, tardiness, illness, lowered productivity and effectiveness are evident. Burnout

can also be associated with decrease job itself or the organization as whole in mostcases, however mental and behavioral symptoms are more prevalent than physical

ones and that such negative attitudes and behaviors are what usually lead to a

decrease in effectiveness and work performed which functioning of any organization.

(Angener)





. Burnout can sometimes have to frequent absenteeism. In a study by Yariu (1995),

simple model of the burnout proves was constructed, deserving as positive

relationship but, absenteeism due to both duplication of emotional and mental

resources and over employment under stress conditions. It was also shown that in the

burnout induced absences produced a bend in the labor cost function, resulting into

the firm employing less overtime per worker and more workers in the presence of

stress which makes their behavior seem negligible given the overlapped operations in

the end it is the company that stuffers due to to profit loss and added costs.

The way on individual perceives and assesses stress is not only influences by

individual attributes and the physical and social information available to the

individual and his/her unique cognitive construction of reality. Given the mention of

individual uniqueness it can be said that stress factors, leading to burnout are not

generally experienced in a single way by most people but depend on some

characteristics that individual and their environment both possess. Stress is a multi-

faceted thing and if viewed on different angles will give clues to how burned out an

individual is given that the symptoms of burnout are affecting the well-being of an

employee

Coping Strategies

From the transactional approach to stress, Lazarus and Folkman (1986) have

defined coping as "those changing cognitive and behavioral efforts developed for

managing the specific external and/or internal demands judged as exceeding or

surpassing the individual’s own resources" (p. 164). Coping strategies have

customarily been classified as specific methods, or according to the precise objectivestowards which they are directed. Billings and Moos (1981) for example, identified

three methods of coping: a) active-cognitive, understood as the management of

assessing potentially stressful events; b) active-behavioral, as the observable efforts

aimed at managing a stressful situation; and c) avoidance, as refusal to face a

http://www.psychologyinspain.com/content/full/2003/reference.asp?id=729








problematic or stressful situation. On the other hand, and in accordance with the

objectives of coping, authors have made an essential distinction between coping

oriented to the problem and coping oriented to the emotion (Lazarus & Folkman,

1986; Edwards, 1988; Begley, 1998). Coping oriented to the problem would represent

an attempt to respond directly to the stressful situation; coping oriented to the

emotion would consist in attempts to moderate the emotional response to stressful

events.

Various studies have related coping strategies with burnout and other

consequences of occupational stress in professionals working in the caring

professions and other human services. Thornton (1992), for example, found a

statistically significant association between coping of the avoidance type with burnout

in a sample of workers at a psychiatric clinic. In the longitudinal study by Koeske

(1993), carried out with social workers, it was found that coping strategies oriented to

control provided greater capacity for coping with difficult situations at work. Chan

and Hui (1995) found that coping strategies addressed to avoidance were positively

related to the three components of burnout in a group of secondary school teachers.

Similarly, and with a population from the same professional context, Yela

(1996) reported that the greater the feelings of emotional exhaustion, the more likely

these professionals were to use strategies coinciding with a passive form of coping,

including strategies based on behavioral and mental disconnection from the situation,

concentration on one’s emotions and venting one’s feelings when faced with difficult

or stressful events. Gil-Monte, Peiró and Valcárcel (1995) reported that coping

strategies of avoidance increased emotional exhaustion, while "control" copingmaintained personal accomplishment at work in a group of nursing professionals.

Analogous results were reported by Hart, Wearing and Headey (1995) with a group of

police officers. Finally, and in the exhaustive review on occupational stress in special

education teachers by Wisniewski and Gargiulo (1997), it was shown that although



























Although it seems evident that strategies oriented to the problem are much more

effective for coping with stressful situations than those oriented to the emotion and to

avoidance (Roger, Jarvis & Najarian, 1993; Hart et al., 1995), there is evidence that

the effectiveness of strategies oriented to the problem would depend on effective

control of the potential stressors of the environment and individual emotions

(Folkman, 1984; Dewe, 1987;Edwards, 1988; Peiró & Salvador, 1993; Labrador,

1995; Long, 1998; Peñacoba, Díaz, Goiri &Vega, 2000; Ito & Brotheridge, 2001). On

the other hand, persistent use of strategies oriented to the problem when there are few

possibilities of controlling and/or changing the stressors in the environment may

greatly exacerbate the undesirable effects of work stress (Schaubroek & Merritt,

1997; de Rijk, Le Blanc, Schaufeli & de Jonge, 1998). At the same time, it has been

pointed out that in less controllable circumstances, strategies oriented to the problem

in combination with strategies oriented to avoidance may be useful for improving

adaptation and wellbeing, so that flexible coping would be adaptive rather than

maladaptive, that is, coping oriented to the problem would be adaptive in controllable

situations, whilst coping oriented to avoidance would be adaptive in situations

difficult to control (Latack, 1986; Koeske, 1993). In this line, Cheng (2001) carried

out a study on flexible coping, concluding that both perception of control and

objective controllability of the stressors would play a key role in the achievement of

effective coping.







































.LOCAL STUDIES

Among studies conducted on stress and burnout in the Philippine

setting, abundant researches have been made about educator burnout. Other

professions notable for these studies were doctors, nurses, social workers and police

officers.

Multiple role stress is a phenomenon that merits special in the career

psychology of women. Vergara (1999) conducted a study among female counselor

regarding multiple role stress, burnout and purpose in life. Eighty counselors’

participated in the study. Maslach Burnout Inventory, Purpose in Life, a questionnaire

on priority roles, was some of the research instrument used in the study. The findings

showed that purpose in life correlates negatively with emotional exhaustion and

depersonalization and correlates positively with personal accomplishment.

Villalon (1996) tested the effect of stress on the teaching performance of

Philippine Christian University faculty members. The students and immediate

superiors evaluated teaching performance. Faculty’s salary was one of the

determinants of teaching performance. Increased workload in school got the highest

frequency as a factor causing stress and outstanding personal achievement or awards

got the least. The most common physical effects of stress among PCU faculty are

frequent back aches, pounding heart, feeling of exhaustion, diarrhea and shortness of

breathe. Irritability and impatience were the most common psychological effect of

stress. Talking and laughing differently were the most behavioral effects.

Bualat (2001) conduct comparative studies of aggression, frustration and

anxiety among office, service and factory workers in Metro Manila. The primary

source of the research was expanded not only to stressors found at the workplace but

in the family and other situations of the subjects’ life that may trigger the exhibit of

variables under study. Further, the study developed on the expression; the effect to

self, co-workers and work as well as the physiological and psychological sensations





.or symptoms of the respondents felt pertinent to their experiences of anger,

frustrations and anxiety. The result revealed that the stressors of workers’ frustrations

anger and anxiety could generally be attributed to those related to work, specifically

task performance involving management system, supervisor, co-worker and nature of

work, followed by anger provoking experiences.

A study on stress and job performance on school administrations in North

Samar was conducted by Cardona (1990). The respondents of the study were 173

public and private schools during the academic year 1989-1990 which included

secondary school head teachers/ or principals and elementary school head teachers or

principals. A stress survey questionnaire was used in gathering data. Multiple

regression was used: (1) assess the nature and the degree of relationship between job

stressors and job performance and by type and by level of education each school

administrator managed; and (2) to determine the influence of moderating variables

exerted in relation to job stressors and job performance of each school administrator.

The independent (t) was also used to determine the differences among school

administrators’ job stressors and job performance by level and by type of education

they managed. The study showed that there was a negative relationship between the

school administrators’ job performance rating and environmental stressors which was

moderated by location of school; level of education managed and position

classification and civil status.

Abrenica (1988) conducted a study on burn out level of De La Salle

University faculty members which focus on age grouping and gender. The Maslach

Burnout Inventory was administered to 42 full-time faculty members from the variouscolleges and department of the university. Male scores in the MBI showed no

significant relationship from the females. When classified according to age grouping,

the younger the faculty members were found to have higher burn out levels.





CHAPTER III- METHODOLOGY

Research Design

The descriptive research method was used in the study on effects of stress and

burnout among human and non-human services. The primary concern was the

gathering of information on call center agents (human service) & factory workers

(non-human service) regarding:

1. Level of burnout;

2. Sources of job-related stress;

3. Level of burnout which affect job performance in relation to civil status, age,

educational attainments, length of employment & position/ designation in the

workplace and;

4. Individual coping mechanics & stress reduction techniques conducted by their

organization.

Population

Call center agents who work on insurance account of Sykes Asia- Philippines and

factory workers who work on production of Unilever Philippines were the main focus

of this study to imply for Human & Non- Human services samples.





Research Instrument

The study utilized a survey questionnaire divided into four parts. Section I

consisted of a person information sheet that determined the respondent’s specific

socio –demographic variables needed for the study. Section 2 consisted of survey

questions on Job Stress Survey design to measure both the sources and occupational

stress that adopted with minor revisions. Section 3 consisted of an adopted Maslach

Burnout Inventory (MBI) General Survey consisting of 22 items rephrased

appropriately for the Philippine setting. This portion measured the sample’s general

level of burnout in terms of three dimensions (exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced

personal efficacy). Finally, Section 4 consists of questionnaires for Individual Coping

Mechanisms and Stress Reduction Techniques for Organizational interventions.

Data Collection

Two companies in Metro Manila were included in the study. The four page

questionnaire will send to 100 call center agents and 100 factory workers in selected

company around Metro Manila, namely: Sykes Asia- Philippines and Unilever

Philippines. Stratified random sampling will used in this study.

Gathering of questionnaires will do smoothly with the help of Heads,

Managers and H.R Department of two companies.





Analysis of Data

Data gather from the final survey will process using the frequencies and

percentages to describe the respondents personal and socio -demographic variables,

sources of job related stressors, three dimensions of burnout, individual coping

mechanisms and so forth.

To test the hypotheses on personal and socio- demographic variables in

relation in the level of burnout, the following statistical measurement will use:

Pearson r for testing linear relationship, chi square and Analysis of Variance

(ANOVA) for significant difference at .05 level of significance.





DEFINITION OF TERMS

1. Burnout- a complex exhaustion of a person’s physical and intellectual resources

caused by excessive efforts to attain certain unrealistic, job-related goals (Kossen

1994, p.492)

2. Coping- as all cognitive and behavioral efforts to master, reduce, or tolerate

demands (Price 1992, p.269)

3. Cynicism/ Depersonalization- describes a feeling of distance from one’s users,

as if they were things, rather than people. (Price 1992, p.269)

4. Emotional Exhaustion- a worker’s feeling that job demands more emotional

involvement than one is able to give. (Smith 1984, p.223)

5. Group Stressor- usually pertains to aspects experienced in reference to the

relationship with officemates, such as peers, subordinates and boss.

6. Human Service- the human service practitioner is a professional who acts as anagent to assist and or empower individuals, groups, families and communities to

prevent, alleviate or better cope with crisis, change and stress to enable them to

function more effectively in all areas of life and living.

7. Individual Coping Strategies- behavioral / cognitive efforts made in an attempt

to manage internal demands and conflicts that have excluded an individuals’ usual

coping resources.

8. Individual Stressor- usually pertains to aspects experiences independently by

employees such as role conflict, role ambiguity, work overload, lack of control,

responsibility, and working conditions.





9. Low Personal Accomplishment- results when the worker develops the tendency

to evaluate himself negatively, particularly with regard to his/her patrons. People

experiencing this aspect of burnout are not happy with their jobs and themselves.

10.Non-Human Service- the non-human services are workers that has no direct

contact to person or services such as factory workers, production, software

programmer.

11.Occupational Stressors- various factors experienced in the workplace that

induce stress, which is the reaction of people to their environments and involve

both physiological and psychological responses to environmental conditions

causing then to change or adjust their behaviors either positively or negatively.

12.Organizational Coping Strategies- are steps that organizations can take to try to

reduce stress levels in the organization for all, or most employees.

13.Organizational Stressors- usually pertains to the company as a whole, like poor

structural design, politics and no specific policy.

14.Physical Environment Stressors- usually pertains to the external factors of the

environment that can be externally felt pertains to light, noise, temperature,

polluted air.

15.Stress- is primarily a physiological reaction to certain threatening environmental

events (Riggio 2008, p.246)

16.Stressors- characteristics or condition in the workplace that give rise to stress

(Saal 1995, p.390)





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job burn out

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