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Fueling Employee Burnout
Lack of respect from the organization -- rather than job demands or personality -- is responsible for employees leaving their organizations, according to a new study from a Wharton management professor.
When Lakshmi Ramarajan worked for a nonprofit organization several years ago, she noticed a high turnover rate among the employees. It wasn't because of the work itself, but because of the organization's management. "Employees were passionate about their jobs, but felt disrespected by their managers," says Ramarajan. "The employees were belittled and patronized, and often publicly chastised for challenging the status quo." Complaints about the negative work environment "were met with inertia or rejected out of hand. Eventually a lot of employees left." That experience led to a research paper co-authored by Ramarajan, now a doctoral student in the Wharton management department, and Wharton management professor Sigal Barsade entitled, What Makes the Job Tough? The Influence of Organizational Respect on Burnout in Human Services. (Details of the study.) According to Barsade, "One of the biggest complaints employees have is they are not sufficiently recognized by their organizations for the work that they do. Respect is a component of recognition. When employees don't feel that the organization respects and values them, they tend to experience higher levels of burnout." Or, as Ramarajan puts it, "it is often not the job that burns you out, but the organization." A Sense of Identification
While the researchers' paper focuses on the health care industry -- specifically on certified nursing assistants in a large, long-term care facility -- their findings may apply to a broader range of industries and individuals. Barsade, for example, cites a project she did for the real estate, accounting and legal departments of a large financial services agency. "The people in these departments were known as 'nonproducers.' That wasn't their formal title, but it was what they were called because they were not revenue generators. Not only did they did not have as much power as the people who brought in the money," but their contributions in terms of helping streamline and improve the company's operations were not acknowledged. "This does not suggest a culture of respect," Barsade says. She also cites physicians allied with HMOs, who are often told how many patients they must see each day, how long they can spend with the patients and what diagnostic questions they must ask. "Doctors can't offer customized care under these circumstances. They feel disrespected and are more prone to burnout" than doctors who work more autonomously, she suggests. A company's culture -- which, for the purposes of the study, is defined as "the unwritten norms and values surrounding how employees are valued as individuals" -- plays an important role in burnout, the researchers say. "We know that employees start identifying with an organization as soon as they join it," says Ramarajan. "The more they feel respected as a member of the group, the more likely they are to have that sense of identification. Respect is a way in which employees get entrenched into the workplace and feel that what they do is meaningful. Conversely, if they observe that people around them are disrespected, they come to a consensus that the organization doesn't treat people well." The researchers cite several ways in which the perception of organizational respect or disrespect can influence employee burnout, including demoralization. "Disrespected employees may need to mask their true emotional reaction regarding how their organization treats them while they assist their clients. This masking and suppressing could increase emotional exhaustion, a major component of burnout studied in the human services industry." Conversely, the researchers say, "individuals who feel respected by their organizations are more likely to expend effort on behalf of the organization" and are thus less likely to experience burnout. One approach an organization can take to try and decrease burnout and reduce turnover is to hire people who aren't going to be stressed out by the job. That, of course, is not only difficult to predict with complete accuracy, but is often not feasible given the labor market supply. Organizations can also try to change the job to make it less demanding; but, at least in the case of CNA positions, the ability to do that is limited because of the nature of the job. A third approach -- one not addressed by the existing research on burnout -- is to consider the organizational culture of the company, says Barsade. "Can the values of the company -- including whether you treat employees with respect or with disrespect -- influence how people do their work and whether or not they will feel burned out?" Putting Work in a Broader Context The authors' research has a number of implications for managers. While it is likely, the authors note, "that disrespect is experienced across industries, disrespect for individuals may be particularly problematic in the helping professions where concern for individuals is supposedly paramount." Because it is not just the demands of the job, or the personality of the employee, that drive burnout in human services jobs, but is also the organizational environment, "then there is a point of entry for human resource management. Good versus poor management, in the form of organizational respect, may therefore have a clear and critical role in stemming burnout in human service organizations." For example, Barsade suggests that HR departments make it clear they respect and value the work employees do, and recognize the difficulty of that work. "Employees understand that internally their work is very significant to how well the organization achieves its goals." Companies like Mary Kay Inc. are based on the idea of "rewarding people to success," she says. "Mary Kay rewards for everything. It uses respect as a powerful motivator for its sales force of independent contractors." Employers can also highlight to their employees how important their work is to society as a whole, Barsade adds. "Very often, caretaking work is not all that valued, but if employees in a daycare center, for example, understand that they are involved in early childhood education," this puts their work in a broader context. In addition, she suggests that for people in jobs that don't pay very well (and won't in the future), managers can at least compliment employees, hold awards dinners and so forth, "just so long as these shows of respect are authentic." This doesn't mean that managers "can't look at employees' performance, or can't disagree with suggestions and demands that employees might put forward," Ramarajan adds. "It just means that everything is done with an attitude of respect." This approach won't just make employees feel better. "It will help them stay with the organization and do a better job. So it's not just about keeping your employees happy, but actually doing the job the organization exists to do." Does Ramarajan think employees would be surprised to learn that job burnout is not always "their fault," but can also reflect the way the organization treats them? "I don't think employees would be surprised, but I do think managers and/or corporate executives might be. And I think employees would be surprised to find out how widely shared this experience is." "Republished with permission from Knowledge@Wharton (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu), the online research and business analysis journal of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania."
December 1, 2006 Copyright 2006© LRP Publications |
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