Exploring Proactive Behaviors of Employees in the Prevention of Burnout

Extensive evidence indicates that burnout can have detrimental consequences for individuals as well as organizations; therefore, there is a great need for burnout prevention. While burnout prevention interventions initiated by the employer have previously been studied, the proactive behaviors employees deploy themselves to prevent burnout have received less research attention. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative interview study was to enhance our understanding of the self-initiated actions employees undertake to prevent burnout, using the model of proactive motivation and conservation of resources theory as theoretical frameworks. Findings indicated that most participants reported to engage in specific kinds of proactive burnout prevention behaviors. The reported self-initiated proactive actions were aimed at maintaining and/or increasing resources and/or reducing demands in the work, home, and personal domain. The study contributes to the literature by linking the proactive motivation process to the prevention of burnout and by focusing on both work and non-work factors. Results of this study can be used in further research into the (effectiveness of) employees’ proactive burnout prevention behaviors and serve as a starting point for developing interventions aimed at enhancing proactive burnout prevention.

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Examining the mediating role of resources in the temporal relationship between proactive burnout prevention and burnout

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-021-10670-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Madelon C. B. Otto ◽

Joris Van Ruysseveldt ◽

Nicole Hoefsmit ◽

Karen Van Dam

Keyword(s):

Structural Equation ◽

Online Survey ◽

Temporal Relationship ◽

Practical Implication ◽

Resource Depletion ◽

Generation Process ◽

Burnout Prevention ◽

Personal Domain ◽

Proactive Behaviors ◽

Resource Generation

Abstract Background Employees who engage in proactive burnout prevention can prevent burnout by changing aspects of the work, home, and personal domain. However, these proactive behaviors may be impeded by high initial levels of burnout. Based on the conservation of resources theory and the dual-pathway proactivity model, resources were expected to play a vital role in the relationship between proactive burnout prevention and burnout through two distinct processes: a resource-generation process in which proactive burnout prevention negatively affects burnout through an increase in resources, and a resource-depletion process in which proactive burnout prevention is hindered because high initial levels of burnout negatively affected resources. Methods A two-wave longitudinal panel design was used in which 617 employees, mainly employed in government agencies, healthcare and education, were asked to complete an online survey twice with an interval of 1 month. Results Results of structural equation modelling showed clear evidence for the resource-generation process in the work, home, and personal domain, and only limited evidence for the resource-depletion process. Solely in the personal domain a small negative indirect effect of burnout on proactive burnout prevention through personal resources was found. Conclusions The findings of this study confirm that employees can proactively prevent burnout by investing in resources, yet proactive actions should be taken before increased burnout-complaints impede employees to do so. This study contributes to scientific knowledge on proactive behaviors and burnout prevention by investigating the mechanism underlying the temporal relationship between proactive burnout prevention and burnout. An important practical implication of this study is that it highlights that more attention should be given to employees’ self-initiated actions to prevent burnout, as proactive burnout prevention can effectively reduce levels of burnout.

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The Development of a Proactive Burnout Prevention Inventory: How Employees Can Contribute to Reduce Burnout Risks

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17051711 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (5) ◽

pp. 1711

Author(s):

Madelon C. B. Otto ◽

Joris Van Ruysseveldt ◽

Nicole Hoefsmit ◽

Karen Van Dam

Keyword(s):

Factor Analysis ◽

Predictive Validity ◽

Quantitative Research ◽

Longitudinal Survey ◽

Factorial Validity ◽

Nomological Network ◽

Burnout Prevention ◽

Confirmatory Factor ◽

Personal Domain ◽

Proactive Behaviors

Proactive burnout prevention refers to a set of proactive behaviors employees may engage in to prevent burnout. Findings of a previous exploratory qualitative study indicated that employees who had to deal with high demands engaged in specific proactive behaviors in the work, home, and personal domain in order to prevent burnout. To further examine proactive burnout prevention in longitudinal quantitative research and to be able to investigate its effectiveness, an inventory for assessing these kinds of behaviors is necessary. The goal of this study was twofold: 1) to develop an inventory to assess employees’ proactive burnout prevention behaviors and examine its factorial validity, 2) to explore the broader nomological network of proactive burnout prevention behaviors by examining its convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. A two-wave longitudinal survey (T1: N = 343; T2: N = 201) was conducted. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis showed that proactive burnout prevention can be reliably assessed with 40 items that load on 12 factors, indicating 12 separate proactive burnout prevention behaviors. Moreover, exploration of the convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of the proactive burnout prevention inventory showed promising results, as expected relationships were confirmed for most behaviors. Further research is needed to substantiate the findings and examine the effectiveness of proactive burnout prevention.

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Criss-Cross: Identity and Transformation in Re-reading Billy Elliot

Journal of British Cinema and Television ◽

10.3366/jbctv.2016.0339 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 536-551

Author(s):

Jacqui Miller

Keyword(s):

Identity Formation ◽

Gender And Sexuality ◽

Central Character ◽

Theoretical Frameworks ◽

Liberal Politics ◽

Starting Point ◽

And Gender ◽

Opening Up

Billy Elliot (2000) has been widely recognised as an important British film of the post-Thatcher period. It has been analysed using multiple disciplinary methodologies, but almost always from the theoretical frameworks of class and gender/sexuality. The film has sometimes been used not so much as a focus of analysis itself but as a conduit for exploring issues such as class deprivation or neo-liberal politics and economics. Such studies tend to use the film's perceived shortcomings as a starting point to critique society's wider failings to interrogate constructions of gender and sexuality. This article argues that an examination of the identity formation of some of the film's subsidiary characters shows how fluidity and transformation are key to the film's opening up of a jouissance which is enabled by but goes beyond its central character.

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Work–family conflict and firefighters’ satisfaction with life: The autonomous motivation role

Journal of Emergency Management ◽

10.5055/jem.0553 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 19 (3) ◽

pp. 307-315

Author(s):

Daniel Dominguez, MSc, CICPSI ◽

Maria José Chambel, PhD ◽

Rui Pedro Ângelo, PhD ◽

Hugo Raposo, PhD

Keyword(s):

Family Conflict ◽

Satisfaction With Life ◽

Work Motivation ◽

Autonomous Motivation ◽

Well Being ◽

Conservation Of Resources ◽

Work Family Conflict ◽

Theoretical Frameworks ◽

Work Family ◽

The Relationship

Using the Conservation of Resources Theory and the Self-Determination Theory1-3 as theoretical frameworks, a model for this study was tested, which considers firefighters’ autonomous motivation, work–family conflict, and well-being. The hypothesized model was tested using a sample of 201 firefighters from the Special Civil Protection Force in Portugal. Results revealed that autonomous work motivation was significantly related to both work–family conflict and satisfaction with life. In addition, work–family conflict was negatively related to satisfaction with life. More interestingly, the results showed that work–family conflict acted as a mechanism that helped to explain the relationship between autonomous motivation and satisfaction with life. These results underline the importance of understanding the mechanisms through which higher satisfaction with life occurs, with a view to the creation of appropriate interventions.

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Human Nature in International Relations

International Relations ◽

10.1093/obo/9780199743292-0286 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Jacobi

Keyword(s):

International Relations ◽

Human Nature ◽

World Politics ◽

Political Anthropology ◽

Current Status ◽

Critical Examination ◽

Human Beings ◽

Theoretical Frameworks ◽

Cultural Traditions ◽

Starting Point

“Human nature” is not a notion that has originated from theories of world politics. On the contrary, it represents one of the oldest points of reference in various cultural traditions of thought. An aspect, however, that makes the current status of the human in international relations (IR) interesting is the fact that since the 1980s, the discipline has undergone a rigorous and critical examination of its core terminologies. Above all, this effort has led scholars to become aware of the concurrent appropriations of their terms: once as scientific concepts and once as ontological facts. However, while various aspects of the human have always found their way into the theorization of world politics, so far the actual impact of the equally diverse “models of man” on the latter has hardly been subjected to systematic consideration. Observing “human nature” not only as a “naturally given fact” but also as an observational concept connects IR with the broader literatures on how the (political) world may be interpreted and analyzed. The proposition to begin a reappraisal of “human nature’s” framing effects on the basis of the distinction of anthropological and post-anthropological approaches (Human Beings in International Relations. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2015) calls upon IR scholars to appreciate what happens when they study world politics through a lens that either places the human at the center of its observations or one that opts to decenter it to different extents. A reflection on the distinction of an international political anthropology and an international political post-anthropology as a starting point for theory building then not only draws attention to what is included and excluded in regard to the human when studying world politics. It moreover exposes how different views on the (post)human come to shape different theoretical architectures. What is more, it also reveals that such foundations do not run parallel to the classical IR heuristic of distinct paradigms. A closer look at their post-human foundations then shows how much these schools of thought, once conceived as highly coherent, have now been differentiated internally. The said absence of a systematic debate on the status of the human in the IR theories also poses a challenge to this article. Not only is the human still rarely reflected upon as a theoretical core concept; at the same time, parallel debates exist that are guided less by theoretical frameworks but rather by the problems that arise from specific ideas about the post-human. In this sense, this article also pursues a dual strategy: on the one hand, the listing either of obvious or subtle uses of post-human views by various theoretical traditions, and on the other hand, the identification of specific core problems that have formed in the wake of specific angles on the post-human. Since inquiries into the post-human also include an intersection of IR theories with other scientific literatures, the article also features text references that will help readers find their way into the state of the art of those important adjacent debates.

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Trends and Developments in the Literature on Community Libraries in Africa

Libri ◽

10.1515/libri-2014-0031 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 64 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Espen Stranger-Johannessen

Keyword(s):

Meta Analysis ◽

Academic Research ◽

Community Support ◽

Research Literature ◽

Empirical Literature ◽

Future Research ◽

Limited Attention ◽

Theoretical Frameworks ◽

Starting Point ◽

Community Libraries

AbstractCommunity libraries in Africa are growing in number, and are increasingly subject to academic research. The literature on community libraries spans 30 years, and this review shows how there has been a shift from conceptual to empirical publications. The early, conceptual literature stressed that community libraries should be by and for the community, support development, actively reach out, and provide relevant materials. These publications can to some extent be seen as reactions to the colonial legacy that national library services carried on after independence. The empirical research was analyzed using Kuhlthau’s (1999) framework for school libraries as a starting point. The major function of this framework is to provide a meta-analysis of the research, and further to relate this meta-analysis to the larger context in which this research is situated. The empirical literature reported mainly on student use. Much of the literature addressed lower-level issues, skills and outcomes, such as materials offered or borrowed, increased reading, and change in attitudes. However, limited attention was given to utilisation as an outcome. Attempts to find a causal relationship between library use and improved grades have been inconclusive. A major limitation of this framework is that it does not address the community aspect of these libraries that the empirical literature emphasized. This dual aspect of community libraries merits further exploration, and there is a need to develop theoretical frameworks that fit better with the realities of African communities and their libraries. There is also need for more research comparing community libraries across countries as well as within countries. The scholarly significance of this study is that is provides a comprehensive, critical review of the literature on community libraries in Africa and identifies caveats in the research literature. This will support future research on community libraries in Africa, an under-researched area.

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Socially mediated authenticity

Journal of Communication Management ◽

10.1108/13632541011064526 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 258-278 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Dawn R. Gilpin ◽

Edward T. Palazzolo ◽

Nicholas Brody

Keyword(s):

Theoretical Model ◽

Digital Media ◽

Qualitative Content Analysis ◽

Online Communication ◽

Public Affairs ◽

Public Institutions ◽

Theoretical Frameworks ◽

Content Type ◽

Starting Point ◽

Essential Components

PurposeUse of digital media channels is growing in public communication. Given the importance of public trust in government figures and agencies, combined with the risk and fear of misrepresentation inherent in online interaction, it is important to develop theoretical frameworks for investigating the ways in which authenticity is constructed in online public affairs communication. The purpose of this paper is to produce a preliminary model of authenticity in online communication, with particular emphasis on public institutions.Design/methodology/approachThe paper first develops a theoretical model of authenticity from existing literature in various disciplines. It then uses that model to explore a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the comments on the US State Department blog, DipNote, from its inception to the end of the Bush Administration.FindingsDespite limited interactions between DipNote authors and commenters, the types and quantity of responses to posts indicate a desire by some readers to discuss the topics raised in the blog space. These responses also suggest that at least some commenters find that the blog meets their criteria for authenticity to the extent necessary to engage in community‐type interaction within its virtual boundaries. A functional‐structural analysis of the blog responses supports the essential components of the theoretical model proposed, which suggests that DipNote presents a mixed form of authenticity.Originality/valueAuthenticity is particularly important in the public sphere, and public institutions are increasingly engaging with social media as a means of connecting with constituencies. This paper proposes a starting‐point for theory development regarding this significant emerging area of communication.

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The Lure of Boccaccio’s Medievalism in D. G. Rossetti, William Morris, and Algernon Swinburne

The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Medievalism ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199669509.013.16 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 248-270

Author(s):

Eleonora Sasso

Keyword(s):

William Morris ◽

Theoretical Frameworks ◽

Conceptual Metaphors ◽

Erotic Love ◽

The Sublime ◽

Works Of Art ◽

Starting Point ◽

Earthly Paradise

This chapter takes as its starting point Erich Auerbach’s notion of creatural medievalism based on materiality and carnality, i.e. ‘the mixture of the sublime with the low’ (284), as well as Bolter and Grusin’s logic of remediation and George Lakoff’s theory of conceptual metaphors, and uses these theoretical frameworks to advance a new reading of D. G. Rossetti’s double works of art (‘Bocca baciata’, 1859, ‘Fiammetta’, 1868, ‘A Vision of Fiammetta’, 1878), William Morris’s The Earthly Paradise (1868), and Algernon Swinburne’s poems (‘The Two Dreams’, 1858, and ‘The Complaint of Lisa’, 1870), one which sees them as excellent models to investigate their indebtedness to Boccaccio’s The Amorous Vision (1342), Decameron (1349) and Rime (1350–69). In their carnal adaptations of Italian medievalism, Rossetti, Morris, and Swinburne seem to exalt Boccaccio’s vision of erotic love as embodied by a Neapolitan lady, the princess Maria, whom Boccaccio was to immortalize under the name of Fiammetta.

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