Thesis

longitudinal researches started to emerge concerning the links between work environment,
and people’s thoughts and feelings (Maslach et al., 2001). It was also in 1990, in Poland, that
they held the first European Conference on Professional Burnout. From this conference a
book emerged written by Schaufeli, Maslach & Marek (1993). This book showed the state of
the burnout literature up to about 1993 and suggested directions for research. In 1993 burnout
research borrowed a great deal from general psychological concepts (e.g., stress, existential
psychology etc.) thus it didn’t have a central theoretical background concerning its research.
Today burnout research has tried to develop more refined theories of burnout (Halbesleben &
Buckley, 2004). Schaufeli et al. (1993) noted that the original definition of burnout and most
of its research was limited to those in human service roles (teachers, nurses, and social
workers). To expand the occupational groups in the research of burnout, Leiter & Schaufeli
(1996) did a study with almost 4 000 participants, including maintenance staff, technical
workers, nurses, and managers within the healthcare industry. This research led to the
argument that the study of burnout should not be limited to only service occupations.
Burnout was, according to Maslach (1982) considered a syndrome of emotional exhaustion,
depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals
who do “people work” of some kind. It is a response to the chronic emotional strain of dealing
with other human beings, particularly when they are troubled or having problems. Thus,
burnout could be mentioned as a type of response to work-related stress. Although it has some
of the same negative effects as other stress responses, what is unique about burnout is that the
stress arises from the social interaction between for example the nurse and the patient.
According to Halbesleben & Buckley (2004), today the common definition of burnout is that
it is a psychological response to work stress characterized by emotional exhaustion,
depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment.
There has been some questioning whether burnout is a separate phenomenon from other
already well established constructs, like depression and job satisfaction. Earlier studies did
find that burnout was related to anxiety and depression. However, after more research in the
area had been done, studies confirmed dissimilarities between depression and burnout (see for
example Glass & McKnight, 1996; Leiter & Durup, 1994). Schaufeli, Enzmann & Girault
(1993, in Halbesleben & Buckley, 2004) said that there is a common language for the study of
burnout which came in the form of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson,