Ravalier PhD Theis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

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people in some capacity”. The burnout construct was therefore conceptualised as consisting of three dimensions
as follows:
o Emotional Exhaustion: feelings of being emotionally over-extended and depleted of one’s resources.
o Depersonalisation: a negative, indifferent, or overly detached attitude toward others (often the recipient of
one’s care or service).
o Reduced Personal Accomplishment: a decline of feelings of competence and successful achievements in
one’s work.
In line with this conceptualisation, Maslach and Jackson (1986) devised the three-dimension Maslach Burnout
Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS as it is now known) which measures burnout among human services
personnel. This proved to be a useful instrument for the assessment of professional burnout, but its use was (and
still is) limited to professions in which contact with people constitutes a major part of the job role. Many of the
items contained within the MBI-HSS refer directly to contact with clients, making it inappropriate for use in
occupations outside of this (Taris et al., 1999).
To overcome these difficulties, Schaufeli, Leiter, Maslach & Jackson (1996) developed an MBI instrument for
the measurement of burnout in professions which do not have a majority of contact with troubling clients (the MBI-
GS; Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Scale). Like the MBI-HSS, the MBI-GS is conceptualised as consisting of
three distinct dimensions, each of which mirror those in the original MBI-HSS. Some of the items contained in the
re-worked MBI-GS are the same as those in the MGI-HSS, whilst others have been re-worded and still more newly