Ravalier PhD Theis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

Discussion Box 11: What the MSIT and MBI-GS are to be Used For
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As previously demonstrated, the MBI-GS and MSIT are both reliable and factorially strong
instruments for assessing burnout and the risk factors for workplace stress respectively.
Within the context of the current study, the two form an overall survey tool, with the results
designed to be used as a contextual analysis of the participating organisation. When the
survey was completed by participants within the organisation, the results formed a
‘benchmark’ against which re-administration of the survey 12 months later provided an
understanding of the way in which the organisation changed over the period of the study.
While there are a wide number and variety of tools designed to assess workplace stress, the
MSIT was chosen for various reasons. First of all it is a tool developed and championed by
the UK Health and Safety Executive, a government-run organisation responsible for the
health and well-being of the UK employees. The MSIT has been developed specifically to
assess the seven areas of the workplace which the HSE has deemed to have the greatest
potential to have a negative impact on individuals, and unlike many other tools which are
based solely on the Karasek & Theorell model of occupational stress the tool also assesses
the impact of relationships, role and organisational change on stress outcomes. There are
also various questionnaires which can be utilised in order to measure burnout, and even
more which claim to have the ability to assess the potential outcomes associated with
chronic psychosocial stress. However, the MBI-GS was chosen because it is the most oftenutilised
measure of general burnout, with burnout having been shown to be a persistent
feature in many individuals who have faced chronic psychosocial stress in the workplace.
The MBI-GS has been proven to be inherently valid and reliable and importantly it is workbased
and strongly associated with chronic stress outcomes, rather than being a general
measure of psychological health.
The survey helped answer the research questions because the MSIT initially allowed the
discovery of the areas within the workplace which are working well with respect to
psychosocial occupational stress, as well as those that need improvement in order to avoid
said stress from becoming a chronic feature of employees’ working lives. Therefore the MSIT