Organizational Behaviour Comportement Organisationnel

ResultsTable 1 presents the means, standard deviations, correlations, and reliabilities for thisstudy. An examination of the correlation matrix identified relationships among the factorswhich were consistent with Maslach and Jackson’s (1981) original study. In addition, thereliabilities for all burnout factors were above .70 except for personal accomplishment (self)which was .67.Insert Table 1 hereAs indicated in Table 2, Model 2 had an acceptable fit and was superior to Model 1and the base model. Model 1 and the base model did not achieve acceptable fits. Model 2’sacceptable fit is indicated by (a) an adequate chi-squares (χ 2 = 2.24, d.f. = 2, p = .33), (b) aGoodness of Fit Index (GFI) of .99 which indicated a reasonable fit, (c) a Root Mean SquareResiduals (RMSR) of .03 which is less than the threshold of .05. and (d) a χ 2 /df score lessthan 2 (Anderson and West, 1998). Further, the incremental fit indices of Tucker-LewisIndex (TLI) (i.e., .99) and Comparative Fit Index (CFI) (i.e., .99) were above therecommended .90 level (Hair, Anderson et al., 1998) and the Normed Chi-square Index was1.12 which indicated a good fit. Finally, the parsimonious fit indices of the AdjustedGoodness of Fit of .99 and the Parsimonious Normed Fit Index (PNFI) of .91 were withinacceptable limits indicating a good fitting model. Model 2 Akaike Information Criterion (i.e.,12.24) was lower than Model 1 which had unacceptably low incremental and parsimonious fitindices.Insert Table 2 hereFigure 3 illustrates the direct effects (i.e., β) and errors (i.e., ζ) for the burnout factorsin Model 2, which is based on the sequential model of Leiter and Maslach (1988).Insert Figure 3 hereDiscussionThe current study examined the interrelationships to clarify the burnout process.Figure 3 confirms the findings of several studies which identified emotional exhaustion ascentral to the burnout process (e.g., Gaines and Jermier, 1983; Hobfoll and Freedy, 1993; Leeand Ashforth, 1993; Leiter, 1991; Maslach, 1982; Shirom, 1989). In addition, the currentstudy highlights the linkage between emotional exhaustion (psychological strain) anddepersonalization (β=.561) and personal accomplishment (others) (β=-.367). Further,emotional exhaustion (psychological strain) appears to directly affect emotional exhaustion(somatic strain) (β=.775) which confirms the findings of Leiter, Clark and Durup (1994:79).Emotional exhaustion (psychological strain) appears to directly affect depersonalization(β=.162) which supports the findings of Savicki and Cooley (1994) and Leiter and Maslach(1988) that emotional exhaustion is capable of predicting levels of depersonalization. Thesefindings contradict Schwab and Iwanicki’s (1982) argument that there is no fixed sequence inburnout, and that one factor is not an inevitable consequence of another. The present studysuggests that emotional exhaustion (psychological strain) and personal accomplishment(others) operate in parallel, and that both depersonalization and personal accomplishment(others) are responses to emotional exhaustion (psychological strain).25