The Burnout Process

The past 25 years of research has established the complexity of the construct, and places the individual stress experience within a larger organizational context of people s relation to their work and also pointed out many factors and conditions that contribute to burnout in a wide variety of organizational settings. Recently, the work on burnout has expanded internationally and has led to new conceptual models. The social focus of burnout, the solid research basis concerning the syndrome, and its specific ties to the work domain make a distinct and valuable contribution to people s health and well-being (Maslach C., 2001). Empirical Evidence has shown that burnout has important dysfunctional ramification, implying substantial costs for both organizations and individuals. Job Burnout is a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors on the job, and is defined by the three dimensions of exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy.