Some progress on this point has been made by contrasting burnout and engagement with workaholism, suggesting the potential for further conceptual development. Other person-centered patterns may identify distinct forms of distress, of which burnout represents only one particularly grievous state. The exceptionally motivated condition of engagement might stand in contrast to both a humdrum existence as well as to chronic distress. For example, it may be that some people maintain a neutral stance towards work, experiencing neither joy nor despair. Identifying these intermediate patterns would allow a clearer definition of the entire territory between the negative state of burnout and the positive state of engagement. In some instances, due to situational factors or personal qualities or their interaction, distinct patterns could emerge. The advantage of such distinct, but interrelated, burnout dimensions is that there could be several different patterns that are shown by people at varying times. The three dimensions of exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy do not always move in lock-step, which means that they are not so highly correlated as to constitute a single, one-dimensional phenomenon. The cynicism and inefficacy aspects of burnout capture both people’s disaffection with work and a crisis in their work-based efficacy expectations. They also have lost a psychological connection with their work, which has implications for their motivation and their identity. People experiencing burnout are not simply exhausted or overwhelmed by their workload. But a focus on just exhaustion may ignore other aspects of the burnout experience, which go beyond chronic fatigue. A single dimension is easier to measure, and exhaustion is easier to fit within existing systems of medical diagnosis and disability. Exhaustion is often considered the strongest, primary element of burnout, and thus a suitable proxy for the entire phenomenon. If anything, there has been a move towards simplifying burnout to a one-dimensional construct of exhaustion. However, the potential of these varying patterns has not been exploited very much in the more recent empirical literature. What is noteworthy about all of these early approaches is the explicit assumption that people could experience various patterns of burnout, which might change at different points in time. The phase model hypothesized that cynicism is the early minimum phase of burnout, followed by the additions of inefficacy, and finally by exhaustion. A third approach was the phase model, in which the three burnout dimensions were split into high and low categories, yielding eight different patterns, or phases, of burnout. A process model, which emerged from the earlier qualitative work, proposed a first stage of emotional exhaustion, in response to work demands that taxed people’s emotional resources a second stage of depersonalization, as people tried to cope by withdrawal and negative, cynical reactions and a third stage of reduced personal accomplishment, when people began to experience inefficacy and failure. For example, the transactional model of burnout proposed a first stage of an imbalance between work demands and individual resources (job stressors), a second stage of an emotional response of exhaustion and anxiety (individual strain), and a third stage of changes in attitudes and behavior, such as greater cynicism (defensive coping). The potential of having three interrelated dimensions of burnout was first discussed in terms of a sequence of stages over time. The measure that emerged from that psychometric research was the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), which assessed these three dimensions and has been used in many research studies over the years. That research identified three basic dimensions: exhaustion (also described as wearing out, loss of energy, depletion, debilitation, and fatigue) feelings of cynicism and detachment from the job (also described as depersonalization, negative or inappropriate attitudes, detached concern, irritability, loss of idealism, and withdrawal) and a sense of professional inefficacy and lack of accomplishment (also described as reduced productivity or capability, low morale, and an inability to cope). Based on this exploratory work, psychometric research was carried out to establish a method for assessing the burnout experience. The first phase of research on the phenomenon of burnout involved a lot of exploratory, qualitative field studies, which amassed many descriptions of the burnout phenomenon based on observations, interviews, case studies, and personal experience. Latent burnout profiles: A new approach to understanding the burnout experience.
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