Burnout in Human Service Industry

Burnout in the Human Service Industry

The burnout concept was first used in the nineteen seventies and was originally referred to as the reaction to the stressors of the job. The concept of this was to help examine the context in the human service industries which included social work, teaching and health care. The word burnout was used by the employees to help describe the exhaustion that was emotionally taken ahold of as well as the individuals who worked with others in a small capacity. Burnout is a word that is used to express the feeling of each of the employees who are exhausted because of working so hard to make an accomplishment.

Define Burnout

Burnout is a word that is used to imply a metaphor for an employee who is "burning", meaning the employee is committed to their job before they were able to burn-out. It also means that the fire that is burning cannot continue unless there are certain resources that need to be provided to keep the fire going. This metaphor basically means that the employee's energy to work is capable to fall apart over the time of working because of the resources not being there as well as the environment of the job being demanding. According to Johnson and Stone in nineteen ninety-seven, burnout refer to a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion resulting from involvement with people in emotionally demanding situations (Management of Human Service Programs). One of the main factors in burnout is the manifested in different organizations because of the limited decision making that is involved. The most widely used tool for assessing burnout is the Maslach Burnout inventory which is for mangers to use for assessing the organizations as well as the staff (Management of Human Service Programs).

Describe the individual, cultural, organizational, supervisory and social support

Since burnout was first defined, there have been many different research studies as well as theoretical perspectives that have been used to describe and explain the different conditions that lead to the worker burnout. Cherniss in nineteen eighty made a possible list that help to show what causes burnout in an individual, an organization and also culture. When an individual gets burnout it is most likely because of their personality factors or their unrealistically level for their career goal with different expectations. This is a few main reasons an individual would become burnout because of putting a high level of expectation on themselves which cannot be completed. In an organization, their norms can be one reason for burnout. This means that instead of having a flexible management philosophy there is a bureaucratic philosophy being used which makes a lack of feedback as well as competitive climate being done. There are also the organization's roles that can cause burnout as well. This mostly happens when the individual is having a problem with what role to follow or there is an overload of work to be dealt with. Another way burnout is caused is by having supervision and social support. When there is a lack of participation for making a decision the increases of burnout is more likely to happen. Cultural burnout can happen as well because of the aspects of culture