TY - CHAP
T1 - The mark of recession in the hightech industry
T2 - High stress and low burnout
AU - Malach-Pines, Ayala
AU - Zaidman, Nurit
PY - 2013/4/30
Y1 - 2013/4/30
N2 - Against the backdrop of the large and rapidly growing body of research testifying to the stress associated with the recession and its many physical and mental financial consequences for working individuals, for people in all stages of life, for couples and for families, comes the surprising finding of one positive outcome associated with the recession: a low level of burnout. A study of 70 employees of a large multinational high-tech company and a comparison sample of 167 employees in other high-tech companies revealed high levels of stress, low levels of burnout and high work importance and work performance. These findings support the notion based on the existential theory that a sense of work's importance buffers against burnout, but does not necessarily buffer against stress. The further implication of this finding is that the underlying dynamic of burnout is different from that of stress. This conclusion has an important practical implication for the differential treatment of stress and burnout at the organizational, work team and the individual level. It suggests that when attempting to prevent, reduce or treat burnout, the focus should not be merely on reducing stress, but rather on enhancing employees' sense of their work's importance and their own significant contribution. This goal can often be achieved without significant expenses, a huge advantage in times of recession and shrinking budgets. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)
AB - Against the backdrop of the large and rapidly growing body of research testifying to the stress associated with the recession and its many physical and mental financial consequences for working individuals, for people in all stages of life, for couples and for families, comes the surprising finding of one positive outcome associated with the recession: a low level of burnout. A study of 70 employees of a large multinational high-tech company and a comparison sample of 167 employees in other high-tech companies revealed high levels of stress, low levels of burnout and high work importance and work performance. These findings support the notion based on the existential theory that a sense of work's importance buffers against burnout, but does not necessarily buffer against stress. The further implication of this finding is that the underlying dynamic of burnout is different from that of stress. This conclusion has an important practical implication for the differential treatment of stress and burnout at the organizational, work team and the individual level. It suggests that when attempting to prevent, reduce or treat burnout, the focus should not be merely on reducing stress, but rather on enhancing employees' sense of their work's importance and their own significant contribution. This goal can often be achieved without significant expenses, a huge advantage in times of recession and shrinking budgets. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)
KW - Employee Attitudes
KW - Job Performance
KW - Occupational Stress
KW - Organizational Behavior
KW - Stress
KW - Financial Strain
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84890744860&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.4337/9780857933843.00014
DO - 10.4337/9780857933843.00014
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:84890744860
SN - 9780857933836
T3 - New horizons in management
SP - 89
EP - 100
BT - The Psychology of the Recession on the Workplace
A2 - Antoniou, Alexander-Stamatios G.
A2 - Cooper, Cary L.
PB - Edward Elgar Publishing
CY - Northampton, MA
ER -