Role Structure and Burnout in the Field of Human Services

Abstract

This article discusses a study that investigated burnout as a function of aspects of role structure for people working in the field of human services. The subjects, the staff of a residential rehabilitation and mental health center, completed a six-item questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the Least Preferred Coworker Scale. The relationships of accuracy, concentration of social support network, mutual references, and motivational hierarchy were analyzed in three multiple regressions with emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment, and depersonalization. Emotional exhaustion wasfound to have occurred less often when a person's social support network within the setting was not concentrated solely within the formal work subgroup, personal accomplishment was enhanced by an ambiguous role structure, and depersonalization was found to be related primarily to a person s values toward personal relationships and work and to be more prevalent among those with concentrated support networks and ambiguously structured roles.