Today’s business environment, characterized by rapid change, knowledge explosion, technological advancement and intense competition, has given birth to a serious psychological menace in terms of work exhaustion. This article analyzes the antecedents of work exhaustion among employees working in banks. It is based on the structured survey through a questionnaire with frontline bank employees working in Ludhiana. A comparative study of bank employees working in public and private sector banks has also been made with respect to various organizational variables influencing work exhaustion. The results indicate that the strain arising from managing a professional career and family responsibilities results in a lot of stress for the bank employees. The findings have significant implications for the employers in terms of retaining a consistent workforce by revising its work schedules and introducing family-friendly policies to accommodate the personal roles and responsibilities of bank employees.
AhujaM.K.ChudobaK.M.KacmarcC.J.Mc KnightD.H.GeorgeJ.F. (2007). IT road warriors: Balancing work-family conflict, job autonomy and work overload to mitigate turnover intentions. MIS Quarterly, 31(1), 1–17.
2.
AycanZ.EskinM. (2004). ‘Relative contribution of childcare, spousal, and organizational support in reducing work-family conflict for males and females: The case of Turkey’, paper presented at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.
3.
BabakusE.CravensD.W.JohnstonM.MoncriefW.C. (1999). The role of emotional exhaustion in sales force attitude and behavior relationships. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 27(1), 58–70.
4.
BakkerA.B.SchaufeliW.B.LeiterM.P.TarisT.W. (2008). Work engagement: An emerging concept in occupational health psychology. Work and Stress, 22(3), 187–200.
5.
BeehrT. (1976). Perceived situational moderators of the relationship between subjective role ambiguity and role strain. Journal of Applied Psychology, 61, 35–40.
6.
BettencourtL.A.BrownS.W. (2003). Role stressors and customer-oriented boundary-spanning behaviors in service organizations. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 31(4), 394–408.
7.
BolesJ.S.JohnstonM.W.HairJ.F. Jr. (1997). Role stress, work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion: Inter-relationships and effects on some work-related consequences. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 17(1), 17–28.
8.
BoyneG.A. (2002). Public and private management: What’s the difference?Journal of Management Studies, 39(1), 97–122.
9.
BurkeR.J. (1988). Some antecedents and consequences of work-family conflict. Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, 3(4), 287–302.
10.
BurkeR.J.GreenglassE. (1995). A longitudinal study of psychological burnout in teachers. Human Relations, 48(2), 187–203.
11.
CaplanR.D.CobbS.FrenchJ.R.P.Van HarrisonR.PinneauS.R. (1975). Job demands and worker health. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. (Publication No. 75–168), Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Washington.
12.
ChernissC. (1993). The role of professional self-efficacy in the etiology and amelioration of burnout. In SchaufeliW.B.MaslachC.MarekT. (Eds), Professional burnout: Recent developments in theory and research (pp. 135–150). Washington, DC: Taylor and Francis.
13.
ChoK.H.LeeS.H. (2001). Another look at public-private distinction and organizational commitment: A cultural explanation. International Journal of Organizational Journal of Organizational Analysis, 9(1), 84–102.
14.
CordesC.L.DoughertyT.W. (1993). A review and an integration of research on job burnout. Academy of Management Review, 18(4), 621–656.
15.
DillonJ.F.TannerG.R. (1995). Dimensions of career burnout among educators. Journal and Mass Communication Educator, 50(2), 4–13.
16.
FimianMichael J.BlantonLinda P. (1987). Stress, burnout and role problems among teacher trainees and first-year teachers. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 8(2), 157–165.
17.
FrenchJ.R.D.CaplanR.D. (1972). Organizational stress and individual strain. In MorrowA. J. (Ed.), The failure of success. New York: Amacom.
18.
FriedmanI.A.FarberB.A. (1992). Professional self concept as a predictor of teacher burnout. Journal of Educational Research, 86(1), 28–35.
19.
FroneM.R.RussellM.CooperM.L. (1992). Antecedents and outcomes of work-family conflict: Testing a model of the work-family interface. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77(1), 65–78.
20.
GainesJ.JermierJ.M. (1983). Emotional Exhaustion in a High-stress Organization. Academy of Management Journal, 26(4), 567–586.
21.
GouletL.R.FrankM.L. (2002). Organizational commitment across three sectors: Public, non-profit and for-profit. Public Personnel Management, 31(2), 201–210.
22.
GreenbergM.S.BlockM.W.SilvermanM.A. (1971). Determinants of helping behavior: Person’s rewards versus others’ costs. Journal of Personality, 39(1), 79–93.
23.
GreenglassE.BurkeR.J. (1989). Psychological burnout among men and women in teaching: An examination of the Cherniss model. Human Relation, 42(3), 261–273.
24.
GreenhausJ.H.BeutellN.J. (1985). Sources of conflict between work and family roles. Academy of Management Review, 10(1), 76–88.
25.
GreenhausJ.H. (1988). The intersection of work and family roles: Individual, interpersonal and organizational issues. The Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 3(4), 23–44.
26.
GutekB.A.SearleS.KlepaL. (1991). Rational versus gender role explanations for work-family conflict. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76(4), 560–568.
27.
HobfollS.E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44(3), 513–524.
28.
HymanJ.SummersJ. (2004). Lacking balance? Work-life employment practices in the modern economy. Personnel Review, 33(4), 418–429.
29.
HymanJ.BaldryC.ScholariosD.BunzelD. (2003). Work-Life imbalance in Call Centres and software development. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 41(2), pp. 215–239.
JacksonS.E.SchwabR.L.SchulerR.S. (1986). Toward an understanding of the burnout phenomenon. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71(4), 630–640.
32.
JacksonS.E.TurnerJ.A.BriefA.P. (1987). Correlates of burnout among public service lawyers. Journal of Occupational Behavior, 8(4), 339–349.
33.
JacksonR.A. (1993). An analysis of burnout among school of pharmacy faculty. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 57(1), 9–17.
34.
KahnR.L.WolfeD.M.QuinnR.P.SnoekJ.D.RosenthalR.A. (1964). Organisational stress: Studies in role conflict and smbiguity. New York: Wiley.
35.
KannerA.D.KafryD.PinesA. (1978). Conspicuous in its absence: The lack of positive conditions as a source of stress. Journal of Human Stress, 4(4), 33–39.
36.
KaratepeO.M.UludagO.MenevisI.HadzimehmedagicL.BaddarL. (2006). The effects of selected individual characteristics on frontline employee performance and job satisfaction. Tourism Management, 27(4), 547–560.
37.
KalimoR.MejmanT. (1987). Psychosocial and behavioural responses to stress at work. In KalimoR.El-BatawiM.A.CooperC. L. (Eds), Psychosocial factors at work and their relation to health, (pp. 23–36). World Health Organisation: Geneva.
38.
KirmeyerS.L.DoughertyT.W. (1988). Workload, tension and coping: Moderating effects of supervisor support. Personnel Psychology, 41(1), 125–139.
39.
LandsbergisP. (1988). Occupational stress among health care workers: A test of the job demands control model. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 25, 131–144.
40.
LeeR.AshforthB.E. (1996). A meta-analytic examination of the correlates of the three dimensions of job burnout. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(2), 123–133.
41.
LeBlancG.NguyenN. (1988), Customers’ perceptions of service quality in financial institutions. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 6(4), 7–18.
42.
LeiterM.P. (1991). Coping patterns as predictors of burnout: The function of control and escapist coping. Journal of Occupational Behavior, 12(2), 123–144.
43.
LewisB.R.GabrielsenG.O.S (1998). Intra-organizational aspects of service quality management: The employees’ perspective. The Service Industries Journal, 18(2), 64–89.
44.
LewisB.R.SpyrakopoulosS. (2001). Service failures and recovery in retail banking: The customers’ perspective. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 19(1), 37–48.
45.
LeviL. (1996). Spice of life or kiss of death? In CooperC. L. (Ed.) Handbook of stress, medicine and health (pp. 1–10). Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press Inc.
46.
MaslachC.JacksonS.E. (1981). The measurement of experienced burnout. Journal of Occupational Behavior, 2(2), 99–115.
MaslachC.LeiterM.P. (1997). The truth about burnout. San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bass.
49.
MaslachC.SchaufeliW.B. (1993). Historical and conceptual development of burnout. In SchaufeliW.B.MaslachC.MarekT. (Eds), Professional burnout: Recent developments in theory and research, (pp. 1–18). Washington, DC: Taylor and Francis.
50.
MaunoS.KinnunenU. (1999). The effects of job stressors on marital satisfaction in Finnish dual-earner couples. Journal of Organization Behavior, 20(6), 879–895.
51.
MooreJ.E. (2000a). One road to turnover: An examination of work exhaustion in technology professionals. MIS Quarterly, 24(1), 141–168.
52.
MooreJ.E. (2000b). Why is this happening? A causal attribution approach to work exhaustion consequences. Academy of Management Review, 25(2), 335–349.
53.
NiehoffB.P.MoormanR.H. (1993). Justice as a mediator of the relationship between methods of monitoring and organizational behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 36(3), 527–556.
54.
NetemeyerR.G.BolesJ.S.McMurrianR. (1996). Development and validation of work-family conflict and family-work conflict scales. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(4), 400–410.
55.
NetemeyerR.G.Brashear-AlejandroT.BolesJ.S. (2004). A cross-national model of job-related outcomes of work role and family role variables: A retail sales context. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 32(1), 49–60.
56.
ParkerS.K.AxtellC.M.TurnerN. (2001). Designing a safer workplace: Importance of job autonomy, communication quality, and supportive supervisors. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 6(3), 211–228.
57.
PinesA.AronsonE.KafryD. (1981). Burnout: From tedium to personal growth. New York: The Free Press.
58.
PinesA.AronsonE. (1988). Career burnout: Causes and cures. New York: Free Press.
59.
RizzoJ.R.HouseR.J.LirtzmanS.I. (1970). Role conflict and ambiguity in complex organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, (15), 150–163.
60.
SelyeH. (1974). Stress without distress. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co.
61.
SchaufeliW.B.LeiterM.P.KalimoR. (1995). ‘The general burnout inventory: A self-report questionnaire to assess burnout at the workplace’, paper presented at Work, Stress and Health 95: Creating healthier Workplaces, Washington, D.C
62.
SethiV.BarrierT.KingR.C. (1999). An examination of the correlates of burnout in information systems professionals. Information Resources Management Journal, 12(3), 5–13.
63.
SpinksN. (2004). Work life balance: achievable goal or pipe dream?The Journal for Quality and Participation, 27(3), 4–11.
64.
TarisT.W.PeetersM.C.W.Le BlancP.M.SchreursP.J.G.SchaufeliW.B. (2001). From inequity to burnout: The role of job stress. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 6(4), 303–323.
65.
Van SellM.BriefA.P.AldagR.J.MeloneN. (1979). Anticipatory socialization and role stress among registered nurses. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 20(2), 161–166.
66.
WhiteheadJ.T. (1987). Probation officer job burnout: A test of two theories. Journal of Criminal Justice, 15(1), 1–16.
67.
YavasU.KaratepeO.M.AvciT.TekinkusM. (2003). Antecedents and outcomes of service recovery performance: An empirical study of frontline employees in Turkish banks. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 21(5), 255–265.
