The study aimed to measure burnout among librarians in a city in Northern Italy, and to identify which demands and resources influence emotional exhaustion and cynicism. In particular, it focused on the relationship with patrons, since in the service sector users are mostly studied as a cause of stress and rarely considered as a source of support for service operators. Hierarchical regressions carried out on data (167 self-administered questionnaires) showed that burnout dimensions are influenced by some socio-demographic and job characteristics, and by the positive and negative aspects of relationships with users. We present some practical implications for library managers, in order to reduce the impact of their patrons’ negative behaviour and to improve conditions to facilitate the expression of users’ support for workers.
AdebayoOFagbohunMOsayandeO, et al. (2015) Dealing with difficult patrons in libraries: A case study of some libraries in Ondo State Nigeria. Annals of Library and Information Studies62: 90–93.
2.
Alber-MarinMJGarcia-RamirezM (2005) Social support and emotional exhaustion amongst hospital nursing staff. European Journal of Psychiatry19(2): 96–106.
3.
AlbrechtSL (2012) The influence of job, team and organizational level resources on employee well-being, engagement, commitment and extra-role performance: Test of a model. International Journal of Manpower, Special Issue Theme: Changing Work Environments and Employee Wellbeing33: 840–853.
4.
BakkerABDemeroutiE (2007) The job demands-resources model: State of the art. Journal of Managerial Psychology22(3): 309–328.
5.
BakkerABDemeroutiESanz-VergelAI (2014) Burnout and work engagement: The JD–R approach. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior1(1): 389–411.
6.
BakkerABHakanenJJDemeroutiE, et al. (2007) Job resources boost work engagement, particularly when job demands are high. Journal of Educational Psychology99: 274–284.
7.
BartlettJA (2017) New and noteworthy – workplace bullying: A silent epidemic. Library and Leadership Management32(1): 1–4.
8.
BlessingerKHrycajP (eds) (2013) Workplace Culture in Academic Libraries; The Early 1st Century. Oxford: Elsevier.
9.
BuunkBPSchaufeliWB (1999) Reciprocity in interpersonal relationships: An evolutionary perspective on its importance for health and well-being. European Review of Social Psychology10(1): 259–291.
10.
CaplanG (1974) Support Systems and Community Mental Health: Lectures on Concept Development. New York: Behavioral Publications.
11.
CarlsonDSKacmarKMWayneJH, et al. (2006) Measuring the positive side of the work-family interface: Development and validation of a work-family enrichment scale. Journal of Vocational Behavior68(1): 131–164.
12.
CharoensukmongkolPMoqbelMGutierrez-WirschingS (2016) The role of co-worker and supervisor support on job burnout and job satisfaction. Journal of Advances in Management Research13(1): 4–22.
13.
CohenSWillsTA (1985) Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin98(2): 310–357.
14.
CongerJA (1990) The dark side of leadership. Organizational Dynamics19(2): 44–55.
15.
ConversoDViottiSSottimanoI, et al. (2015) Capacità lavorativa, salute psico-fisica, burnout ed età, tra insegnanti d’infanzia ed educatori di asilo nido; uno studio trasversale. La Medicina del Lavoro106(2): 91–108.
16.
CzajaSJSharitJOwnbyR, et al. (2001) Examining age differences in performance of a complex information search and retrieval task. Psychology and Aging16(4): 564–579.
17.
DemeroutiEBakkerABNachreinerF, et al. (2001) The job demands-resources model of burnout. Journal of Applied Psychology86(3): 499–512.
18.
DormannCZapfD (2004) Customer-related social stressors and burnout. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology9(1): 61–82.
19.
EinastoO (2015) Transforming library communication: from Gutenberg to Zuckerberg. New Library World116(5/6): 247–263.
20.
FarrugiaS (2002) A dangerous occupation? Violence in public libraries. New Library World103(9): 309–319.
21.
FoaUGFoaEB (1980) Resource theory: Interpersonal behavior as exchange. In: GergenKJGreenbergMSWillisRH (eds) Social Exchange: Advances in Theory and Research. New York: Plenum Press, pp. 77–94.
22.
FrostPJRobinsonS (1999) The toxic handler: Organizational hero – and casualty. Harvard Business Review77(4): 96–106.
23.
GhislieriCMartiniMGattiP, et al. (2011) The ‘bright side’ of the work-family interface: A brief work-family enrichment scale in a sample of health professionals. TPM–Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psychology18(4): 211–230.
24.
GilardiSGuglielmettiCTassaraF (2018) Far fronte all’aggressività dei clienti in servizi in cambiamento: I Management Standards proteggono il benessere degli operatori? [Dealing with customer aggression in changing services; Do the Management Standards protect the well-being of workers?] Giornale Italiano di Psicologia45(2): 361–81.
25.
GreenDEWalkeyFHTaylorAJ (1991) The three-factor structure of the Maslach Burnout Inventory: A multicultural, multinational confirmatory study. Journal of Social Behavior & Personality6(3): 453–472.
26.
GuglielmettiCGilardiSAccorsiL, et al. (2014) La relazione con i pazienti in sanita; quali risorse lavorative per attenuare l’impatto degli stressor sociali?Psicologia della Salute2: 121–138.
27.
GwenA (1998) The ‘graying’ of librarianship: Implications for academic library managers. Journal of Academic Librarianship24(4): 323–327.
28.
HartleyJD (2015) The experience of public library staff in dealing with disruptive patrons and visitors to the library: A multiple case study. Doctoral Dissertation, Capella University, MN, USA. Ann Arbor: ProQuest LLC.
HouseJSUmbersonDLandisKR (1988) Structures and processes of social support. Annual Review of Sociology14(1): 293–318.
31.
IlmarinenJE (2001) Aging workers. Occupational and Environmental Medicine58(8): 546–546.
32.
JohanssonV (2004) Public libraries as democratic intermediaries: Some examples from Sweden. New Library World105(1/2): 47–59.
33.
JohnsonJVHallEM (1988) Job strain, work place social support, and cardiovascular disease: A cross-sectional study of a random sample of the Swedish working population. American Journal of Public Health78(10): 1336–1342.
34.
KarasekRBrissonCKawakamiN, et al. (1998) The Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ): An instrument for internationally comparative assessments of psychosocial job characteristics. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology3(4): 322–355.
35.
KeanCMcKoy-JohnsonF (2009) Patron aggression in the academic library: A study of the main library at the University of the West Indies, Mona. New Library World110(7/8): 373–384.
36.
KingLAMattimoreLKKingDW, et al. (1995) Family support inventory for workers: A new measure of perceived social support from family members. Journal of Organizational Behavior16(3): 235–258.
37.
KristensenTSBorritzMVilladsenE, et al. (2005) The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory: A new tool for the assessment of burnout. Work and Stress19(3): 192–207.
38.
LeeRTAshforthBE (1996) A meta-analytic examination of the correlates of the three dimensions of job burnout. Journal of Applied Psychology81(2): 123–133.
39.
LeiterMPMaslachC (1988) The impact of interpersonal environment on burnout and organizational commitment. Journal of Organizational Behavior9(4): 297–308.
40.
LeiterMPMaslachC (2004) Areas of worklife: A structured approach to organizational predictors of job burnout. In: PerrewéPGansterDC (eds) Research in Occupational Stress and Well Being. Vol. 3. Oxford: Elsevier, pp. 91–134.
41.
LindénMSaloIJanssonA (2016) Organizational stressors and burnout in public librarians. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. DOI: 0961000616666130.
42.
LoeraBGattinoSConversoD (2013) Giustizia organizzativa, supporto sociale e burnout tra lavoratori della Sanità: Effetti diretti e di moderazione. Psicologia della Salute1: 26–48.
43.
LoeraBMartiniMViottiS, et al. (2016) Users’ support as a social resource in educational services: Construct validity and measurement invariance of the User-Initiated Support Scale (UISS). Frontiers in Psychology7: 1248.
44.
McCulloughME (2002) Savoring life, past and present: Explaining what hope and gratitude share in common. Psychological Inquiry13(4): 302–304.
45.
McCulloughMEKilpatrickSDEmmonsRA, et al. (2001) Is gratitude a moral affect?Psychological Bulletin127(2): 249–266.
46.
MartiniMLoeraBConversoD (2015) Users’ gratitude as a source of support for social-health operators. BPA-Applied Psychology Bulletin (Bollettino di Psicologia Applicata)63(274): 23–33.
47.
MaslachCJacksonSE (1981) The measurement of experienced burnout. Journal of Organizational Behavior2(2): 99–113.
PagowskyNRigbyM (2014) Contextualizing Ourselves: The Identity Politics of the Librarian Stereotype. Chicago, IL: Association of College and Research Libraries.
52.
Sarkodie-MensahK (ed.) (2002) Helping the Difficult Library Patron: New Approaches to Examining and Resolving a Long-standing and Ongoing Problem. Binghampton, NY: Haworth Information Press.
53.
SchaufeliWBLeiterMPMaslachC (2009) Burnout: 35 years of research and practice. Career Development International14(3): 204–220.
SchaufeliWBSalanovaMGonzález-RomáV, et al. (2002) The measurement of engagement and burnout: A two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. Journal of Happiness Studies3(1): 71–92.
56.
SharmaRRCooperCL (2016) Executive Burnout: Eastern and Western Concepts, Models and Approaches for Mitigation. Bingley: Emerald.
57.
ShiromA (1989) Burnout in work organizations. In: CooperCLRobertsonI (eds) International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. New York: Wiley, pp. 25–48.
58.
ShupeEIWambaughSKBrambleRJ (2015) Role-related stress experienced by academic librarians. Journal of Academic Librarianship41(3): 264–269.
59.
SnyderJ (2009) The role of coworker and supervisor social support in alleviating the experience of burnout for caregivers in the human-services industry. Southern Communication Journal74: 373–389.
60.
ToderiSBalducciCEdwardsJA, et al. (2013) Psychometric properties of the UK and Italian versions of the HSE stress indicator tool. European Journal of Psychological Assessment29(1): 72–79.
61.
TootL (2002) Zen and the art of dealing with the difficult patron. The Reference Librarian36: 75–76.
62.
Van EmmerikIJHEuwemaMCBakkerAB (2007) Threats of workplace violence and the buffering effect of social support. Group and Organization Management32: 152–175.
63.
ViottiSGilardiSGuglielmettiC, et al. (2015) Verbal aggression from care recipients as a risk factor among nursing staff: A study on burnout in the JD-R model perspective. BioMed Research International. DOI: 10.1155/2015/215267.
64.
ViottiSGuidettiGGil-MonteP, et al. (2017) La misurazione del burnout nei contesti sanitari: Validità di costrutto e invarianza fattoriale della versione italiana dello Spanish Burnout Inventory (SBI-Ita). Psicologia della Salute1: 123–144.
65.
WestmanMBakkerAB (2008) Crossover of burnout among health care professionals. In: HalbeslebenJRB (ed.) Handbook of Stress and Burnout in Health Care. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science, pp. 111–125.
66.
ZimmermannBKDormannCDollardMF (2011) On the positive aspects of customers: Customer-initiated support and affective crossover in employee-customer dyads. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology84(1): 31–57.
