Burnout and career (un)sustainability: Looking into the Blackbox of burnout triggered career turnover intentions

Abstract

Recently, an alarmingly high number of burnout cases in the work world has been reported. Burnout is an indicator of unsustainable careers because it evokes undesirable aspects in various career-related variables. Based on the conservation of resources theory and rationales from the sustainable career framework, the aim of this study is to explore the mechanisms that explain the relationship between burnout and career turnover intentions, which presents a major indicator of career unsustainability. We assume that this relationship is mediated by the reduced personal resources of perceived internal marketability and career satisfaction. We also assume that the contextual resource of perceived departmental support moderates the mediated paths, and therefore plays a buffering role within unsustainable career development. We verified our assumptions by means of a moderated mediation analysis with Haye's PROCESS Macro. The sample consisted of 385 academic scientists from diverse research fields who participated in an online survey across three points of time (each one year apart, totaling two years). Our results suggest that burnout is positively related to career turnover intentions, and that perceived internal marketability, as well as career satisfaction, mediate the relationship between burnout and career turnover intentions. We found no moderation of perceived departmental support for the direct relationship between burnout and career turnover intentions. However, we found support for the notion that perceived departmental support moderates the relationship between burnout and perceived internal marketability and career satisfaction. Our findings help to further our understanding of how burnout is a risk to sustainable careers, and how perceived departmental support is a promising resource toward sustainable careers.