Examining the relationships between participative organisational communication practices and burnout among IT professionals

Abstract

This study examines the relationships two important participative organisational communication practices, namely employee work participation (EWP) and internal communication adequacy (ICA), and information technology (IT) workers’ burnout symptoms. Using a sample of 111 IT workers from an IT company based in the Midwest of the United States, results from multiple regression analyses show that ICA and EWP both play important – albeit different – roles in reducing employees’ burnout symptoms. ICA is positively associated with employees’ sense of professional efficacy/personal accomplishment and negatively associated with depersonalisation/cynicism. EWP, on the other hand, is negatively associated with emotional exhaustion and cynicism. Essentially, the results of this study suggest that both ICA and EWP constitute important protective factors against burnout, especially among knowledge workers. Based on these results, implications and recommendations for reducing IT workers’ burnout and building communicatively healthy workplaces are provided.