Identifying job stress in a human service organization

Abstract

This study identified job stress in a human service organization from a communication perspective. Specifically, it investigated how this stress was perceived by and related to organization members’ feelings of burnout by examining: (a) what stressors organization members perceived as salient, (b) the relationship of these stressors to burnout, and (c) whether individual differences in burnout levels could be predicted based on which stressors were perceived as salient. The results showed that organization members in high and low burnout groups perceived different subsets of stressors as salient and that these stressors combined in different ways to predict burnout. In addition, several of the more stressful variables were not significantly related to burnout. These findings suggest that the conceptualization of burnout as a reaction to chronic job‐related stress does not adequately reflect the complexity of the burnout process. Implications of these findings for research and pragmatic implications for organizations are discussed.