Job Demands and Resources, Burnout, and Psychological Distress of Employees in the Chinese Non-profit Sector.

Guosheng Deng,Shannon P Cheung,Congcong Zhang,Chienchung Huang

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.790064

Abstract

The non-profit sector in China has expanded significantly in the past few decades. However, employees in non-profits experience high burnout rates, indicating a need to study non-profit work conditions and their effect on employees. This study applies the job demands and resources (JD-R) model and examines the effects of job demands (JD) and job resources (JR) on burnout and psychological distress experienced by non-profit employees, recruited via quota sampling, across China (n = 233). The findings from path analysis showed that JR had strong and negative effects on burnout and on psychological distress, while JD had strong and positive effects on burnout and on psychological distress. Burnout partially mediated the relations between JD-R and psychological distress. These results highlight the importance of JD-R in reducing burnout and psychological distress in non-profit employees in China. Research and practice implications are discussed.

Highlights

Around the globe, individuals employed in human services experience significant burnout [1,2,3]
Burnout was significantly correlated with psychological distress
The findings in this study indicate that job demands (JD) significantly increase burnout, and job resources (JR) significantly decrease burnout in a sample of non-profit employees in China

Summary

Introduction

Individuals employed in human services experience significant burnout [1,2,3]. Despite the rapid growth of China’s non-profit sector [9, 10], studies have shown that non-profit employees in China experience high burnout and turnover [11, 12], potentially due to mounting job demands [13]. This has in turn led to rising recruitment pressure and organizational instability, along with decreasing service quality [11, 12], prompting a dire need for research on the work conditions and outcomes of non-profit employees. This study applies the job demands and resources (JD-R) model [14,15,16] to examine burnout and psychological distress in a sample of Chinese non-profit employees

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion