An Empirical Investigation of Burnout Financial Services Sector in India

Abstract

Burnout among financial services employees is a serious issue that is not newlinereceiving the attention it deserves. It is known to affect an individual s physical newlineand mental health headaches, gastrointestinal diseases, fatigue, depression, newlineinsomnia, cardiovascular diseases and many others have been linked to burnout newlineby researchers across the world. In the organizational context as well, negative newlineramifications like job dissatisfaction, increased turnover intent, absenteeism and newlineturnover have been observed. newlineBurnout evolves from many contributing factors and researchers have newlineexpressed the need to study these in various cultural contexts as well as in newlinedifferent professions. In this study, financial services employees were surveyed to newlineinvestigate the relationship between burnout and organizational factors, newlinepersonality factors (the Big Five personality factors neuroticism, extraversion, newlineconscientiousness, openness and agreeableness) and demographic factors (gender, newlinemarital status, seniority and age). The mediation effect of psychological wellbeing newlineon the relationship between burnout and organizational factors was also newlineinvestigated. Quantitative data analysis was conducted using exploratory factor newlineanalysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling and analysis newlineof variance. Qualitative analysis of the relationships helped to provide a newlinecomprehensive understanding of the antecedents of burnout. newlinePsychological well-being was found to fully mediate the relationship newlinebetween organizational factors and burnout. All the personality factors barring newlineagreeableness had a significant relationship with burnout. The demographic factors, namely, gender, age, seniority and marital status were also found to have newlinea significant relationship with burnout.Taking the findings of this research into consideration, practical newlinesuggestions for the alleviation of burnout have been made. These may be adopted newlineby the individuals themselves, team leaders or by human resource managers for newlinethe management of stress and burnout issues.