To read this content please select one of the options below:

Applying the demand-control-support model on burnout in managers and non-managers

Victoria Blom (Division of Insurance Medicine, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden and The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden)
Lennart Bodin (Division of Intervention and Implementation Research, The Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden)
Gunnar Bergström (Division of Intervention and Implementation Research, The Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden AND Centre for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden)
Pia Svedberg (Division of Insurance Medicine, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden)

International Journal of Workplace Health Management

ISSN: 1753-8351

Article publication date: 7 March 2016

898

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the demand-control-support (DCS) model on burnout in male and female managers and non-managers, taking into account genetic and shared family environmental factors, contributing to the understanding of mechanisms of how and when work stress is related to burnout.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 5,510 individuals in complete same-sex twin pairs from the Swedish Twin Registry were included in the analyses. Co-twin control analyses were performed using linear mixed modeling, comparing between-pairs and within-pair effects, stratified by zygosity and sex.

Findings

Managers scored higher on demands and control in their work than non-managers, and female managers seem to be particularly at risk for burnout facing more demands which are not reduced by a higher control as in their male counterparts. Co-twin analyses showed that associations between control and burnout as well as between demands and burnout seem to be affected by shared family environmental factors in male non-managers but not in male managers in which instead the associations between social support and burnout seem to be influenced by shared family environment.

Practical implications

Taken together, the study offers knowledge that shared environment as well as sex and managerial status are important factors to consider in how DCS is associated to exhaustion.

Originality/value

Using twin data with possibilities to control for genetics, shared environment, sex and age, this study offers unique insight into the DCS research, which focusses primarily on the workplace environment rather than individual factors.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (grant numbers 2009-0548 and 2012-0947).

Citation

Blom, V., Bodin, L., Bergström, G. and Svedberg, P. (2016), "Applying the demand-control-support model on burnout in managers and non-managers", International Journal of Workplace Health Management, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 110-122. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWHM-06-2015-0033

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles