The conditions for stress and burnout most frequently studied and cited in the literature can be grouped under three general headings: task characteristics (workload, role conflict and ambiguity, autonomy, and tenure), organizational characteristics (job context, and organizational pace and technology) and personal characteristics (demographics, social support, hardiness, unrealistic expectations, and career progress). In this article we will explore Task Characteristics.

Task Characteristics

Workload: Experiencing excessive work demands can lead to stress. Overload, quantitatively occurs when there are too many things to do and not enough time to do them in; qualitatively it is defined as an individual’s perception of their lack of ability to complete a task or reach expected performance standards. Underload, qualitatively, occurs when an individual is subject to too little challenge and job stimulation, has also been proposed to play a role in the experience of work stress. As the demands (qualitative and quantitative) increase, the demands placed on the individual also increase. It is crucial to recognize that if these demands are experienced on a continuous basis, rather than intermittently, the individual may be more vulnerable to burnout. Role conflict and Ambiguity: Role Conflict, as defined by Kahn, occurs “as a result of incongruity or incompatibility of expectations communicated to a role incumbent by his or her role sender” (Kahn, 1978). In other words, an individual experiences role conflict when the set of expectations an individual uses to operate within a job is in conflict with another set of. Role Ambiguity is associated with an individual’s need for certainty and predictability. Ambiguity can occur when an individual does not posses sufficient information to complete a task. Insufficient information occurs when it is restricted or the communication is unclear. The literature demonstrates that these variables - role conflict and ambiguity - can account for a significant proportion of the variance in the dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment. Autonomy: Autonomy can be defined as the amount of decision making and control one has over his or her job. Several researchers have suggested autonomy, and moreover a lack of autonomy, has a direct effect on job stress and a moderating role in burnout. Tenure: Tenure can be a moderator of the relationship between job stress and burnout. Although limited, some evidence suggests that experienced employees may not suffer from burnout as readily as their less tenured counterparts. In addition, individuals with lower job tenure experience the classic three component-model of burnout, whereas employees with greater tenure had more varied experience to burnout pressures. It seems that more experienced or tenured individuals are more likely to have developed coping skills over time as compared to their junior counterparts. . However, there is room for caution in the interpretation of such results due to the self-selection bias that may lie with more tenured individuals. It is possible that the resistance to burnout exhibited by more tenured individuals is not in fact because of tenure but rather a measure of personal resistance – hardiness – to burnout. This is to say that more ‘hardy’ individuals will be less apt to fall victim to either condition and its negative effects, thus creating a greater chance of obtaining tenure.

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