Work engagement and occupational burnout: Its relation to organizational socialization and psychological resilience

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the levels of work engagement in organizations located in Mexico City using standardized tests, and to determine its relationship with the occurrence of occupational burnout (OB), organizational socialization (OS), and psychological resilience. To a sample of 1110 employees, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, the Organizational Socialization Inventory, the Occupational Burnout Scale, and the Mexican Resilience Scale were applied. A path analysis with structural equation modeling was carried out to determine the causal relationship between the different variables, specifically, we were interested to see if OS and resilience influence the levels of work engagement. Indeed, our model showed a good fit to the data and suggested that SO and resilience positively affected work engagement. On the contrary, all these measurements were diminished in OB cases, suggesting that work engagement casually decreased the probability of developing OB. These findings can be used to design effective interventions to prevent OB and promote positive behaviors such as work engagement.