The Impact of Job Burnout on Employees’ Commitment in Tourism Enterprises

1. Introduction

        Today, Tourism enterprises are working in a rapidly changing and highly competitive work environment that has imposed many challenges on these enterprises to survive and continue in the labor market. These organizations must look for ways to constantly improve their services in order to achieve a competitive advantage in work environment.

These challenges have contributed to increasing the burdens and tasks assigned to employees within Tourism enterprises in order to improve the company's ability to compete and cope with the development of the work environment. This has resulted in increased work pressure, which is known as burn out, which can be defined as "A range of symptoms is stress, emotional exhaustion, employee disrespect, and a sense of dissatisfaction with professional achievement, which can occur in people who do some kind of work that involves dealing directly with people". (Han, Bonn, & Cho 2016). In the past two decades’ burnout has been emerging as a key determinant factor affecting many management practices and employee behaviors in service industry (Burgess & Connell 2006).

According to Bedük et al., (2015) Organizational commitment is the bond that the employee experiences about the company that rises because of employer-employee relationship. In other words, organizational dedication which constitutes the psychological approach to the organization is a mental circumstance that displays the connection among the worker and the organization, and that brought about the decision to continue employment within the organization.

          Jackson et al., (1987) suggested that each burnout component is significantly related to organizational commitment and high levels of burnout would be associated with reduced commitment among public service lawyers. Peng et al. (2013) found that organizational commitment was significantly correlated to job burnout. This study aims to: examine the impact of the phenomenon of burnout on the commitment of employees, determine the phenomenon of burnout and its causes, identify the employee's organizational commitment and the factors that affect it, and examine the impact of the phenomenon of burnout on the commitment of employees in tourism enterprises

2. Literature Review

2.1. The Concept of Burnout and origins of Burnout

Job burnout is defined as a disorder when an employee is over-extended to the breaking point where he is exhausted both mentally and physically by the demands of one’s job (Schutte et al.,2000). Burnout is defined as “psychological process caused by unrelieved work stress” (Posig and Kickul, 2003, p. 3).Burnout is different from the normal experience of stress (Sulsky and Smith, 2005). The experience of burnout is characterized with cynicism, negativism, inflexibility, a know-it-all attitude, absenteeism, psychological complaints, and physical illnesses (Densten, 2001). While stress is the nonspecific response on the body to any demand. Stress refers to a mental or emotional state, wherein an employee encounters tension due to adverse conditions. Also, it has identified differently from related concepts: depression, dissatisfaction, tension, conflict, pressure, and particularly stress (Densten, 2001).

                Burnout often develops as a result of emotionally charged contacts with recipients of their services (Van Dierendonck et al., 2001). Garland (2002) and Kokkinos (2007) stated that job burnout is the work stress that employees face but do not know how to deal with properly.

          Job burnout is one of the main consequences related to stressful work condition especially intense work demands, and is a syndrome consisting of emotional exhaustion feelings, cynicism and a lack of professional achievement, exhaustion and cynicism are considered as the most vital components of burnout for workers (Maslach et al., 2001; Shirom, 2005; Lewig et al.,2007).

Several studies stated that burnout is closely related with life satisfaction, health problems, exhaustion ,depression, sleep problems, low self-esteem, reduced tolerance to frustration , intention to leave work, intention to retire work early, reduced work performance and reduction in the provision of quality health care(Maslach et al., 2001; Poghosyan et al.,2010; Hakanen and Schaufeli,2012; Adriaenssens et al.,2015). Exhaustion is considered to be the main indicator of burnout, being accompanied by four general signs: distress in the form of affective, cognitive, physical and behavioural signs, a sense of reduced effectiveness, decreased motivation and dysfunctional attitudes and behaviours (Schaufeli and Buunk, 2002).

Burnout is a stress reaction found among employees in the world (Bakker et al., 2003). It reduces the valuable physical, emotional, and cognitive energies (Halbesleben and Bowler, 2007).

Job Burnout is costly for both organizations and individuals, as it may lead to negative outcomes such as job dissatisfaction, low organizational commitment, low job performance, and high employees turnover (Schaufeli and Bakker,2004; Hakanen et al., 2006; Ybema et al., 2010).  Burnout could damage both physical and psychological health. Burnout means that the employees disengage themselves from dealing with customers and job tasks, therefore changing their attitudes from caring to ignore work (Babakus et al., 2009). 

           Freudenberger’s (1974) theory of burnout present the first description of the burnout phenomenon, giving the phenomenon a name, and observing that burnout isn't a deviant response by a few individuals, but is an experience. Freudenberger's theory developed while he was employed in a healthcare agency. Freudenberger observed many of his colleagues experience a gradual emotional depletion, loss of motivation and commitment, which were like to the feelings he expressed. Freudenberger began asking questions: what is burnout, what are the signs of burnout, what type of employeealities are more inclined   than others, and why is burnout such a common phenomenon among staff who work with others, particularly in free clinic institutions (Freudenberger, 1974).

Unlike Freudenberger’s (1974) theory, Cherniss’s (1980) theory of burnout refers to a change in attitude and behavior in response to a demanding, frustrating, and unrewarding work experience. Like Freudenberger, Cherniss referred to burnout as a procedure in which the employee’s “attitudes and behavior change in negative ways in response to job strain” (p.5). Furthermore, Cherniss identified physical and behavioral signs of burnout, for example chronic fatigue, frequent colds, sleeplessness, a decrease in self-esteem, substance utilize, and familial dispute (Cherniss, 1980).

Originally Maslach and Jackson (1981) classifiedburnout from the psychological (individual) point of view of those working in the human services field (people caring/people contact). In this way, burnout was operationalized with three dimensions, consisting of emotional exhaustion, deemployeealization, and reduced employeeal accomplishment that outcome from intensive participation with people in a care-giving environment (Maslach and Jackson, 1981).

Process contrary to popular thinking, bumout doesn't develop instantly or overnight, empirical evidence proves otherwise; bumout develops over time after chronic exposure to different work stressors (Burke, 1989; Leiter et al., 1988).

And later Maslach and Leiter (2008 (theorized a conceptual model conceptualizing burnout as a response syndrome of :

• Emotional exhaustion (feelings of being overextended and physically, emotionally exhausted by one’s work)
• Deemployeealization (which refers to a negative, insensitive, or excessively distracted from various aspects of the job)
• Reduced employeeal accomplishment or inefficacy (which refers to the feelings of inability and a lack of achievement and productivity in work).

2.1.3. Antecedents and Consequences of Burnout

                The factors influential on burnout have been indicated in many studies over the years (Ghorpade et al, 2007). Although the negative consequences of burnout have been the focus of numerous studies during the last 30 years, the question remains as to why some workers in an organization flourish and others report feeling exhausted and anxious, and perceive fewer employeeal accomplishments. Organizational researchers have proposed that the causes of job burnout are found in both the individual and job environment (Beehr, 1998; Savicki & Cooley, 1983).

                Various factors are defined as antecedents of burnout by researchers. One of them is organizational cynicism. Dean, Brandes and Dharwadkar (1998, p.345) defined organizational cynicism as “negative attitudes of individuals towards the organization they are working”. Cynicism leads to a decrease in organizational commitment, lower job satisfaction and alienation. Cynical employees believe they were being treated unfairly in the workplace (Karacaoğlu and İnce, 2012).Role conflict and role ambiguity are also correlated with burnout (Salahian et al, 2012). Role ambiguity occurs when individuals lack of clear definition of their role expectations, and the methods to complete their tasks (Tang and Chang, 2010).

                Maslach (1982) suggested four job characteristics are inherent, which ultimately can promote burnout, explained as follows:  The tendency to focus on problems; The lack of positive feedback; The level of emotional stress and The perceived possibility of lack of change or improvement within the individuals they are working.

                Burnout has several negative consequences in organizations and most researchers have found that burnout can be attributed to combinations of external or environmental causes (Freudenberger and Richelson, 1980). Other researchers note that consequences of burnout are most felt when individuals don't have the ability to adapt with stress (Justice et al., 1981). Furthermore, the literature indicates, workers who are burned out are often those who have too many unfulfilled needs, especially higher order needs. (Fredudenbeger 1977; Pines and Aronson, 1988).

                Similarly , job burnout has been related with various negative consequence for both organization and individuals ,as it may lead to negative consequence towards organization like impairment in the quality of service that is provided by the staff, job dissatisfaction, low organizational commitment , low job performance and high employee turnover (Salahian et al, 2012) .Finally, burnout was related to different self-reported indicators of employee distress, including physical exhaustion, insomnia, depression, turnover, and unproductive work behaviors (Maslach and Jackson, 1981; Cherniss, 1992).    

2.1.4. Burnout in Tourism Organizations

        Tourism industry today contributes to economies of countries which have proper potential as a sector. Many countries having this potential are in competition in the international tourism market in order to grow, provide employment opportunity and increase market share in terms of economy (Bahar and Kozak, 2005).

         Work environment in the tourism industry creates a variety of demands and pressures which become sources of stress. It is characterized by low-salaries, excessive work demands, irregular job due to seasonality, few breaks, intensive customer interaction, and rapid change; moreover, it is affected by economic and political situations (Akgundu et al., 2015; Lamm and lo, 2005). In addition, fatigue, bad work environment, job instability ,and long working hours have increased the existence of job burnout in the tourism industry. The issue of burnout has become increasingly prevalent, especially in travel agencies where employees often have multiple roles, undefined job descriptions, work overload, dysfunctional customer behavior, inadequate staffing level, late airport transfers, and less opportunity for promotion (Van Yperen et al., 1992; Kim et al., 2009; Yusoff, 2013; Musyoka et al., 2012; Mohamed, 2015).

2.2 Organizational commitment

It’s important to firstly define commitment before going to understand the concept of organizational commitment (Jokivuori, 2002). Often commitment is seen as a force that links individual to a course of action that is relevant to one or more targets (Cohen, 2003). Those targets can be directed to people, for example family or friends as well as to different institutions, like sports, community groups or work organization. Therefore, it is unrealistic to expect total commitment to the organization (Heery and Noon, 2001).

      Commitment in the workplace can be divided into different aspects. Employee may be committed to career, workplace, goals, teams, leaders or organization (Meyer and Herscovitch, 2001; Fleishmann and Cleveland 2003).

According to Meyer et al. ( 2002); Fornes et al. (2008); Trunk et al. (2013); Babnik et al.(2014) commitment to an organization has been found to be related to a variety of organizational outcomes such as: Increased employee performance and job satisfaction; Reduced turnover and withdrawal cognition; Lower absence rate and Increased organizational citizenship behavior.

Reichers (1985) stated that the organizational commitment has three different components:

a) Strong desire of employee to become a member of organization .

b) High degree desire of employee for the sake of organizations benefit.

c) Employees acceptance of organizations objectives and values.

2.2.1. Models of Organizational Commitment

      O’Reilly and Chatman (1986) see organizational commitment as a psychological attachment to an organization. According to Ruokolainen (2011, p.15) it reflects “the degree to which employee internalizes or adopts the characteristics or perspectives of the organization”. Commitment can be formed by three independent mechanisms: compliance, identification and internalization.

Compliance is the shallowest of them all and it is related to rewards. The employee adopts certain attitudes and behaviors in order for gaining specific awards. Identification is step further into deeper commitment. Employee feels proud to be part of that specific organization and thus accepts and respects its values and accomplishments. He or she wants to establish or maintain good relationship with that specific group. However, what separates that from the internalization is that he or she does not adapt those values as his or her own. Therefore, internalization occurs finally when there is value harmony between the employee and the organization.

Employee accepts organization’s values because those are very similar to his or her own (O’Reilly and Chatman ,1986).

Meyer and Allen (1991) separate organizational commitment in three factors and show that all of them are different and measurable

1. Affective commitment (Eagerness), which refers to the employee’s identification or strong emotional attachment and involvement in the organization.
2. Continuance commitment (Need), which refers to an awareness of the costs associated with leaving the organization.
3.  Normative continuance (Obligation), which reflects an obligation to continue belonging to the organization.

Cohen’s (2007) four component commitment model is one of the commitment models. Regardless of similarities in the name with previously introduced Allen and Meyer’s model, this one sees commitment in a different way. One of the biggest differences is that this model includes timeframe. It makes distinction between organizational commitment that develops before entering the organization and commitment developed after the entry. The other two dimensions are bases of commitment, whether it is instrumental or psychological attachment (Cohen, 2007). When comparing these two, instrumental commitment is attachment based on more tangible exchange relationship, like rewards and salary. While, psychological attachment is perceptions of justice, perceptions of organizational support and transformational leadership (Cohen, 2007).

2.2.2.Antecedents of organizational commitment

There are numerous different factors that have been shown to precede organizational commitment. Antecedents have been widely studied, Meyer et al. (2002) observed four antecedent categories: demographic variables, work experiences, availability of alternatives, and individual differences.

2.2.3. Commitment in Tourism Organization

There is extensive research on employee commitment in the tourism organization measured by employee turnover (Cheng & Brown, 1998).Kazlauskaite, Buciuniene, and Turauskas (2008) studied tourism organization employees who work in upscale tourism organization in Lithuania. They state that organizational commitment is negatively related to employee turnover. In addition, affective commitment is regarded as most desirable for an organization because employees with high affective commitment seem to have higher performance or even do more than the organization expect from them.

2.3 Burnout and Organizational Commitment

     Burnout comprises emotional experiences and cognitive components. If an individual is not passionate for his or her job, has poor interemployeeal relationships at work, and cannot find a sense of self-worth from performing his or her job, then the employee will not experience happiness in his or her work (Peng et al., 2013).     

      Humborstad et al. (2007) suggested that burnout reduces staff’s willingness to deliver quality services and that this effect is moderated by individual staff’s level of affective organizational commitment. Positive contact with a supervisor might involve praise, guidance, and promotions, while positive contact with a coworker might refer more to friendship, help, and comfort. It is conceivable that these different types of positive contact would have different relationships to burnout and commitment, and that a similar argument could be made with regard to negative contacts (Leiter and Maslach, 1988).

3. Research Methodology

      The current study used quantitative methodology. The quantitative method involves systematic inquiries into quantitative data which enables researchers to analyze, interpret, and present the results in a numerical form.

3.1. Study hypotheses

The study aims to test the following hypotheses:

“Job burnout has a negative influence on the organizational commitment of employees in tourism enterprises "
The main hypothesis is divided into three sub-assumptions as follows:

1. The job burnout has a significant influence on the affective commitment of the employees in Tourism Enterprises.
2. The job burnout has a significant influence on the continuance commitment of the employees in Tourism Enterprises.
3. The job burnout has a significant influence on the normative commitment of the employees in Tourism Enterprises.

3.2. Research Instrument

The questionnaire used in this study comprised four parts. Part A isconcerned with the demographic profile of respondents. Part B, is a 22-item self-report measure level of job burnout developed by Maslach et al., (1981). Part C measured organizational commitment through 23 items and three dimensions, namely, affective, normative, and continuance developed by Allen and Meyer (1990).

A five-point Likert scale of  the agreement was used where 1 means 'Strongly Disagree',2 means  'Disagree',3 'Neutral',4 'Agree', 5 'Strongly Agree’. A Likert scale is a "measure of a set of attitudes relating to a particular area" (Bryman, 2008, P.146).

3.3. Sample and data collection

Among 481 questionnaire forms were distributed to a convenient sample of employees in travel agencies –category A in greater Cairo, 428 questionnaire were recollected with an approximate response rate of 89% of the total sample and were found usable for analysis. A questionnaire form has been designed as the main tool of the research. It has been distributed electronically via Google forms.

3.4. Data Analysis

To achieve the objective of the study, the statistical techniques used in data analysis include Cronbach alpha to assess the reliability, frequencies, means, standard deviation, Spearman’s correlation, and simple liner regression.

3.5. Reliability

According to Nunnally (1987), the reliability coefficient of 0.70 or higher is considered “acceptable” in most social science research. The Cronbach Alpha reliability for variables and the test indicated that the reliability coefficient for variables were above 0.9 which indicates that the instrument is reliable for being used. The test results were as follows burnout (.918) organizational commitment (.903).

4.Result

4.1.Demographic Information

The results in table (1) indicate that the majority of the respondents were males by (68.7%).Around 50.5% of respondents’ ages ranged between 40 to 49. In terms of educational level, 97.4% of respondents have a college degree; 49% were married and 52.6% other of occupation. Finally, around half of respondents have10 year of experience or less.

Table (1) Demographic profile of survey respondents

4.2. Descriptive results

Table (2) shows the mean and standard deviation for all items of burnout of employees in travel agent: the results depicted that there is a medium level of burnout among employees, as mean was 3.03 and the standard deviation was 1.11.

Table (2)

Descriptive analysis for the level of burnout of employees in travel agencies.

Table (3) shows results of descriptive analysis for the level of organizational commitment of employees in travel agents. The results clarified that there is a medium level of organizational commitment among employees, as mean was 3.14 and standard deviation was 1.17. Regarding the three dimension of organizational commitment, results also revealed that, there were medium levels of organizational commitment, as means were 3.21, 3.11, and 3.10 for continuance commitment, affective commitment, and normative commitment respectively.

Table (3) Descriptive analysis of the level of organizational commitment

4.3. Spearman correlation analysis

The correlation between two variables reflects the degree to which the variables are related Spearman's correlation coefficient was calculated. Spearman's correlation reflects the degree of linear relationship between variables.

Table (4) Correlation analysis among studied variables

4.5 Simple linear regression

Table (5) Simple linear regression

This table depicted that there was significant and negative effect for burnout on affective commitment. F value was 301.178 with sig. level 0.001. This model indicates the percent of change on employees' affective commitment in which explained through burnout. It also indicates that R Square was (0.352) which means that the independent variable (burnout) explain 35.2% of change in the dependent variable (employees' affective commitment).

Also, there was significant and negative effect for burnout on continuance commitment. F value was 387.552 with sig. level 0.001. This model indicates the percent of change on employees' continuance commitment in which explained through burnout. It also indicates that R Square was (0.419) which means that the independent variable (burnout) explain 41.9% of change in the dependent variable (employees' continuance commitment).

This table depicted that there was significant and negative effect for burnout on normative commitment. F value was 299.879 with sig. level 0.001. This model indicates the percent of change on employees' normative commitment in which explained through burnout. It also indicates that R Square was (0.329) which means that the independent variable (burnout) explain 32.9% of change in the dependent variable (employees' normative commitment).

Finally, there was significant and negative effect for burnout on organizational commitment. F value was 347.551 with sig. level 0.001. This model indicates the percent of change on employees' organizational commitment in which explained through burnout. It also indicates that R Square was (0.387) which means that the independent variable (burnout) explain 38.7% of change in the dependent variable (employees' organizational commitment).

5. Conclusion

This study aims to determine the phenomenon of burnout and its causes identify the employee's organizational commitment and the factors that effect on it and finally, examine the impact of the phenomenon of burnout on the commitment of employees in tourism enterprises. The field study concluded that there is a negative relationship between job burnout and organizational commitment in tourism enterprises. This means that burnout reduces the level of employees' organizational commitment by 38.7%. The study agreed with the following studies (Jackson et al., 1987; Leiter and Maslach ,1988; Lee and Ashforth,1996; Kalliath et al.,1998; Hakanen et al., 2006 Gemlik et al.,2010;  Salehi and Gholtash ,2011; Kim et al.,2013 ;Peng et al., 2013;  Bedük et al., 2015).

Researchers have not established a complete mutual relation between the two concepts (King & Sethi, 1997; Cropanzano et al., 2003; Hakanen et al., 2008; Griffin et al. 2010). For example, Griffin et al. (2010) did not find any significant relationship between organizational commitment and burnout. In another study, Hakanen et al. (2008) found employees’ burnout had no significant impact on their organizational commitment attitudes.

Findings obtained by Kervancı (2013) are significantly compatible with our findings. She found that emotional exhaustion had negative effect on affective and normative commitment. Moreover, it was found that reduced employeeal accomplishment had negative effect only on affective commitment.

6. Recommendation

This study suggests improving employee affective commitment by focusing on development in the following three areas:

Flexibility of structural framework: employees should receive clear and easily understood guidelines that help them to make correct decisions during unfamiliar situations. Encouragement and involvement in decision making to empower their subordinates and enhance their motivation: employees should be given more control over their work activities, information should be shared with them, and they should be treated as partners

Training should be offered to all employees in tourism enterprises with the objective to manage burnout, instructing them on the best way to manage and defeat challenges; permitting them an adequate extent of independency in settling on their own choices identified with work; urging them to coordinate and turn out to be completely ready to give psychological help at the work.  Deal with organization members carefully, especially recently delegated members; give counsel, consult with them about procedures before starting their work, empower them to accomplish a harmony between their aspirations and their work reality.

 Tourism enterprises managers should develop a culture of trust by delegating tasks, welcoming employees' suggestions and communicating with them frequently to develop closer relationships.

Managers should avoid a culture of intimidation and resentment, since it leads to a hostile work environment. Employees should be given extra time to handle the complaints and problems they encounter at work, rather than being blamed or punished for them.

 Organizational justice should be considered when allocating responsibilities. An employee has to know his/her formal job description to minimize unnecessary work, time and effort. This can be ensured by setting up a structure for each department in the company that defines the tasks, responsibilities and authorities of each job. Salaries should be determined according to the difficulty of the tasks and efforts exerted, as well as the employees’ qualifications, taking into account the need to provide financial incentives.

 Managers should encourage employees' employeeal innovations by challenging them to come up with new ideas and encouraging them to take risks with no fear. This can be accomplished if the employees realize that taking risks is becoming an essential requirement of growing and competing in the tourism market. Thus, managers need to make their employees realize that the traditional approach to work will not lead to progress. Truly, employees need to be encouraged to take risks and should not be sanctioned for their mistakes.

Yao, Qiu, and Wei (2019) analyze the psychological mechanisms that affect attitudes and behaviors of tourism organization employees in China by using organizational commitment theory. They find that affective, normative, and continuance commitment have positive relationships with attitudinal loyalty of employees. Based on their findings, they suggest tourism organization managers should establish psychological contract relationships between employees and employers.

Dessler (1999) suggests the following specific guidelines to implement a management system that should enhance employees' organizational commitment: Commit to people-first values. Put it in writing, hire the right-kind managers, and walk the talk. Clarify the mission and ideology; make it charismatic; use value-based hiring practices; stress value-based orientation and training; build the tradition.

Guarantee organizational justice. Have comprehensive grievance procedures; provide for extensive two-way communications .Create a sense of community.