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3106. A model of burnout contagion in organizational settings

Invited abstract in session MB-43: Simulation of organizations II, stream Agent-based Models in Management, Economic and Organisation Sciences.

Monday, 10:30-12:00
Room: 99 (building: 306)

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Claudia Estevez

Abstract

Burnout is a syndrome recognized by the World Health Organization as an occupational phenomenon that costs billions of dollars in healthcare each year. Burnout manifests itself through symptoms of emotional exhaustion, psychological distancing, and a lack of personal accomplishment, which have been related to a variety of negative individual, group, and organizational consequences. More recently research has provided empirical evidence that burnout can be contagious. Explanations behind this contagion suggest that the emotions of an employee transfer via direct contact with other members of the group, a simple within-groups diffusion process. However, if this were the only mechanism behind burnout contagion, burnout levels of work group colleagues should be similar, which is not what is seen in real data.

Given this contradiction, in this research, I build an agent-based model of burnout contagion considering individual-level variables, both ingroup and outgroup interactions, and different mechanisms as possible paths to the diffusion of the syndrome. Model results are then compared to real burnout data collected using an electronic survey from 1800 employees in an organization. Results shed light on the underlying complexity of burnout contagion and give support to claims for a dynamic understanding of the phenomenon. This will mean moving from more traditional and individualistic research approaches to more complex ones that match the nature of the phenomenon.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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