Examining mentors as buffers of burnout for employees high in neuroticism

• Published date: 01 September 2020
• Author: Arielle P. Rogers,Larissa K. Barber,Lisa Finkelstein,Lebena S. Varghese
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21390
• Date: 01 September 2020

QUANTITATIVE STUDY

Examining mentors as buffers of burnout

for employees high in neuroticism

Lebena S. Varghese

1

| Arielle P. Rogers

2

| Lisa Finkelstein

3

|

Larissa K. Barber

4

1

McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and

Economic Growth, Rice University's Baker

Institute for Public Policy, Houston, Texas

2

HumRRO, Alexandria, Virginia

3

Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois

University, DeKalb, Illinois

4

Department of Psychology, San Diego State

University, San Diego, California

Correspondence

Lebena S. Varghese, Ph.D. McNair Center for

Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth, Rice

University's Baker Institute for Public Policy,

Houston, Texas, USA.

Email: lebena.s.varghese@rice.edu

Abstract

Human resource development (HRD) practitioners often

implement mentoring programs for the purpose of fostering

employee career growth and satisfaction. This study exam-

ines a less widely researched function of mentoring—to mit-

igate employee burnout. Specifically, this study examines

mentoring as a buffer of relations between employee neu-

roticism and burnout symptoms. We also examined the dif-

ferential effect of mentoring functions (i.e., psychosocial

support and career-related support) on relations between

neuroticism and burnout dimensions (i.e., emotional exhaus-

tion and cognitive weariness). Survey data were collected

from 325 employees from a diverse set of occupations.

Self-report measures assessed trait neuroticism, burnout,

the presence of mentoring (formal or informal), and the

nature of support received from mentors (i.e., psychosocial

and career-related support). Psychosocial support and

career-related support were negatively associated with

burnout. Moderation analyses found weaker relationships

between neuroticism and burnout for individuals who

received mentoring. Furthermore, psychosocial and career-

related support delivered by mentors differentially miti-

gated emotional exhaustion and cognitive weariness,

respectively. Exploratory analyses found that among indi-

viduals who had a formal mentor, self-reported levels of

neuroticism no longer predicted burnout. Overall, findings

suggest that both psychosocial and career-related support

DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21390

© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Human Resource Development Quarterly. 2020;31:281–300. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrdq 281

provided by mentors may help decrease levels of burnout.

Furthermore, HRD practitioners may implement mentoring

programs not only as a career-enhancing tool but also as an

intervention to improve employee well-being and help

employees who might be particularly prone to burnout

(i.e., those high in neuroticism).

KEYWORDS

burnout, career-related support, employee well-being, mentoring,

neuroticism, psychosocial support

1|INTRODUCTION

Continued exposure to work stress can lead to worker burnout, which is characterized by high levels of exhaus-

tion, cognitive weariness, and physical fatigue (Shirom, 2003). In addition to its relationship with physical and

mental health problems among employees (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001; Sorour & El-Maksoud, 2012),

burnout has consequences for organizations such as poor job performance (Bakker, Demerouti, &

Verbeke, 2004; Taris, 2006), absenteeism (Borritz, Rugulies, Christensen, Villadsen, & Kristensen, 2006), and dif-

ficulty retaining employees (Swider & Zimmerman, 2010). Given the costs of burnout to individual well-being

and organizational effectiveness, human resource development (HRD) researchers have emphasized the impor-

tance of identifying HR practices that may help prevent burnout while also increasing performance and organiza-

tional effectiveness (Gilbreath & Montesino, 2006; Jyoti & Rani, 2019; Loon, Otaye-Ebede, & Stewart, 2019;

Morris, 2008).

However, not all employees are equally susceptible to burnout. Neuroticism—the tendency to experience

negative emotions and heightened stress reactivity (Connor-Smith & Flachsbart, 2007; McCrae & Costa, 1997;

McCrae & John, 1992)—is one personality trait consistently shown to be associated with increased burnout

(e.g., Swider & Zimmerman, 2010). Although research has linked neuroticism to job burnout and other worker

strain responses (e.g., Gramstad, Gjestad, & Haver, 2013; Knussen & Niven, 1999; Spector, Zapf, Chen, &

Frese, 2000), very little research has focused on identifying workplace characteristics that could help individuals

with high levels of trait neuroticism. Some empirical evidence notes that mentors in the workplace act as

buffers; precisely, they ameliorate burnout experienced in adverse working conditions (Bozionelos, 200 6; van

Emmerik, 2004). Drawing on these findings, this paper contributes to the HRD literature byexamining whether

and how mentoring can be used as an intervention to help individuals who are particularly vulnerable to burnout

(i.e., those with high levels of neuroticism). To that end, whereas mentoring is often examined as a career-

enhancing and performance-related tool, we aim to build support for mentoring as a practice that can also

improve psychological well-being (i.e., by mitigating burnout)—an outcome sometimes in conflict with

performance-related HR practices (see Loon et al., 2019). Second, this study takes a more granular focus on

types of mentoring that may be most useful for helping individuals with high levels ofneuroticism. Prior studies

examining burnout as an outcome have conceptualized mentoring as a unitary construct, focusing only on the

presence of a mentor or the amount of mentoring received (Bozionelos, 2006; Jyoti & Rani, 2019; Qian, Han,

Wang, Li, & Wang, 2014; Thomas & Lankau, 2009). The current st udy extends the past research by dis-

tinguishing between mentoring functions (psychosocial support vs. career-related support) and informal versus

formal mentoring. This distinction allows for the examination of how different aspects of mentoring differen-

tially buffer relations between trait neuroticism and dimensions of burnout.

282 VARGHESE ET AL.