Examining mentors as buffers of burnout for employees high in neuroticism

Published date01 September 2020
AuthorArielle P. Rogers,Larissa K. Barber,Lisa Finkelstein,Lebena S. Varghese
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21390
Date01 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 mentoringto 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;31:281300. 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. Neuroticismthe 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.

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