Burnout and workload among health care workers: the moderating role of job control.
BACKGROUND
As health care workers face a wide range of psychosocial stressors, they are at a high risk of developing burnout syndrome, which in turn may affect hospital outcomes such as the quality and safety of provided care. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the moderating effect of job control on the relationship between workload and burnout.


METHODS
A total of 352 hospital workers from five Italian public hospitals completed a self-administered questionnaire that was used to measure exhaustion, cynicism, job control, and workload. Data were collected in 2013.


RESULTS
In contrast to previous studies, the results of this study supported the moderation effect of job control on the relationship between workload and exhaustion. Furthermore, the results found support for the sequential link from exhaustion to cynicism.


CONCLUSIONS
This study showed the importance for hospital managers to carry out management practices that promote job control and provide employees with job resources, in order to reduce the burnout risk.
Department of Public Health, Clinical and Molecular Medicine, University of Cagliari, Monserrato (Ca), Italy.
Igor
I
Portoghese
Department of Public Health, Clinical and Molecular Medicine, University of Cagliari, Monserrato (Ca), Italy.
Maura
M
Galletta
Department of Public Health, Clinical and Molecular Medicine, University of Cagliari, Monserrato (Ca), Italy.
Rosa Cristina
RC
Coppola
Department of Public Health, Clinical and Molecular Medicine, University of Cagliari, Monserrato (Ca), Italy.
Gabriele
G
Finco
Department of Public Health, Clinical and Molecular Medicine, University of Cagliari, Monserrato (Ca), Italy.
Marcello
M
Campagna
burnout; cynicism; exhaustion; job control; workload