Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (2014)
© 2014 The British Psychological Society
www.wileyonlinelibrary.com
The effectiveness of controlled interventions on
employees’ burnout: A meta-analysis
Laurent¸iuP. Maricut ¸oiu*, Florin A. Sava and Oana Butta
Department of Psychology, West University of Timis ßoara, Romania
The aim of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of controlled interventions on reducing
employees’ burnout. Peer-reviewed published papers included in online databases, as well
as papers identified in previous reviews, were considered for selection into the
meta-analysis. Keywords entered were burnout and intervention, exhaustion and
intervention, cynicism and intervention, and depersonalization and intervention. Inclusion
criteria for the studies were (1) to include a burnout measure as a primary or a secondary
outcome; (2) to include a comparison control group; and (3) available/sufficient data to
calculate the d Cohen effect sizes. Using a random-effects model, we found small overall
effect sizes for general level of burnout (d = .22, p < .05, k = 13, overall N control = 741,
overall N intervention = 747) and exhaustion (d = .17, p < .01, k = 34, overall N
control = 1,120, overall N intervention = 1,215), and statistically not significant effects
for depersonalization (d = .04, p > .05, k = 31, overall N control = 895, overall N
intervention = 888) and personal accomplishment (d = .02, p > .05, k = 29, overall N
control = 806, overall N intervention = 817). Similar effects were also found at
follow-up, suggesting modest but lasting effects of interventions in reducing burnout.
Yet, new more tailored strategies to reduce burnout are needed to improve the effects of
the interventions.
Practitioner points
Cognitive-behavioural interventions and interventions based on relaxation techniques are effective
only for reducing emotional exhaustion.
New types of interventions are needed, to address depersonalization and personal accomplishment.
The effects on emotional exhaustion are significant even at more than 6 months after the end of the
intervention.
Job burnout is a response to prolonged exposure to workplace stressors (Maslach,
Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001). Research studies on burnout incidence reported that more than
40% of public-sector employees (e.g., federal employees, public administration employ-
ees; Golembiewski, Boudreau, Sun, & Luo, 1998) and 21–67% of mental health workers
(Morse, Salyers, Rollins, Monroe-DeVitta, & Pfahler, 2012) are experiencing burn-
out-related symptoms. This high incidence rate has generated numerous research studies
that investigated the antecedents and consequences of burnout using cross-sectional and
longitudinal research designs. For instance, previous meta-analyses (Alarcon, Eschleman,
& Bowling, 2009; Lee & Ashforth, 1996; Nahrgang, Morgeson, & Hofmann, 2011)
*Correspondence should be addressed to Laurent ¸iu P. Maricut ¸oiu Department of Psychology, West University of Timis ßoara, 4
Vasile P^ arvan Blvd., Room 504, 300223 Timis ßoara, Romania (email: lmaricutoiu@socio.uvt.ro, lmaricutoiu@gmail.com).
DOI:10.1111/joop.12099
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