International Business Research; Vol. 12, No. 1; 2019 ISSN 1913-9004 E-ISSN 1913-9012 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 110 The Role of Social Support on Job Burnout in the Apparel Firm Treshalin Sellar 1 & Anthonypillai Anton Arulrajah 2 1 Research Student, Department of Management, Eastern University, Sri Lanka, Vantharumoolai, Chenkalady, Sri Lanka 2 Senior Lecturer, Department of Management, Eastern University, Sri Lanka, Vantharumoolai, Chenkalady, Sri Lanka Correspondence: Anthonypillai Anton Arulrajah, Faculty of Commerce and Management, Eastern University, Sri Lanka, Vantharumoolai, Chenkalady, Sri Lanka. Received: November 5, 2018 Accepted: December 18, 2018 Online Published: December 24, 2018 doi:10.5539/ibr.v12n1p110 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v12n1p110 Abstract Managing the causes of job burnout has become a momentous phenomenon in career management literature. Majority of the apparel firms in Sri Lanka are experiencing job burnout as a massive dispute where it represents many work-related and non-work related issues that employees endure. In this context, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the impact of social support on job burnout among the female worker level employees of a leading apparel firm in Sri Lanka. The study is mainly considering the primary data. Present study is using survey method to analyze the objectives. The data were collected through a self-administrated questionnaire from 142 respondents of the selected apparel firm. The correlation analysis of the study revealed that the social support has a strong negative relationship with job burnout while regression analysis identified that social support is significantly contributing to determine job burnout (51.1%). Moreover, multiple regression analysis indicated that family support has the highest impact on job burnout among the worker level employees. The findings of the study have various managerial implications for other apparel manufacturing firms and other industries in Sri Lankan social context. Keywords: co-worker support, supervisor support, family support, society support, job burnout 1. Introduction The continuous changes in the organization create a strain on organization and individuals as well by raising the expectations regarding employees’ time, performance and energy. Job burnout is a negative psychological state people experience when they are suffered from stress for a longer period. Job burnout may arise when meeting the job demands require high effort and is therefore, associated with high cost (Aerts, 2017). Among various factors that reduce employee motivation and productivity at work, job burnout could be considered a critical concern for managers. Traditionally, burnout is encompasses into three dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment (Lamb, 2009). Studies have also found that the chronic experience of job burnout tends to increase depression and other health related problems. Therefore, understanding the causes of job burnout in apparel industry is essential in order to prevent the issues and to perform well in the current business world. The stress levels of worker level employees as well as the management in apparel industry have shown a tremendous growth due to lead time, competitive nature and socio cultural impacts. The results of these challenges are that an employee will have greater job demands and need a good work-related or non-work related support to overcome the bundle of strain. Social support is defined as “that subset of persons in the individual’s social network upon whom he or she relies for socio-emotional aid, instrumental aid, or both” (Thoits, 1982, p. 148), at work as a key antecedent of job burnout. Therefore, the support from supervisors, co-workers, family members and society are really important to tolerate the work related stress among the employees. Also this social support is a key coping resource, which may help reduce job burnout by providing individuals with socio-emotional aid in the form of affection, understanding, or esteem and instrumental aid in the form of advice, information, and assistance with work responsibilities. The support from working environment is more highlighted by many authors as supervisors and co-workers likely to provide valuable information and feedback daily. Also the degree of family support and negative perception of society on garment