Effort–Reward Imbalance and Job Burnout of Nurses in Tertiary Hospitals

Abstract

           Effort-reward imbalance results in stress, and if a worker's effort is not balanced with rewards, this can result in job burnout. The purposes of this study were to explore nurses’ effort-reward imbalance and job burnout, and the relationship between effort-reward imbalance and job burnout. The study sample was comprised of 367 nurses working in tertiary hospitals in the northeast region, selected using multi-stage random sampling. The research instrument was a questionnaire consisting of three parts: 1) a demographic data form; 2) the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire (ERIQ); and 3) the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) which consists of 3 subscales: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. The reliability coefficient of the ERIQ was 0.89, and the reliabilities for the subscales of the MBI were 0.93, 0.88, and 0.80, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Spearman’s rank-order correlation.
          The study results were as follows:
           1. The majority of nurses perceived more effort than reward (= 1.02, SD = .22) and had over-commitment ( = 19.32, SD = 3.759).
         2. The majority of nurses had emotional exhaustion at a high level (= 31, SD = 7.627) while having depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment at low levels (= 3.91, SD = 5.164; = 18.72, SD = 9.301, respectively).
         3. Effort–reward imbalance was positively correlated with two subscales of job burnout, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization (r_s = .241, p < .01 and r_s = .273, p < .01, respectively), but effort-reward imbalance was not correlated with reduced personal accomplishment.
         These findings could be used as fundamental information for nursing administrators and hospital administrators to consider balancing work rewards with the efforts of nurses which would lead to further reductions in job burnout among nurses.