Source avec lien : Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, (Prépublication), 10/13/2019. 10.1111/joop.12296
Points clés : Les sentiments négatifs sont transmis par l’interaction personnelle. La co-rumination doit être évitée car elle peut avoir un impact négatif sur le bien-être des employés à court et à long terme. Étant donné la nature contagieuse de l’épuisement professionnel, les interventions de prévention et de réduction de l’épuisement professionnel ne devraient pas viser uniquement à accroître le soutien social au sein de l’équipe scolaire. Un soutien externe pourrait être nécessaire pour perturber un cycle négatif potentiel au sein de cette équipe.
Previous studies have found that burnout is to some extent contagious and have argued it is a socially induced phenomenon. However, until now, actual social interactions and the long‐term effect of this contagion have remained largely unexplored. This study aimed to expand earlier findings on burnout contagion through the application of a social network approach. This approach assumes that some relationships provide more information on the feelings and attitudes of others. This study therefore not only identified interaction partners, but also examined how characteristics (multiplexity, frequency, and embeddedness) of the relationship with those partners relate to burnout contagion. Using (temporal) network autocorrelation models, burnout contagion was empirically investigated in the context of secondary school teams. Cross‐sectional analyses were performed on data obtained from 931 teachers working in 14 schools. Long‐term effects of burnout contagion were assessed among 578 teachers working in 12 schools. The results showed that interpersonal interactions act as conduits for burnout contagion, especially when relations are strong in terms of frequency, embeddedness, and multiplexity. The results also showed that features of relationships play a differential role in the contagion of different components of burnout. Moreover, long‐term effects were found for emotional exhaustion. This study thus provided evidence for the importance of interpersonal relationships in burnout contagion.