Personal attributes and work demands as determinants of well-being amongst swedish physicians: Identifying configurations that lead to burnout or vigour

The traditional perspective in the organizational behaviour and I/O psychological literature to understand well being had focused almost exclusively on the 'disease' pole. Recently, however, new concepts focusing on health are emerging in the so called 'positive organizational behavior' (POB) literature. In this empirical study, an extended rationale borrowed from configurational conceptual contributions was used to test the multiple possible linkages (or profiles) between certain personal, organizational and cultural variables on both burnout and vigor. Burnout (i.e disease) and vigor (i.e. health) are assumed to represent two extreme poles of the well being phenomenon. To do that, an innovative statistical treatment borrowed from the data mining methodology was used for exploring the said conceptual model. A self administered questionnaire administered to a sample of 1022 physicians working in the Swedish public hospitals was used. A standardized job/work demands with multiple items was employed as well as the Uppsala Burnout scale which was dichotomized into high score (burnout) and low score (vigor). A combination of ANOVAs and ?classification and regression tree analyses?, was used to test the relationships and identify profiles. Results show an architecture that predict 59% of the explained variance and also distinguishes 4 'tree branches' with distinct profiles. Two configurations show the determinants of high burnout risk, while two others show the configurations for enhanced health or vigor. In addition to their innovative added value, results can also be most instrumental to individual doctors and to hospitals in better understanding the aetiology of burnout/vigor and in designing effective prevention measures for (a) reducing risk factors for burnout and (b) enhancing vigor.