Personal attributes and work demands as determinants of well being amongst Swedish physicians: Identifying configurations that lead to burnout and vigor

Burnout (disease) and vigor (health) are assumed to represent two extreme poles of the well-being emotions. The traditional perspective in the occupational and organizational psychology literature aimed at understanding well-being has focused almost exclusively on the "disease emotions" pole. An extended rationale borrowed from configurational conceptual contributions was used in this empirical study to test multiple possible linkages (or profiles) between certain personal, organizational, and cultural variables that affect both burnout and vigor. An innovative statistical treatment borrowed from data mining methodology was used to compare two organizational contexts the conceptual model that was utilized. A selfadministered questionnaire from a sample of 1509 physicians working in the Swedish and Spanish public hospitals was used. Standardized job/work demands with multiple items were employed in conjunction with 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 utilized to test the relationships and identify profiles. Results show an architecture that predicts more than 50% of the explained variance and also reveals two "tree branches" with distinct profiles. Two configurations indicate the determinants of high burnout risk in Spanish and Swedish workers. In addition to their methodological innovative added value, the results can also be most instrumental for individual doctors and hospitals in gaining a better understanding of the general emotions related to burnout/vigor and in designing effective preventative measures for (a) reducing risk factors for burnout and (b) enhancing well being (vigor).