The role of lack of reciprocity, supervisory support, workload, and work-family conflict on exhaustion: Evidence from physicians

Emotional exhaustion, argued to be burnout's core dimension, can manifest itself as decreased productivity and job dissatisfaction. This study aims to determine how lack of reciprocity, lack of supervisory support, high workload, and work-family conflict affect emotional exhaustion. Data were collected from 295 physicians working at private and public hospitals in Antalya and stanbul, Turkey. The survey included lack of reciprocity, supervisory support, workload, WFC items, and exhaustion subscale of Maslach Burnout Inventrory: General Survey (MBI:GS). The proposed model was tested using AMOS 17, which enables assessment of hypothesized relations and degree of fit between data and model. Workload and lack reciprocity were found to increase emotional exhaustion, while supervisory support alleviated the exhaustion physicians experienced. As expected, workload increased work-family conflict. Quite unexpectedly, workload was associated with lack of reciprocity; meaning, physicians more likely perceive their efforts go unappreciated and their patient relationships are inequitable (i.e. investing more than receiving) when they perceive a high workload. In addition, supervisory support was also associated with lack of reciprocity. Physicians experiencing inadequate supervisory support tend to describe their patient relationships in negative terms and perceive inequitable relations. Physicians who do not receive either adequate supervisory support or patient appreciation tend to feel emotionally exhausted. Moreover, both workload and work-family conflict increase physicians' exhaustion. Suggestions to reduce workload and social problems in hospitals are offered to reduce exhaustion.