Maslach Burnout Inventory Pdf

The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is a psychological assessment instrument comprising 22 symptom items pertaining to occupational burnout.[1] The original form of the MBI was developed by Christina Maslach and Susan E. Jackson with the goal of assessing an individual's experience of burnout.[2] As underlined by Schaufeli (2003), a major figure of burnout research, "the MBI is neither grounded in firm clinical observation nor based on sound theorising. Instead, it has been developed inductively by factor-analysing a rather arbitrary set of items" (p. 3).[3] The instrument takes 10 minutes to complete.[4] The MBI measures three dimensions of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization,[a] and personal accomplishment.[1]

Maslach Burnout Inventory Pdf

Two meta-analyses of primary studies that report sample-specific reliability estimates for the three MBI scales found that emotional exhaustion scale has good enough reliability; however, reliability is problematic regarding depersonalization and personal accomplishment scales.[6][7] Research based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model[8] indicates that the emotional exhaustion, the core of burnout, is directly related to demands and inversely related to the extensiveness of resources.[9][10][11] The MBI has been validated for human services populations,[12][13][14][15] educator populations,[16][17][18] and general work populations.[19][20][21][22][23]

The 9-item Emotional Exhaustion (EE) scale measures feelings of being emotionally overextended and exhausted by one's work. Higher scores correspond to greater experienced burnout. This scale is used in the MBI-HSS, MBI-HSS (MP), and MBI-ES versions.

The 5-item Depersonalization (DP) scale measures an unfeeling and impersonal response toward recipients of one's service, care, treatment, or instruction. Higher scores indicate higher degrees of experienced burnout. This scale is used in the MBI-HSS, MBI-HSS (MP) and the MBI-ES versions.

The 8-item Personal Accomplishment (PA) scale measures feelings of competence and successful achievement in one's work. Lower scores correspond to greater experienced burnout. This scale is used in the MBI-HSS, MBI-HSS (MP), and MBI-ES versions.

The 5-item Cynicism scale measures an indifference or a distance attitude towards one's work. It is akin to the Depersonalization scale. The cynicism measured by this scale is a coping mechanism for distancing oneself from exhausting job demands. Higher scores correspond to greater experienced burnout. This scale is used in the MBI-GS and MBI-GS (S) versions.

The 6-item Professional Efficacy scale measures feelings of competence and successful achievement in one's work. It is akin to the Personal Accomplishment scale. This sense of personal accomplishment emphasizes effectiveness and success in having a beneficial impact on people. Lower scores correspond to greater experienced burnout. This scale is used in the MBI-GS and MBI-GS (S) versions.

The MBI-GS (S) is an adaptation of the MBI-GS designed to assess burnout in college and university students. It is available for use but its psychometric properties are not yet documented. The MBI-GS (S) scales are Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Professional Efficacy.

All MBI items are scored using a 7 level frequency ratings from "never" to "daily." The MBI has three component scales: emotional exhaustion (9 items), depersonalization (5 items) and personal achievement (8 items). Each scale measures its own unique dimension of burnout. Scales should not be combined to form a single burnout scale. Importantly, the recommendation of examining the three dimensions of burnout separately implies that, in practice, the MBI is a measure of three independent constructs - emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment - rather than a measure of burnout. Maslach, Jackson, and Leiter[1] described item scoring from 0 to 6. There are score ranges that define low, moderate and high levels of each scale based on the 0-6 scoring.

Christina Maslach, PhD, is a pioneering researcher on job burnout, who has won several awards for her work (most recently, the 2017 Application of Personality and Social Psychology Award). She is a Professor Emerita of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a researcher at its Healthy Workplaces center.

The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is the first scientifically developed measure of burnout and is used widely in research studies around the world. Since its first publication in 1981, the MBI has been applied for other purposes, such as individual diagnosis or organizational metrics. When used correctly, these applications of the MBI can greatly benefit employees and organizations. When used incorrectly, it can result in more confusion about what burnout is rather than greater understanding. Some of these applications are even unethical. This article explores what the MBI is, how misuses of the MBI have led to troubling outcomes, and how following the best practices for administering the MBI can help leaders design effective ways to build engagement and establish healthier workplaces.

By the late 1970s, questions were crystallizing: What is the burnout experience? Why is it a problem? What causes it? Answering these questions would require research tools that did not yet exist, which led to the creation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). First published in 1981 and now with its Manual in its fourth edition, the MBI is the first scientifically developed measure of burnout and is used widely in research studies around the world.

In research studies, the goal has been to study what things are associated with each of the three dimensions. For example, do some types of workplace conditions make it difficult to do the job well (lower professional efficacy) or create work overload (higher exhaustion)? Does the occurrence of burnout begin with exhaustion, which then leads to cynicism and the decline in professional efficacy, or are there other paths to burnout?

More recently, the MBI has been applied for other purposes, such as individual diagnosis or organizational metrics. When used correctly, these applications of the MBI can greatly benefit employees and organizations. When used incorrectly, it can result in more confusion about what burnout is rather than greater understanding. Some of these applications are even unethical.

Second, some people have decided to use only one of the three dimensions of burnout (usually exhaustion), implicitly proposing a new definition of burnout. In another variation of this focus on exhaustion, some have argued that the correlation with measures of depression (which contain multiple items about exhaustion) mean that burnout is really just depression.

For organizations that do not have internal resources to conduct an applied study of employee burnout and engagement, an alternative option is to obtain assessment services from consultants or test publishers. External surveyors can assure confidentiality by acting as intermediaries between employee respondents and management. They often have a greater capacity to generate individual or work group reports. Large organizations do not have one overall profile on these issues: scores vary considerably across organizational units. Important questions include: What is the percentage of each profile within various units of the organization? Is burnout a problem only in certain areas or within certain occupational specialties? The organization can then use such reports to develop optimal policies and practices to effect positive change.

The online surveys for assessing burnout need to include an option for employees to provide their own written comments and suggestions. People often put a lot of thought and effort into their comments, and the results can give valuable insights, especially if themes emerge across a wide range of responses. Employers may add supplemental questions to target issues that are specific to the organization at that time.

Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter recently published an excellent book on burnout. The Burnout Challenge provides pragmatic, creative and cost-effective solutions to improve employee efficiency, health and happiness.

Use the Maslach Burnout Toolkit to assess burnout within the worklife context. The Maslach Burnout Toolkit combines the MBI with the Areas of Worklife Survey (AWS) to create an assessment to aid burnout prevention and remediation for human services professionals, medical personnel, educators, and for general professional use. The AWS is a companion piece to the MBI and identifies key areas of strengths and weaknesses in the organizational setting.

Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who work with people in some capacity. A key aspect of the burnout syndrome is increased feelings of emotional exhaustion -- as emotional resources are depleted, workers feel they are no longer able to give of themselves at a psychological level. Another aspect of the burnout syndrome is the development of depersonalization, that is, negative, cynical attitudes and feelings about one's clients. This callous or even dehumanized perception of others can lead staff members to view their clients as somehow deserving of their troubles. ... A third aspect of the burnout syndrome, reduced personal accomplishment, refers to the tendency to evaluate oneself negatively, particularly with regard to one's work with clients. Workers may feel unhappy about themselves and dissatisfied with their accomplishments on the job.

The consequences of burnout are potentially very serious for workers, their clients, and the larger institutions in which they interact. --From the Maslach Burnout Inventory Manual, 1996An excellent review of the implications of burnout on the brain is available from the APS Observer. This article also includes discussion of the MBI and Areas of Worklife Survey constructs in burnout.