Study on Burnout, Adaptiveness, and Personal Identity in the Restaurant Industry

Running Head: BURNOUT, ADAPTIVENESS, AND PERSONAL IDENTITY

Burnout, Adaptiveness, and Personal Identity in the Restaurant Industry

Kalen Shewan

York University

BURNOUT, ADAPTIVENESS, AND PERSONAL IDENTITY 1

Abstract

The current study examined adaptiveness and Eudaimonic Well-Being as they related to

occupational burnout amongst employees currently employed within full-service restaurants.

Data was obtained for 30 male, 69 female and 1 gender neutral individual (N = 100), ranging in

age from 18 to 60 years old, working in various restaurant occupations. This survey included the

Personal Functioning Inventory (PFI), the Questionnaire for Eudaimonic Well-Being (QEWB),

and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI). Results of stepwise multiple regression indicated

adaptiveness and EWB as having significant and negative associations with burnout. While

adaptiveness was found to be the stronger predictor of burnout, adaptiveness and EWB were

found to relate significantly to different components of burnout.


Introduction

Working in the restaurant industry requires exposure to numerous, repetitive, and

unpredictable sources of stress. Cooks and waiters, for example, have been classified as high job

strain occupations which carry physiological and psychological costs (Schnall et al., 1990;

Kjaerheim et al., 1997).

Sources of occupational stress in the restaurant industry have been shown to include:

work overload (Murray-Gibbons & Gibbons, 2007; Hayes & Weathington, 2007), repetitive

physical strain and demanding work conditions (Pratten, 2003), unsociable working hours with

low wages (Pratten, 2003), customer incivility (Hunter & Penney, 2014; Han, Bonn, & Cho,

2016), emotional labour (Lucas & Deery, 2004; Erickson, 2004), sexual harassment and

exploitation (Seymour, 2000), and bullying (Mathisen, Einarsen, & Mykletun, 2008). The

accumulated impact of stressors employees experience in the food service and hospitality

industry can lead to what has been referred to as work-related burnout.

Burnout, Exhaustion, and Disengagement

Burnout has been most commonly described as a work-related syndrome characterized by

exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced personal efficacy (Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1997). More

recent research has identified exhaustion and disengagement as the core characteristics of

burnout whereas the relationship with personal efficacy has been found to be much weaker

(Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001; Shirom, 2003). Exhaustion is defined as the result of

physical, cognitive, and emotional strain whereas disengagement refers to distancing one’s self

mentally and emotionally from work tasks and feelings of cynicism towards one’s job in general

(Demerouti, Bakker, Vardakou, & Kantas, 2003). Burnout, then, is better defined as a state of


strong detachment from work accompanied by physical and emotional exhaustion (Demerouti,

Mostert, & Bakker, 2010; Halbesleben, & Demerouti, 2005). Higher levels of burnout in food

service employees have been associated with greater incidence of treatment for depression and

chronic diseases (Beer, Pienaar, & Rothmann, 2014), higher turnover intentions (Han, Bonn, &

Cho, 2016), customer-directed counter-productive work behaviour (Hunter & Penney, 2014),

decreased life satisfaction (Hayes & Weathington, 2007) and greater absence duration from work

(Bakker, Demerouti, de Boer, & Schaufeli, 2003). The literature on occupational stress clearly

identifies burnout as a common problem within the restaurant industry and effectively coping

with the broad range of stressors in restaurant occupations has been related to the mental and

physical health of these employees (Kjaerheim et al., 1997; Pienaar & Willemse, 2008).

Adaptiveness

Coping skills have been identified as helpful to restaurant employees in lowering stress

and preventing burnout (Pienaar & Willemse, 2008). Recent reviews of the vast amount of

coping literature have found a general consensus that coping is a dynamic process that aims to

reduce or eliminate the costs associated with stress (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004; Compas et al.,

2001). Furthermore, it is generally agreed that the effectiveness of coping strategies is context

specific and the ability to adapt different modes of coping to a given situation is associated with

more favourable outcomes (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004; Compas et al., 2001). This context

specific coping has been termed flexible or adaptive coping and refers to the ability to utilize

different coping strategies and adjust the method of coping depending on how stress unfolds

(Taylor & Sirois, 2014). Adaptive coping has been associated with better adjustment and greater

adaptation, fewer negative health consequences, and positive affective outcomes (Taylor &

Stanton, 2007).


The ability to engage in different modes of coping to effectively adapt to stress has also

been conceptualized as the trait of ’adaptiveness’ (Kohn, et al., 2003). The construct of

adaptiveness describes an individual’s ability to consistently engage in forms of coping that are

most appropriate to a given stressor (Kohn, et al., 2003). Adaptiveness in the work setting then,

can be conceptualized as a factor that helps to minimize the impact of stress caused by particular

job demands. Restaurant employees higher in adaptiveness could be expected to fare better in

terms of reducing burnout and based on this assumption, the following hypothesis is made:

Hypothesis 1: The trait of adaptiveness is significantly and negatively associated with burnout

Interestingly, while coping skills have been shown to be effective in dealing with

burnout, they were shown to not necessarily be sufficient for creating engagement (Pienaar &

Willemse, 2008; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004; Kim, Shin, & Swanger, 2009) and burnout was not

found to have a strong link to low levels of performance (Bakker, Demerouti, & Verbeke, 2004).

Furthermore, emotional exhaustion – considered a central facet of burnout – did not prevent

employees from remaining fully engaged in their work. (Demerouti, Verbeke, and Bakker,

2005). These findings imply that being able to cope with the demands of work is a necessary but

insufficient condition for preventing burnout as it does not fully account for both exhaustion and

disengagement components. With regards to adaptiveness, then, the following hypothesis is also

made:

Hypothesis 2: The trait of adaptiveness has a stronger negative association with the

exhaustion dimension of burnout than with the disengagement dimension of burnout

Given the association between coping and burnout, it seems there are other factors that

can better explain the withdrawal and cynical detachment from work. Xanthopolou, Bakker,


Demerouti, and Schaufeli (2009) identified involvement of the self is an important pre-requisite

for preventing detachment from work and creating engagement. Erickson (2004) also noted this

occurrence within the restaurant industry, finding that employees who invest in their job view the

work to be a part of who they are instead of a role they are simply filling on a daily basis.

Eudaimonic Identity Theory (Waterman, 1993, 2005, 2008, 2010) is helpful in explaining this

phenomenon as it specifically concerns itself with how individuals identify with activities and

form personal commitments to them.

Eudaimonic Identity and Well-Being

Eudaimonic Identity Theory (EIT) was developed by Waterman and colleagues (1993,

2005, 2008, 2010, 2013) to explain how identity choices and commitments are formed in

emerging adulthood and maintained throughout the lifespan. EIT draws upon Aristotle’s

Nichomachean Ethics as a philosophical foundation and, specifically, the concept of the

‘daimon’ – or the ‘true self’ – and the subjective experience of eudaimonia (Waterman, 1993).

Eudaimonia is defined as the subjective experience one has when engaging in activities deemed

to be personally expressive, meaningful and in accordance with what is perceived to be the ‘true

self’ (Waterman, 1993). The experience of eudaimonia was found to be strongly and positively

associated with feelings of competence, investment of considerable effort, concentration,

assertiveness, a sense of clear goals, and knowing how well one is doing (Waterman, 1993).

Feelings of personal expression and the experience of eudaimonia are thought to serve as means

to make the ‘best’ choices for one’s self and creating healthy and enduring well-being through a

cohesive identity commitment (Waterman et al., 2013). EIT posits that there are better or worse

choices for people to make regarding the activities they commit to (Waterman et al., 2013) and


that these should best express “...who they are, what they value, and what they do in their lives”

(Waterman et al., 2010).

The quality of life derived from engaging in pursuit of meaningful, personally expressive,

and self-concordant goals is referred to as Eudaimonic Well-Being (EWB) (Waterman et al.,

2010). EWB has been shown to be a reliable and valid indicator of quality of identity

commitment and its related outcomes (Waterman et al., 2010). Creating successful identity

commitments and taking actions that are in line with the ‘true self’ generate higher levels of

EWB and have been shown to be positively associated with subjective well-being, psychological

well-being, self-esteem, and internal locus of control and negatively associated with general

anxiety, social anxiety, and depression (Waterman et al., 2013). These indicators of

psychosocial function are known to be closely related to the stress experience (Folkman &

Moskowitz, 2004) and therefore, the success with which individuals have in obtaining and acting

out a cohesive identity helps to contend with stress, minimize burnout, and find opportunities for

self-expression. EWB, then, could be expected to play a significant role in how successful

employees are at identifying with job tasks, engaging in work, and thereby, minimizing burnout.

Thus, the current study proposes the following hypothesis with regards to restaurant industry

employees:

Hypothesis 3: EWB is significantly and negatively associated with burnout

Given the strong theoretical links to identity and engagement, EWB could be expected to

complement adaptiveness in preventing burnout by way of maintaining or increasing

engagement with one’s work. How successful an individual has been at deriving meaning and

identifying with their work may help prevent burnout by fulfilling motivation and interest


requirements and preventing disengagement. This success, Waterman and colleagues (2010)

state, is reflected in one’s general level of EWB. Thus, it is proposed in the current study:

Hypothesis 4: EWB has a stronger negative association with the disengagement dimension of

burnout than with the exhaustion dimension of burnout

The fast-paced and demanding environments found in full-service restaurants offer a

unique opportunity to study the factors associated with burnout. The literature on burnout shows

that restaurant occupations inherently contain a large and varied number of stressors requiring

adaptable coping skills and personal resilience in order to thrive. The constructs of adaptiveness

and EWB are hypothesized here as possible factors that can mitigate the costs associated with

job demands and help prevent burnout in restaurant occupations.

The Current Study

The current study aims to contribute to the understanding of burnout as it occurs in the

restaurant industry. This study specifically focuses on the ‘full-service’ classification of

restaurants which are described as “...establishments primarily engaged in providing food

services to patrons who order and are served while seated and pay after eating. These

establishments may sell alcoholic beverages, provide take-out services, operate a bar or present

live entertainment, in addition to serving food and beverage” (StatsCan, 2012, p.455). It is

within the full-service setting that it is possible to see the range and effect of job demands in the

restaurant industry.

.


Method

Participants

The final sample used in the current study included 100 individuals, 18 to 60 years of age

currently employed in full-service restaurants within Canada and the United States. The social

media platforms, Facebook and LinkedIn, were used to recruit participants via general posts to

restaurant-related groups as well as through contacting individuals who identified themselves as

working in a restaurant. The general posts and messages contained a request for volunteers,

short description of the study, a link to the online survey, and a request to re-post or share the

link with others that work in full-service restaurants. No incentives were used to recruit

participants and surveys were completed on a purely voluntary basis.

The original obtained convenience sample included 196 respondents recruited from all

online sources. Of the 196 respondents, 120 completed surveys were submitted for a completion

rate of 61%. 20 surveys were excluded from analysis due to missing or incomplete data to give a

final sample size of N = 100 respondents. Of the 100 respondents included in the final analysis,

30 were male, 69 female, and one gender neutral. Age was divided into categorical ranges and

the respondents indicated which bracket they fell within. This was done for ease of data

collection via the online survey and to create categories for comparison of burnout levels. In

years old, these categories were: 18 to 20, 21 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, 50 to 59, and 60 to 65.

Unfortunately, this method did not provide complete descriptive data of the sample age – mean

and median ages – but the mode of this group is reported to be in the 30 to 39 year old range

(n=36) with the next most frequent group being the 21 to 29 range (n=32) and no individuals

reported being in the 60 to 65 range.


With regards to job description, respondents identified their particular role from a list of

job positions most often found within full-service restaurants. These job titles included: server,

bartender, host, busser, food runner, line/prep cook, dishwasher and manager/supervisor. These

were then separated into larger occupational groups that form the common division of labour

within full-service restaurants. ‘Front-of-the-House’ (FOH) included: servers, bartenders, hosts,

bussers, and food-runners while ‘Back-of-the-House’ represented all line/prep cooks and

dishwashers. Managers, Supervisors, and related positions like owners were given their own

category due to the qualitative difference in responsibility. Of the occupational groups

identified, 60 respondents were FOH employees, 9 were BOH and 31 were management.

Procedure

The current study was carried out using an online survey composed of three

questionnaires along with additional demographic questions for 73 items in total; 70 of which

were included in the final analysis. Online completion statistics indicated that most respondents

took between 10 to 20 minutes to complete the survey. This survey was generated and

distributed using the website, www.surveymonkey.com, which allowed for randomization of

questionnaire pages in order to reduce bias and any ordering effects that may occur if the

questionnaires were always presented in the same order.

Participants were invited to click on a link via Facebook or LinkedIn which took them to

the informed consent form of the survey. After reading the informed consent document,

participants were informed that by clicking on a button labelled ‘Continue’ they were implying

their consent to participate in the study and that they have read and understood the informed

consent form. They were also instructed at that point, if they chose not to participate, they could


simply close the survey’s browser window. Clicking on the ‘Continue’ button commenced the

survey and respondents had as much time as they needed to respond to all 73 items. Upon

completion, participants were shown a personal thank you for participating and taken to a

debriefing page which gave a description of the methods, concepts, and purpose of the study.

Once data collection was completed, responses were filtered to include only individuals

with completed surveys and this data was then exported into Microsoft Excel 2007. The

completed surveys were then inspected for missing data and the respondents with skipped or

missing items eliminated from the final data set. The final data set was analyzed using IBM

SPSS v.27

Measures

The three self-report questionnaires used in the current study were: The Personal

Functioning Inventory (Kohn et al., 2003), The Questionnaire for Eudaimonic Well-Being

(Waterman et al., 2010), and the English translation of the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory

(Halbesleben & Demerouti, 2005; Demerouti, Vardakou, & Kantas, 2003). Six demographic

questions were also originally included in the survey for a total of 73 items. The demographic

questions asked respondents about: age, gender, job title, employment arrangement with regards

to hours and pay, enrolment status in school, and education level all of which were responded to

using multiple choice options. The demographic questions concerning employment

arrangement, enrolment status, and education level were later deemed impertinent to the goals of

the current study. As a result, these were dropped from the final analysis so that only age,

gender and job title were included as demographic variables.


The Personal Functioning Inventory (PFI) (Kohn et al., 2003a) is a 30-item self-report

questionnaire designed to measure the construct of adaptiveness in respondents. The PFI asks

respondents to indicate on a 5-point Likert scale – ranging from 1 = “Strongly Disagree” to 5 =

“Strongly Agree” – how much they agree that each statement reflects their own approach to

personal problems (Kohn et al, 2003b). A sample item found on the PFI is: “I rarely permit

criticism to make me angry” (Kohn et al., 2003b, p. 2). The PFI also includes an equal number

of reverse scored, anti-trait items which are contraindicative of adaptiveness – ie. “Under

pressure I tend to make hasty decisions” (Kohn et al., 2003b, p. 2). The PFI was shown through

a series of three studies by Kohn et al. (2003a), to have high construct validity and convergent

validity via significant positive relationships with other measures of coping flexibility, self-rated

adaptiveness, and problem-solving as well as significant negative correlation with indicators of

perceived stress (Kohn et al., 2003a). Discriminant validity was also established through

comparison to a measure of abstract curiosity which was found to be unrelated to adaptiveness

(Kohn, et al., 2003a). Alpha reliabilities for the item-selection sample and cross-replication

sample were .92 and .89 (p<.01 for both), respectively, showing good internal consistency (Kohn

et al., 2003). Test-retest reliability over a three-week interval was high at .90 (p<.01) which the

authors contend supports the PFI as being a trait measure of adaptiveness.

Another measure utilized in the current study was the Questionnaire for Eudaimonic

Well-Being (QEWB) which was designed to assess the “level of eudaimonic functioning” (p.44),

- referring to EWB - in its’ respondents (Waterman et al., 2010). The 21-item QEWB contains

items related to subjective experiences of eudaimonia as well as behaviours reflecting active

pursuit of personally concordant goals (Waterman et al., 2010). There are 14 items in the

questionnaire which are positively framed and imply presence of EWB – ie. “I usually know


what I should do because some actions just feel right to me” (Waterman et al., 2010, p. 49).

There are also 7 negatively framed items which are reverse scored and imply absence of EWB –

ie. “As yet, I’ve not figured out what to do with my life” (Waterman et al., 2010, p. 49).

Respondents are instructed to indicate on a 5-point Likert scale – ranging from 0 = “Strongly

Disagree” to 4 = “Strongly Agree” – the extent they feel each statement reflects how their life

has been going in general (Waterman et al.,, 2010).

Construct validity for the QEWB was established by showing a strong, significant

association to measures of self-esteem, internal locus of control, and significant negative

relationship with measures of general anxiety, social anxiety and depression (Waterman et al.,

2010). The QEWB was found to have strong convergent validity with indicators of identity

commitment, psychological well-being, and subjective well-being while showing strong

discriminant validity from indicators of identity exploration and negative association with

ruminative exploration, which is a detrimental form of identity status (Waterman et al., 2010).

Incremental validity was also shown for the QEWB as measuring a form of well-being that

contributes a unique portion of variance above and beyond both subjective well-being and

psychological well-being (Waterman et al., 2010). Cronbach’s alpha was .86 for sample 1

and .85 for sample 2 showing adequate internal consistency (Waterman et al., 2010). No test-

retest reliability data was provided for the QEWB.

Finally, the third measure included in this study was the English translation of the

Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) (Halbesleben & Demerouti, 2005; Demerouti et al., 2003).

The 16-item OLBI was designed to measure general traits of burnout across occupational fields

and includes two sub-scale dimensions; one relating to exhaustion and one to disengagement

(Halbesleben & Demerouti, 2005). The items of the OLBI are designed to reflect both subscales


using positively and negatively worded items for both exhaustion and disengagement – 8 items

each (Halbesleben & Demerouti, 2005). Respondents indicate how much they agree or disagree

with each statement using a 4-point Likert scale – ranging from 1=”Strongly Agree to

4=”Strongly Disagree” (Halbesleben & Demerouti, 2005). A sample item of the OLBI relating

to exhaustion would be: “During my work, I often feel emotionally drained” (Demerouti, 1999).

A sample item of the OLBI pertaining to disengagement would be: “I always find new and

interesting aspects in my work” (Demerouti, 1999).

Cronbach’s alpha for several samples used to test the OLBI was found to be between .74

and .87 indicating acceptable internal consistency for the OLBI across diverse occupational

groups (Halbesleben & Demerouti, 2005). Test-retests were found by Halbesleben and

Demerouti (2005) to be moderately correlated (r=.51, p<.001, for exhaustion; r=.34, p<.01, for

disengagement), which the authors state supports the general stability of the OLBI over time.

Halbesleben and Demerouti (2005) established strong construct and discriminant validity for the

OLBI through multi-trait method comparison with the Maslach Burnout Inventory – General

Survey (MBI-GS) which has been considered the gold standard in burnout measurement despite

problematic psychometric properties due to the lack of both positively and negatively framed

items (Demerouti et al., 2003; Halbesleben & Demerouti, 2004; Bakker & Demerouti, 2008). It

was shown that the OLBI and MBI-GS measure common aspects of burnout but also contribute

unique variance by additionally measuring different facets of burnout (Demerouti et al., 2003).

Furthermore, the OLBI has advantages in that it does not suffer from the same psychometric

weaknesses as the MBI-GS and is more generalizable across occupations and industries

(Demerouti et al., 2003; Bakker & Demerouti, 2008).


Analysis

Analysis of the final data set (N = 100) in this study was performed using step-wise

multiple regression to compare the predictor variables of adaptiveness and EWB to the criterion

variable of burnout. Separate stepwise multiple regressions were also performed to compare the

predictor variables to the exhaustion and disengagement subscales of the OLBI. These separate

regressions were performed to assess if adaptiveness or EWB were related to different facets of

burnout by way of stronger association with the different subscales. Cronbach’s alphas were

also determined for all scales and the subscales to ensure the questionnaires retained acceptable

internal consistency reliability within the current study.

Final demographic analysis focused on age range, gender, and job position variables. As

age was divided categorically into six ranges, a one way independent groups ANOVA was

performed to assess for significant differences between age groups with regards to perceived

burnout levels. Because none of the respondents indicated they were in the 60 to 65 years old

range, this category was dropped to give five independent groups for the final comparison. A

separate one-way, independent groups ANOVA was also performed to assess for differences in

burnout levels between the common restaurant occupational groups of FOH, BOH, and

management. As convenience sampling produced demographic groups of unequal sizes, tests for

homogeneity of variance using Levene’s test were of particular importance to ensure that the

comparisons being made between these groups could be reliably analyzed using one-way

ANOVAs. And finally, gender was analyzed using the Welch-Satterthwaite t-Test to compare

differences in perceived burnout between gender groups while accounting for different sample

sizes and potentially different variances. Due to only one individual indicating a neutral gender,


this category along with that particular participant’s data were not included in the gender

analysis.

Results

Descriptive Statistics, Intercorrelations, and Demographics

The means, standard deviations, and zero-order correlations for the PFI, QEWB, OLBI,

exhaustion subscale of the OLBI, and disengagement subscale of the OLBI are all displayed in

Table 1. Pearson’s r values were found to be significant to a level of p < .0005 (two-tailed) for

all zero-order correlations with the exceptions of the correlation between adaptiveness (PFI) and

disengagement as well as the correlation between EWB (QEWB) and exhaustion. These two

zero-order correlations still reached significance, but to a level of p < .01 (two-tailed).

Cronbach’s alpha reliabilities are also displayed in Table 1 and show adequate internal

consistency for all scales and subscales with values ranging from .79 to .90.

Table 1

Means, standard deviations, internal consistency reliability coefficients, and zero-order correlations for PFI, QEWB, OLBI, Exhaustion Subscale of the OLBI, and Disengagement Subscale of the OLBI

1 2 3 4 5

1) PFI - - - - -2) QEWB .353*** - - - -3) OLBI -.428*** -.383*** - - -4) exhaustion -.467*** -.261* .896*** - -5) disengagement -.308* -.426*** .905*** .623*** -M 109.53 57.77 39.66 19.66 20.00SD 14.99 9.53 6.87 3.73 3.90Cronbach’s α .899 .847 .864 .795 .791Note: N = 100; PFI = Personal Functioning Inventory; QEWB = Questionnaire for Eudaimonic Well-Being; OLBI = Oldenburg Burnout Inventory; exhaustion and disengagement are both subscales which form the complete OLBI*p< .01,**p< .001,***p< .0005 (two-tailed)


Table 1 shows adaptiveness and EWB, independent of one another, as having significant

negative associations of moderate strength with burnout and both of its components; exhaustion

and disengagement. The associations between adaptiveness and disengagement and between

EWB and exhaustion were somewhat weaker but, as mentioned, still reached significance.

With regards to the demographic variables, the group comparisons resulting from both

one way ANOVAs were found to be nonsignificant, implying that burnout characteristics do not

differ with age or occupation in a restaurant. Levene’s test for homogeneity of variance revealed

nonsignificant values for both one way ANOVAs which indicates that there was no violation of

homogeneity of variance for these groups despite the use of a convenience sampling and unequal

sample sizes. For gender, the results of a Welch-Satterthwaite t-Test – to account for different

sample sizes – were also found to be non-significant and, thus, no differences were detected in

burnout between males and females either.

Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis

To test the relative contributions of adaptiveness and EWB to an overall model of

burnout, a stepwise multiple regression was performed for the criterion variable of burnout (M =

39.66, SD = 6.87) with adaptiveness (M = 109.53, SD = 14.99) and EWB (M= 57.77, SD = 9.53)

as predictors; the results of which are displayed in Table 2.

The results displayed in Table 2 show that both adaptiveness and EWB serve as

significant, negative predictors of burnout; thus supporting hypothesis 1 and 3. Including both

predictor variables in the model resulted in a medium effect size on burnout scores; accounting

for 24.5% of the total variability (R2 = .245, F (2,99) = 15.739, p < .0005). No hypothesis was

put forward as to the relative strength of the associations between the two predictor variables and


burnout. However, adaptiveness was found to account for a substantially larger proportion of the

variability in scores (ΔR2 = .183) - compared with EWB (ΔR2 = .062) - and represented the best

single predictor of burnout. Considering these findings, it is possible to construct a regression

equation using both adaptiveness and EWB as predictors of burnout as follows:

Burnout = 67.52 - .154(adaptiveness) - .191(EWB).

Table 2

Results of Stepwise Multiple Regression Models for Adaptiveness and Eudaimonic Well-Being as Predictor Variables of Burnout

Predictor B SE Β t p R2 Adjusted R2

SE R2

ΔR2 ΔF

1 .183 .175 6.24 .183 22.02**

(Constant) 61.17

4.63 - 13.22 <.0005**

Adaptiveness -.196 .042 -.428** -4.69 <.0005**

2 .245 .229 6.033

.062 7.91*

(Constant) 67.52

5.01 - 13.48 <.0005**

Adaptiveness -.154 .043 -.335** -3.55 .001**

EWB -.191 .068 -.265* -2.81 .006*

Note: N = 100; B = unstandardized regression coefficient; SE = standard error; β = standardized regression coefficient; t = obtained t-value; p = probability; R2 = proportion variance explained; SE R2 = standard error of the coefficient; ΔR2 = change in variance; ΔF = change in F*p< .01,**p< .001, ***p< .0005

It was also hypothesized in the current study that adaptiveness would serve as a better

predictor of the exhaustion component of burnout. EWB, on the other hand, was hypothesized to

have a stronger association with the disengagement component of burnout. To test these

hypotheses, a stepwise multiple regression was performed for the criterion variable of exhaustion

(M = 39.66. SD = 6.87). Using the predictor variables of adaptiveness (M = 109.53, SD = 14.99)


and EWB (M = 57.77, SD = 9.53), this analysis revealed adaptiveness to be the only significant,

and negative, contributor (t = -5.23, p < .0005) to this component of burnout. Thus, predicting

the exhaustion component of burnout may best be described by the equation:

Exhaustion = 32.397 - .116 (adaptiveness)

A stepwise multiple regression was then performed for the criterion variable of

disengagement (M = 20.00, SD = 3.90); again using the predictors of adaptiveness (M = 109.53,

SD = 14.99) and EWB (M = 57.77, SD = 9.53). Results of this analysis showed that adaptiveness

made no significant contribution to the variance in disengagement scores while EWB made a

significant negative contribution, t = -4.67, p < .0005. Therefore, the best available equation

drawn from these results for predicting disengagement would be:

Disengagement = 30.07 - .174 (EWB)

The findings of the latter two stepwise regressions lend strong support hypothesis 2 and 4

as well as to the concept of a multidimensional nature of burnout within the full-service

restaurant setting.

Discussion

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the relationship of adaptiveness and

eudaimonic well-being (EWB) to burnout amongst employees working in full-service

restaurants. Both adaptiveness and EWB were found to be negatively associated with burnout

supporting hypotheses 1 and 3. Adaptiveness, however, accounted for a much larger portion of

the variability in scores on the OLBI and, therefore, represented the best single predictor of

burnout. This indicates that while identity commitment may influence burnout, adaptiveness


seems to have greater predictive power for burnout in restaurant employees. EWB’s weaker

association with overall burnout may have to do with the fact that it is an indirect and general

measure of eudaimonic functioning and would include sources of personal expression and

meaning derived from all of life’s domains, not just work (Waterman et al., 2010).

The combined objective of hypotheses 2 and 4 was to determine whether adaptiveness

and EWB were related to different components of burnout. The findings of the current study

also supported both of these hypotheses, indicating that adaptability and EWB are differentially

related to exhaustion and disengagement, respectively. EWB’s negative relationship with the

disengagement dimension of burnout could indicate that a more specific process of commitment

to ‘work identity’ plays a role in creating engagement for employees. Studies investigating the

degree of identification with job-specific work tasks and the relationship to performance,

burnout, and engagement are warranted by the findings reported here. Furthermore, while EWB

was found to be significantly and negatively associated with disengagement, adaptiveness was

nonsignificant. On the other hand, adaptiveness was found to be negatively associated with

exhaustion but EWB was found to be nonsignificant. In other words the characteristics of

adaptiveness only have meaningful relationships with reduced exhaustion. Likewise, EWB and

the associated characteristics of personal meaning and expression within one’s work only have a

meaningful relationship to reduced disengagement or, conversely, promoting work engagement.

The findings of the current study suggest that different aspects of positive psychosocial

functioning are applicable to different facets of burnout. Furthermore, adaptiveness and EWB,

while both negatively associated with burnout, have discrete pathways through which they

operate to minimize its effects.


With regards to the mechanisms involved in reducing burnout, the cross-sectional design

of the current study limits assumptions. However, given the evidence on coping and identity

commitment within the available literature, it could be surmised that adaptiveness is involved in

preserving the homeostasis of personal function while identity commitment provides directions

for growth of that personal function. In this way, identity is given more opportunity for

expression by greater adaptability, and greater identity commitment allows for the narrowing of

coping and reduction of resource consumption when coping is already effective within particular

circumstances. This may further imply that burnout is low when the core of the self has been

well-defined but not made rigid in its application to life’s demands. This would create an

‘adaptive’ self; better able to find and/or create meaning in work tasks and effectively manage

the stress that is either directly or indirectly related to such tasks. In other words, adaptability

and identity commitment together help to create a strong, coherent sense of identity, personal

meaning and expression that is able to be engaged in any circumstances.

The positive psychosocial functioning one experiences with a greater ‘synthesized self’

(Schwartz et al.,2015; Waterman et al., 2013) would suggest that individuals having greater

identity commitment are better able to reduce stress or, at least engage in stress of their choosing

because it represents personally important and meaningful action. Likewise, greater identity

commitment could be presumed to allow for better identification of demands that are not in line

with the self, and, therefore, better minimize or avoid their associated costs. As such this

provides a narrowed scope of attentional focus to primarily those goals that are deemed to be

critical to a person’s identity and a more adaptive nature provides a better fit between these self-

concordant goals and the work environment.


Limitations

While support was found in the current study for all of the hypotheses and theorized

applications to burnout, these findings need must be applied with caution as there are several

limitations to be addressed. The first is the use of a convenience sampling method to obtain

participants. While this method was effective in collecting individuals for an online survey, it

did not address the issues of finding equal and randomized groups. There may have been a

degree of self-selection in those who chose to participate in the survey and so contributed to

some bias in the results and misrepresentation of the population of restaurant employees. While

it was shown through statistical testing that no violation of equal variances was found for the

demographic comparisons, it must be noted that there were large differences in the size of the

demographic groups with regards to age-range, and position. The exclusion of specific age data

– only grouped as age ranges – also limited the ability to do more fine-grained analysis of

differences in age and the ranges represented may have failed to provide meaningful

comparisons.

As already mentioned, another limitation of the current study is its’ cross-sectional

design. No interventions or experimental method were used and so assumptions that can be

made about the direction of causality amongst the variables are limited. It may be that it is

occupational characteristics that influence adaptiveness and provide opportunities for meaning

and self expression rather than a ‘person-environment fit’ that predicts burnout. Some recent

evidence suggests that this process proceeds in a reciprocal manner, not producing ‘gains’ but

determining how well an individual continues to identify and cope with work (Xanthopolou,


Bakker, Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2009). Despite these limitations, it is posited here that

adaptiveness and possessing a higher level of EWB are essential factors in reducing burnout for

restaurant employees. The significant findings here warrant further investigation using

longitudinal studies to corroborate these relationships.

Conclusion

The findings of the current study indicate that discussion around reducing occupational

burnout and increasing engagement for restaurant employees would benefit from including both

coping skills and job identification as complementary factors in this process. Utilizing aspects of

adaptiveness and EWB provides a more nuanced approach to addressing burnout and

engagement issues for restaurant employees regardless of age, sex, or occupation. The

combination of adaptability with strong identity commitment could be expected to produce the

greatest general adjustment to ongoing stressors and provide fertile ground for the active

development of personal potentials. In the work setting, this translates into an employee who not

only deals well with the demands of their job, but who also identifies with their work and derives

personal meaning and purpose from what they do. As a result they not only avoid characteristics

of burnout, but also become engaged and personally invested in some or all aspects of their job.

These findings could help to guide policy, personal coping, and skill development interventions.

Furthermore, this study may prove a useful starting point if these results can be generalized to

other industries in order to design better workplaces and skill development plans for employees.


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Study on Burnout, Adaptiveness, and Personal Identity in the Restaurant Industry