Date of Award

5-20-2025

Thesis Type

PhD

Document Type

Thesis

Divisions

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Department

Department of Anthropology and Sociology

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

In comparison to ordinary longitudinal studies, which provide only a snapshot of the relationship at specific time intervals, the current research explores the dynamic processes between job stressors and burnout using a continuous-time study (a longitudinal study that includes actual time lags) at both the between-person and within person levels. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 focus on continuous-time models to analyse responses from 89 teachers in Klang Valley, Malaysia, over a 14-month period, resulting in 258 different time lags. Chapter 3 reveals that emotional demands, role conflict, and student misbehaviour had different effects on exhaustion and mental distance symptoms. At the within person level, student misbehaviour predicted exhaustion, and role conflict was linked to mental distance. At the between-person level, emotional demands predicted exhaustion, while both role conflict and student misbehaviour contributed to mental distance. Conversely, both exhaustion and mental distance were associated with higher role conflict and student misbehaviour at both levels. The effects of stressors and strain were large between three and seven weeks at the between-person level. Chapter 4 explains how psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and service climate protect employee well-being. PSC focuses on employee psychological health, while service climate emphasises service quality to meet customer satisfaction. The analysis revealed that student stressors influenced mental distance at both the between- and within-person levels, but were not related to exhaustion. Exhaustion increased perceived student stressors at both levels, while mental distance increased student stressors at the between-person level only. Perceived PSC reduced the detrimental effects of student stressors on mental distance and the effect of exhaustion on perceived student stressors at both levels. Meanwhile, perceived service climate reduced the reciprocal effects between student stressors and mental distance at the between-person level, as well as the effects of exhaustion on student stressors at both levels. The moderating effects were more substantial at one-week intervals at the within-person level compared to four-week intervals at the between-person level. These findings highlight the importance of both PSC and service climate in safeguarding employee well-being. Chapter 5 demonstrates that exhaustion led to mental distance at the between-person level only, with no reverse effect. The impact of exhaustion on mental distance was large between one and six weeks. To explore the short-term effects of stress, Chapters 6 and 7 focus on a diary study conducted with employees from an engineering and maintenance company in Selangor, Malaysia, over five working days to capture day-to-day fluctuations (N=61; in total 305 diaries). In Chapter 6, the findings indicate that cognitive demands were appraised as both a challenge and a hindrance, while quantitative demands were mainly perceived as a hindrance. Hindrance appraisals mediated positive relationships between these two types of demands and exhaustion. Meanwhile, challenge appraisals mediated the negative relationship between cognitive demands and exhaustion and positive relationships with work engagement. In Chapter 7, the multilevel analysis uncovered that daily challenge and hindrance appraisals had opposing effects on daily exhaustion and work engagement. However, colleague support had a positive association with daily work engagement but no significant effect on daily exhaustion. The interactions of challenge appraisals and colleague support reduced levels of daily work engagement. Overall, the current research provides an understanding of the temporal dynamics of multiple job stressors, which can effectively inform the design of targeted interventions to mitigate or prevent burnout.

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Thesis (PhD) – Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Malaya, 2025.

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