Work Engagement and Burnout - Consequences of Mismatch Between Individual and Work Environment

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to explore neural correlates of burnout and its neurophysiological nature. At present, burnout syndrome is described mainly in psychological paradigm referring to self-report measures and neuropsychological, performance-based tests. There are only a few studies that characterize biomarkers of burnout and provide some evidence for its neural specification. These findings allow to formulate assumptions supporting the neural nature of burnout and indicate the importance of implementing objective neuroscience methods in this research area. Most of burnout studies that used objective measurements (e.g. fMRI, EEG) are related to cognitive capabilities and impairments. There is still insufficient research exploring emotional component of burnout. The aim of this paper is to investigate neuronal characteristics of both, cognitive and emotional responses in burnout syndrome. In the proposed research model, several components of brain activity are considered to be accurate indicators of these two essential consequences of mismatch between individual and work circumstances. The burnout syndrome still lacks well defined diagnostic criteria. Describing the objective indicators of the phenomena may influence further research in this area which in turn may be of great importance not only in description and explanation of the burnout syndrome, but also in diagnosis and prevention.

Keywords: Burnout Syndrome, Neurophysiology, Electroencephalography (EEG), Event-Related Potentials (ERP), Cognition and Emotion

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe100401