The Impact of Psychosocial Resources Incorporated with Collective Psychological Ownership on Work Burnout of Social Workers in China

Abstract

Prior studies investigating the impact of psychosocial resources on reducing work burnout of social workers have been largely conducted in western societies, in a sparse manner, and with nonrandom samples. Using a nationally representative random sample (N = 5,800) collected from the first wave of the China Social Work Longitudinal Study in 2019 (CSWLS 2019), this study aimed to examine the impact of psychosocial resources on work burnout with an emphasis on the role played by collective psychological ownership (CPO). The results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed two key findings. First, psychosocial resources as an overarching concept was negatively associated with three burnout dimensions experienced by social workers after controlling for demographic variables and job related characteristics. Second, CPO played a significant role in explaining reduced personal accomplishment of social workers while controlling for demographic variables, job related characteristics, and other types of psychosocial resources including person-organization value fit, satisfaction with income, acquired professional recognition, social support, and job autonomy. The findings highlight the importance of psychosocial resources incorporated with CPO in reducing work burnout of social workers and enhancing their workplace wellbeing. Future research is suggested to investigate the impact of CPO on positive work-related states of social workers.

Keywords:

• Work burnout
• collective psychological ownership
• psychosocial resources
• social workers

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the China National Social Science Fund under Grant No. 19CSH063 and Shanghai Social Science Foundation under Grant No. 2018BSH011. The authors thank the CSWLS program for making the data available for analysis.