Many Factors Merge in Decision to Leave a Job

For many people, the stress of their job can be overwhelming. Many studies have been conducted to try to understand the relationship between stress, job burnout and "intentions to leave a job. However, most of these studies have concentrated on a person's work environment as the culprit.

In his studies, Ronald Downey, a Kansas State University professor of psychology, looked elsewhere for answers. He said that a stressful work environment is not the only fuel behind job burnout, which can ultimately lead to job turnover. Downey's research of health care professionals including nurses, physicians and support personnel suggests that a worker's personal characteristics also play a major role.

Downey said his theory is that a person's work environment is not the only predictor of whether or not an employee will develop a desire to leave the job. His study found that "intentions to leave a job cannot be blamed exclusively on a person's work environment. He said researchers and practitioners have to pay attention to the characteristics of each worker and the stress these characteristics can add to an already stressful environment.

Downey conducted his research in the South Texas Veteran Health Care System. He said he chose to study the health care profession because high stress levels are often associated with their career and employees are frequently overloaded with work, emotions are constantly fluctuating, and at times there are not enough resources to go around. All of these are key ingredients to a very stressful job, a major predecessor to job turnover, Downey said.

Downey collected his data through participant self-evaluations. On the evaluations, participants were asked whether or not they intended to leave their job. While subjects gave many reasons for considering another job, Downey said, "a consistent finding is that the intention to leave is both related to job burnout and to people who do leave."

The evaluations asked questions regarding job burnout and interpersonal interaction. They were sent to 3,648 employees. Of them, 870 evaluations or 23.85 percent were returned and used as a means to measure whether the subjects were satisfied with their job or were on the road to job burnout.

Downey's findings support his theory that a worker's personality can influence his or her intention to leave a job.

"The model suggests that people encounter job stressors and that different personality types react differently to the stressors.

"High stress has been shown to lead to increased feelings of emotional exhaustion and decreased levels of job satisfaction," Downey said. "Lower levels of job turnover have been associated with high job satisfaction and health."

Story prepared by Lindsey Bauman
Hometown: Haven, Kansas.

For more information contact professor Downey at 785-532-5712