BURNOUT EM PROFESSORES UNIVERSITÁRIOS: ANÁLISE DE UM MODELO MEDIACIONAL

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the mediational power of the affective organizational commitment in the relationship between justice perception (distributive, processual, and interactional) and burnout (in the dimensions: exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy). In this research there was the participation of 233 professors of a university located in the Midwestern Region of Brazil. The following instruments were used: Maslach burnout inventory, organizational justice perception scale, and a questionnaire for demographic variables. All data collected were analyzed in three distinct phases. In the first one, analysis of variance (Student's t-test and ANOVA with scheffé) was carried out between the demographic variables and the variables of the model. In the second one, multiple linear regressions (stepwise) were performed in order to verify the predictive power of the demographic variables justice perception and affective commitment on burnout. Finally, hierarchical regression analysis (stepwise) was done to evaluate the mediational power (Sobel test) of the affective organizational commitment in the relationship between justice perception and burnout. The results of the analysis of variance showed that: gender precedes interactional justice perception and affective organizational commitment; spheres of action and professor titles precede affective commitment. The results of the multiple regressions evidenced that: distributive justice perception and affective organizational commitment predict exhaustion; cynicism and inefficacy are predicted only by affective commitment directed to the organization. As to the mediational model it was observed that the mediational power of the affective organizational commitment is confirmed only in the relationship between distributive justice perception and exhaustion. Based on the results obtained in the present study, it can be concluded that the perception of injustice in the form of resource distribution may lead the professor to emotional exhaustion, and if mediated by affective commitment with the organization, the likelihood of the professor to develop exhaustion is enhanced. Therefore, if the university uses justice for resource distribution, it can count on healthier professors who have affective commitment with the institution.