Job demands, job resources, psychological capital, organizational commitment and job burnout among pilots in Malaysia

Abstract

Job burnout is an occupational stress related to the imbalance between an individual’s work demands and the resources at the disposal of an individual in dealing with those demands. Individuals affected with job burnout are increasing in trend where about three out of four people reported having job burnout during their career. This high occurrence of job burnout among employees has been found across broad range of fields including among pilots in the aviation industry. This research aimed to determine the relationship between job demand and job resources with job burnout in the Malaysian aviation industry. It also examined the moderating role of the psychological capital and organizational commitment in the relationship between job demand and job resources with job burnout. This research adopted job demands-resources theory framework. The data were collected by questionnaires obtained from a sample of 204 aviation pilots working with aviation companies in Malaysia where Partial Least Squares (PLS) path modelling Version 3.2 were then applied for the data analysis. The research findings revealed that job demands has positive relationship with job burnout. While job resources were found to have negative relationship with job burnout. Psychological capital seemed to be moderating the relationship between job demands and job burnout, while organizational commitment moderates the relationship between job resources and job burnout. This research concludes that a high level of job demands and low level of job resources lead to job burnout among aviation pilots in Malaysia. Therefore, aviation industry players are recommended to provide job resources for the pilots to reduce job burnout. Furthermore, policy makers in Malaysia aviation industry also need to develop evaluation criterial and standard guidelines based on organizational commitment and psychological capital to determine job fit among aviation pilots. Finally, for future research, this study recommended other dimensions of job demands and job resources is explored and personal factors variables is included as extensions of knowledge on job demands-resources interactions.