Do you want me to be perfect? Two longitudinal studies on socially prescribed perfectionism, stress and burnout in the workplace

作者：Childs Julian H^*; Stoeber Joachim

来源：Work and Stress, 2012, 26(4): 347-364.

DOI：10.1080/02678373.2012.737547

• perfectionism
• stress
• burnout
• employees
• teachers
• longitudinal

Stress and burnout in the workplace have a negative impact not only on individuals but also on organizations, clients and customers and are estimated to be of high cost to a country's economy. To help identify employees at high risk, it is important to know what individual differences contribute to stress and burnout. Two longitudinal studies were conducted to examine whether individual differences in socially prescribed perfectionism (individuals' perceptions that others have perfectionistic expectations of them) contribute to employees' role stress and predict increases in burnout symptoms (exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy). Study 1 investigated 69 healthcare service provision employees in the UK over a six-month interval, and Study 2 investigated 195 school teachers in the UK over a three-month interval. In both studies, socially prescribed perfectionism predicted increases in role stress and inefficacy over time. Moreover, in Study 2, socially prescribed perfectionism also predicted increases in exhaustion and cynicism over time. The findings indicate that individual differences in socially prescribed perfectionism may be a contributing factor to stress and burnout in the workplace.

• 出版日期2012