Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
7-2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Robert Voelkel
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Heather N Rasmussen
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Carlos Contreras
Abstract
Burnout has been an ongoing problem that negatively impacts organizations, their leaders, and employees. While burnout is a highly researched topic, there is less information on burnout and mindfulness in government employees in the United States. According to research, mindfulness, a state of being conscious or aware, has shown to improve well-being and reduce stress and burnout in employees. Previous studies showed that burnout is a common problem that can lead to negative mental, emotional, and physical outcomes. The goal of this quantitative correlational study was to determine to what extent a relationship exists between mindfulness and burnout among government employees in the United States. The research question was designed to determine this relationship. For this study, the Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey, consisting of three subscales (exhaustion, cynicism, personal efficacy), and the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale, consisting of two subscales (awareness, acceptance), were utilized for the surveys. One hundred government employees participated and completed the online surveys through Qualtrics; however, 95 were calculated due to outliers, and the data were analyzed by utilizing SPSS 28 to determine the Pearson r correlations between the two scales and subscales. The results revealed a significant positive correlation between the burnout subscale of professional efficacy and the mindfulness subscale of awareness. There was also a negative relationship between the burnout subscale of exhaustion and the mindfulness subscale of acceptance and between the burnout subscale of cynicism and the mindfulness subscale of acceptance. The results of this study imply that mindfulness as a positive psychology construct can aid in reducing burnout in government employees.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Davis, Simona C., "Examining the Relationship Between Burnout and Mindfulness in Government Employees: A Closer Look at Mindfulness in Positive Psychology" (2022). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 495.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/495
Included in
Educational Leadership Commons, Educational Psychology Commons, Higher Education Commons