The impact of telecom industry employees' stress perception on job burnout: moderated mediation model

• Published in: BMC public health Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 1623 - 12
• Main Authors: Liu, Ruihong, Zhang, Hanzhong, Feng, Chunyuan, Wu, Xueyi, Pan, Zhenyu, Li, Wanyu, Jia, Liping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 18.06.2024; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adult; Burn out (Psychology); Burnout; Burnout, Professional - psychology; China - epidemiology; Communications industry; Correlation analysis; COVID-19; COVID-19 - epidemiology; COVID-19 - psychology; Cross-Sectional Studies; Decompression; Digital economy; Female; Female employees; Gender; Health aspects; High pressure; Humans; Hypotheses; Industrial development; Job burnout; Job stress; Labor market; Male; Mediation; Mediation Analysis; Mental health; Middle Aged; Negotiation, mediation and arbitration; Occupational health; Occupational stress; Occupational Stress - psychology; Officials and employees; Perception; Perceptions; Pressure effects; Prevention; Psychological aspects; Questionnaires; Random sampling; Risk factors; Risk groups; Sex Factors; Social aspects; Social interactions; Social Support; Statistical sampling; Stress; Stress perception; Surveys and Questionnaires; Telecom industry employees; Telecommunications; Telecommunications industry; Telecommunications services industry; Workers; China; Stress perception; Job burnout; Gender; Telecom industry employees; Social support
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-18704-6

The rapid development of the telecommunications industry in the post-COVID-19 era has brought tremendous pressure to employees making them a high-risk group for job burnout. However, prior research paid less attention to the burnout of employees. Furthermore, social support and gender have separate effects on job burnout. This study explores the mechanism of stress perception on job burnout and examines the roles of social support and gender amid it. This cross-sectional study was conducted from June 2023 to August 2023 in mainland China. A total of 39,507 were recruited by random sampling and online questionnaires, and 28,204 valid questionnaires were retained. SPSS (version 26.0) and PROCESS (Model 4 & 7) were used for correlation analysis, mediation analysis, and mediated moderation analysis. Stress perception can positively predict the level of job burnout of employees in the telecommunications industry, and social support plays a partial mediating role, accounts for 8.01% of the total effect, gender moderates the first half of the path in this mediation model. At the same pressure level, female can perceive more social support than male. Under high pressure background, employees' job burnout varies depending on gender and the perception of social support. Therefore, telecommunications industry managers should adopt decompression measures and targeted social support resources for different groups.