Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
Employee stress can result in negative impacts both to the employee and to their organization. While all jobs are subject to stressors to some degree, certain occupations can face exceptional stressor levels or highly unique stressors because of the nature of the work. The proposed study aims to identify the common stressors for animal caretakers and the effects these stressors may have on employee engagement and burnout. The study will also examine the potential stress-buffering effects of personal and contextual resources. The project will examine common stressors that have been discussed in previous literature, as well as gain perspective on unique stressors to animal caretakers within zoos and aquariums. The study will specifically measure perceptions of environmental, social, and financial stressors within a sample of animal caretakers to determine the prevalence of each stressor and the relationship each stressor has with an employees’ level of engagement, burnout, and turnover intentions. I expect that each stressor will be related to less engagement, more burnout, and more turnover intentions. I will also examine the extent that resources of safety culture, as well as work centrality modify the impact of stressors on burnout, engagement, and turnover intentions. I expect that safety climate and work centrality may buffer the employees from the negative effects of stressors. Results from this study can be used to inform employee interventions to counter stressors in this unique field.
Date
October 2019
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
posters
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Included in
Working with Wildlife: The Effect of Stressors and Resources on Burnout and Engagement for Animal Caretakers
Employee stress can result in negative impacts both to the employee and to their organization. While all jobs are subject to stressors to some degree, certain occupations can face exceptional stressor levels or highly unique stressors because of the nature of the work. The proposed study aims to identify the common stressors for animal caretakers and the effects these stressors may have on employee engagement and burnout. The study will also examine the potential stress-buffering effects of personal and contextual resources. The project will examine common stressors that have been discussed in previous literature, as well as gain perspective on unique stressors to animal caretakers within zoos and aquariums. The study will specifically measure perceptions of environmental, social, and financial stressors within a sample of animal caretakers to determine the prevalence of each stressor and the relationship each stressor has with an employees’ level of engagement, burnout, and turnover intentions. I expect that each stressor will be related to less engagement, more burnout, and more turnover intentions. I will also examine the extent that resources of safety culture, as well as work centrality modify the impact of stressors on burnout, engagement, and turnover intentions. I expect that safety climate and work centrality may buffer the employees from the negative effects of stressors. Results from this study can be used to inform employee interventions to counter stressors in this unique field.
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology