An Investigation Into the Perceived Job Burnout Among IT Personnel in China

Abstract

Although job stress is a worldwide problem, the perceived expression of people differs in diverse cultural societies. Thus, this study expects to explore the job burnout of Chinese ITP. We know that Mainland China (the PRC) and Taiwan share the same language and inherit Chinese culture; thus, this study based on Job Burnout Model and Chinese Guanxi* Perspective adopts qualitative research method to collect ITP's data from the PRC and Taiwan. Then, this study selected nine ITP in the PRC, and 10 ITP in Taiwan as the cases, and the interviews were taped, with agreement from the interviewees. Therefore, the current study finds that (1) permeability is a critical factor of the technology characteristics; (2) permeability influences organizational factors and ITP's emotional job demands; (3) Chinese guanxi also influences organizational factors, technology characteristics, and job resources of Chinese ITP. Finally, this study contributes to both the academics and practice of the job burnout issue.