Psychosocial safety climate and burnout among academicians: the mediating role of work engagement

Abstract

As Malaysian universities are moving towards world-class research universities, academicians are now more vulnerable to burnout. Hence, a literature review related to burnout is done on full-time academicians who have worked more than one year in Malaysian research universities, and psychosocial safety climate (PSC) is found useful in this context as it is a precursor to working conditions including job demands and in turn, burnout and work engagement through mediation pathway. This paper proposes a better job design by PSC through challenge job demands and hindrance job demands which could enhance the work engagement of academicians while minimizing their level of burnout. Hence, in-depth PSC context proposed for the rewarding job demands and reduce the burnout level of academicians via the mediation of work engagement. Therefore, PSC could offer a useful tool to help in the change of management practices of research universities and in turn academicians' health and well-being.