| Summary: | Higher education institutions in South Africa are undergoing transformation because of
increasing student numbers, government and the private sector relying on tertiary institutions
to assist in solving problems in addition to the globalisation of knowledge. University staff is
continuously faced major changes. Immense pressure is placed on academic institutions,
including support staff. Support staff are constantly faced with increasing job demands and
decreasing job resources. This imbalance and the increase of job stress over a prolonged
period of time can lead to the devastating result of burnout.
The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between task characteristics,
burnout, health and life satisfaction in a higher education institution in the North West
Province. A cross-sectional design was used. The study population (N=334) consisted of
support staff members of higher education institutions in the North West Province. The Job
Demands-Resources Scale (JDRS), The Maslach Burnout Inventory - GS (MBI-GS), the
Health subscale of the ASSET and The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) were used as
measuring instruments. Descriptive statistics (for example, means, standard deviations and
kurtosis) were used to analyse the data. Pearson correlations and multiple regression analyses
were used to assess the relationships between job demands, job resources, burnout, physical
health, psychological health and life satisfaction.
The correlation coefficients indicated that exhaustion was positively related to psychological
ill-health. Cynicism correlated negatively with growth opportunities. Multiple regression
analysis showed that overload and growth opportunities predicted 26% of the variance for
exhaustion and 29% of the variance in cynicism. Exhaustion predicted 24% of the variance
for physical ill-health and 37% of the variance for psychological ill-health. Psychological ill-health
predicted 16% of the variance of life satisfaction. Recommendations for future research and the organisation were made. === Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.
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