SERBIAN VERSION OF THE WORK BURNOUT SCALE FROM THE COPENHAGEN BURNOUT INVENTORY: ADAPTATION AND PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES

Abstract

Burnout is most commonly defined as a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by long-term involvement in emotionally demanding situations. The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) is a recently-developed public domain questionnaire designed to measure burnout in three domains: personal, work-related, and client-related. The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Work Burnout (WB) scale from the CBI and its relationships with various relevant constructs. 352 Serbian employees from two different samples completed several instruments assessing work burnout, distress, (ir)rational beliefs, turnover intentions, and job satisfaction. Results showed that the WB had a two-dimensional factorial structure (work exhaustion and work frustration), with acceptable fit indices using CFA, and excellent internal consistency. Moreover, the scale (and both dimensions) meaningfully correlated with distress, irrational beliefs, job satisfaction, and intentions to leave the organization. These findings indicate that the WB is a valid instrument to use with employees across different occupations and could be particularly useful when researchers want to quickly and efficiently assess emotional burnout. Also, the scale may be used as a short two-dimensional scale for measuring two distinct aspects of burnout, work frustration and work exhaustion. Some limitations of the study and the instrument itself have also been highlighted and discussed.