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Hamburg (dpa / lno) - According to a study by the Hamburg Kühne Logistics University (KLU), top managers are less at risk of burnout than their subordinate management staff.
"Our study shows: the higher up the hierarchy a manager is, the less risk they are of suffering burnout," explained Jennifer Korman, who with Prof. Niels Van Quaquebeke and Prof. Christian Tröster the connection between the position in the corporate hierarchy and investigated the risk of burnout.
One reason is that people in management positions have more control, for example, over the design of their own tasks or over the people with whom they work.
"This feeling of having things under control protects against mental stress such as stress, fear or (...) burnout," said Van Quaquebeke.
According to their own statements, the scientists surveyed 580 and 154 managers in two rounds, around ten percent of whom were absolute top staff.
In addition, a person close to each manager was interviewed.
In 77 percent this was the partner, followed by friends, colleagues and relatives at a large distance.
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In the study, the researchers focused on the factors “feeling of power”, i.e. the ability to exert influence, and “self-efficacy”, i.e. the feeling of being able to successfully master tasks in the work environment based on one's own skills.
"It turned out that both one's own sense of power and self-efficacy independently and to the same extent explain the connection between hierarchical level and burnout," said Korman.
Both factors also turned out to be necessary prerequisites for burnout to occur less frequently.
The KLU pointed out that the sample was not representative and should not be compared with representative surveys in the general population.
It should be noted, however, that burnouts in higher hierarchical levels are decreasing.
Previous studies have also shown that managers feel less stress and anxiety than normal employees.
"Of course, companies cannot simply promote all executives to higher management in order to protect them from burnout," said Van Quaquebeke.
But improving the abstract thinking of executives in middle management, i.e. having the big picture in view, improves the experience of control and protects against burnout.
A positive error culture, resilience training and role models in your own company are also helpful.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210311-99-773801 / 2