Job Burnout among Airline Employees in Japan

The present study focuses on the cultural meaning and effectiveness of coping strategies on the process of burnout among Japanese employees in the airline industry. The role of self-applied and other-applied strategies for coping with burnout is investigated. Voluntary absence and supervisory support were chosen as the self- and other-applied coping mechanisms because of their theoretical and contextual relevance. The study was guided by the restorative model of absence. A sequential model of burnout with emotional exhaustion leading to both depersonalization and diminished personal accomplishment was used to study the moderating effects of coping mechanisms. Data were collected from 90 airline service employees working in Tokyo, Japan. Existing instruments of measurement with appropriate translations were used. Absence was found to moderate the relationship between emotional exhaustion and diminished personal accomplishment, while supervisory support was found to moderate the relationship between emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. The theoretical implications of differential moderating effects in a burnout episode as well as its practical implications for the Japanese workplace are discussed.