The relationship between public service employees’ personal resources and psychological well-being
| Author | Martina Kotzé |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0020852320985926 |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
The relationship between
public service employees’
personal resources and
psychological well-being
Martina Kotz
e
University of the Free State, South Africa
Abstract
The study investigates the mediating role of psychological capital in the relationship
between personal resources (mindfulness, self-leadership) and psychological well-being
(burnout, work engagement) for a sample of 226 public sector employees in South
Africa. Both mindfulness and self-leadership have a statistically significant positive influ-
ence on psychological capital, while psychological capital mediated the relationship
between both mindfulness and work engagement, and mindfulness and burnout. psy-
chological capital also mediates the relationship between both self-leadership and
engagement, and self-leadership and burnout. Psychological capital has a statistically
significant positive influence on work engagement and a statistically significant negative
influence on burnout. The results show that mindfulness and self-leadership strategies
can enhance psychological capital, reducing burnout and increasing engagement.
Point for practitioners
The public sector requires energised employees to serve the public despite demanding
circumstances. Therefore, management must find ways to support employees in
increasing work engagement levels and avoiding burnout. Since personal resources
(mindfulness, self-leadership, psychological capital) are shown to enhance engagement
and decrease burnout, managers and human resource managers can build these
individual resources through training and development, and consider them in recruit-
ment processes.
Corresponding author:
Martina Kotz
e, Business School Internal post box 19, Nelson Mandela Drive, University of theFree State, PO
Box 339, 9300 Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa.
Email: kotzem@ufs.ac.za
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
!The Author(s) 2021
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0020852320985926
journals.sagepub.com/home/ras
2022, Vol. 88(3) 774–792
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Keywords
burnout, mindfulness, psychological capital, psychological well-being, public sector, self-
leadership, work engagement
Introduction
Economic circumstances pressure organisations to achieve more with less
(Pradhan et al., 2016). Thus, managers must attract and retain the best talent
and optimise employee performance. Also, managers must address employees’
psychological connections to their work, energise, inspire and involve them, and
ensure that they are willing and able to invest themselves fully (Aldrin and
Merdiaty, 2019; Bakker et al., 2012).
The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model (Demerouti and Bakker, 2011)
proposes that work environments are characterised in terms of job demands and
resources. Job demands (e.g. work pressure, work–home life conflict) cause occu-
pational stress as they require continued physical, social or psychological effort
(Bakker, 2015). Public sector employees have distinct demands and stressors,
including political interference, public expectations, multiple accountabilities,
insufficient resources and bureaucracy (Borst, 2018; Borst et al., 2019; De
Simone et al., 2016). Cost-cutting, demographic changes and the demand for effec-
tive services and careful resource planning create pressure in the sector (Jurisch
et al., 2013; Wushe and Shenje, 2019). Similar to private organisations, public
organisations must make procedural and structural changes (Khan and
Khandaker, 2016). Public organisations must manage demanding emotional
labour related to stressful relational work and stakeholders’ contradictory interests
(Jurisch et al., 2013), while securing their consent and commitment (Eldor, 2018;
Guy et al., 2014; Jeung et al., 2018).
Efficient service delivery in stressful public sector environments depends on
employee performance (Mhlanga et al., 2019). Van de Walle et al. (2015) found
that opportunities to help others and contribute to society draw individuals into
public service. Subsequently, employees’ psychological connections to their work,
well-being and cognitive and emotional involvement are key factors in public
organisations’ success (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2003). The JD-R model proposes
that persistent job demands affect well-being through emotional exhaustion and
poor health, which undermine performance (Bakker, 2015; Demerouti and Bakker,
2011). Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) propound that workplace burnout and engage-
ment are the principal indicators of employees’ psychological well-being. Burnout
is characterised by a state of emotional exhaustion in reaction to demanding work-
place conditions (Schutte et al., 2000). This leads to cynicism (mentally distancing
from work to conserve energy) and reduced personal accomplishment (Maslach
et al., 2001). Work engagement refers to employees approaching tasks with more
energy, sustained effort and pride, while being inspired and challenged (Schaufeli
775
Kotz
e
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