From Role Conflict to Job Burnout: A Mediation Model Moderated by Mindfulness

This study examined the moderated mediating effect of mindfulness as an emotional resource on the relationship between role conflict and burnout (i.e., exhaustion, cynicism, and professional inefficacy) via negative affect. Participants were 481 adult employees in South Korea who provided self-report data 2 times with a 2-week interval. The results indicated that mindfulness moderated the relationship between role conflict and negative affect such that the effect of role conflict on negative affect was reduced when mindfulness was high. Furthermore, Time 1 role conflict had conditional indirect effects on 3 facets of burnout measured at Time 2 through Time 1 negative affect depending on the levels of Time 1 mindfulness. The findings suggest that mindfulness may prevent the development of negative affect from role conflict, ultimately reducing the impact of role conflict on burnout. Practitioners should introduce workplace mindfulness programs to help employees cope with burnout more effectively.