A Model for Explaining Organizational Inertia Based on Employees Burnout of Sport and Youth General Offices

Background & Objectives: A serious problem of organizations is employees’ burnout in the work environment, i.e., caused by the spread of negative job trends. Burnout is not a mental disorder; however, it gradually aggravates over time and becomes a mental disability. Occupational burnout is often accompanied by frequent absences, quitting, as well as depression and anxiety. The prevalence of burnout in sports organizations is of concern. Additionally, a criticism leveled at sports organizations is the incompatibility of these organizations with environmental changes and developments, i.e., rooted in stagnation and inactivity, or in other words, organizational inertia. Therefore, this study aimed at explaining organizational inertia based on employees burnout. Methods: The statistical population of the present cross–sectional study consisted of all employees of the General Departments of Sports and Youth of the Northwest in Iran (East Azerbaijan Province; n=106, West Azerbaijan Province; n=101, Ardabil Province; n=85, Zanjan Province; n=80; N=372), in 2019. The sample size was determined to be 181 using Krejcie and Morgan’s Table (1970). The inclusion criteria of the research were providing informed consent forms to participate in the research; having ≥3 years of work experience; having a BA degree, and achieving a higher than average score in the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI; Maslach & Jackson, 1981). The exclusion criteria of the study included obtaining a score below the average in the MBI, non–cooperation, and providing incomplete questionnaires. The study samples were selected using a stratified sampling method appropriate to the statistical population. Accordingly, 52, 49, 41, and 39 subjects were selected from East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardabil, and Zanjan Provinces. The MBI and the Organizational Inertia Questionnaire (Godkin & Allcom, 2008) were applied to collect the required data. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS by descriptive statistics, including mean and standard deviation. Furthermore, to analyze the path and fit coefficients, the structural equation modeling was implemented in LISREL at a significance level of 0.05. Results: The mean±SD values were measured as follows: job burnout (3.805±0.999), emotional fatigue (3.706±1.330), depersonalization (3.706±1.125), decrease in individual performance (3.168±0.979), and organizational inertia (3.312±0.989). Moreover, the path coefficient of emotional reduction to job burnout (β=0.63, p<0.001), the path coefficient of depersonalization to job burnout (β=0.72, p<0.001), the path coefficient of reduced individual performance to job burnout was positive (β=0.55, p<0.001,); the path coefficient of job burnout to organizational inertia was positive (β=0.53, p<0.001). The obtained fit indices revealed that the hypothesized model presented a good fit with the research data (X/df=2.77, GFI=0.968, CFI=0.993, NFI=0.994, & RMSEA=0.031). Conclusion: According to the current research findings, occupational burnout caused organizational inertia in the general departments of sports and youth in the Northwest of Iran; therefore, the managers of sports organizations must take steps to reduce the level of burnout of employees to manage the occurrence of organizational inertia.