Job demands and resources related to burn-out symptoms and work engagement in supervisors working with people with severe disabilities in social firms: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: To analyse working conditions, work and health-related outcomes of supervisors working with people with severe disabilities in social firms. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Social firms who employ between 30% and 50% of people with different types of disabilities on the general labour market. PARTICIPANTS: Supervisors of social firms in Germany. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analysis was used to analyse relations between job demands (quantitative and emotional demands), job resources (meaning of work, perceived organisational support and influence at work), personal resources (resilience) and burn-out symptoms as well as work engagement. Validated scales, for example, from the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire were applied. RESULTS: 124 supervisors of social firms in Germany (59.7% were male and 39.5% female) participated within a cross-sectional quantitative online survey. Multiple hierarchical regression analysis indicated an association of quantitative job demands (β=0.236, p<0.05) and perceived organisational support (β=−0.217, p<0.05) and burn-out symptoms of supervisors in social firms. Meaning of work (β=0.326, p<0.001) and perceived organisational support (β=0.245, p<0.05) were significantly associated with work engagement. CONCLUSIONS: Our study specified main job demands and resources for supervisors in German social firms and their impact on both burn-out symptoms and work engagement. When designing measures for workplace health promotion in social firms, especially supervisors’ quantitative job demands need to be reduced and perceived organisational support strengthened.