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The Role of Motivation as a Moderator of the Job Demand

BurnoutPerformance Relationship among Service


Employees in a Social Marketing Campaign
Rajeev Verma*, Jyoti Verma**

The key to a successful implementation of any social marketing campaign is learning what will work with
the target population for sustained behavioural change. To foster this process, the role of frontline employees
is very crucial. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of job motivation in the burnout process.
The data has been collected from 112 frontline employees engaged in the implementation of Total Sanitation
Campaign (TSC). The level of mediation of burnout on job performance and employee turnover intentions
has been examined along with the moderating effect of job motivation. Result shows that burnout mediates
the effect of job demand and job resources on job performance and turnover intentions. Further, motivation
also buffers the dysfunctional effects of burnout on job outcomes. The key implication of the study is that
service organizations should hire individuals with higher motivation for frontline positions to get a better
jobperson fit and improved overall project implementation.
Key words: Grounded theory, collaborative tools, global virtual team, virtual team effectiveness, demographic
dissimilarity, trust.

Introduction
Social marketing seeks to influence societal behaviour not to benefit the marketer, but to
benefit the target audience and the general society. Social marketing is the application of
commercial marketing concepts and techniques to the target population intended to achieve
the goal of positive social change (Kotler and Zaltman, 1971). Any successfully implemented
social marketing campaign first understands the target population for sustained behavioural
change. The target population is more likely to adopt a desired behaviour if the intended
project assesses and subsequently tries to change beneficiarys attitude, their perceptions of
benefits and societal perception at large towards the new behaviour.
In this perspective, one much talked about social marketing campaign is the rural sanitation,
which requires great societal motivation and social change. The Government of India (GoI)
launched Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) in the year 1986 with the objective of
accelerating sanitation coverage in rural areas. CRSP was again re-structured in the year 1999
exhibiting a paradigm shift in the approach and Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) was introduced
(DDWS, 2010).TSC is implemented in a campaign mode across the country taking district as
a unit in order to achieve 100 percent sanitation in terms of households, anganwadi1 and
school toilets. To foster this process the frontline employees or community catalysts, commonly
called as gram sevaks have been deployed for improving and maintaining sanitation facilities

*
Rajeev Verma, Doctoral Student, IIM Indore, Marketing Area (Email: f09rajeev@iimidr.ac.in)
**
Jyoti Verma, Doctoral Student, Nirma University, Ahmedabad, OB & HR Area (Email:
Jyoti.gurukul@gmail.com)
1
Anganwadi courtyard shelter is a government sponsored child and mother care centre in India under
the Integrated Child Development Services programme initiated in 1975 by GoI. It caters to children in the
0-6 age group.

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The Role of Motivation as a Moderator of the Job DemandBurnoutPerformance 69

in their respective areas. The organizational unit use the job titles of gram sewak or community
catalyst to describe those employees who spend their time dealing directly with project
beneficiaries helping in the implementation of the projects and/or responding user queries,
problems and complaints.
As frontline employees have firsthand experience of the situation, they play most crucial role
in the programme implementation strategy. However, it has been found that, most of these
frontline staff members (ASHA, Anganwadi etc.) are lesser paid employees , which amounts
to as low as $1 / day (Palriwala and Neetha, 2010). Hence, to sustain their motivation level and
to operationalize such a programme is a challenge for the implementation agency. This lack of
extrinsic motivation negatively affects their individual work performance level and in turn
affects programme implementation and its performance (Menon and Dub, 2004; Rust, Zahorik,
and Keiningham, 1996).
The present study primarily deals with the job performance related issues of these community
catalysers and more specifically with the behavioural aspect of these employees in the presence
of chronic work stress and varied motivational level. In this paper we build an argument that,
while meeting discerning user expectations and demands on one hand, and managements
productivity and performance requirements on the other, frontline employees are caught in
the middle. Hence experiencing internal and external interfaces on a daily basis, frontline
employees often suffer from emotional exhaustion (Arndt, Arnold, and Landry, 2006) which is
a form of psychological strain resulting from chronic work stress leading to burnout.
It has been well documented that frontline employee play a critical role in service delivery and
building relationships with end users (Babakus, Yavas and Ashill, 2009; Bettencourt and
Brown 2003; Singh, 1998). They are the direct participants in implementing the marketing
concepts, and their motivation and behaviour towards these programmes determine beneficiary
perceived satisfaction. However, they deal with many people inside and outside the
organization (e.g., supervisors, coworkers, and customers), and as a consequence of the
social interactions with a large set of people with varied expectations, goal incompatibility
often emerges. This leads to an increase in employee burnout (Nonis, Sager, and Kumar,
1996), the two key aspects of which are emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation (Tubre
and Collins, 2000). Despite this burnout and varied motivational levels among these frontline
service employees, empirical research is yet to identify its determinants. This gap is significant
because different tasks may require different skills, motivations, and cognitive strategies
(Mumford, 2003).
The review of the burnout literature reveals important gaps. First, two major categories of job
characteristics are often mediated by job burnout to produce job outcome. These heavily
studied job characteristics are job demands and job resources (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004).
However, empirical evidence shows partial mediation of job burnout in the overall process
(Babakus et al, 2009). Furthermore, employees experiencing burnout often consider leaving
their organization as of lack of motivation (Moore, 2000). Given that frontline employees are
among the most critical elements of a firms marketing strategy implementation, understanding
frontline employee motivation and its overall impact on burnout and its consequences is a
major concern to marketing scholars and managers (Singh, 2000).
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In this paper, we had two research objectives: first, to examine the extent of mediation of
burnout on job outcome (performance and turnover intentions) and second, to investigate
the moderating effect of job motivation in the overall burnout process. While some evidence
exists on the direct influence of motivation on job satisfaction and performance (Donavan,
Brown, and Mowen, 2004), role of motivation in the burnout process is yet to be explored.
This study makes significant contribution to the existing literature. With this, we strongly
support that recruitment and selection of frontline employees should incorporate an assessment
of the motivation level of prospective employees. Consequently, the organization may reap
benefits by improved employee retention and hence overall project implementation. Further,
as the study investigates the effect of different contextual variables (job demand, job
resources), various implications have been drawn on the extent of service support, training
and supervisory support in the overall burnout process. This paper is structured as follows:
first, we review the theories underlying burnout and its antecedents. Then after describing
the research framework, subsequent research model and underlying hypothesis, we report
the result of the study by empirically testing the research model. We conclude with a discussion
of theoretical and managerial implications and direction for future research.
Theoretical background
Employee attitudes and behaviours relating to job demand and resources occupy central role
in the job burnout process and serve as anchor for this study. While there has been extensive
research on the topic of job performance and turnover intention, the theory of reasoned
action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) along with conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll
1989, 2001) serve as the theoretical framework for the current study. These theories are widely
referred theories for the study of human behaviour in social sciences, although no evidence
has been found for establishing its generalizability to any industry. However, this study is
one of the pioneer attempts to extend the theory of reasoned action for explaining the behaviour
of social workers serving in social marketing campaign.
The theory of reasoned action explains the relationship between attitude, intention, and
behaviour. It purports that intentions, based on the underlying reason mediate the relationship
between attitude and behaviour (Sheppard, Harwick, and Warshaw, 1988; Prestholdt, Lane,
and Mathews, 1987) and hence net behaviour is determined by the intention to perform, i.e.,
{B= f (I)}. The basic concept of the theory of reasoned action has been incorporated into a
number of studies explaining employee turnover (Mobley, 1977; Mobley, Horner, Hollingsworth,
1978; Mobley, Griffeth, Hand, and Meglino, 1979; Muchinsky and Morrow, 1980). As per
conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 2001), individuals tend to protect
their valuable things. These valuable things constitute the resources and are termed as job
resources in context of employer support, remuneration and recognition. This also prominently
guides the research in stress management area (Halbesleben and Buckley, 2004). These two
theories cumulatively serve as a backbone for the proposed research framework.
Out of the many emerging perspectives, Bakker, Demerouti and Verbeke (2004) found that
burnout mediates the effects of lack of resources on job performance. In another study

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Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) found that burnout fully mediates the effects of both job demands
and job resources on turnover intentions. In contrast, Singh (2000) showed a direct negative
effect of job demand on job performance. However, in the present study, we remain consistent
with the previous research and study the effects of both job demands and job resources on
job performance and turnover intentions. Although these perspectives emerge from the
literature concerning the varied nature of the interrelationships among job characteristics,
burnout, and job outcomes, the present study remains consistent with Podsakoff, LePine,
and LePine (2007) and explains the construct job characteristic with job demand and job
resource. These constructs are further explained as:
Job Demand: Cordes and Dougherty (1993) found that the three most critical dimensions of
job demand are conflict, ambiguity and overload. The role conflict has been explained as
incompatibility of expectations communicated to a role incumbent by his or her role
senders (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, Rosenthal, 1964). Role ambiguity is associated with
ones need for certainty and predictability, especially regarding ones goals and means of
accomplishing them. It may occur if an individual lacks adequate information to
accomplish required activities (Jackson and Schuler, 1985). Similarly individuals experiencing
role overload feel they lack the basic skills or talents necessary to complete the task
effectively on time. In present context, the preliminary discussion with the community
catalysers raises concerns about role overload and ambiguity of the task allotted.

Figure 1: The three dimensions to measure job demand

Job Resource: It has been explained in the form of tangibles and intangibles to accomplish
the task effectively. Job resources are characterized by training, reward, supervisory support
and service support, that is consistent with the previous study by Schaufeli et al, (2004).These
indicator variables have been found consistent with the previously done studies (Bell, Menguc
and Stefani, 2004) in the service marketing context.

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Figure 2: The four dimensions to measure job resource

Burnout: Burnout is characterized by emotional exhaustion, a tendency to depersonalize


others and diminished perceptions of ability on the job (Cordes and Dougherty, 1993). It
undermines sales employees performance and hinders effective customer service (Babakus,
Emin,Cravens, Johnston and Moncrief, 1999). Furthermore, employees experiencing burnout
often consider leaving their organization (Moore 2000). In a micro level study conducted by
(Palriwala and Neetha, 2010) burnout has been explained in the social workers (ASHA,
Anganwadi) originating from the different expectations from family and working environment.
Burnout has been measured with six items adapted from the Maslach Burnout Inventory
(Maslach and Jackson, 1981) using three items each for the dimension of emotional exhaustion
and depersonalization.
Job Motivation: The employee motivation, their enthusiastic and energetic behaviour towards
task fulfilment plays key role in the success of an organization. In the previously done studies,
motivation has been defined as the will to accomplish (Bedeian, 1993); an inner force to gratify
an unsatisfied need (Higgins, 1994); the psychological process that gives behaviour purpose
and direction (Kreitner, 1995); and a tendency to behave in a purposive method to achieve
specific, unmet desires (Buford, Bedeian, and Lindner, 1995). The present study being
consistent with Kreitner (1995) defines motivation as individual tendency to drive their inner
force to achieve personal and organizational goals. Motivation has been measured using the
9 item scale of job motivation by De Beer (1987), under the dimensions of focus, intensity,
quality and duration.
Job Performance: The variable job performance has been an important variable assessed in
job turnover studies (Hulin, 1968; Koch and Steers, 1978; Carsten and Spector, 1987; Tett and
Meyer, 1993; Hellman, 1997; Karsh, Booske, and Sainfort, 2005). Over time, the study of job
performance - employee turnover relationship matured and has been incorporated in several
models (Mobley, 1977; Muchinsky and Morrow, 1980). However, no empirical evidence has
been found to know the interaction effect of motivation and burnout on job performance.
Turnover Intentions: There is a substantial body of literature which finds that job demand is
associated with turnover intentions (Horn and Griffith, 1995; Mathieu and Zajac, 1990).
However, less evidence has been seen from social marketing literature. In a study conducted
by Sundararaman (2006) on health workers in Chhattisgarh, the lack of motivation, personal

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growth, insure working conditions and financial insecurities are some of the precursors listed
for turnover intentions.
Conceptual framework and hypothesis development
The research framework has been drawn to study the role of job motivation in the overall
burnout process. The antecedents i.e., job characteristics have been drawn consistent with
other studies (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004; Cordes and Dougherty, 1993) which lead to job
outcomes as consequents. As we are looking for the moderation effect of the motivation, the
research framework can be drawn as:
Figure 3: The Research Framework of the Study

In the present study, we remain consistent with the previous studies conducted in the domain
(Singh, 2000) and expect detrimental effect of both job demands and job resources (lack of
resources) on job performance. However, no mediation effect has been studied in the earlier
studies. The present model has been mediated by burnout which is characterized by emotional
exhaustion and depersonalization. Hence, making it consistent with the earlier studies (Schaufeli
and Bakker, 2004) we propose mediation of burnout on job outcomes. Further, as the effect of
job demand on job performance has already been studied in the absence of burnout effect,
and found significant (Licata, Mowen, Harris and Brown, 2003). We propose the following
hypotheses:
H1. Burnout mediates the effects of job demands (JD) on (a) job performance (JP) and (b)
turnover intentions (TI).
H2. Burnout mediates the effects of job resources (JR) on (a) job performance (JP) and (b)
turnover intentions (TI).
To know, what motivates employees is one of the key challenges for project managers.
Although it is not possible directly to motivate everyone, it is important to know, how to
influence what others are motivated to do, with the overall aim of having employees identify
their own goals with that of the organizational mission (Bruce and Pepitone, 1999). In the real
life, various human resource management strategies contribute to the programme
implementation by influencing individual or group behaviour (Lawler and Cohen, 1992). A
hierarchical personality model approach (Licata et al. 2003) views behaviour as a function of
both the person and the environment where motivation to any particular job oriented behaviour
results from a combination of the person (e.g., personality) and the environment (e.g., nature

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of the job). Employees with high motivation naturally experience and display desired emotions
without depleting resources and, therefore, remain resistant to stress and burnout. Hence, we
propose that,
H3. Job motivation (JM) has a negative relationship with burnout (BO).
In the present context, it has been observed that community catalysers with high motivation
have a natural internal drive to engage in customer-satisfying behaviours due to their
propensity to be helpful and cooperative when dealing with programme beneficiaries. This
has been found consistent with Brown, Mowen, Donavann and Licata 2002; Gremler and
Gwinner 2008. Such behaviours include finding and promptly delivering solutions to all
stakeholder problems and maintaining a consistent level of emotionality during interactions
(Donavan et al, 2004; Wiles, 2007). Furthermore, it has been variedly found in the service
marketing literature that due to the natural fit between frontline employees with high
commitment and motivation, such employees will be more committed and satisfied (Donavan
at al., 2004). Therefore, we propose the following hypotheses:
H42. Job motivation (JM) has a significant relationship with (a) job performance (JP) and (b)
Turnover intentions (TI).
Besides being directly related to burnout and job outcomes, we argue that motivation plays a
critical role in the primary appraisal of job demands and also serves as a coping resource to
alleviate the effects of job demands on burnout and job outcomes. Frontline employees with
high motivation should appraise job demands (stressors) as less threatening than those with
lower motivation due to their natural disposition to view the work environment and people
around them with a customer service focus. Therefore, we advance the following hypotheses:
H5. Job Motivation moderates the effects of job demands on job performance.

Figure 4: The proposed research model and depiction of proposed hypothesis

2
The hypothesis (H4) may seem apparent, as it is entirely based on existing literature. However, this
hypothesis justifies its significance when we test the moderating role of motivation in H5.

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Research Methodology
Sample and Data collection: To achieve the purposes of the study, data has been collected
from 112 community catalysers (gram sewak) in 42 Gram Panchayats3 (GP) in the district
Muzaffarnagar of Uttar Pradesh, India. These employees work in frontline service positions in
implementing Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) schemes. Total 150 questionnaires were
distributed to these employees in person. The Programme Manager of each project wrote a
memo to these employees and requested their cooperation. Employees were given assurance
of confidentiality and allowed to respond to the survey anonymously during work hours. By
the cut-off date for data collection, 112 usable surveys were received accounting for a response
rate of 74.6%.
Table 1: Profiling of the respondents

Measures: All constructs in the study have been measured using multiple items. A five-point
Likert scale has been used to capture the variables and indicator items. The scale has been
adopted from previous studies and consists of total 46 items to operationalize 6 construct
level variables. Job demand has been measured using a 9 item scale under the dimension of
role ambiguity (3), role conflict (3) and role overload (3) adopted from the study of Singh,
Verbeke, and Rhoads (1996); Babin and Boles (1998) and Beehr, Walsh, and Taber (1976)
respectively. Job resource has been measured using a 14 item scale under the dimension of
training (4), service support (3), rewards (3) and supervisory support (3) adopted form the
study by Rogg, Schmidt, Shull and Schmidt (2001). Burnout has been studied under the
dimensions of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization using a 6 item scale of Maslach
Burnout Inventory by Maslach and Jackson (1981). Similarly motivation, job performance and
turnover intentions have been measured using De Beer (1987), 9 item scale; Babin and Boles
(1998), 4 item scale and Boshoff and Allen (2000), 4 item scale respectively. The scale reliability
is measured using Cronbachs values. Prior to administering in the field, the questionnaire
was pre-tested on a pilot sample of 25 employees and no changes in the wording of the
questions were deemed necessary.

3
Local self governing unit at the village level in India

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Table 2: Construct indicator variables and scale reliability values

Before analyzing, the data has been tested against normality. Apart from measuring skewness
and kurtosis, the data has gone through multivariate normality check using Kolmogorov-
Smirnov test of normality (Lilliefors Significance Correction). The result suggests no
transformation of data, as results are well under the normality limit (Burdenski, 2000).

Table 3: The Descriptive statistics for the studied variables

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Table 4: The correlation table among the variable and Cronbachs alpha along the diagonal

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2 tailed), * correlation is significant at the 0.05
level (2 tailed), Note: alpha values in the parenthesis along with the diagonal
The constructs have also been tested for any possible systematic errors, like common method
bias (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, and Podsakoff, 2007). The scale item was examined for potential
common method variance (CMV) using Harmans one-factor test. Method variance can either
inflate or deflate observed relationships between constructs, thus leading to both Type I and
Type II errors (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, and Podsakoff, 2003). The exploratory factor
analysis (EFA) derive 5 factors total explaining 74.67 percent of the variance. If one general
factor were derived, it would explain only 23.56 percent of the variance. Further, the fit has
been tested using the confirmatory test analysis (CFA). The confirmatory factor analysis
showed that the single-factor solution did not fit the data well with model fit statistics (x2/
df=13.21, NFI=0.73, TLI=0.52, CFI=0.64). Together, these two tests indicate no evidence of
common method bias in the study, hence found suitable to proceed further.
Model description: The model is tested using Ordinary least Square (OLS) regression
technique. Hypotheses are tested using following system of equation as,
TCSJP = 1 + 11 TSCJD + 12 TSCB + e1 (1a)
TSCTI = 2 + 21 TSCJD + 22 TSCB + e2 (1b)
TCSJP = 3 + 31 TSCJR + 32 TSCB + e3 (2a)
TCSTI = 4 + 41 TSCJR + 42 TSCB + e4 (2b)
TSCB = 5 + 51 TSCJM + e5 (3)
(TSCJP, TSCTI) = f (TSCJM) + e0 (4)
TSCJP = 6 + 61 TSCJD + e6 (5)
TSCJP = 7 + 71 (TSCJD x TSCJM) + e7 (6)
Where, equation 1 and 2 direct towards Hypothesis 1 and 2 respectively. Equation (1a, b and
2a, b) are meant to explore the mediating role of burnout in the overall process. Equation (3)
directs towards investigating the role of motivation on burnout. Equation (4) directs towards
testing the role of job motivation on job performance and turnover intentions. Equations (5)

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and (6) are designed to know the moderating role of job motivation by creating an interaction
variable. The abbreviations have already been explained in the paper.
Results
Table 5: Results of the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression technique

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The hypothesized relationship as depicted in figure 4 are tested using the ordinary least
square (OLS) technique. The results are summarized in the table 5 as:
The test results of hypothesis 1 shows the relationship of job demand, job performance and
turnover intentions with burn out effect using bivariate regression analysis. First the
relationship of job demand (role ambiguity, role overload and role conflict) with burnout has
been tested. The relation has been found significant (=0.724, p<.001). The combined effect
of job burnout and job demand has been found significant (=0.476, p<.001) with job
performance. Similarly, the burnout effect has been found significant (=0.716, p<.001) with
turnover intentions. The relationship of job resources (training, reward, supervisory support
and service support) is tested under hypothesis 2. The relation has been found significant
(=0.248, p<.001). The combined effect of job burnout and job resource has been found
significant (=-0.912, p<.001) with job performance. The coefficient value shows negative
effect of burnout on job performance. However, the burnout effect has not been found
significant (=0.513, p=.198) with turnover intentions.
Hypothesis 3 test the relationship of job motivation with the burnout effect and found significant
(= -0.463, p<.001). The direction of influence of the predictors is opposite to each other so
that increase in job motivation would lead to decrease in the burnout effect. Hypothesis 4
suggest significant (= 0.012, p<.001) relationship of job motivation with job performance and
non significant relationship (= -0.512, p=0.865) with turnover intentions.
Testing of moderating role of motivation (H5) require the creation of interaction variable by
multiplying motivation with job demand. Prior to multiplication the test for multicollinearity
has been done. The VIF is found well under the described limit implicating no effect of

Table 6: The result of moderator effect of job motivation with job demand

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Figure 5: Interaction effect between job motivation and job demand

multicollinearity. In order to test the hypothesis, moderated regression analysis is performed


for each of the variable. Results has been found significant (= 0.065, t=2.421, p=0.005). The
results obtained has been shown in the table 6 as:
Above figure shows that, the effect of job demand on job performance is different for lower
motivation level than to higher motivation level. Job performance seems to decrease drastically
with the increase of job demand (role ambiguity, conflict and overload) for lower motivation
level where as there is no steep change in job performance at higher motivational levels.
Discussion and Implications
This study provides useful insights regarding the management of employee burnout and
undesirable job outcomes. The research makes significant contribution to the social marketing
literature in two primary ways. First, it provides additional insights regarding the nature of the
effects of job demands and job resources on burnout and job outcomes. Second and more
importantly, role of motivation has been studied in the context of employee burnout. The
present research shows that increasing job demands are primary reason of burnout. However,
it is not easy to reduce job demand because of low budgets, small team size and higher
expectations (Schmidt, Neubach, and Heuer 2007). However, management may attempt to
change frontline employees perceptions of job demands and make improvements in job
resources such as increased training and supervisory support.
Job motivation has a direct positive effect on job performance and higher motivational level is
helpful in significantly lowering the burnout effect. However, we require more empirical findings
to generalize the results across industries. The findings are consistent with the earlier studies
done by (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004). Overall, this study establishes that motivation is a
theoretically relevant construct for understanding the burnout process in frontline service

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jobs. Furthermore, the interaction effects observed in this study suggest that motivation is a
potentially important coping resource and should be an integral part of frontline employee
burnout models.
The research provides useful insights regarding the management of frontline employee burnout
and undesirable job outcomes. First, while job demand is one of the prime factors responsible
for burnout, provision of better job resources may help in diminishing the detrimental effect of
the same. In the marketing context especially social or service marketing where frontline
employee plays a critical role, these implications are of much use. The proper manpower
resource management helps in fulfilling marketing as well as financial goals of the firm and in
turn success of the project.
Second, job motivation as an individual resource plays a more critical role in reducing burnout.
The recruitment and selection of frontline employees should incorporate an assessment of
the level of employee motivation. Our results strongly suggest that service organizations can
greatly benefit from hiring individuals with higher intrinsic motivation for frontline positions
since it will help in getting a better jobperson fit. Consequently, the organization will reap
benefits due to improved employee retention and improved overall project implementation.
Limitation and future research directions
Although this study expands our knowledge of frontline employee burnout, it has several
limitations. First, the research context chosen for the study is a specific social marketing
campaign. Further, the study includes only the frontline employees in one district. We
acknowledge the fact that the availability of resources and implementation of scheme is
guided by the motives of District Rural Development Authority to a great extent. This important
external environmental variable has not been incorporated into the model. While the use of a
single organizational setting provides an advantage by minimizing possible contingencies
common in multi-firm studies (Lewin and Sager, 2007:1220), it limits generalizability. Further,
our study is based on the data collected from 112 frontline employees. It limits the statistical
techniques to be used and may have effect on the rigour of the results. Future research in
other projects would allow for broader generalization of the relationships tested. Given the
male dominant nature of our sample, we were not able to investigate gender in more detail.
Hence, future research may focus on the role of gender in the frontline employee burnout
process.
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