THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MANAGEMENT SUPPORT AND BURNOUT LEVELS AMONG HEALTH CARE WORKERS IN A LEVEL 1 GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL
Keywords:
burnout, healthcare workers, job satisfaction, management support, public hospitalsAbstract
Burnout among healthcare workers threatens both workforce sustainability and patient safety, and is especially acute in resource-constrained public hospitals. Management support is a well-established organizational buffer against burnout, yet Philippine evidence remains concentrated in urban and private-hospital settings, leaving provincial, government-run facilities under-examined. This study examined the relationship between management support (administrative, emotional, and resource dimensions) and burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment) among healthcare workers at a Level 1 government hospital in Quirino, Philippines. Using a descriptive-correlational design, a researcher-developed, content-validated 30-item questionnaire (management support subscale α = .91; burnout subscale α = .94) was administered to 130 purposively sampled full-time, direct-care staff. Data were analyzed using means and standard deviations, Pearson product-moment correlation, independent-samples t-test/one-way ANOVA, and simple linear regression, with significance set at α = .05. Both overall management support (M = 3.04, SD = 0.54) and overall burnout (M = 3.14, SD = 0.63) were rated Moderate. Resource support was the weakest management-support dimension (M = 2.73), while emotional exhaustion was the only burnout dimension reaching the High band (M = 3.47). Management support was significantly, moderately, and negatively correlated with burnout, r(128) = −.57, p < .001, and significantly predicted burnout, explaining 32.5% of its variance, F(1, 128) = 61.56, p < .001. No significant differences in management support or burnout emerged across gender, age group, position, or years of service (all p > .05). Management support, particularly resource adequacy, is a statistically significant and practically meaningful, modifiable determinant of burnout in a resource-limited government hospital. A four-component Management Support Enhancement and Burnout Reduction Program targeting resource support and emotional exhaustion is proposed for institutional adoption.
References
Abdulmohdi, N. (2024). The relationships between nurses' resilience, burnout, perceived organisational support and social support during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A quantitative cross-sectional survey. Nursing Open, 11(1), e2036. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.2036
Alibudbud, R. (2023). Addressing the burnout and shortage of nurses in the Philippines. SAGE Open Nursing, 9. https://doi.org/10.1177/23779608231195737
Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2017). Job demands–resources theory: Taking stock and looking forward. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 273–285. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000056
Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Sanz-Vergel, A. (2023). Job demands–resources theory: Ten years later. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 10, 25–53. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-120920-053933
Co, A. E. (2025). Nurses' burnout experiences in selected private hospitals in Iloilo City, Philippines. Asian Journal of Research in Nursing and Health. https://www.journalajrnh.com/index.php/AJRNH/article/view/241
Eisenberger, R., Huntington, R., Hutchison, S., & Sowa, D. (1986). Perceived organizational support. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71(3), 500–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.71.3.500
Eisenberger, R., Rhoades Shanock, L., & Wen, X. (2020). Perceived organizational support: Why caring about employees counts. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 7, 101–124. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012119-044917
Galanis, P., Vraka, I., Fragkou, D., Bilali, A., & Kaitelidou, D. (2021). Nurses' burnout and associated risk factors during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 77(8), 3286–3302. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.14839
Ghahramani, S., Lankarani, K. B., Yousefi, M., Heydari, K., Shahabi, S., & Azmand, S. (2021). A systematic review and meta-analysis of burnout among healthcare workers during COVID-19. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 758849. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.758849
Hsu, H.-C., Chen, S.-H., Yu, H.-Y., & Lou, J.-H. (2024). Effectiveness of individual-based strategies to reduce nurse burnout: An umbrella review. Journal of Nursing Management, 2024, 8544725. https://doi.org/10.1155/2024/8544725
International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences. (2023). Burnout and patient safety among nurses in Philippine hospitals. https://www.science-gate.com/IJAAS/Articles/2023/2023-10-01/1021833ijaas202301022.pdf
Jang, Y., You, M., Lee, H., & Lee, M. (2021). Burnout and peritraumatic distress of healthcare workers in the COVID-19 pandemic. BMC Public Health, 21, 2075. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11978-0
Kurtessis, J. N., Eisenberger, R., Ford, M. T., Buffardi, L. C., Stewart, K. A., & Adis, C. S. (2017). Perceived organizational support: A meta-analytic evaluation of organizational support theory. Journal of Management, 43(6), 1854–1884. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206315575554
Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: Recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 15(2), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20311
Maunder, R. G., Heeney, N. D., Hunter, J. J., et al. (2022). Trends in burnout and psychological distress in hospital staff over 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology, 17(11). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12995-022-00352-4
Maunder, R. G., Heeney, N. D., Strudwick, G., Shin, H. D., O'Neill, B., Young, N., Jeffs, L. P., Barrett, K., Bodmer, N. S., Born, K. B., Hopkins, J., Jüni, P., Perkhun, A., Price, D. J., Razak, F., Mushquash, C. J., & Mah, L. (2021). Burnout in hospital-based healthcare workers during COVID-19. Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. https://doi.org/10.47326/ocsat.2021.02.46.1.0
Muir, K. J., Porat-Dahlerbruch, J., Nikpour, J., Leep-Lazar, K., & Lasater, K. B. (2025). Lower burnout among hospital nurses in California attributed to better nurse staffing ratios. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 26(1), 24–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/15271544251317506
Omar, N. F., Md Sharif, S. E., Mohamed Razali, M. Z., Jacob, G. A. D., & Tamrin, S. I. (2024). Fostering workplace support to address job burnout among medical doctors in public hospitals. Information Management and Business Review, 16(3S), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.22610/imbr.v16i3S(I)a.4176
Palvimo, T., Vauhkonen, A., & Hult, M. (2023). The associations among destructive leadership, job demands and resources, and burnout among nurses. Journal of Nursing Management, 2023, 4289450. https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/4289450
Petersen, J., Wendsche, J., & Melzer, M. (2023). Nurses' emotional exhaustion: Prevalence, psychosocial risk factors and association to sick leave. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 79(1), 182–196. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.15471
Pohl, S., Djediat, A., Van der Linden, J., Closon, C., & Galletta, M. (2023). Work engagement, emotional exhaustion, and OCB-civic virtue among nurses: A multilevel analysis of emotional supervisor support. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1249615. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1249615
Ren, Y., Ma, D., Liu, Y., Wu, N., & Qin, F. (2023). Does perceived organization support moderate the relationships between work frustration and burnout among ICU nurses? BMC Nursing, 22, 22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-023-01180-5
Sharin, I. A., Ishak, N. S., Mohd Zin, N., & Abdul Rahman, R. (2025). Person-directed burnout intervention for nurses: A systematic review of psychoeducational approaches. PLOS ONE, 20(5), e0322282. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0322282
Tiu, C. J. S., Dela Cruz, F. A., & Reyes, M. M. (2025). Leaving the health workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study among Filipino healthcare workers. PLOS Global Public Health, 5(10), e0004861. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0004861
Yildirim, N., Coskun, H., & Polat, S. (2023). Interventions to reduce nurses' burnout: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Japan Journal of Nursing Science, 20(4), e12542. https://doi.org/10.1111/jjns.12542
Zhang, H., Hoe, V. C. W., & Wong, L. P. (2024). The association between burnout, perceived organizational support, and perceived professional benefits among nurses in China. Heliyon, 10(20), e39371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e39371
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Journal for the Advancement of Sustainable Development Goals
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
License Statement
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0)
All articles published in the Journal for the Advancement of Sustainable Development Goals (JASDG) are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Under this license, users are free to:
-
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format;
-
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, including commercial use;
provided that appropriate credit is given to the original author(s) and the source, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.
Authors retain copyright of their work while granting JASDG the right of first publication. The published work remains freely available to readers and may be used, distributed, reproduced, and adapted by others in accordance with the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.
For more information about this license, please visit:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Copyright Notice
Copyright © 2026 The Author(s).
Articles published in the Journal for the Advancement of Sustainable Development Goals (JASDG) are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction, and adaptation in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited.
