Organizational commitment, commitment to change and burnout

The hypothesis of this study was that, in a workplace where a change is in progress, organizational commitment (affective component) inhibits burnout perceptions (emotional exhaustion, cynicism) through the partial mediation of commitment to change. The study was carried out in a hospital; 194 nurses were examined. At present, a change in Italian hospitals concerns the introduction in personnel of staff supporting nursing activities. The ambiguities of the new role have generated feelings of unease among nurses who, owing to the change, perceive their responsibilities as increased. The measures we used were: the scale of organizational commitment by Meyer, Allen, and Smith (1993; affective component); the scale of commitment to change by Herscovitch and Meyer (2002); the MBI-GS scale of burnout (Italian version by Borgogni et al., 2005). Our hypothesis was not confirmed: no mediation effect of commitment to change was revealed. As explained in the discussion, other factors may account for the negative relation found between attachment to organization and burnout.