THE BURNOUT EPIDEMIC DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: THE ROLE OF LMX IN ALLEVIATING PHYSICIANS’ BURNOUT

ABSTRACT During COVID-19 pandemic, physicians are being exposed to unprecedented adverse working conditions that lead to increased occurrence of burnout. While supportive leadership is considered effective in preventing burnout, little is known about the role of leadership in extreme situations. Drawing on leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, we hypothesize that high-LMX relationships lead to lower levels of burnout, as they shape physicians’ perceptions of psychosocial job demands and resources. We also contend that this effect will be stronger for frontline physicians, as they are more exposed to job stressors. In a field study with 2,708 Brazilian physicians, we found support to the alleviating role of LMX, but contrary to what we predicted, we found that this effect is weaker for frontline physicians. Overall, our findings reinforce the importance of establishing high-quality relationships between supervisors and medical staff to mitigate the experience of burnout, however, they also highlight that extreme conditions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, might constrain the beneficial effects of leadership behaviors.

摘要 在新冠疫情（COVID-19 pandemic）期间，医师面临着前所未有的恶劣工作环境，导致职业倦怠发生率攀升。尽管支持型领导被认为可有效预防职业倦怠，但学界对极端情境下领导行为的作用仍知之甚少。本研究基于领导-成员交换（leader-member exchange, LMX）理论，提出假设：高LMX质量的上下级关系可降低医师的职业倦怠水平，因其会影响医师对社会心理性工作需求与资源的感知。此外，我们认为该效应在一线医师中会更为显著，因他们更频繁地接触工作压力源。针对2708名巴西医师开展的实地研究结果显示，LMX的缓解作用得到了验证，但与我们的预测相反，该效应在一线医师中反而更弱。总体而言，我们的研究结果既证实了建立管理者与医护人员间高质量交换关系对缓解职业倦怠的重要性，同时也凸显出新冠疫情这类极端情境可能会制约领导行为的积极效应。