ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of the book. The book demonstrates that burnout has been placed successfully on the academic agenda. It seems to be a concept that can guide serious theoretical as well as empirical investigation. Moreover, the burnout concept appears to be a fruitful extension and deepening of the traditional occupational stress research area. The book focuses on three levels of conceptual integration. First, burnout is considered from four general psychological perspectives. Second, in a number of contributions, burnout is linked somewhat more eclectically with elements from several theoretical approaches. Finally, several authors offer a description of a model of burnout that is based mainly on the outcomes of their empirical research, that is, Maslach's multidimensional perspective, Golembiewski's phase model, and Leiter's process model.