Self-construal mediates the impact of job burnout on life satisfaction and Chinese happiness

This study examines the impact of job burnout on both Chinese happiness and life satisfaction, with self-construal as the mediator. Both Chinese happiness and self-construal are shaped by the influence of the traditional culture that Chinese people grow up in. This influence on self-construal is seen most clearly in the tendency toward interdependent (rather than independent) self-construal. Data were collected from employees in Beijing, between the ages of 20 and 58 ( N = 294). The Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, Self-Construal Scale, Chinese Happiness Inventory, and Satisfaction with Life Scale were used to assess participants. The study’s findings showed that two aspects of job burnout (i.e., exhaustion and job disengagement) had negative correlations with life satisfaction and Chinese happiness. Both aspects of self-construal (i.e., independent and interdependent self-construal) had positive correlations with Chinese happiness. Only independent self-construal positively correlated with life satisfaction. The results further indicated that interdependent self-construal mediated the relationship that job disengagement and exhaustion have with Chinese happiness, whereas independent self-construal played a partial mediating role in the relationship between job disengagement and Chinese happiness. In the relationship between job burnout and life satisfaction, the latter can only be directly related to exhaustion. The findings imply that in contemporary China, quality of life in the workplace and the newly emerging bicultural self-construal both have an impact on Chinese happiness. This may help individuals and organizations to resolve the negative effects of the work system based on real-world situations.