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Investigation of cascading effects of perceiving a calling on occupational burnout: A mediated moderation model

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Abstract

By employing work as a calling theory, this study examines the direct influence of perceiving a calling on occupational burnout, the mediating effect of living a calling between the perceiving a calling and occupational burnout association, and the moderating role of job crafting between the relationship of living a calling and occupational burnout. The data were collected in two phases from 254 participants working in Pakistan’s different organizations (i.e., manufacturing, banking, and higher education). To test the hypotheses, PROCESS-macro was used to test the relationships. The findings reveal that the individuals’ perceiving a calling helps reduce occupational burnout. It indicated that living a calling act as a mediating mechanism between perceiving a calling and occupational burnout. Additionally, the study investigated that job crafting moderated the negative relationship between living a calling and occupational burnout and supported the mediated moderation results. By summing up, the present study highlights the importance of calling phenomena by unveiling the positive and negative aspects of certain mechanisms such as living a calling and job crafting that affect occupational burnout. Further, implications and limitations are discussed.

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Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated during and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, Zhenjiang, 212013, China

    Hira Salah ud din Khan, Zhiqiang Ma & Mingxing Li

  2. Faculty of Management Sciences, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Muhammad Salman Chughtai

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  1. Hira Salah ud din Khan
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  2. Zhiqiang Ma
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  3. Muhammad Salman Chughtai
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  4. Mingxing Li
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Contributions

All the authors take public responsibility for the content of the work published in this journal. The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: Study conception, research objectives, models, and hypotheses: HK and MZ. The provision of materials (i.e., questionnaires) and data collection, analysis and interpretation of results: MC. Article revision and proofreading: LM. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hira Salah ud din Khan.

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The American Psychological Association’s (APA) carried out this study in accordance with the recommendations of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. All the participants gave written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The employee’s council of the participating organizations as well as the ethics committee of Faculty of Management Sciences, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan, approved the protocol.

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Khan, H., Ma, Z., Chughtai, M.S. et al. Investigation of cascading effects of perceiving a calling on occupational burnout: A mediated moderation model. Curr Psychol 42, 11428–11438 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02431-x

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