A Meta-Analytic Validation Study of the Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure: Examining Variable Relationships From a Job Demands-Resources Perspective

Job-related burnout has become a central construct in occupational health psychology. Given the considerable emphasis on burnout in both basic research and organizational initiatives, affirming the validity of inferences from commonly used measures is imperative to explore this phenomenon. The Shirom-Melamed burnout measure (SMBM) is well grounded with strong theoretical roots stemming from conservation of resources theory to assess exhaustion across physical, cognitive, and emotional subscales. However, despite its strong theoretical foundation and consistent use to measure burnout across various disciplines, there have been no meta-analytic validation efforts of the SMBM. The goal of the present meta-analysis is to fill this gap and provide a comprehensive evaluation of the SMBM using 564 effect sizes retrieved from 100 samples (N = 53,484). Results revealed that the three subscales of physical fatigue, cognitive weariness, and emotional exhaustion all displayed strong intercorrelations and that the SMBM was stable over time, as suggested by high test-retest estimates. Relationships with demographic controls, such as age, sex, and hours worked, were low in magnitude or nonsignificant. Following a job demands-resources perspective, we examined the nomological network of the SMBM, finding strong support for associations with job and personal predictors, motivational covariates, and job and personal outcomes. These findings, inferring the construct validity of the SMBM, hold implications for future research and practice, including support for its use in organizational research and applied settings.