Red Tape en Burn-out in de advocatuur. Een kwantitatief onderzoek naar hun samenhang vanuit het JD-R perspectief met Job Crafting als modererende Personal Resource.

Abstract

Burn-out is seen as a growing problem among Dutch lawyers. A dominant theory in explaining burn-out is Job Demands -Resources theory. To provide insight into the unique and specific context of the Dutch legal profession, this thesis researches red tape as a job demand, combining professional literature and governance theory with organizational- and HR-literature. Furthermore, the potential role of Job Crafting as a personal resource through which lawyers can cope with red tape, is investigated. Through primarily regression analysis of survey data of N=191 lawyers, strong evidence was found for a positive relationship between all dimensions of red tape and burn-out. As in previous research, Job Resource showed conflicting results and thus proved ultimately insignificant as a moderator. This might have been caused in part by methodical- and sample issues that prevented the analysis of the separate job crafting strategies. Herein lie opportunities for future research regarding burn-out among (classic) professionals, ideally using a larger sample size and a longitudinal approach to shed light on causal pathways and the possibility of reverse causality between red tape and burn-out.