2.3.3. Maslach Burnout Inventory—General Survey (MBI-GS)

The most widely used instrument for measuring burnout is the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) [50]. It measures the incidence of burnout symptoms from never to daily. To calculate the burnout risk the German translation of the MBI-GS [49] with the three burnout subscales emotional exhaustion (5 items), depersonalisation/cynicism (5 items) and personal accomplishment (6 items) were used. Each of these 16 items was assessed on a seven-point Likert scale (0 = never up to 6 = daily) corresponding to the frequency of occurrence. The mean values were formed for each of the three burnout subscales. A burnout syndrome is assumed when emotional exhaustion and cynicism are high, but personal accomplishment is low [49,50].

However, since no reliable statement about the burnout syndrome could be made from the mean values of the three subscales, the scale values according to Kalimo et al. [48] were weighted and summarised to the following burnout score: burnout score = (0.4 × exhaustion) + (0.3 × cynicism) + (0.3 × performance). The burnout risk could then be determined on the basis of this burnout score: if the value was below 1.49, there was no indication of burnout, in the range from 1.50 to 3.49 points there were some burnout symptoms and from the value 3.50 upwards there were indications of burnout syndrome [48].

The validity of the MBI has been demonstrated for normal and clinical populations [12] as well as for different occupational groups and cultures [51]. In a sample of 1316 persons, Maslach and Jackson [52] indicated internal consistencies in the form of Cronbach’s alphas for emotional exhaustion of 0.90, for depersonalisation/cynicism of 0.79 and for personal accomplishment of 0.71. For the MBI-GS, Schaufeli et al. [49] reported Cronbach’s alphas from 0.87 (emotional exhaustion) to 0.64 (depersonalisation) and 0.70 (personal accomplishment) and thus good to satisfactory Cronbach’s alpha values. For the three burnout subscales of the study presented here, Cronbach’s alpha is between 0.79 and 0.84 and, thus, according to Blanz [53], in the range of acceptable or good.