This study was conducted in organizations for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Specifically, our research focused on the burnout of professionals providing services in such organizations and its consequences in terms of negative affect at work. Traditionally, the burnout of these professionals has been centered on interactions with users (user source of burnout). In other words, the source of burnout has mainly been based on the demands related to providing services to individuals with intellectual disabilities. However, another source of burnout may also play a relevant role: administrative or bureaucratic workload (administrative source of burnout). Over time, organizations for individuals with intellectual disabilities have become more bureaucratic, and this may have become a significant problem for professionals subjected to overly demanding and/or "unmeaningful" administrative tasks.
Based on a final sample of 205 professionals, our findings were analyzed using moderated regression with the PROCESS macro, and revealed that both dimensions of the interaction source of burnout (emotional exhaustion and cynicism) were positively and significantly correlated with negative affect at work. By contrast, the administrative source of burnout was not directly related to negative affect.
The results demonstrated that burnout related to administrative workload moderated the relationship between emotional exhaustion related to working with individuals with intellectual disabilities (IID) and negative affect. Specifically, our results supported the accentuating hypothesis: administrative burnout attenuated the relationship between burnout related to service users and negative affect. More specifically, this relationship was most significant at low and moderate levels of administrative burnout. These results underscore the importance of addressing both interaction and administrative sources of burnout in organizations for individuals with intellectual disabilities.