CH-5

The study aimed to examine managers’ COVID-19-related experiences of burnout and stress

in the United States. The problem at hand is that the recent COVID-19 pandemic has revealed

crisis-related stress and burnout among various professionals and managers have to deal with

both their own distress and the challenges of their subordinates or employees that they manage.

The challenges can repeat in the future in similar crisis-like conditions. Moreover, burnout stress

impacts the wellness and performance of managers in many ways and it exacerbates a wide

variety of mental health and social challenges. The challenges perpetuate as there is no single

exhaustive approach to completely prevent or solve the issue. Therefore, this study purposed to

conduct a systematic review into the contributing factors of burnout and stress among managers

in a context applicable to the U.S and to thematically organize the results and findings around

four research questions, i.e.;

 RQ1: What does the current literature reveal to be the leading causes of stress and

burnout among managers in U.S. organizations during and post-COVID-19?

 RQ2. What does the current literature point out regarding the effect of stress and burnout

on the psychological wellbeing of managers?

 RQ3. What does the current literature indicate as the effects of stress and burnout on the

performance of managers?

 RQ4. What are some evidence-based measures and strategies suggested by current

literature to prevent stress and burnout among managers in U.S. organizations?

The systematic literature review methodology entailed searching and filtering publications in

ProQuest, Scopus, EBSCOhost, PubMed, SAGE publications, PsycArticles, Google Scholar, and
PsycINFO. The filtering process involved the PRISMA approach and the final articles selected

were reviewed iteratively and themes extracted around the research questions. The findings

reveal major burnout and stress causes to be from workloads, pressure and uncertainty, poor

work-life balance, and psychological challenges (Gigauri, 2020). The effects on the managers

psychological wellness include reduced work engagement morale, and satisfaction, negative

psychosocial effects, poor physical health and work-life imbalances, and general psychological

distress (Müller et al., 2022). The performance drawbacks include strain on personal resources,

reduction in work engagement, reduced commitment and poor relationships, and ineffectiveness

in balancing life with work (Graf-Vlachy et al., 2020). The preventive and mitigative approaches

include supportiveness via leadership and culture, promoting work-life balance and wellbeing,

and supporting career and skill development (Dandalt, 2021; Gonçalves et al., 2021; Müller et

al., 2022).

References

Dandalt, E. (2021). Managers and telework in public sector organizations during a crisis.

Journal of Management & Organization, 27(6), 1169-1182.

https://doi.org/doi:10.1017/jmo.2022.1.

Gigauri, I. (2020). Challenges HR managers facing due to COVID-19 and overcoming

Strategies: Perspectives from Georgia. Archives of Business Review, 8(11), 1-18. DOI:

10.14738/abr.811.9313.
Gonçalves, S. P., Vieira dos Santos, J., Silva, I., Veloso, A., Brandão, C., & Moura, R. (2021).

COVID-19 and people management: The view of human resource managers.

Administrative Sciences, 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci11030069

Graf-Vlachy, L., Sun, S., & Zhang, S. X. (2020). Predictors of managers' mental health during

the COVID-19 pandemic. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 11(1), 1834195.

https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1834195.

Graf-Vlachy, L., Sun, S., & Zhang, S. X. (2020). Predictors of managers' mental health during

the COVID-19 pandemic. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 11(1), 1834195.

https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1834195.

Müller, M., Jedličková, L., & Halová, D. (2022). How do managers make sense of their crisis?

disrupted relationships and rediscovering co-existence. Human Arenas, 1–38. Advance

online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-022-00272-z.