There are a variety of methodological, epistemological and ontological issues highlighted within the article: ‘The crossover of burnout and work engagement among young couples’ (the Study) by Bakker, Demerouti and Schaufeli, published in 2005 within the Human Relations Journal, which will be summarised in the following paper. In order to critically evaluate, a number of questions concerning academic discipline, contribution to knowledge, methodology, relevance to management practice etc, must be satisfied – the following paper is an argument towards such answers and will demonstrate an overall review of the journal in which it is published.
The Study examined and tested hypothesis regarding the crossover (Westman, 2001) of burnout (Maslach & Jackson 1986) and work engagement (Khan 1990 – ‘personal engagement’) between husband and wife, and visa versa. There were shown to be positive correlations in the bi-directional crossover relationships between burnout (exhaustion and cynicism) or work engagement (vigour and dedication) between spouses, suggesting that a positive/negative state at work, was transferred from one partner to the other via empathy, thus causing positive/negative emotional states within the receiving partner respectively. The main difference of the Study was the analysis of work engagement between spouses, whereas previous studies focused solely on burnout, ‘after controlling for the impact of the receiver’s own demands and resources at home and work’ (Bakker, Demerouti and Schaufeli, 2005), and as a result, expanded the research area.
Initially, methodology and theory type used in the research suggest the epistemological and ontological views of the researchers, as certain styles dictate a path type and paradigm. The Study cannot constitute a theoretical perspective, as it is not characterised by a higher level of abstraction in relation to findings (Bryman & Bell 2007), therefore instead of being a grand theory, it is a theory of the...