Executive function deficits mediate the relationship between employees’ ADHD and job burnout
Abstract
Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often face significant
deficits in executive function and adverse work-related outcomes. This study aimed to explore the
role of executive function deficits in job burnout of employees with ADHD. We hypothesized that
employees with ADHD, relative to employees without ADHD, will experience higher levels of job
burnout and deficits in executive function. We also hypothesized that the ADHD-job burnout
relationship would be mediated through executive function deficits, specifically by selfmanagement to time and self-organization/problem-solving. A field study with 171 employees
provided support for the research hypotheses and mediation model in which the employees’
ADHD-job burnout relationship was mediated through executive function deficits. Additional
mediation analyses indicated that the specific executive function of self-management to time and
self-organization/problem-solving mediated the effect of ADHD on job burnout and its facets.
Specifically, for physical fatigue, the mediation was realized through self-management to time,
and for emotional exhaustion and cognitive weariness, the mediation was significant through selforganization/problem-solving. The present findings shed light on the relevance of referring ADHD
among employees, their vulnerability to job burnout, and the role of executive function deficits in
job burnout of employees with ADHD.
Avoiding harm, benefits of interpersonal listening, and social equilibrium adjustment: An applied psychology approach to side effects of organizational interventions
Guy Itzchakov, Justin B. Keeler, Walter J. Sowden, Walter Slipetz, and Kent S. Faught
Listening
Creating positive change in the direction intended is the goal of organizational interventions. Watts et al. (2021) raise this issue of “side effects,” which include changes that are unintended and often in the opposite direction of the organizational intervention. With our expertise in applied psychology, military psychiatry/neuroscience, organizational behavior, and corporate safety, we argue for three additional factors for consideration: avoiding harm, the benefits of high-quality interpersonal listening, and a discussion of side effects as a natural part of the change process. We offer these as a means of extending the conversation begun by Watts et al.
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The Effect of a Dilemma on the Relationship Between Ability to Identify the Criterion (ATIC) and Scores on a Validated Situational Interview
Gary P. Latham, Guy Itzchakov
Goal Setting
Four experiments were conducted to determine whether participants’ awareness of the performance criterion on which they were being evaluated results in higher scores on a criterion-valid situational interview (SI) where each question either contains or does not contain a dilemma. In the first experiment, there was no significant difference between those who were or were not informed of the performance criterion that the SI questions predicted. Experiment 2 replicated this finding. In each instance, the SI questions in these two experiments contained a dilemma. In a third experiment, participants were randomly assigned to a 2 (knowledge/no knowledge provided of the criterion) X 2 (SI dilemma/no dilemma) design. Knowledge of the criterion increased interview scores only when the questions did not contain a dilemma. The fourth experiment revealed that including a dilemma in a SI question attenuates the ATIC-SI relationship when participants must identify rather than be informed of the performance criterion that the SI has been developed to assess.
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