Background/Purpose: The purpose of the current study was to identify the degree of burnout experienced by Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour caddies as a function of player ranking of the caddies' employer and caddie gender on the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) subscales of Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment.
Method:Burnout was assessed by the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) subscales of Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment. The MBI uses a Likert-type scale format to measure levels of burnout experienced by participants ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (everyday).
Analysis/Results:The sample included 49 (44 male and 5 female) LPGA tour caddies participating in a sanctioned professional tournament in the Southeastern United States. Overall, the caddies reported low levels of burnout on the three subscales of the MBI (Emotional Exhaustion, M=13.25, SD= 9.52; Depersonalization, M=5.95, SD= 5.40; Personal Accomplishment, M=39.22, SD= 7.24). Independent t-Tests comparing mean score differences of caddies with employers ranked in the top 75 with those ranked 76th or higher showed no significance at the 0.05 level of significance on the MBI subscales of Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization. However, for Personal Accomplishment a significant difference was found. Caddies whose employers where ranked in the top 75 on the LPGA tour had a higher mean score on the Personal Accomplishment subscale of the MBI (M=41.63, SD=6.24) than caddies whose players were ranked 76th or higher on the LPGA tour, t(47) = 2.39, p < .05. In contrast to the Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization subscales, lower mean scores on this subscale correspond to higher degrees of experienced burnout. Therefore, caddies whose employers were ranked 76th or higher on the LPGA tour felt a lower sense of personal accomplishment from their work. Independent t-Tests comparing mean score differences were conducted on caddie gender and their level of burnout on the MBI subscales and based on the results, mean scores on the subscales of Personal Accomplishment, Depersonalization, and Emotional Exhaustion revealed no significance at the 0.05 level of significance.
Conclusions: The results of the study indicated that employer ranking was a factor on the subscale of Personal Accomplishment. That is, caddies whose employers were ranked out of the top 75 indicated a feeling of low sense of personal accomplishment from their job. Possible reasons for this are that the caddies may feel they are no longer contributing to their athlete's success and development. Further, the current findings demonstrate an association between low levels of occupational burnout, and an occupation that incorporates a physically active lifestyle. These findings highlight the importance of burnout in a sport related profession that has yet to be studied in sport related literature.