






































Type of the Paper (Article


American Interdisciplinary Journal of Business and Economics  

ISSN: 2837-1909| Impact Factor: 6.72 

Volume. 10, Number 2; April-June, 2023;  

Published By: Scientific and Academic Development Institute (SADI)   

8933 Willis Ave Los Angeles, California  

https://sadipub.com/Journals/index.php/aijbe | editorial@sadipub.com 

 

  

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EXPLORING THE MEDIATING ROLE OF EMOTIONAL  

EXHAUSTION IN EMPLOYEE BURNOUT  
  
  
  

Fariha Zahra  
Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan  

 
Abstract: This study investigates the role of ethical leadership in preventing employee burnout caused by 

work overload. The aim is to explore how work overload results in emotional exhaustion, which leads to 

burnout, and how ethical leadership can moderate the relationship between emotional exhaustion and 

employee burnout. Survey responses were gathered from 385 faculty members of Pakistani public higher 

educational institutions (HEIs), and statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software. The study 

confirms that work overload causes emotional exhaustion, which leads to employee burnout, and that ethical 

leadership moderates the relationship between emotional exhaustion and employee burnout. Organizations 

that prioritize ethical leadership reduce stress and burnout among their employees. Ethical leadership is 

associated with various positive outcomes, including increased employee well-being, work performance, job 

satisfaction, dedication and efficiency, voice behavior, and psychological safety. The study concludes that 

ethical leadership plays a significant role in preventing employee burnout, and fostering superior ethical 

leadership practices and behaviors can improve organizational culture and outcomes for both employers and 

employees. The study further recommends exploring the moderating role of ethical leadership on employee 

burnout in other contexts.  

 
Keywords: Ethical Leadership, Employee Burnout, Emotional Exhaustion, Work Overload, Organizational 

Culture, Job Satisfaction.  

  

Introduction:  

Employee burnout is a growing concern for both employers and employees as it negatively impacts employee 

well-being, work performance, and organizational outcomes. Work overload is one of the key contributors to 

employee burnout, causing emotional exhaustion, which leads to exhaustion, cynicism, and decreased job 

performance. To prevent burnout, organizations need to prioritize ethical leadership that promotes the 

wellbeing and satisfaction of its employees. Ethical leadership has been associated with various positive 

outcomes, including increased work performance, job satisfaction, dedication and efficiency, voice behavior, 

and psychological safety. However, the moderating role of ethical leadership on the relationship between 

emotional exhaustion and employee burnout remains unclear. This study aims to explore this relationship and 

suggests that ethical leadership can moderate the relationship between emotional exhaustion and employee 

burnout. This study uses survey responses from Pakistani public higher educational institutions (HEIs) faculty 

members, and the findings show that ethical leadership significantly reduces burnout caused by emotional 

exhaustion. The study concludes that fostering ethical leadership practices and behaviors can improve 

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organizational culture and outcomes for both employees and employers. Future research should explore the 

moderating role of ethical leadership on employee burnout in other contexts.    

1.2 Significance of the Study   

The current study seeks to contribute to the emerging body of research on ethical leadership and Human 

Resource Management (HRM) with the main objective of enhancing workplace practices and outcomes for 

both employers and employees by exploring moderating role of ethical leadership in preventing employee 

burnout. The employee burnout is considered to be an important concept for the organizations because of its 

significant implications such as emotional exhaustion. Thence, this study is set out to help organizations and 

their management in improving organizational culture or environment by fostering superior ethical leadership 

practices and behaviors, and in preventing employees from experiencing burnout in the workplace.     

1.3 Problem Statement   

The alarming issue of employee burnout has become a worldwide epidemic. However, the literature available 

on what kind of relationship ethical leadership forms with employee burnout is still limited. The employee 

burnout is the emerging and salient phenomenon for the organizations but no research has been done to explore 

how ethical leadership acts as a moderator on the direct effect that exists between emotional exhaustion and 

employee burnout. Specifically in Pakistan no study has been conducted of this sort. Therefore, this study 

aims to fill this research gap.   

2. Literature Review and Theoretical Framework   

2.1 Work Overload   

Work overload has become a serious and critical issue for organizations now a days that demands immediate 

attention. This upsurge in work overload causes alarming increase in stress, exhaustion and work-life conflict 

among employees, decreases their morale and motivation to work which ultimately leads towards poor job 

performance and low employee engagement. These factors further leads to low job satisfaction among 

employees. The employees rarely have enough time to relax or function properly while working because of 

extra work or work overload combined with emotional or mental exhaustion (Ali & Farooqi, 2014). This is 

backed by previous researches that overload in work increases occupational stress in employees causing them 

to have trouble focusing. This results in compromised job performance of the employees which ultimately 

leads towards lower levels of satisfaction related to one’s job (Ali et al., 2014). The studies have proved that 

factors that contribute to occupational stress include increased workload, which is also strongly positively 

associated with job dissatisfaction (Paktinat & Rafeei, 2012). Another study conducted by Obiora & Iwuoha, 

(2013) claims that the critical issue of work overload is a very serious problem not only for the employee 

himself but for the organizations as well. They also go on and report that work overload is the primary reason 

of stress in job that further leads employees towards job dissatisfaction (Obiora & Iwuoha, 2013).    

Work overload has been explained as the “greatness of job tasks and might cause mental distress for 

employees” (Johari, Ridzoan & Zarefar, 2019). Additionally, this is the phenomena that points out to the 

amount of assignments and activities that exceeds the designated responsibilities of an employee. (Ali & 

Farooqi, 2014) This aspect refers to the degree of work stress experienced by employees because of conception 

that they are unable to handle or be active with the amount of tasks or work assignments they have been given 

(Idris, 2011). Work overload can also exist because of factors that include long hours and time pressure. The 

previous literature suggests that pressure that stems from extra workload is considered to be a reason behind 

compromising employees’ performance significantly (Schultz et al., 2015). The pressure also tend to increase 

as employees go up the employment stairs and began to acquire senior level positions. The reason for an 

increase in pressure is more responsibilities and work overload which in return influences the employee’s job 

performance (Schultz & Schultz, 2015). Hence, the problem of work overload concerns the organizations 

which are these days seeking only employees with high performance (Malta, 2004).   



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2.2 Emotional Exhaustion   

Maslach, Leiter & Schaufeli, (2001) defines emotional exhaustion employees experience at workplace as 

“feelings of being overextended and depleted of one’s emotional and physical resources”. Emotional 

exhaustion means reduction in emotional resources (Ertop, 2019). It refers to the feelings of emotional void 

followed by intense mental pressure, and severe reduction in abilities to cope up with side effects of being 

exposed to scenarios for a prolonged period that cause constant stress (Maslach et al., 2016). This causes a 

great decline in the mental, physical and emotional strength and energy level of employees (Leiter, Maslach 

& Frame, 2015). Emotionally exhausted individuals experience depletion of energy and feel that all of their 

resources are diminished. Emotional exhaustion also causes employees to feel tensed and frustrated. Feelings 

of tension and frustration are often combined with feelings of extreme tiredness. When employees feel 

extremely tired and exhausted, they are not being able to focus properly on their work and start to withdraw 

from assigned tasks to protect themselves from burning out (Ertop, 2019).    

To study the concept of emotional exhaustion is crucial because it is linked to various relevant outcomes for 

instance job satisfaction, intention to quit (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2017), and job performance (Huyghebaert et 

al., 2018). Past studies indicate that emotional exhaustion has a significant influence on both employee and 

his or her respective organization (Halbesleben and Buckley 2004). Research shows that it has a significant 

negative impact on the mental as well as physical health of an employee and can lead to poor and compromised 

well-being (Chughtai, Byrne, & Flood, 2014), job dissatisfaction and lower job commitment, high turnover 

rates and lower job performance (Maslach et al. 2001; Lee & Ashforth, 1996).   

2.3 Employee Burnout   

Employee burnout at workplace has become a critical issue worldwide that requires immediate attention. 

Employees at all levels report that they feel insecure, undervalued, stressed out, alienated, and misunderstood 

at their workplace (Maslach & Leiter, 1997). Although the phenomenon of job burnout is not new but the term 

recently grabbed the attention of scholars.  The initial studies were conducted in the year 1975 by a notable 

psychiatrist named Freudenberger who was carrying out his research at an agency that specialized in medical 

care, followed by another wellknown scholar Maslach (1976), who was a social psychologist studying 

emotions at work. Freudenberger (1975) described effects of the burnout as experiencing mental exhaustion 

as well as feeling  less enthusiastic and committed to one’s job.    

Maslach et al. (2001) defines employee burnout as prolonged response to chronic mental, emotional and 

interpersonal stressors at work, and is comprised of three key dimensions i.e. emotional exhaustion, feelings 

of cynicism, and diminished personal accomplishment. Exhaustion is referred to as a root cause of employees’ 

burnout and it is the first indication that individual is suffering from the burnout syndrome (Seidler, et al., 

2014; Maslach et al., 2001; Maslach et al., 2015). It is the most essential criterion of occupational burnout 

(Maslach et al., 2001). The second aspect, cynicism causes employees to psychologically distance. It leads 

them to experience negative feelings toward their work and feel detached and alienated (Maslach et al., 2015). 

The third dimension, feelings of reduced personal accomplishment basically means losing confidence in one’s 

capabilities to efficiently carry out the task and considering their contributions to be worthless. Employees 

start to view themselves as incompetent for the job (Maslach et al., 2001; Maslach et al., 2015).    

Employees experience burnout because of the problematic relationships that exist between them and their 

employed organizations. When organizational processes and structures do not align with the tendencies and 

capabilities of their employees it causes them to feel stressed out, tensed and frustrated. The stress and tension 

leads the employees to feel depletion of energy and results in significantly reduced participation. They end up 

feeling incompetent and inefficient for the job and give up (Maslach & Leiter, 1997).   

2.4 Ethical Leadership   

Ethical scandals in corporates worldwide (Mehta, 2003; Colvin, 2003; Revell, 2003) have brought attention 

of organizations to realize the need for ethical leadership (Resick et al., 2011). The corporate scandals 

concerning ethical conduct have shed light on the importance of the role leadership plays in forming a 



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workplace culture that promotes ethical values and principles (Trevino, Brown, & Harrison, 2005). Previous 

research points to the fact that most employees tend to look outwards for inspiration of moral conduct rather 

than inside (Bassberg, 1969; Treviño, 1986). Thus, leaders can be a primary and main provider of such 

assistance and counselling at work (Trevino, Brown, & Harrison, 2005).    

The importance of moral leadership for leading effectively in the organization has been a topic of interest for 

decades (Bass & Steidlmeier, 1999). This concept emphasizes dignity, being wellinformed about ethical 

duties, integrity, inclination toward collectivism, preference for civilized conduct, perceptive and considering 

of the needs and rights of others, and accountability management (Trevino, Brown, & Harrison, 2005; Trevin˜o 

et al., 2006; Gini, 1997; Fluker, 2002; Kanungo & Mendonca, 1996; Gottlieb & Sanzgiri, 1996). Brown et al. 

(2005, p. 120) describes ethical leadership as ‘‘the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through 

personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through 

twoway communication, reinforcement, and decision-making’’. Basically it focuses on the way managers 

utilize the given authority by not only practicing the ethical values in their professional life but in their personal 

life as well. Hence, they are the ethical persons as well as the ethical supervisors (Resick et al., 2006; De 

Hoogh et al., 2008; Trevin˜o et al., 2003; Brown & Trevin˜o, 2006).    

2.5 Work Overload and Emotional Exhaustion   

The type of relation employees form with their respective jobs and the problems or hardships that emerge as 

this working relation start to become worse or even unhealthy for the employees, have been recognized as an 

important phenomena of the contemporary times (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter, 2001). The changing working 

conditions and work overload to be specific is the main source of stress and exhaustion in the workplace 

(Laurence, Fried, & Raub, 2016). The work overload may occur because of many reasons, some of them 

include advancement in the technologies, new and challenging market demands, staff restructuring and 

adjustments (García-Arroyo & Segovia, 2019), and too much extra work (Ali & Farooqi, 2014). This changing 

environment of work that involves more challenging and greater demands from employees and especially the 

culture of work overload has put the employees under so much pressure and is affecting their work situation 

(García-Arroyo & Segovia, 2019). These changes can cause the employees to experience symptoms of stress 

and emotional exhaustion (Maslach et al., 2001; 2015; García-Arroyo & Segovia, 2019).    

Emotional exhaustion is said to be the central aspect of the employee burnout and also the most commonly 

and widely complained about symptom of the employee burnout syndrome   

(Maslach et al., 2001; 2015; García-Arroyo et al., 2019). The findings of previous studies show that exhaustion 

that employees experience because of demanding and extra workload negatively affect employees’ 

satisfaction, commitment and performance (Paktinat & Rafeei, 2012). The stress at work due to work overload 

can become a serious and harmful issue not only for the employee himself or herself but also for the 

organization he or she works at as well (Ali & Farooqi, 2014).    

Stress that results from various job related elements points to the aspects and elements that job entails, as well 

as the activities and duties performed by employees at workplace (Nguyen et al., 2018; García-Arroyo & 

Segovia, 2019). It manifests itself in the form of both qualitative and quantitative terms, particularly in the 

case of work overload specific situations (García-Arroyo & Segovia, 2019). Previous literature reports that 

work overload contributes to many serious psychological and physical health issues (Maslach et al., 2001; 

García-Arroyo & Segovia, 2019) such as fatigue, insomnia, tension, anxiety, lower self-esteem and depression 

etc. (Maslach et al., 2001; 2015). Carballo-Penela, Varela & Bande (2018) describes work overload as a job 

stressor that refers to such work related situations where job responsibilities surpasses the resources available 

to perform them (Shrimon, Gilboa, Fried, & Cooper, 2008). On the other hand, exhaustion is among the very 

first symptoms of burnout syndrome which results due to chronic stress caused by work related stress factors 

such as work overload followed by feelings of reduced energy (Maslach & Leiter, 1997; Lewin & Sager, 2009; 

Leiter, Maslach & Frame, 2015).    



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Intense and extra workload along with chronic fatigue and emotional exhaustion causes employees to be less 

committed and engaged in their work (Qaiser, Gulzar, Hussain & Shabbir, 2015).   

Work overload not only adversely affect employee’s well-being as well as in the context of work it causes 

them to perform their job ineffectively, commit mistakes and errors, and make poor decisions related to work. 

These negative effects become the reason of their compromised and poor health and well-being (Qaiser, 

Gulzar, Hussain & Shabbir, 2015).    

Emotional exhaustion is not merely something that employees experience but rather it brings about set of 

actions one take to distance himself emotionally and cognitively from his job, most likely to deal with 

increased work demands that extra workload imposes. Previous research indicates that most of the studies that 

have been conducted to examine the phenomenon of mental exhaustion was done on the workers who were 

doing “people work”. The people work means employees working in human services and health care, whose 

job requires them to deal with people on everyday basis (Maslach & Schaufeli, 1993; Maslach, Leiter & 

Schaufeli, 2001). Maslach et al., (2001) reports in his study that emotional work is more draining especially 

for situations where the role demands from the employees to portray emotions that are not consistent with 

their feelings. The growing demands of the today’s work can cause the employees to feel exhausted and can 

damage their capacity to respond to the changing needs their work demands. Because of such reasons, 

employees start to use cognitive distancing as a coping mechanism when they feel exhausted and emotionally 

drained. Exhaustion is the ultimate response of work overload that manifests itself in many forms including 

physiological and psychological problems that were discussed above i.e. tension, fatigue, stress, anxiety, 

insomnia, cognitive distancing and so forth (Maslach, Leiter & Schaufeli, 2001; Maslach & Frame, 2015). 

Therefore, the following hypothesis can be developed:   

H1: There is a significant positive effect of work overload on emotional exhaustion experienced by 

employees.   

2.6 Emotional Exhaustion and Employee Burnout Seidler, et al. (2014) refers to emotional exhaustion as “the 

heart of the burnout”. It is the most commonly reported issue among those who experience job burnout (Leiter 

& Maslach, 2016; Leiter, Maslach & Frame, 2015). It is thought to be most obvious manifestation of 

occupational burnout (Leiter et al., 2015). Some scholars because of this significant association that emotional 

exhaustion has with employee burnout even claim that remaining components do not hold much importance 

as they seem unnecessary and irrelevant (Shirom, 1989). They have labeled this model as “exhaustion-only” 

model (Maslach et al., 2015).    

Emotional exhaustion demonstrates the stress dimension of the employee burnout syndrome (Maslach et al., 

2001). It includes feelings of drained physical, mental and cognitive energy and can be manifested in the form 

of lack of resources one needs to efficiently carry out the assigned tasks in the workplace (Maslach et al., 

2015). Previous studies indicate that employees who show signs and symptoms of chronic emotional 

exhaustion display destructive behaviors (Maslach et al. 2001; Lee & Ashforth, 1996; Janssen, Lam & Huang, 

2010). Maslach et al., (2001) describe in their study that exhausted employees tend to be less responsive and 

involved with the demands of their job and have trouble focusing on tasks due to drained out energy levels. A 

predicament with overwhelming job demands that leads employees towards chronic exhaustion is most likely 

going to negatively affect one’s job efficacy. Further, emotional exhaustion disrupts employees’ job 

effectiveness. It seems hard to have a sense of effectiveness and accomplishment when employees are stressed 

out as well as drained (Maslach, Leiter & Schaufeli, 2001).    

Employee burnout is the ultimate response exhibited by employees experiencing feelings of emotional 

exhaustion and lack of physical and mental energy (Maslach, 1997; Maslach et al., 2001; 2015). 

Freudenberger, (1974) defines employee burnout as “mental and physical exhaustion” that occurs in the work 

settings. The intensity of burnout can vary from person to person, and different people can claim different 

symptoms (Freudenberger, 1974) but emotional exhaustion is always common (Maslach et al., 1993; 2001; 

2015). Therefore, the following hypothesis can be derived:   



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H2: There is a significant positive effect of emotional exhaustion on employee burnout.    

2.7 The Moderating Effect of Ethical Leadership on the Relationship between Emotional  Exhaustion and 

Employee Burnout   

The leadership style has a significant impact on the effectiveness and performance of the both employees and 

organization (De Hoogh & Den Hartog, 2008; Ahmadi, Ahmadi & Zohrabi, 2012). The leadership plays an 

immense and critical role in shaping and encouraging ethical environment in the organization. Leaders have 

a crucial impact in determining the conduct of employees and the organization (Trevino, Brown, & Hartman, 

2003; Kanungo, 2001; Aronson, 2001). Ethical leadership is linked to various significant and positive 

consequences that are of interest to the organizations, some of the outcomes include leaders’ effectiveness, 

employee’s contentment related to job (Trevino, Brown, & Harrison, 2005; De Hoogh et al., 2008), work 

passion (Ahadiat & DackoPikiewicz, 2020), commitment (Ahmadi, Ahmadi & Zohrabi, 2012), engagement, 

readiness to put forward issues in front of concerned authorities (Trevino, Brown, & Harrison, 2005), positive 

employee voice behavior  (Walumbwa & Schaubroeck, 2009), organizational citizenship behavior (Brandon, 

2013) and so forth. The ethical leadership has also been linked with employee’s overall well-being (Chughtai, 

Byrne, & Flood, 2014), trust and organizational optimism (De Hoogh et al., 2008).    

It is evident from above mentioned positive outcomes of ethical leadership that leaders who prioritize ethical 

behaviors and practices in the workplace, allow employees to exhibit positive attitude toward their job and 

hence prevent them from experiencing negative feelings and ultimately exhaustion. Research indicates 

employees tend to trust the leaders who show great concern for their followers and emphasize ethical attributes 

and characteristics (Brown et al., 2005). The trust on leadership is manifested in advantageous consequences 

i.e. improved employees’ behaviors and attitudes (Burke et al. 2007) and better job performance (Trevino, 

Brown, & Harrison, 2005; Neves & Caetano, 2009). Previous studies reveal that employees feel less exhausted 

and have higher level of satisfaction when their leader is ethical, thus, lowering their chances of burnout. In 

light of above arguments, the following hypothesis can be developed:   

H3: Ethical leadership negatively moderates the relationship between emotional exhaustion and 

employee burnout such that when ethical leadership is high then it weakens the relationship between 

emotional exhaustion and employee burnout.    

2.8 The Mediating Effect of Emotional Exhaustion on the Relationship between Work Overload and Employee 

Burnout   

As noted above, previous studies on the topic of work overload has positively related work overload with 

chronic stress at workplace and feelings of severe emotional exhaustion (Laurence, Raub, & Fried, 2016; 

Abbas & Roger, 2013; Pienaar, Rothmann, & De Beer, 2016). Research has proven that fatigue and anxiety 

caused at work because of reasons such as work overload leads the employee toward burnout. Maslach et al. 

(2001) argue that exhaustion is mostly experienced with the combination of feelings of alienation and 

depersonalization which basically works as a defense mechanism for the employee dealing with extra burden 

that is imposed on the employee. It is very critical for organizations and management to know when employees 

are feeling exhausted and stressed out so they could take important measures to treat the problem otherwise if 

left untreated exhaustion can further lead to burnout (Maslach, 1997; Maslach et al., 2001; 2015).    

There has been tremendous studies done on burnout that states that there are some situational factors i.e. work 

overload that correlates to employee burnout. In fact extra workload and strict deadlines are the main reasons 

of job-related stress (Malach et al., 2015). Especially for employees whose jobs are demanding and oftentimes 

require them to deal with job overload. Such employees are more likely to experience burnout (Maslach et al., 

2001). In view of these arguments, following hypothesis can be formulated:   

H4: The emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between work overload and employee burnout 

such that work overload leads toward heightened emotional exhaustion and presence of emotional 

exhaustion leads toward increased employee burnout.   



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2.9 Research Model   

   

   

   

 

 

  

3. Research Methodology   

3.1 Data Collection   

The study is cross-sectional in nature. The convenience sampling method is used for data collection. The 

survey responses were collected from faculty members of 17 Public HEIs operating in Islamabad and Wah 

Cantt, Pakistan. The reason for choosing this as target population is that research has proved that teachers 

working in a Public sector HEIs of Pakistan are more dissatisfied with their jobs as compared to the teaching 

staff working in a Private sector HEIs of Pakistan. The stress and exhaustion are the major reasons for this job 

dissatisfaction (Ayub, 2010). The sample size is about 385 at the confidence level of 95% and confidence 

interval or margin of error of 5%. As the population size is unknown; it is safe to take sample size of 385.   

3.2 Instrument Selection   

The questionnaire used for data collection was subdivided into two parts, the first part was   

related to participant’s demographics and second one consisted of all the variables of the study i.e. work 

overload, emotional exhaustion, ethical leadership, and employee burnout. The demographics portion of the 

survey questionnaire included items such as age, gender, designation, qualification and experience etc. The 

section after that enlisted all the variables. Work Overload is evaluated by utilizing four items derived from 

Buckingham (2004) scale. The items are assessed by utilizing four point Likert Scale response that ranged 

from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree”. Emotional exhaustion was measured using 7 items, and 

employee burnout was assessed with 11 items extracted from the “The measurement of experienced burnout” 

(Maslach, & Jackson, 1981). The items were listed with 7-point Likert Scale response that ranged from “1= 

Strongly Disagree” to “7= Strongly Agree”.  To measure ethical leadership, Brown and Trevino et al.’s (2005) 

ten item scale was used. In order to evaluate the response given by the participants, five-point Likert Scale 

response was used in which 1 was for “Strongly Disagree”’ and 5 for “Strongly Agree”.    

3.3 Analytical Procedure   

To ensure the internal consistency or reliability of the scales, Cronbach’s alpha’s values were examined. 

Skewness, Kurtosis and graphical methods i.e. scatter plot, histogram, and normal P-P plot etc were looked at 

to ensure the normality of the data. Correlation analysis was used to measure how the variables of the study 

were related to each other. Different types of regression analysis i.e. simple linear, mediation analysis, 

moderation analysis, and moderated mediation analysis (using PROCESS MACRO) were conducted to test 

the hypotheses of the study.   

Figure    1   :       Research Model     

Work    Over -   

load       

Emotional    

Exhaustion       

Ethical Lead -   

ership       

Employee    

Burnout       
H1   

    
H2 (H4)   

    

H   3     



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4. Results and Analysis   

4.1 Normality Test   

Table 1. Normality Analysis of the variables   

Variables   Skewness   Kurtosis   

Statistic   S.E   Statistic   S.E   

Work Overload   -.290   .124   .475   .248   

Emotional  

Exhaustion   

-.923   .124   -.360   .248   

Employee Burnout   -.158   .124   -1.097   .248   

Ethical Leadership   .360   .124   -1.412   .248   

Generally to test the normality of the sample data, the Shapiro-Wilk test or KolmogorovSmirnov Test is 

performed. But for the sample data (n) larger than 300, such tests may seem to be proven unreliable. In such 

case, normality is ensured by assessing skewness and kurtosis (Kim, 2013). The acceptable value range for 

the skewness and kurtosis in order for the sample data to be considered normally distributed is between -2 and 

+2 (George et al., 2010). The statistics for all the variables lie between the acceptable ranges. The skewness 

values for all the variables lie between -1 and +1 and are really close to 0 which indicates data is moderately 

normally distributed.  

4.2 Reliability Analysis   

Table 2. Reliability Statistics   

 
Variables   Cronbach's Alpha   Cronbach's Alpha Based on    N of Items   

Standardized Items   

Work Overload   .623   .668   4   

Emotional  

Exhaustion   

.968   .968   7   

Employee Burnout   .926   .926   11   

Ethical Leadership   .978   .978   10   

    

   

The Cronbach’s alpha for all four variables’ scales of the study is gr which 

represents internal consistency. Thus, data set can be consid 

4.3 Simple Linear Regression Analysis   

4.3.1 Regression Analysis for Hypothesis 1 

Table 3. Residuals Statisticsa   

   Minimum   Maximum   

Predicted Value   1.7332   7.4211   

Mean   Std. Deviation  

5.2998   1.18103  
 

385   

N     



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Residual   

Std. Predicted Value   

Std. Residual   

a: Dependent Variable: Emotional 

Exhaustion   

First, the linear regression is run to test 

the first hypothesis. In order to perform the linear regression analysis, there are certain assumptions that need 

to be met i.e. there should be a linear relationship between variables, there should not be an outlier etc. The 

minimum and maximum value for standardized residual should lie between -3.29 or +3.29 respectively. The 

minimum standardized residual value was    -2.787 and maximum was +2.013, which satisfies the criteria that 

there are no outliers in the data. To make sure that the relationship among the variables was linear, the scatter 

plot was computed. The following scatter plot graph confirms the linearity among respective variables.   

   

    
Figure 1. Scatterplot   

The third assumption is that the data should have independence of observations which is indicated by 

DurbinWatson value or statistic. It should be between 1 and 3. The value of Durbin Watson is 1.137, so the 

assumption has been met.  The assumption of normality has also been met, as graphs i.e. PP plot, histogram 

and scatter plot etc. given below illustrate that data is normally distributed.   

   
  Figure 2. Normal PP Plot    Figure 3. Histogram         Figure 4. Scatterplot   

   

   

Table 4. Correlations for Work Overload and Emotional Exhaustion   

   

     Emotional  

Exhaustion   

Work  

Overload   

Pearson Correlation     Emotional 

Exhaustion   

1.000   .688   

Work Overload   .688   1.000   

-3.47969   2.51372   .00000   1.24704  385   

-3.020   1.796   .000   1.000  385   

-2.787   2.013   .000   .999  385   

        



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Sig. (1-tailed)      Emotional 

Exhaustion   

.   .000   

Work Overload   .000   .   

   

Table 5. Model Summary   

Model   R   R Square   Adjusted R  

Square   

Std. Error of the  

Estimate   

Durbin- 

Watson   

1   .688a   .473   .471   1.24867   1.137   

a: Predictors: (Constant), Work 

Overload Dependent Variable: 

Emotional Exhaustion   

   

   

Table 6. ANOVAa   

a. Dependent Variable: Emotional Exhaustion   

b. Predictors: (Constant), Work Overload   

   

The Pearson Correlation value is 0.688, which indicates that work overload and emotional exhibit a 

moderately strong positive correlation.  The R Square is .473, which means that 47.3% variance in one’s level 

of emotional exhaustion can be predicted from the degree of work overload. The significance value is 0.000 

which indicates that the variables work overload and emotional exhaustion form a significant relationship with 

each other, confirming the formulated hypothesis.    

The standardized coefficient is 0.688, which indicates the model demonstrates a strong relationship. The 

standardized coefficient beta suggests that for every one standard deviation increase in work overload will be 

followed by 0.688 of a standard deviation increase in emotional exhaustion.   

The sign of unstandardized beta is positive, it means that emotional exhaustion among employees increases 

as the work overload increases. Hence, it can be said that, for every 1 unit increase in the work overload, the 

emotional exhaustion increases by 1.896 points.  
Table 7 .   Coefficients 

a    

 a. Dependent 

Variable: Emotional  

Exhaustion      

4.3.2 Regression Analysis for Hypothesis 2  Table 

8. Residuals Statisticsa   

Model   Sum of Squares   df   Mean  

Square   

F   Sig.   

 1  Regression  535.617    535.617   343.527   .000b   

Model    
Unstandardized Coefficients    Standardized Coefficients    

t    Sig.   

 B     Std. Error     Beta       

( 
1    

 

Constant)  
    -  .163    .302          - .540       .590 

Work 

Overload   
  1.896     .102      .688     18.534     .000 

  

Residual    
  

  597.163   
  

  383   
  1.559           

Total      1132.781   384                 



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   Minimum   Maximum   Mean   Std.  

Deviation   

N   

Predicted Value   1.3443   5.7414   4.4954   1.25868   385   

Residual   -3.01819   2.09086   .00000   .93886   385   

Std. Predicted Value   -2.503   .990   .000   1.000   385   

Std. Residual   -3.042   2.224   .000   .999   385   

a: Dependent Variable: Employee Burnout  

The linear regression analysis is performed to check the relationship between emotional exhaustion and 

employee burnout. In order to satisfy the assumption criteria required for running the linear regression, first 

scatter plot has been constructed on the SPSS. The results confirm that there is a linear relationship between 

the variables. The minimum standardized residual value is -3.042 and maximum one is 2.224, which implies 

the data does not have any outliers.   

   

   
Figure 5. Scatterplot   

The Durbin Watson value is 1.145, so it can be assumed that data meets the criteria of independence of 

observations as the value is greater than 1 and less than 3. The normal P-P plot shows that dots are lined up 

along a 45-degree line that indicates that the data has normality of residuals. The histogram shows that 

employee burnout that is dependent variable is normally distributed. For normality, these three graphs were 

constructed i.e. histogram, normal P-P plot, and scatter plot.   

  
 Graph 6. Normal PP Plot         Graph 7. Histogram               Graph 8. Scatterplot  

The Pearson Correlation is 0.802 which suggests that higher level of emotional exhaustion indicates increased 

chances of employee burnout, as both variables depicts an extremely strong positive correlation. The sign is 

positive which means that as the emotional exhaustion increases so does the employee burnout. The 

significance is 0.000 that implies the model is highly significant. Table 9. Correlations for Emotional 

Exhaustion and Employee Burnout   



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     Employee  

Burnout   

 Emotional  

Exhaustion   

Pearson Correlation   Employee Burnout   1.000    .802   

Emotional 

Exhaustion   

.802    1.000   

Sig. (1-tailed)   Employee Burnout    .   .000   

Emotional 

Exhaustion   

.000    .   

   

   

Table 10. Model Summaryb   

  

Model   R   R Square   Adjusted R Square   Std. Error of the Estimate   Durbin-Watson   

1   .802a  .643   .642   .94008   1.145   a: Predictors: (Constant), Emotional 

Exhaustion  b: Dependent Variable: Employee Burnout  

Table 11. ANOVAa   

Model   Sum of Squares   df   Mean Square   F   Sig.   

 1   Regression   

Residual   

Total   

608.357   1   608.357   688.375   .000b   

338.479   383   .884         

946.837   384            

a: Dependent Variable: Employee Burnout  b: 

Predictors: (Constant), Emotional Exhaustion  
Table 12 .  Coefficients a

 
   

 Model    Unstandardized Coeff.     Standardized Coeff.     t    Sig.    

B     Std. Error     Beta     

  
   

The R-Square is 0.643 that means that 64.3% variability in the employee burnout can be predicted or explained 

by the emotional exhaustion. The p value or significance value is 0.000 that means that the model is significant 

as p value is smaller than 0.005. The standardized coefficient beta is 0.802, this value indicates a highly strong 

relationship among emotional exhaustion and employee burnout. By looking at the value it can be said that 

for every one standard deviation increase in emotional exhaustion, employee burnout increases by 0.802 of a 

standard deviation.   

The sign of unstandardized beta is positive, it means that employee burnout increases as the emotional 

exhaustion increases. Hence, it can be said that, for every 1 unit increase in the emotional exhaustion, the 

employee burnout increases by 0.733 points.   

1       Constant   )   (       .612       .156           3.930       .000       

Emotional    Exhaustion       .733       .028       .802       26.237       .000       

a: Dependent Variable: Employee Burnout       



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4.4 Mediation Analysis   

The process model 4 of PROCESS macro by Andrew Hayes is run to test the mediation effect.   Model: 

4    

    Y: Employee Burnout    

    X: Work Overload   

    M: Emotional Exhaustion   

Table 13. Total effect of X on Y   

Effect   se     t         p     LLCI   ULCI  c_cs   

   1.7052    .0949   17.9744  .0000  1.5187  1.8917   

.6764   

Table 14. Indirect effect(s) of X on Y   

   Effect  BootSE  BootLLCI  BootULCI  

Emotional  

Exhaustion   

1.1062  .0854     .9459       1.2798   

The above table (Indirect effect(s) of X on Y) demonstrates the indirect effect of work overload on employee 

burnout through emotional exhaustion. The effect (co-efficient) value is 1.1062, and that is significant. 

Because the bootstrap confidence intervals indicate that both values i.e. lower and upper bound do not include 

zero, both are higher than zero as the effect is positive. The values are 0.9459 to 1.2798. Thus, it concludes 

that mediation effect exists and it is significant. The significance value that is 0.0000 also confirms this 

conclusion.    

The “Total effect of X on Y” table 13 shows the total value of co-efficient which is 1.7052. And the indirect 

effect is 1.1062. The indirect effect accounts for a certain percentage of the total effect that x has on y. In order 

to understand that, the calculation is done by dividing indirect effect from total effect (1.1062/1.7052=0.6487).  

The value computed after calculation is 0.6487 or 64.87%, it basically indicates that the proportion of the total 

effect of work overload on employee burnout that operates indirectly is 64.87%. The remaining percentage 

that is (100-64.87) 35.13% of the relationship operates directly.  So the work overload accounts 35.13% of the 

outcome of the employee burnout but 64.87% is managed through the emotional exhaustion.    

4.5 Moderation Analysis   

In order to test the third hypothesis of the study, the moderation analysis was performed using PROCESS 

macro by Andrew F. Hayes.   

Model: 1   

    Y: Employee Burnout   

    X: Emotional Exhaustion   

    W: Ethical Leadership  

Table 15. Covariance matrix of regression parameter estimates   

     

  

 

 .2727     -.0414        -.0657         

  Emotional Exhaustion -.0414    .0065         .0101        -.0016   

Ethical Leadership   -.0657     .0101         .0170        - 

.0026 

Int_1  .0098     -.0016        -.0026         .0005 Table 16. Model Summary   

.0098       

Constant   Emotional Exhaustion   Ethical Leadership   

Int_1     

Constant     



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Table 17. Model   

   Unstandardized  se   

Co-efficient       

t   p   LLCI   ULCI   

Constant   2.6478         .5222    5.0706     .0000    1.6211     3.6745   

Emotional  

Exhaustion   

.6453         .0809    7.9771     .0000    .4862      .8044   

Ethical Leadership   -.2708         .1302    -2.0792    .0383    -.5268     -.0147   

Int_1           -.0637         .0213    -2.9881    .0030    -.1056     -.0218   

Int_1 : Emotional Exhaustion * Ethical Leadership   

   

Table 18. Model Summary   

   R2  

Change   

F   df1   df2   p   

X ×W   .0050   8.9286  1.0000  381.0000  .0030  

The above tables show the results of regression that are generated after executing moderation analysis in SPSS. 

The value of R-Square is 0.7857 which basically means that 78.57% variance in employee burnout is 

explained by the interaction between emotional exhaustion and ethical leadership. The overall value of 

significance (pvalue) is 0.0000 which implies that the model is significant.    

To check the moderation effect, the interaction term is examined and individual values of coefficients and p 

are usually ignored. The interaction term indicates the interaction between emotional exhaustion and ethical 

leadership on employee burnout. The interaction term is significant which suggests that effect of emotional 

exhaustion on employee burnout is moderated by ethical leadership, thus confirming the hypothesis 3. The 

unstandardized coefficient is -.0637, negative sign implies that when the ethical leadership is practiced in the 

workplace, it weakens the relationship between emotional exhaustion and employee burnout. Hence again, it 

confirms our hypothesis. The same sign of LLCI and ULCI points out that our hypothesis of moderation effect 

is accepted.    

4.6 Moderated Mediation Analysis   

The process model 14 of Andrew Hayes is used to test the moderated mediation effect on the model of the 

study.  

Model: 14   

    Y: Employee Burnout   

    X: Work Overload   

    M: Emotional Exhaustion      

W: Ethical Leadership   

OUTCOME VARIABLE:   

 Emotional Exhaustion    

R     R - 

Square     
MSE     F     df1     df2     p     

.8864     .7857        .5325      465.7109    3.0000    381.0000   .0000 



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Table 19. Model Summary   

R   R- 

Square   

MSE  F   df1   df2   p   

.6876    .4728       1.5592  343.5266  1.0000  383.0000  .0000  

Table 20. Model   

   Unstandardized Coefficient   se   T   p     LLCI   ULCI   

constant   -5.4626         .3015   -

18.1170  

 .0000  -6.0555  - 

4.8698  

Work Overload  1.8960         .1023   18.5345   .0000  1.6948   

2.0971  

OUTCOME VARIABLE: Employee Burnout    

Table 21. Model Summary   

R   R- 

Square   

MSE  F   df1   df2   p   

.8963    .8034       .4898   388.2479  4.0000  380.0000  .0000  

  

Table 22. Model   

   Unstandardized Co- 

efficient   

se   t   p   LLCI   ULCI   

constant   3.0475         .2366    12.8832   .0000    2.5824   3.5126  

Work Overload   .4665         .0798    5.8465    .0000    .3096     .6233   

Emotional  

Exhaustion   

.3756         .0365    10.2916   .0000    .3039     .4474   

Ethical Leadership   -.5754         .0409    -14.0743  .0000    -.6558    -.4950  

Int_1   -.0723         .0205    -3.5280    .0005    -.1126    -.0320  

Int_1 : Emotional Exhaustion x Ethical Leadership   

The above given model table 22 shows that work overload emerged as a significant and positive predictor of 

employee burnout as value of significance (p-value) is 0.000. The unstandardized coefficient is 0.4665 which 

suggests that for every 1 unit increase in work overload, the employee burnout level rises by 0.4665 points. 

The significance value of emotional exhaustion and ethical leadership indicates that both variables are 

significant predictor of employee burnout as their pvalue is 0.0000. The unstandardized co-efficient statistic 

for the interaction term is -0.0723. The significance (p-value) is 0.0005 which is less than 0.05, thus indicates 

that the model is significant. This implies that it is evident from the co-efficient of the interaction term 

(.0.0723) that ethical leadership is moderating the effect of emotional exhaustion on employee burnout.  Table 

23. Test(s) of highest order unconditional interaction(s)   



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   R2-chng  F   df1     df2   p   

M*W      .0064    12.4468   1.0000  380.0000  .0005   

M = Focal predict: Emotional Exhaustion   

W= Moderating variable: Ethical Leadership    

Table 24. Conditional effects of the focal predictor at values of the moderator(s)   

Ethical Leadership  Effect  se   t   p   LLCI  ULCI   

-1.2388         .4652    .0524   8.8793    .0000   .3622    .5682   

.0000         .3756    .0365   10.2916  .0000   .3039    .4474   

1.2388         .2860    .0348   8.2274    .0000   .2177    .3544   

INDIRECT EFFECT:   

 Work Overload        ->    Emotional Exhaustion     ->    Employee Burnout   

Table 25. Conditional indirect effects of X on Y   

Ethical  

Leadership   

Effect   BootSE  BootULCI 

  BootLLCI  

-1.2388         .8820    .0892    .7330       1.0875   

.0000         .7122    .0658    .5965       .8533   

1.2388         .5423    .0637    .4203       .6687   

     

Table 26. Index  

of  moderate d mediation   

   Index  BootSE  BootLLCI BootULCI  

Ethical Leadership -.1371 .0331    -.2081      -.0773   

The results shown in “index of moderated mediation” table 26 determine that whether the moderated 

mediation is taking place in the model or not. In order to confirm this, the bootstrap confidence intervals are 

examined. The values of LLCI and ULCI (confidence intervals) lies outside of the zero or are a nonzero value 

as the values are -0.2081 and -0.0773, which indicates that moderated mediation effect is significant. As the 

upper bound (ULCI) is negative it can be concluded that indirect effect through mediating variable is being 

negatively moderated by ethical leadership. The index value (which is co-efficient value) of moderated 

mediation effect is -0.1371. The negative sign of index indicates that indirect effect of work overload on 

employee burnout through emotional exhaustion decreases with higher levels of ethical leadership.    

5. Conclusion   

The main purpose of this study was to examine the moderating role of ethical leadership on the relationship 

between emotional exhaustion and burnout among employees. The primary data was collected and then 

examined in order to draw conclusions. The sample chosen for the study was teaching staff of public HEIs, as 

public universities’ teachers were assumed to be more prone to burning out because of the demanding and 

increased work load, and they exhibited lower levels of job satisfaction according to research (Ayub, 2010).   

There were four variables in total in the study, and the conceptual model constituted moderated mediation 

relationship among variables. All four hypothesis were proven to be true after running regression analysis. 

The first hypothesis was confirmed by running simple linear regression, and it was deducted that work 

overload causes employees to feel emotionally exhausted. Both variables formed positive relationship, which 

suggested that when work load increases, so does levels of emotional exhaustion experienced by employees. 

Second hypothesis was also approved as the results of the simple linear regression for the second hypothesis 



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implied that emotional exhaustion is positive significant predictor of employee burnout. For the third 

hypothesis, the mediation analysis using PROCESS macro was run. This hypothesis was also validated as 

both the confidence intervals (LLCI and ULCI) were non-zero (both were lower than zero), thus, the mediation 

effect of emotional exhaustion was significant. The moderation analysis confirmed that ethical leadership was 

acting as a moderator on the relationship between emotional exhaustion and employee burnout such that when 

ethical leadership was high it weakened the relationship between the two and when it was low the relationship 

was stronger. In order to test the conceptual model of the study, which was whether the indirect effect of work 

overload on employee burnout differs as the levels of ethical leadership varies, where ethical leadership is 

acting as a moderator on the relationship between emotional exhaustion and employee burnout, the moderated 

mediation analysis was performed. The test results indicated that the model was significant. So the conclusion 

can be made that indirect effect through emotional exhaustion was being moderated by ethical leadership.    

5.1 Practical Implications   

The findings of this study will help the managers to better understand the concepts of work overload and the 

direct and serious effect it has on the mental health of employees. It will allow them to take necessary steps 

i.e. practicing ethical leadership to avoid employees from burning out so their satisfaction and productivity 

can be enhanced. The managers can learn from these insights and can formulate better and effective strategies 

to make the workload more manageable for their employees so that they won’t feel stressed out.  

5.2 Limitations   

Like most studies, this research has certain limitations. First, the sample chosen for the study was teaching 

faculty working at public HEIs, and this restricts us from making generalizations about other occupations or 

professions. Then the data was collected from the public sector universities of two cities of Pakistan only i.e. 

Islamabad and Wah Cantt, this also imposes some limitations. As there was a time constraint and sample size 

could not be expanded. Future studies could try to be more inclusive of other occupations and they can reach 

other cities or countries as well.    

5.3 Future Research and Recommendations    

The future research can focus on including occupations other than teaching faculty of public HEIs. The future 

work should explore the conceptual model of this research in different work contexts so that external validity 

of the results of this research can be enhanced. The future studies could conduct research including the sample 

from all the cities of Pakistan to make the findings more generalizable. The future research should also explore 

other determinants of employee burnout i.e. ostracism, depersonalization etc. The future studies can be 

longitudinal study in nature. As the concepts of emotional exhaustion and employee burnout are difficult to 

assess, studying these behaviors at different points in time would allow to draw more significant and 

meaningful conclusions.  

Funding: This research received no external funding.  

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