Job Burnout in Contemporary Organizations: A Critical Narrative Review

Job burnout has become a central concern in organizational behavior, human resource management, and occupational health psychology. Although it is frequently discussed as a problem of excessive workload, contemporary scholarship conceptualizes burnout as a multidimensional response to chronic, unsuccessfully managed occupational stress. This narrative review synthesizes foundational theories, meta-analyses, measurement research, and selected recent developments to clarify what burnout is, why it emerges, how it affects workers and organizations, and which interventions appear promising. Particular attention is given to the job demands–resources framework, conservation of resources theory, emotional labor, the recovery process, and mismatches between employees and their workplaces. The review also examines ongoing debates concerning burnout's overlap with depression, alternative measurement instruments, the limitations of predominantly cross-sectional evidence, and the risks of treating individual resilience as a substitute for organizational change. Finally, it develops a research agenda concerning digital work, artificial intelligence, work–nonwork boundaries, withdrawal behaviors, and multilevel processes. The central argument is that burnout is best understood as a dynamic outcome of the interaction between working conditions and employees' capacity to sustain and replenish psychological resources. Research and management practice should consequently prioritize the redesign of work as well as appropriate individual support.