Hardiness Promotes Work Engagement, Prevents Burnout, and Moderates Their Relationship

We examined the relationships between hardiness, work engagement, and burnout. Participants were Belgian service members involved in the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) operation. They completed a questionnaire containing hardiness items from the revised Norwegian Hardiness Scale, items concerning vigor and dedication from the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, and those tapping cynicism and emotional exhaustion from the Utrecht Burnout Scale. Results showed that hardiness was positively related to dedication and vigor, and negatively to cynicism and emotional exhaustion. Our results further suggest that work engagement and burnout are the opposite ends of a continuum. However, analyses concerning the moderation effect of hardiness suggest that individual differences could imply different processes in the relationship between work engagement and burnout.