The influence of reflection and rumination on psychological well-being of employees

Previous research has demonstrated that the way in which employees regulate their emotions determines their psychological well-being. One way to regulate emotions, and associated with positive well-being, is reflection. We studied the impact of reflection and rumination as emotion-focused coping strategies on engagement and burn-out among employees of fourteen Dutch organizations in the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada. We also examined the moderating influence of self-efficacy and rumination on the relationship between stress factors such as interpersonal conflict in the workplace and burn-out. Our findings indicate that reflection is positively associated to self-efficacy and rumination, and that rumination acts as an emotion-focused coping strategy that relates to impaired psychological well-being. Furthermore, engaged employees are less likely to burn out, and less engaged employees ruminate more and have a greater chance of experiencing a burn-out. In sum, employees could become more engaged when they learn to transform rumination into an effective emotion-focused coping strategy. Additionally, helping employees to increase self-efficacy could decrease the risk of experiencing a burn-out.