Hochwarter: Taking ‘a snapshot’ of today’s workplaces

Wayne Hochwarter is the Melvin T. Stith Sr. Professor in Business Administration in the Department of Management at FSU's College of Business.
whochwarter@business.fsu.edu

So you love your job and want to take on another massive project?

Consider Professor Wayne Hochwarter’s recent findings published in Career Development International. Even those passionate about their jobs are destined for burnout, his study says, unless they have elevated ego resilience, which enables a worker to pause, reflect and adjust.

“Sometimes people overestimate their ability to do things,” says Hochwarter, the Melvin T. Stith Sr. Professor in Business Administration. “I might be passionate about winning a marathon. But I’ve got to be able to stop, breathe and think, ‘Is this really a good idea?’”

That stood among nine published studies from Hochwarter in 2022 and 2023, with a continued emphasis on job stress and employee motivation, including in healthcare.

Hochwarter said his research aims to understand contemporary workplaces, including worker shortages in the COVID-19 and post-COVID environments. “My intention is to take a snapshot of the present and try to extrapolate that to the future,” he says.

Recent publications or presentations:

Hochwarter, W., Jordan, S.L., Fontes-Comber, A., De La Haye, D.C., Khan, A.K., Babalola, M. and Franczak, J. (2022), "Losing the benefits of work passion? The implications of low ego-resilience for passionate workers," Career Development International, Vol. 27 No. 5, pp. 526-546. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-05-2022-0132 

Hochwarter, W., Jordan, S., Kiewitz, C., Liborius, P., Lampaki, A., Franczak, J., Deng, Y., Babalola, M.T. and Khan, A.K. (2022), "Losing compassion for patients? The implications of COVID-19 on compassion fatigue and event-related post-traumatic stress disorder in nurses," Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 206-223. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-01-2021-0037