The Mediating Effects of Emotional ExhaustionCynicism and Learned Helplessness onOrganizational Justice-Turnover Intentions Linkage

Ozge Tayfur, Pinar Bayhan Karapinar, and Selin Metin CamgozHacettepe University

The study tests an integrative model that considers the mediating effect ofburnout and learned helplessness on the relationships between organizationaljustice and turnover intentions. Organizational injustice is expected to act as aworkplace stressor, triggering emotional reactions such as exhaustion, cynicism,and helplessness. These in turn manifest themselves as dysfunctional organiza-tional attitudes such as turnover intentions. Data were collected through sequen-tial design from 217 banking employees and analyzed with full-latent variablemodel using AMOS 17. Results provided partial support for the proposedconceptual model. Specifically, emotional exhaustion mediated the linkagesbetween procedural justice-turnover intentions and distributive justice-turnoverintentions; cynicism acted as a mediator only between procedural justice andturnover intentions. The mediating model fit to the data satisfactorily with GFIof .98 and CFI of .99. Neither the relationship between justice perceptions andhelplessness nor the relationship between helplessness and turnover intentionswas found to be significant. Emotional exhaustion (� � .15, p � .05) andcynicism (� � .49, p � .05), both of which are shown to be cognitive andemotional reactions arising from perceived injustice, seem to positively relatewith desire for quitting. These intentions could translate into actual turnover,thus, hampering organizational performance.

Keywords: organizational justice, emotional exhaustion, cynicism, learned helplessness,turnover intention

There is a growing interest in understanding employees’ emotionalreactions to adverse working conditions and stressors because costs arisingfrom work-related stress are dramatically increasing in various forms of

Ozge Tayfur, Pinar Bayhan Karapinar, and Selin Metin Camgoz, Department of BusinessAdministration, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ozge Tayfur, Departmentof Business Administration, Hacettepe University, 06800, Beytepe, Ankara, Turkey. E-mail:otayfur@hacettepe.edu.tr

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International Journal of Stress Management © 2013 American Psychological Association2013, Vol. 20, No. 3, 193–221 1072-5245/13/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0033938

193

accelerated turnover intentions, reduced productivity, and competitive ad-vantage (International Labour Office, 2012). As a result, research studyingemployees’ emotional reactions to adverse work conditions and stressors hasbeen on the rise. Among the emotional reactions to increased stress levels,job burnout and learned helplessness merit special attention given theirsubstantial effect on both employee well-being and organizational outcomes(e.g., Schaufeli & Buunk, 2003).

Maslach (2003) conceptualizes burnout as “a psychosocial syndromethat involves a prolonged response to stressors in the workplace” (p. 189). Incontrast, Cherniss (1980) regards burnout as a process “in which the profes-sionals’ attitudes and behavior change in negative ways in response to jobstrain” (p. 5). Learned helplessness, per se, refers to a state of passivity andapathy that develops in response to prolonged exposure to stressors at workand in family life.

Investigators have argued that burnout and learned helplessness arerelated to each other. Some (e.g., Burisch, 1993) assert that helplessness is asymptom of burnout; however, the precise nature of such a relationship hasyet to be explained. Given the influence of burnout and learned helplessnesson both organizational and individual outcomes, understanding their associ-ation is important because such an understanding can shed light on thedevelopment process of both helplessness and burnout. In doing so, however,first one must understand the antecedents and consequences of burnout andlearned helplessness.

Perceived unfairness can be conceived as an individual’s response to aninequitable and unjust workplace (Colquitt, Conlon, Wesson, Porter, & Ng,2001). It is believed to create negative affective and cognitive reactions,making workers prone to experience psychological distress (e.g., Tepper,2001). More specifically, employees who feel they are being treated unfairlydevelop cynical attitudes toward both their job and organization, and sufferfeelings of distress, emptiness, and hopelessness, all of which are known tobe characteristics of burnout and helplessness. Therefore, it is worthwhile toexamine the role of perceived unfairness in the development of burnout andhelplessness for both employees and employers.

At the organizational level, burnout manifests itself in absenteeism,turnover intentions, and psychological withdrawal (Schaufeli & Buunk,2003). Researchers (e.g., Wright & Cropanzano, 1998) argue that whenindividuals’ feel unable to cope with stress, they burn out and feel helplessand, thus, withdraw from work as a coping mechanism. Although studieshave addressed the relationship between burnout and turnover intentions (deCroon, Suiter, Blonk, Broersen, & Frings-Dresen, 2004; Leiter & Maslach,2009) and the relationship between perceived injustice and turnover inten-tions (Simons & Roberson, 2003), most have ignored the underlying mech-

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194 Tayfur, Bayhan Karapinar, and Metin Camgoz

anisms by which justice perceptions relate to turnover intentions. Accord-ingly, this research aims to fill this gap by viewing organizational injustice asa distal workplace stressor causing individuals to react emotionally andmanifesting itself as feelings of exhaustion, cynicism, and helplessness.These in turn translate into dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors such asturnover intentions. In examining the mediating effects of burnout andlearned helplessness on the relation between organizational justice and turn-over intentions, this study distinguishes itself from earlier research by simul-taneously testing the effects of justice, burnout, and learned helplessness onturnover intentions.

ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE AND BURNOUT RELATIONSHIP

Burnout is composed of three dimensions: Emotional exhaustion, cyni-cism/depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment (Maslach &Jackson, 1986). Emotional exhaustion refers to feeling depleted and drainedby the emotional demands of the work. Cynicism refers to exhibiting anegative, callous, or excessively detached response to various aspects of thejob (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001, p. 399). Reduced personal accom-plishment is characterized by individuals’ experiencing a diminished sense ofcompetence and achievement both on the job and in their interactions withothers (Cordes & Dougherty, 1993). Although conceptualized as a three-dimensional construct, a two-dimensional burnout model, composed of ex-haustion and cynicism, was found to be valid as well (e.g., Brookings,Bolton, Brown, & McEvoy, 1985). Some researchers argue that exhaustionand cynicism are core dimensions of burnout (Demerouti, Bakker, Nach-reiner, & Schaufeli, 2001; Green, Walkey, & Taylor, 1991; Shirom, 1989),whereas others posit feelings of reduced personal accomplishment representa distal but perhaps not separate dimension of burnout. The focus in thisstudy is on exhaustion and cynicism, as these dimensions represent the coreof burnout and are affected mostly by organizational stressors such asworkload, role ambiguity, and injustice.

The job demand resources model, widely accepted as a stressor–strainmodel (Demerouti et al., 2001), offers an explanation for the relationshipbetween employee well-being (burnout and helplessness) and its antecedents.The model states that individuals are vulnerable to strain when they are eitheroverwhelmed by job demands or deprived of sufficient job resources(Maslach, 2001). Although job demands are regarded as one of the prominentpredictors of exhaustion and cynicism, the role of job resources should not bedismissed in understanding the stressor–strain relationship. Among the citedcomponents of job-resources, feedback, reward, job control, and participation

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195Effects of Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Helplessness

are closely related to justice perceptions (Adams, 1965; Lind & Tyler, 1988;Sapienza & Korsgaard, 1996).

Considering the relationship between perceived injustice and the com-ponents of the job demand resources model, an association between per-ceived injustice and negative feelings is expected. Research indicates thatemployees perceiving organizational injustice are more likely to experiencemental distress (Elovainio, Kivimaki, & Vahtera, 2002; Robbins, Ford, &Tetrick, 2012) and burnout (e.g., Bakker, Schaufeli, Sixma, Bosveld, & vanDierendonck, 2000; Cropanzano, Goldman, & Benson, 2005; Lambert et al.,2011; Liljegren & Ekberg, 2009). Some scholars argue global evaluationsregarding organizational justice offer promise in predicting health-relatedconstructs and burnout (Liljegren & Ekberg, 2009). Others advocate usingsubdimensions of justice (e.g., Brotheridge, 2003; Schminke, Ambrose, &Cropanzano, 2000), which are explored herein with distributive and proce-dural justice, to determine whether they differentially affect exhaustion,cynicism, and helplessness.

Distributive justice is derived from equity theory (Adams, 1965), whichasserts that perceptions of equity and inequity are developed based on aperceived balance/imbalance between inputs and outputs. According to thistheory, when individuals feel they give more than they receive in return, theyfeel an imbalance between inputs and outputs. Mowday and Colwell (2003)argue that experiencing such an imbalance causes distress and motivates oneto change the situation. In line with this argument, studies conducted withprofessional caregivers (e.g., van Dierendonck, Schaufeli, & Sixma, 1994),police officers (e.g., Kop, Euwema, & Schaufeli, 1999), and teachers (e.g.,van Horn, Schaufeli, & Enzmann, 1999) report that individuals felt moreprone to experiencing stress (e.g., Bakker et al., 2000), emotional exhaustion(e.g., Frenkel, Li, & Restubog, 2011), and cynicism (e.g., Frenkel et al., 2012;Taris, van Horn, Schaufeli, & Schreurs, 2004) if they perceived they gavesubstantially more than they received in return. Deriving from these findings,one might predict that individuals experiencing low levels of distributivejustice, such as not receiving salary or benefits they believe to be commen-surate with their efforts, will more likely lead to their becoming emotionallydrained and cynical. Thus, this leads to the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1a: Distributive justice will negatively relate with emotionalexhaustion.

Hypothesis 1b: Distributive justice will negatively relate with cynicism.

Procedural justice, stemming from both control theory (Thibaut &Walker, 1975) and the group-value model (Lind & Tyler, 1988), emphasizesthe perceived fairness of the methods and procedures leading to decision

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196 Tayfur, Bayhan Karapinar, and Metin Camgoz

outcomes (Folger & Cropanzano, 1998). The underlying assumption of bothcontrol theory and the group-value model is that people value long-termmembership in organizations, and use procedural fairness to control out-comes and gauge their status within these groups. In this respect, Judge andColquitt (2004) state that unfair situations might indicate a lack of control,social exclusion, or lead to stress for those employees. Supporting thisargument, Barclay, Skarlicki, and Pugh (2005) found that procedural injus-tice was associated with resentment, anger, and aggravation. Howard andCordes (2010), and Riolli and Savicki (2006) confirmed procedural justice asan important variable in understanding emotional burnout and strain. Apply-ing this logic, one can posit that procedural fairness may serve as anindication an organization values its employees, and procedures of theorganization positively influence employees’ affective reactions toward theirjobs. Therefore, individuals who experience procedural unfairness will bemore likely to experience emotional exhaustion and develop cynical attitudestoward their jobs. Thus, this leads to the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 2a: Procedural justice will negatively relate with emotionalexhaustion.

Hypothesis 2b: Procedural justice will negatively relate with cynicism.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JUSTICE ANDLEARNED HELPLESSNESS

As with burnout, learned helplessness is a reaction to prolonged stressorsone faces in work and family life. It is defined as “the state of passivityexperienced after confronting stressors such as repeated punishment or fail-ure and then remaining so, even after environmental changes that enablesuccess” (Martinko & Gardner, 1982, p. 82). The learned helplessness theoryrests on attribution theory. Attributions regarding the controllability of out-comes play a significant role in the development of helplessness. Accordingto helplessness theory, when people work to attain a certain outcome andrealize it is achieved independently of their behaviors, they start to believethey have no control over the situation, so any actions or responses on theirpart will prove futile. Further, if people believe outcomes will remain beyondtheir control in the future, with their responses proving useless no matterwhat they do, they risk becoming passive, regardless of whatever actualpower they may possess to change their circumstances (Matute, 1995).

Despite a lack of definitive research, it seems reasonable to believeinjustice and helplessness are associated with each other, as perceived injus-

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197Effects of Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Helplessness

tice shapes people’s evaluation about work and initiates the development ofstress. When discussing the development of learned helplessness in work life,Martinko and Gardner (1982) mentioned indirectly the role of justice per-ceptions. They noted employees often feel performance evaluations areunrelated to their performance, which causes them to experience a situationin which they can neither win nor improve. A state of noncontingencyexpressed between performance and evaluation could be regarded as a“violation of procedural justice,” a situation that Martinko and Gardner(1982) claim induces learned helplessness and passivity, leading to thefollowing hypothesis:

Hypothesis 3a: Procedural justice will negatively relate with learnedhelplessness.

In addition, Martinko and Gardner (1982) assert employees often feel therewards they obtained are noncontingent to their performance, which maycause them to display behaviors and attitudes (i.e., passivity, apathy) asso-ciated with helplessness. This is in line with claims of Pestonjee and Desai(1993) who found that managing rewards inappropriately, related to proce-dural and distributive justice, was associated with learned helplessness.Given that noncontingent performance and reward relations are related todistributive justice, it is reasonable to believe distributive injustice induceslearned helplessness among employees. Thus, this leads to the followinghypothesis:

Hypothesis 3b: Distributive justice will negatively relate with learnedhelplessness.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BURNOUT ANDTURNOVER INTENTION

Turnover intention, regarded as the final step of withdrawal behavior(e.g., Tett & Meyer, 1993), is defined as an employee’s desire to leave theorganization (Mobley, Horner, & Hollingsworth, 1978). Accordingly, wefocus on employees’ intentions to leave their organizations because research-ers strongly agree that employees’ turnover intention is a strong predictor foractual turnover (e.g., Hendrix, Robbins, Miller, & Summers, 1998; MorBarak, Nissly, & Levin, 2001). However, we also need to acknowledge thatindividuals high on learned helplessness may have turnover intention yet theymay not actually leave as their sense of lack of control may hinder the searchfor a new job.

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198 Tayfur, Bayhan Karapinar, and Metin Camgoz

The literature shows that individuals feeling burned out and frustratedwith their jobs are more likely to experience higher turnover and be absentfrom work (de Croon et al., 2004; Leiter & Maslach, 2009). The relationshipbetween burnout and turnover intention was found to be significant in studiesconducted among nursing staff (Leiter & Maslach, 2009), service workers,and correctional staff (Griffin, Hogan, Lamber, Tucker-Gail, & Baker, 2010).Today, scholars generally agree that emotional exhaustion predicts bothfrequency of absences and turnover intentions positively (Lee & Ashforth,1993; Wright & Cropanzano, 1998). In a recent study, Sims (2007) alsoshowed that emotional exhaustion, together with cynicism, is a significantpredictor of turnover intention. Given that turnover intention is a reaction toorganizationally induced stress and stress-related syndromes, like emotionalexhaustion and cynicism, this leads to the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 4a: Emotional exhaustion will positively relate with turnoverintentions.

Hypothesis 4b: Cynicism will positively relate with turnover intentions.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEARNED HELPLESSNESS ANDTURNOVER INTENTION

Although not tested empirically, helplessness and turnover intentionmight be related. In one of the earliest models, Martinko and Gardner (1982)suggested that learned helplessness induces negative attitudes and behaviorssuch as absenteeism, job dissatisfaction, and turnover intention. In anothermodel (Carlson & Kacmar, 1994), helplessness was claimed to increasewithdrawal, which was related to turnover intention (Geurts, Schaufeli &Rutte, 1999). Based on subsamples of three different industries, Sparr andSonnentag (2008) found a positive association between learned helplessnessand intentions to leave the organization. Recently in a health care setting,Moreland (2012) reported that helplessness lessened the number of yearsnurses intended to stay in a particular department. Therefore in this study, itis assumed that as people feel helpless in reaction to prolonged stress, itmight cause them to consider leaving the organization (i.e., increase turnoverintention). Thus, this leads to the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 5: Learned helplessness will positively relate with turnoverintentions.

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199Effects of Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Helplessness

MEDIATING ROLE OF BURNOUT AND LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

As discussed above, it is proposed that justice perceptions affect turnoverintentions via their effects on emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and learnedhelplessness. As such, it is anticipated that individuals’ justice perceptions(distributive and procedural) will be negatively associated with emotionalexhaustion (Hypothesis 1a and Hypothesis 2b), cynicism (Hypothesis 2a andHypothesis 2b), and helplessness (Hypothesis 3a and Hypothesis 3b), whichin turn will be positively associated with turnover intentions (Hypothesis 4a,Hypothesis 4b, and Hypothesis 5). Distributions and procedures that areperceived as unfair are expected to create a feeling of uncontrollability overwork outcomes and conditions among employees, leading to exhaustion,cynicism, and helplessness. These emotional and cognitive reactions areexpected to increase the tendency to leave the organization. In other words,organizational injustice is expected to act as a distal workplace stressor,believed to affect individuals’ burnout and helplessness levels, and in turnserve as proximal predictors of individuals’ withdrawal. The conceptualmodel is consistent with the mediation model, leading to the followinghypotheses:

Hypothesis 6a: Emotional exhaustion will act as a mediator between twoforms of justice and turnover intentions.

Hypothesis 6b: Cynicism will act as a mediator between two forms ofjustice and turnover intentions.

Hypothesis 6c: Helplessness will act as a mediator between two forms ofjustice and turnover intentions.

The relationships implied by hypotheses are illustrated in Figure 1.

Procedural

Justice

Distributive

Justice

Learned

helplessness

Cynicism

Emotional

Exhaustion

Turnover

intentions

Figure 1. Proposed Model.

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200 Tayfur, Bayhan Karapinar, and Metin Camgoz

CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND

Being at the cross-roads of Europe and Asia, Turkey is under theinfluence of Western management practices yet has a unique business cultureand working style. Turkish culture differs from Western societies in somerespects. Turkish culture reinforces the importance of family and patriarchalrelationships. Members of the family are expected to obey the decisions anddirections of the father as an authority figure without question. The normscreated in the family are also valid and extended to business organizationsand, thus, promote the acceptance of inequalities in power distributions(Kabasakal & Bodur, 2002). Turkey has a relatively high power-distanceculture meaning that the individuals regard power inequalities as normal.Besides power distance, paternalism is another salient cultural characteristicof Turkey (Aycan & Kanungo, 1998), which mostly shapes the relationshipbetween managers and employees. In paternalistic relationships, authorityfigures act the role of a parent and provide support and protection to theirsubordinates who in return reciprocate this support and protection by beingloyal, committed, and obedient (Aycan, 2001). Accordingly, in high powerdistance and paternalistic cultures like Turkey, individuals might be lessresponsive and less inquisitive to the implications of the authorities, which inturn might induce passive behavior associated with helplessness.

The Turkish economy and Turkish banking sector have been makingprogress since the 2001 economic crisis. The rules on banking institutions areregulated to restore stability in financial markets and to harmonize withinternational standards (The Banks Association of Turkey [BAT], 2011).Although the efforts for establishing stable growth environment are promis-ing, those efforts resulted in overwhelming working conditions (Ok, 2002),and accelerated stress in banking employees. These changes might createuncertainties which could make justice perceptions become more meaningfulfor employees. Therefore, the current study addresses helplessness-justiceand burnout relationships focusing on the Turkish banking sector.

METHOD

Sample and Procedure

To test the hypothesized model, employees of a service industry (i.e.,banks) were preferred, as it was argued that emotional exhaustion andhelplessness were more prevalent among employees in service sector (Cordes& Dougherty, 1993; Ducharme, Knudsen, & Roman, 2007). Additionally,being highly educated, the banking employees were thought to be well-

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201Effects of Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Helplessness

positioned to assess procedures and reward structures of their own institu-tions, rendering the assessment of justice items more reasonable.

Data were collected from the employees of two medium-sized privatecommercial banks with the assistance of a professional research firm. Ac-cording to the latest figures, banking employees constitute 80.9% of the totalfinance service employees (Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency[BRSA], 2011). At the time of data collection there were 43 banks (excludingbranches of foreign banks) including 13 investment, four participation, threepublic commercial, 11 foreign commercial, 10 private commercial, and twobanks under the supervision of government in Turkey (BAT, 2011). Sam-pling frame of the study was composed of private commercial banks, whoseshares were mostly owned by Turkish investors. Investment, participation,foreign, and large commercial banks and public banks were excluded fromsampling frame due to the time needed for getting permission and highdispersion of branches.

Data collection started at the end of October, 2011 and lasted 3 months.As of October, 2011 (BRSA, 2011), the number of employees working atprivate commercial banks was approximately 89,000, which includes bothwhite and blue collar employees. When large commercial banks were ex-cluded, number of employees fell to 7,653 throughout Turkey (BAT, 2011).Given the difficulties of reaching all employees throughout Turkey, data wereonly collected from the branches located in Ankara, capital city of Turkey. Of400 questionnaires distributed, 217 usable questionnaires were obtained, asdetailed in the Procedure section. 41.2% of the participants were female and81% were university graduates. Most ranged in age from 25–35 years(48.5%), followed by 35–45 years (23%), and 18–25 years (21.8%). As foremployment tenure, most participants had 1–5 years of work experience(41.2%); followed by 6–10 (29.1%), and 11–15 (13.9%). When we comparethe demographic characteristics of the sample with those of the population,we saw that our sample represents the population in many respects. Accord-ing to the reports of Turkish Banking Association (TBB), 82% of all bankingemployees are university graduates, and half of them are female, which isquite similar to demographic characteristics of our sample.

Procedure

A questionnaire package was distributed to participants “on conve-nience,” meaning that employees who were at the branch when the ques-tionnaires were distributed participated in the study. Participation was vol-untary in the study that is no incentives were provided. Before collectingdata, informed consent was obtained from participants indicating that they

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202 Tayfur, Bayhan Karapinar, and Metin Camgoz

would be asked to participate in two data collection phases within a 1-monthperiod.

The survey was designed to gather information about learned helplessness,burnout, turnover intentions, and justice perceptions. To reduce the impact ofcommon method variance, sequential design was employed, which involvesmeasuring different variables at successive occasions and specifying variableeffects at a given occasion on other variables at later occasions (see MacCallum& Austin, 2000, for details). Two questionnaire forms were created for Time 1and Time 2. The items in these questionnaires were different from each other.Accordingly, for Time 1, respondents were asked to complete the questionnaire,which included demographic variables, emotional exhaustion, cynicism, andjustice perceptions. One month later, we sent e-mails to Time 1 respondents inorder to remind them to complete the second. At Time 2, the respondentscompleted the remaining measures, including helplessness, turnover intentions,teamwork attitudes, and demographic variables. Helplessness, exhaustion, andcynicism are related constructs; therefore, they were measured in differentoccasions to prevent inflated ratings.

At Time 1, the first questionnaire form was put into envelopes designatedwith specific number. At Time 2, we requested the respondents to write down thedesignated envelope number which they had received in Time 1. So at the endthe end of the data collection period, each questionnaire was coded so the linkbetween the code and the survey during the two different times corresponded.

For Time 1, the paper-pencil, self-administered questionnaires weredistributed to 400 employees; of those, 250 were returned, with a responserate of 62.5%. For Time 2, respondents (n � 250) participating in the firstphase of the study were readministered the questionnaire; of those, 217completed surveys were returned, with a response rate of 86.8%. The attritionrate was 17% (# of participants in Study 1 not participating in Study 2/# ofparticipants in Study 2). This attrition resulted from inability to resurvey allparticipants plus some participants’ unwillingness to join the second phase.To determine the impact of attrition, those who completed Time 1 and Time2 questionnaires were compared with those who completed only Time 1 butnot Time 2 questionnaire in terms of demographic characteristics. Significantdifferences were not found; suggesting that attrition could not be attributed toparticipant characteristics.

Measures

The scales in the questionnaire package were translated into Turkishusing the collaborative translation technique described below to ensure theitems’ conceptual equivalence. Two bilingual researchers translated scale

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203Effects of Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Helplessness

independently, and one graduate psychology student examined which trans-lation best captured the items’ meanings. No analogous items were identified.

Organizational Justice

Organizational justice was measured with Niehoff and Moorman’s(1993) scale, which had been used previously in a Turkish context (e.g., Polat& Celep, 2008). Each of distributive (e.g., “I think that my level of pay isfair”) and procedural (e.g., “Job decisions are made by the general managerin an unbiased manner”) justice was measured with five and six items,respectively. Respondents rated their choices using a 5-point Likert scaleranging from 1� strongly disagree to 5 � strongly agree; lower scores wereindicative of a greater feeling of perceived injustice. In one of the previousstudies (e.g., Colquitt, 2001) alpha coefficients of distributive and proceduraljustice .92 and .78; in this study, they were .90 and .89, respectively.

Burnout

Burnout was measured with the Maslach Burnout Inventory-GeneralSurvey (MBI-GS; Schaufeli, Leiter, Maslach, & Jackson, 1996). Emotionalexhaustion was measured with a 5-item scale (e.g., “I feel used up at the endof a work day”). In addition, cynicism was measured with a 5-item scale(e.g., “I doubt the significance of my work”). Responses were measured ona 7-point scale, from 1 � never to 7 � always. Higher scores indicated higherlevels of exhaustion and cynicism. Coefficient alpha reliabilities were foundto be .91 and .83, respectively.

Learned Helplessness

Learned helplessness was measured with a 24-item scale developed byPestonjee and Reddy (1988). The scale was designed to determine both leveland type of learned helplessness and assessed eight different attributionsderived from various combinations of internal–external, global–specific, andstable–unstable dimensions (e.g., “I know many things are bad in myorganization but I am unable to do anything to correct them”). Although thescale was created to measure different types of learned helplessness, one canassess an overall helplessness score by aggregating the responses given for allitems. Items were rated on a 6-point scale, from 1 � strongly disagree to 6 �strongly agree. In one of the previous studies (e.g., Saxena & Shah, 2006),

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204 Tayfur, Bayhan Karapinar, and Metin Camgoz

the scale’s alpha coefficient was.75, whereas in this study, it was .85.

Turnover Intention

Turnover intention was measured using a 4-item scale developed byWayne, Shore, and Linden (1997). It intended to measure an employee’stendency to leave the organization in the near future (e.g., “I do not intend toleave [my company] in the near future”). Participants responded using a5-point scale (1 � strongly disagree to 5 � strongly agree). In the study ofAvcı and Küçükusta (2009), the alpha coefficient was reported as .72; in thepresent study, it was found to be .95.

Attitudes Toward Teamwork

Attitudes toward teamwork was used as a marker variable to detect theexistence of common method variance, as suggested by Podsakoff, Mac-Kenzie, Lee, and Podsakoff (2003). The variable was measured using a4-item scale (e.g., “Working with a group is better than working alone”)developed by Erez and Earley (1989; cited in Taras, 2008, p. 29). Reliabilityof the construct was .70.

RESULTS

Preliminary Analyses

In order to diminish common method biases, several ex-ante and ex-postremedies (Chang, Witteloostuijn, & Eden, 2010) were followed: (a) differentresponse anchors for the predictor and outcome variables were used, (b)questionnaire item order was manipulated, (c) data were collected at twodifferent points in time, (d) Harman’s single-factor test was used, and (e)attitudes toward teamwork, expected to be unrelated to variables of interestin this study, was measured.

No differences were detected between different questionnaire versions interms of variable scores. Within the framework of Harman’s test, all itemswere entered together into a factor analysis and results of the unrotated factorsolution were examined. The analysis produced 13 factors, with the firstfactor explaining 24.7% of variances. As a result no single factor accountedfor the majority of the covariance and no general factor was apparent,

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205Effects of Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Helplessness

suggesting that common method variance was not a serious issue in this study(Podsakoff & Organ, 1986).

In addition to Harman’s single-factor test, we employed the markervariable technique which attempts to control for CMV by including “ameasure of the assumed source of method variance as a covariate in thestatistical analysis” (Lindell & Whitney, 2001; Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee,& Podsakoff 2003). Hence, we added “Attitudes toward teamwork” as amarker variable in the questionnaire and analyzed the correlation observedbetween the marker variable and the theoretically unrelated variable, theninterpreted as an estimate of Common Method variance (CMV; Lindell &Whitney, 2001). As it can be seen in Table 1, bivariate correlations (see Table1) between attitudes toward teamwork and other variables in this study werefound to be nonsignificant, which suggest the nonexistence of CMV.

After ruling out common method variance, descriptive analyses wereconducted. Table 1 lists the means, standard deviations, alpha coefficients,and intercorrelations among variables. As can be seen, correlations amongvariables provide initial support for our hypotheses. Demographic variablesdid not correlate significantly with any of the outcome variables, renderingthe use of them as control variables unnecessary.

Testing the Proposed Mediated Model

Following Anderson and Gerbing’s (1988) recommendations, first themeasurement model and then a series of structural models were tested.

Measurement Model With CFA

The model was tested with AMOS 17 (Arbuckle, 2008). For organiza-tional-justice items, the single-factor model did not fit the data [�2 (df �44) � 201, GFI � 0.80, CFI � 0.86, TLI � 0.83, and RMSEA � 0.15]. Forthe two-factor model, chi-square was significant with �2 (df � 42) � 93.4,p � .05. Significant �2 suggests a poor fit, yet as Jöreskog and Sörbom(1984) state, �2 test may not be a valid test of a structural model, as thesample size increases. Therefore, other fit indices were examined. Examina-tion of the other fit indices for the two-factor model of organizational justicesuggested a better fit to the data (GFI � 0.92, CFI � 0.96, TLI � 0.94, andRMSEA � 0.07) compared with the single-factor model. The nested modelcomparisons also demonstrated the superiority of the two-factor model overa single factor one with a ��2 value of 107.59 (p � .01). Looking atstandardized estimates, it was concluded that distributive and procedural

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206 Tayfur, Bayhan Karapinar, and Metin Camgoz

Tab

le1.

Des

crip

tive

Stat

istic

san

dIn

terc

orre

latio

nsA

bout

Stud

yV

aria

bles

M(S

D)

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34

56

78

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1.G

ende

r—

—2.

Age

—.1

0—

3.T

enur

e—

�.0

2.7

1**

—4.

P.Ju

st3.

30(0

.93)

.11

�.0

1.0

2.8

95.

D.J

ust

3.27

(0.9

1).1

5*.0

2.0

1.6

6**

.90

6.E

.exh

3.05

(1.4

6)�

.09

�.1

1.0

2�

.38*

*�

.41*

*.9

17.

Cyn

2.35

(1.2

8)�

.05

�.1

0�

.13

�.4

5**

�.3

6**

.57*

*.8

38.

L.H

elp

2.91

(0.6

9)�

.11

.09

�.0

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�.1

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6**

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*.8

59.

T.I

nt2.

37(1

.14)

.01

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�.2

9**

.42*

*.5

6**

.29*

*.9

510

.A

ttto

team

wor

k3.

26(0

.69)

.16*

.12

.05

.31*

*.2

2**

.02

.00

.10

.08

.70

Not

e.R

elia

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ies

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ente

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diag

onal

inbo

ld.S

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217.

P.ju

st�

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edur

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stic

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iatio

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trib

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tion;

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�cy

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sm;

L.H

elp

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earn

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nt�

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*p

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p�

.01.

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207Effects of Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Helplessness

justice items did load on the predetermined theoretically derived two factors.The fit indices for the burnout inventory initially did not suggest a good

fit to the data, �2(df � 26) � 114, RMSEA � 0.12. Item 3 (� � .14, ns),measuring cynicism was removed, due to a nonsignificant loading. CFA wasconducted with the remaining items. The final model showed a better fit tothe data, where �2(df � 22) � 73.76, GFI � 0.92, CFI � 0.95, TLI � 0.91,and RMSEA � 0.07.

For the learned helplessness scale, the single-factor model was tested.Even after removing the nonsignificant loadings of Item 3 (� � .12, ns), Item18 (� � .20, ns), and Item 19 (� � .19, ns) and adding covariance terms,model approached to adequate fit, �2(df � 178) � 333.8, GFI � 0.85, CFI �0.85, TLI � 0.87, and RMSEA � 0.07. Despite marginally adequate fit,responses given for helplessness items except the ones having nonsignificantloading (i.e., Items 3, 18, and 19) were averaged to obtain composite helplessnessscore given the promising results in reliability analysis (� � .85).

Structural Model

In testing the fully saturated structural model, the initial test yielded apoor fit to the data, �2(df � 6) � 245, GFI � 0.68, CFI � 0.51, TLI � 0.49,and RMSEA � 0.13. However, investigating the structural path parametersindicated the paths from distributive and procedural justice to learned help-lessness, from distributive justice to cynicism, and from helplessness toturnover intentions were nonsignificant. That is direct effect of both proce-dural (Hypothesis 3a) and distributive justice (Hypothesis 3b) on learnedhelplessness, distributive justice on cynicism (Hypothesis 1b), and the directeffect of learned helplessness on turnover intentions (Hypothesis 5) werenonsignificant. The model was modified by deleting the nonsignificant paths,as suggested by Byrne (2010). The revised model (see Figure 2) yielded abetter, although not good fit to data, �2(df � 8) � 106.4, GFI � 0.86, CFI �0.69, TLI � 0.83, and RMSEA � 0.10. The investigation of modificationindices suggested adding an error covariance between latent variables ofdistributive and procedural justice, which makes sense, given that these twodimensions are part of the justice perception. After adding a covariance term,the fit indices of the model improved substantially, �2(df � 7) � 11.22; p �.05, GFI � 0.98, CFI � 0.99, TLI � 0.97, and RMSEA � 0.07.

As seen in Figure 2, both distributive and procedural justice had signif-icant effects on emotional exhaustion. Consistent with Hypothesis 1a andHypothesis 2b, individuals’ perceiving distributive and procedural injusticeare more prone to feel emotional exhaustion. Further, two burnout dimen-sions—emotional exhaustion and cynicism—predicted turnover intentions,

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208 Tayfur, Bayhan Karapinar, and Metin Camgoz

such that exhaustion and cynicism increased the desire to leave the organi-zation, consistent with Hypothesis 4a and Hypothesis 4b. In addition to thehypothesized relationships, path analysis revealed unexpected relations be-tween emotional exhaustion and cynicism, such that there was a positiverelationship between emotional exhaustion and cynicism about their jobs.Although not hypothesized, a strong relationship was also found betweenemotional exhaustion and learned helplessness in path analysis. This findingwas consistent with zero-order correlation (r � .46; p � .01), indicating amoderately strong (Cohen, 1988) relationship between learned helplessnessand emotional exhaustion. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that theopposite—the path from helplessness to exhaustion—was not significant.

The revised model revealed the mediating role of cynicism and emo-tional exhaustion. To confirm the significance of this mediation, severalanalyses were conducted. First, the paths from cynicism and emotionalexhaustion to turnover intentions were removed, and then the fit of themodels with and without these paths was compared. As expected, the modelwith the mediating paths was significantly better than the one with these pathsremoved, ��2(2, N � 217) � 41.60; p �.05, indicating the existence ofsignificant mediation. Second, path coefficients were examined. The pathcoefficients from procedural justice to turnover intention were reduced sub-stantially when emotional exhaustion and cynicism were entered (from � �.49 to � � .28), consistent with Baron and Kenny’s (1986) criteria fordemonstrating a mediating effect. Finally, following the suggestion of Mac-Kinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, West, and Sheets (2002), the significance ofmediation through the distribution-of-products formula was examined. Forthe mediating effect of cynicism and emotional exhaustion on the linkagebetween procedural justice and turnover intentions, z score product values

(.19)*

Procedural

Justice

Distributive

Justice

Learned

helplessness

Cynicism

Emotional

Exhaustion

Turnover

intentions .15*

(.29)**

(.27)** .46**

.56

Figure 2. Test of the Proposed Model. Note: Dotted Lines represent insignificant relations takenout of the proposed model. Numbers are standard estimates (�) of the hypothesized relations.* p � .05; ** p � .01.

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209Effects of Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Helplessness

were found to be 21.29 and 2.56, respectively. Looking at the table in Craig(1936) of the product of two normally distributed variables, the paths (pro-cedural justice-cynicism-turnover intention; procedural justice-emotional ex-haustion-turnover intention) were deemed significant, fully supporting Hy-pothesis 6a and partially supporting Hypothesis 6b. Mediating effect ofcynicism on distributive justice and turnover intentions relationship was nottested given the fact that the main effect of distributive justice on cynicismwas nonsignificant in the path analysis. Similarly, because the main effects ofprocedural and distributive justice on helplessness were nonsignificant, me-diating effects of helplessness were not tested (Hypothesis 6c unsupported).

DISCUSSION

The purpose of the present study was to examine a model that attemptsto explain the turnover intentions of employees by accounting for effects ofinjustice, burnout, and learned helplessness. The findings of the study providepartial support for the proposed conceptual model. That is, emotional ex-haustion mediated the linkages between procedural justice—turnover inten-tions and distributive justice—turnover intentions; cynicism acted as a me-diator only between procedural justice and turnover intentions. In addition,this study revealed the existence of an exhaustion-learned helplessness rela-tionship, which has been underexplored in the literature.

Main Effects of Justice Perceptions

Congruent with previous literature, distributive justice was negativelyrelated to emotional exhaustion (rendering Hypothesis 1a supported), mean-ing that individuals who feel they give more than they receive in return(Bakker et al., 2000) are more likely to become emotionally drained andweary. In other words, when employees feel that the distributions of therewards are unfair, they feel fatigue and exhaustion (Moliner, Martinez-Tur,Ramos, & Peiro, 2005). However, the effect of distributive justice on cyni-cism (Hypothesis 1b) was not significant, contrary to findings of Frenkel, Li,and Restubog (2012). This finding might be interpreted in a way thatdistributive injustice may not result in negative attitudes toward the organi-zation and work (Bayhan Karapınar, Metin Camgoz, & Ergeneli, 2013), butrather result in individually relevant outcomes such as emotional exhaustion.In contrast, procedural justice dimension was both negatively associated withburnout dimensions of emotional exhaustion (Hypothesis 2a) and cynicism(Hypothesis 2b; Barclay et al., 2005; Howard & Cordes, 2010). In line with

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210 Tayfur, Bayhan Karapinar, and Metin Camgoz

previous findings, individuals who experience procedural unfairness are morelikely to hold negative feelings and cynical attitudes toward their job (Broth-eridge, 2003; Moliner et al., 2005). Thus, it can be considered that proceduraljustice is an important variable in shaping both job attitudes and employeewell-being, probably because procedural fairness signals that the organiza-tion values its employees. Unlike the remarkable effects of justice percep-tions on burnout dimensions, the study’s findings did not reveal any directassociation linking procedural and distributive justice to learned helplessness.All in all, by looking at the main effects of justice perceptions, one may assertthat injustice perceptions do shape employees’ well-being and make themmore exhausted and cynical.

Main Effects of Emotional Exhaustion, Cynicism, andLearned Helplessness

Consistent with the claims of researchers, individuals feeling exhaustion(de Croon et al., 2004; Leiter & Maslach, 2009) and holding cynical attitudes(Sims, 2007) expressed higher desire for leaving their organization (Hypoth-esis 4a, Hypothesis 4b). Employees reacted to stress-related syndromes, suchas exhaustion and cynicism by their increased desire for quitting as a copingmechanism. Our findings revealed a nonsignificant relationship betweenlearned helplessness and turnover intentions, which is different from theassertions of Martinko and Gardner (1982), and Carlson and Kacmar (1994).The potential explanation for this finding might be the existence of a strongrelationship between emotional exhaustion and learned helplessness. It seemsthat the employees feeling emotionally depleted tend to believe that respond-ing is futile; and thereby, experience helplessness. This unexpected strongrelationship between emotional exhaustion and learned helplessness (al-though not hypothesized) might confound the results and could attenuate theimpact of helplessness on turnover intentions. However, the path fromexhaustion to helplessness should be interpreted carefully, given the study’scross-sectional nature, which makes causal inferences impossible.

Mediating Effects of Emotional Exhaustion, Cynicism, andLearned Helplessness

Another aim of this study was to examine the mediating effects ofemotional exhaustion, cynicism, and learned helplessness on the relationshipbetween justice perceptions and turnover intentions. In support of our hy-pothesis (Hypothesis 6a), emotional exhaustion mediated the linkages be-

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211Effects of Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Helplessness

tween procedural justice-turnover intentions and distributive justice-turnoverintentions. Individuals who perceive injustice are more prone to experienceemotional exhaustion, which predisposes them to consider leaving their jobs.As previously noted, the most likely explanation for this finding is thatemployees seek justice in procedures both to control outcomes and to assesstheir status within the groups. In the Turkish banking sector, where power ismore centralized relative to other service industries, employees may feelgreater stress due to having less control over their work and work outcomes.As lack of control is considered to be an antecedent of procedural injustice(Lind & Tyler, 1988) and a significant work stressor (Karasek, 1979), itseems reasonable that individuals experiencing procedural unfairness willmore likely become emotionally drained, which in turn can influence theirturnover intentions.

Although not strongly, emotional exhaustion also mediated the relation-ships between distributive justice and turnover intentions, congruent withCole, Bernert, Walter, and Holt’s (2010) results. This finding supports theperspective that individuals who perceive distributive injustice are likely todecrease their investments to deal with their emotional exhaustion and try torestore equity by increasing turnover intentions (Schaufeli, 2006). The impactof distributive justice on turnover intentions by exhaustion might also beexplained by particular characteristics of the Turkish banking sector, inwhich dramatic changes have occurred since the 2001 economic crisis.Private banks in Turkey are driven primarily by market preferences, andorganizational effectiveness is more readily measured in terms of efficiencyand profitability. These banks focus on goals to be accomplished and they tryto establish a link between performance and rewards, which shapes thepriorities and values of individuals regarding distributive justice. With thisthought in mind, one can understand that banking employees might attachmore importance to justice perceptions and when they perceive distributiveinjustice, they tend to feel greater distress and exhaustion, which couldincrease their desire to leave the organization.

In accordance with Hypothesis 6b, cynicism acted as a mediator in therelationship between procedural justice and turnover intention. One expla-nation is that when individuals perceive that procedural justice principles arebeing violated, they might feel a lack of reciprocity in their relations withtheir organizations. As a reaction to this lack of reciprocity, they mightdevelop cynical attitudes toward their jobs, which in turn might intensifytheir desire to quit. Schaufeli, Leiter, Maslach, and Jackson (1996) also notedthat inequity in the organizational-exchange relationship contributes to theoccurrence of the workers’ negative attitudes and behaviors directed towardtheir organizations. Similarly, because processes and procedures are deter-mined and implemented at the organizational level, Aquino, Lewis, andBradfield (1999) stated that individuals who perceive unfairness are likely to

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212 Tayfur, Bayhan Karapinar, and Metin Camgoz

blame their organizations and develop negative attitudes toward them. There-fore, one might expect that these negative attitudes manifest themselves as anincrease in turnover rates.

Empirical evidence did not support the suggested mediating role ofcynicism on a distributive justice-turnover intention linkage, probably be-cause the relatively strong correlation between procedural and distributivejustice weakened the distributive justice-cynicism relation. An alternativeexplanation is that justice perceptions affect employee reactions differently.It has been argued that procedural justice exerts influence on a generalevaluation of the system (Colquitt et al., 2001; Lind & Tyler, 1988), whereasdistributive justice exerts greater influence on more specific, person-referenced outcomes such as satisfaction and exhaustion (Colquitt et al.,2001). Because cynicism, which involves alienation and disengagement fromone’s work role and job, reflects more general evaluations, it was reasonableto find a mediating effect of cynicism in the relationship between proceduraljustice and turnover intentions, but not for that between distributive justiceand turnover intentions.

The findings for the role of learned helplessness were more mixed. Themediating effect of learned helplessness in the relationships between justiceperceptions and turnover intention was not supported (Hypothesis 6c). Onepossible explanation is that some individuals, although exposed to injustice,may not experience helplessness due to their personality characteristics and,thus, may cope more effectively with stressful situations. Also, relativelyweak correlations between justice perceptions and helplessness seem tosuggest that learned helplessness might be related to more general factors(e.g., lack of job alternatives or advancement) rather than specific ones, suchas injustice. Furthermore, in this study, helplessness was measured as aglobal construct (Pestonjee & Reddy, 1988), which reflects a composite scoreof all learned helplessness items. Such a conceptualization might havelimited the examination of its subdimensions. Had different forms of help-lessness (i.e., internal/personal vs. external/universal) been measured, differ-ent conclusions might have been reached regarding the plausible associationsamong study variables. Internal helplessness seems to be more related topersonnel factors because it occurs when individuals believe that desiredoutcomes are not contingent on acts and behaviors in their repertoires. On theother hand, in external helplessness circumstances, individuals believe thatdesired outcomes are neither contingent on their acts and behaviors reper-toires nor contingent on relevant others’ acts (Abramson, Seligman, &Teasdale, 1978). Therefore, perceived injustice, which is mostly uncontrol-lable by employees, might affect external helplessness more than internalhelplessness.

In addition, the direct effect of learned helplessness on turnover inten-tions was not validated. This could be due to the existence of intervening

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213Effects of Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Helplessness

variables such as lack of alternatives, employment opportunities, or macro-economic conditions which could reduce employees’ turnover intentions andactual turnover behaviors. Though not supported in this study, learnedhelplessness might lead turnover intentions and other forms of withdrawalwhich could adversely affect individual and team performance.

Practical Implications

This research provides some practical implications with respect to thecostly problems of organizational justice, burnout, and voluntary with-drawal (Cole, Bernert, Walter, & Holt, 2010). The study’s findings mightlead managers to establish organizational procedures that are fair to allemployees in order to lessen negative affective and emotional reactions,and to decrease their turnover intentions. The main aim of all humanresource practices should be promoting employees’ well-being. The re-sults suggest that two processes are equally important in cultivating goodworkplace management: (a) organizing interventions on how to allocatethe rewards and to implement decisions in a procedurally fair manner, and(b) providing training programs for employees to precisely address howto cope with work stress.

In line with the first implication, as Cole et al. (2010) suggested,organizations could minimize potential stressors by promoting fair out-comes and also attending to organizational norms to increase proceduralfairness. Managers could enhance justice perceptions by applying con-sistent performance standards, giving adequate feedback, and allocatingrewards fairly.

Although justice perceptions are important predictors of turnover inten-tions, burnout dimensions of emotional exhaustion and cynicism might alsocontribute to lower turnover rates. Exhausted employees can be supported byspecific training programs directed at defining, diagnosing, and alleviatingthe causes of their exhaustion (Janssen, Lam, & Huang, 2010). Rather thansolving problems, managers could prevent the occurrence of these problemsbefore they emerge. Training programs should aim at creating a sense ofintrinsic motivation and inner resources for employees to handle job strains.Building on concepts in positive psychology research, spirituality, transcen-dence, and meaningfulness might guide practitioners in devising employeeassistance programs. Of those concepts, spirituality seems to be a promisingone for addressing helplessness problems. Spirituality is “an integratingfactor within one’s well-being that manifests itself through unifying inter-connectedness, purpose and meaning in life inner resource and transcen-dence” (Howden, 1992, cited in van Dierendonck, Garssen, & Visser, 2005).

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214 Tayfur, Bayhan Karapinar, and Metin Camgoz

Addressing spirituality could give a feeling of strength to employees andmake them more resilient when dealing with the uncertainties in times ofcrisis. Such strength could attenuate the impact of job stressors on employ-ees’ well-being and decrease turnover intensions. Moreover, one’s desire towork and remain in the organization could also be enhanced by increasingmeaning in work. By providing new responsibilities and empowerment,namely by enriching jobs, employees might see their work as a source ofgratification and believe in what they are trying to accomplish. Personalleadership skills that could be taught in training programs might makeemployees more resilient to work stressors by replacing negative thoughtswith more constructive interpretations, beliefs, behaviors, and values (e.g.,Covey, 1990; Seligman, 2007).

Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research

The first limitation of the study concerns the data collection methodol-ogy. The data of this research rely on self-reports of the employees becauseself-reporting techniques better capture detailed information about partici-pants’ feelings (Taylor, Peplau, & Sears, 2006). Although Dittrich andCarrell (1979) suggest self-reporting to examine levels of burnout andperceptions of justice, as they represent individuals’ unique responses, theuse of self-reporting exclusively is restrictive. Participants’ abilities to ana-lyze working conditions and feelings can be affected by many factors thatcannot be controlled for in a study of this nature. Perhaps this explains whysome part of the variance in turnover intention could not be explained. Inaddition, relying on self-reporting can cause a common method varianceproblem, which might have inflated the correlations between variables.However, several remedies such as use of marker variable and sequentialdesign were taken to eliminate this problem. Future research might beenriched with measures complementary to studies using self-reporting meth-odology.

The second limitation concerns sampling. Results are based on a con-venience sample consisting of 217 banking employees. It is possible thatdifferences emanating from organizational culture, climate, and leadershipstyles might confound the results. Thus, a larger, stratified random sample ofTurkish bank employees might increase the findings’ generalizability tobanking sector in Turkey.

The third limitation concerns conceptualization of the tested model. Inthis study, only justice perceptions are considered as antecedents of emo-tional exhaustion, cynicism, and learned helplessness. However, other studieshave demonstrated the role of various factors such as core values, personal

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215Effects of Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Helplessness

leadership, and spirituality on perceived stress (e.g., van Dierendonck et al.,2005). It seems that individual factors may inoculate individuals against thedebilitating effects of adverse work conditions. Additionally, for the unex-plained part of the variance in turnover intentions, researchers are urged toinvestigate moderating the effects of individual difference variables such ascoping ability, resilience, and neuroticism along with other forms of justiceto explain turnover intentions and other organizational attitudes. By applyingsuch perspectives and by utilizing the moderating variables, a more compre-hensive model may be devised.

Last but not least, learned helplessness has been treated as a one-dimensional construct representing people’s feelings that outcomes are un-related to their behaviors. However, as suggested by Abramson, Seligman,and Teasdale (1978), helplessness might manifest itself either as an internal(personal) or external (universal) helplessness. Such a distinction could affectthe aforementioned relationships discussed in the study. People who feel asense of personal helplessness might prefer leaving the organization more sothan people who feel a sense of universal helplessness. Therefore, studiesaddressing different types of helplessness might contribute more substan-tively to the literature.

In sum, the findings of the present study support the belief that proce-dural and distributive unfairness might relate to turnover intentions throughemotional exhaustion and cynicism. Despite its limitations, the present studyexpands the literature on stressor–strain and justice–work-outcome relation-ships, as the mediating role of learned helplessness, emotional exhaustion,and cynicism in these relationships have been relatively unexplored in theliterature.

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Received March 22, 2012Revision received June 27, 2013

Accepted June 28, 2013 �

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221Effects of Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Helplessness