Introduction

This dissertation will seek to ascertain the level of burnout experienced by a representative sample of Salvation Army Officers currently serving in three divisions within the United Kingdom Territory.

Anecdotal evidence from conversations with many colleague officers across the United Kingdom Territory would lead me to expect high levels of emotional exhaustion within Salvation Army Officer ranks, combined with low levels of morale which may show as a lack of satisfaction in ministry.

This would tie in with concerns in other denominations across the Christian Church in the UK and abroad about the dangers of burnout within the clergy.[1]

Burnout was first established as a phenomenon in the 1970’s to describe the situation being experienced by people engaged in the caring occupations, or in occupations where significant amounts of time was spent dealing with people.

It is difficult to identify where the terminology initially came, though it is widely attributed to Herbert Freudenberger who wrote in 1974:

The dictionary defines the verb “burn out” as “to fail, wear out, or become exhausted by making excessive demands on energy, strength or resources.” And that is exactly what happens when a staff member in an alternative institution burns out for whatever reasons and becomes inoperative to all intents and purposes.[2]

It initially included dimensions of long term exhaustion, low levels of personal satisfaction and interest.

Study in this area has been carried out widely on a whole range of occupations over the succeeding years, and continues to be done.[3]

A widely used tool to measure burnout has been the Maslach Burnout Inventory, which uses a three dimensional approach to the study: emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment.[4]

This was modified for use with members of the clergy by Francis and others[5] and has been further redesigned into the Francis Burnout Inventory using just two dimensions: emotional exhaustion and satisfaction in ministry. It is this measure that forms the basis of the current study.

The study will contact all officers who are currently based in a total of three divisions in the United Kingdom Territory giving opportunity to respond to the survey either by post or by online submission. This should give a random sample of officers who are active in local churches and centres.

Initially it was planned that the survey would be emailed to all those officers who regularly used email to communicate with their Divisional Headquarters. However this had to be changed when it became clear that one of the divisions was unwilling to release the contact email addresses for its officers due to Data Protection concerns.

Consequently the surveys were individually addressed to officers, but sent out with the weekly mailing from DHQ.

In addition to the Francis Burnout Inventory, the option was given for additional questions to be answered such as what they found most satisfying in their ministry, what was the most exhausting, whether the person thought they had sufficient personal time, whether they had enough support, as well as being asked who they received their support from.