Locating academic staff wellbeing within the organization: the interplay between personality, workload and burnout among academic staff

The demands and skills of academics have transformed dramatically over the last 50 years. Increasing professionalization of academia means that the contemporary academic needs to be a researcher, entrepreneur, manager, mentor, teacher and administrator. However, toxic academic work cultures represent a significant challenge for early career researchers. This chapter delves into the complex interplay between burnout, personality traits and workload (demands and resources) and delineates the key implications for research and practice in the academic profession. We discuss the Demands-Affordances TrAnsactional (DATA) model as a framework to explore how the interplay between personality and work-related demands links to burnout among academic staff and thus contributes to shaping academic mental health. The challenge going forward is to identify how we can better prevent burnout by matching workload demands and individual needs better. Ultimately, the educational journey of our students is symbiotically linked with the wellbeing of our academics.