DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2015.v03i06.015

Pages: 1178-1187

This century has witnessed a paradigm shift in studies on psychological wellness of workers and researchers have shown an increasing interest in positive aspects of personal functioning in the workplace. Engagement and burnout variables have received very little attention in research among Kenya universities professional counsellors. This paper explores the relationship between work engagement and self-reported burnout scores among Kenya universities professional counsellors. The study utilized cross-sectional survey design. A sample of 180 professional counsellors in 75 institutions of higher learning in Kenya filled a self-response questionnaire comprising items derived from the Work Engagement Scale and Burnout Inventory. Data collected was quantitative and descriptive statistics (tables, percentages and cross-tabulations) and inferential statistics (chi-square, Kendall’s tau-b Correlations Coefficient) were used in the analysis. All posited hypotheses were tested at 0.05 significant level and analysis done with aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. The study established that job burnout level was moderate while work engagement was high. Work engagement components were positively related to each other and negatively correlated to job burnout. The study has generated new knowledge on work engagement and job burnout among Kenya universities professional counsellors and demonstrated the importance of these variables to the promotion of positive occupational health psychology as well as the implications for future research. This could help Human Resource Departments (HRD) to come up with policies that would promote their institutions’ organisational psychological health and increase work engagement.