The Relationships between Job Performance, Job Burnout, and Psychological Counselling: A Perspective on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis study explored the relationship between job performance, job burnout, and psychological counseling of faculty via panel data from Chinese universities. The authors produce a thorough review of existing literature on the constructs and their relationships examined in this study. The methodology was clear and coherent. The reviewer had initial concerns regarding the confidentiality of this information, however, the authors clarify this study has been approved by IRB and followed ethical processes to anonymize the data. Although the reviewer does not necessarily agree with all of the assumptions postulated by the authors in the introduction and recommendations, the authors do support their position with prior literature and sound argument. The results, limitations, and conclusions appear to be appropriate and relevant to the data. Although the reviewer does not necessarily agree with the recommendation to introduce robust psychological counseling examinations for employment, the authors are allowed to make that recommendation. Alternatively, consider how training programs for graduate students who intend to pursue faculty careers can better prepare future faculty for job performance (thus, improving support structures and not introducing additional barriers, which supports sustainability). Overall, the reviewer believes this study was well done and may be an important contribution to this line of inquiry.
Author Response
Reviewer 1 :
Comment:
- This study explored the relationship between job performance, job burnout, and psychological counseling of faculty via panel data from Chinese universities. The authors produce a thorough review of existing literature on the constructs and their relationships examined in this study. The methodology was clear and coherent. The reviewer had initial concerns regarding the confidentiality of this information, however, the authors clarify this study has been approved by IRB and followed ethical processes to anonymize the data. Although the reviewer does not necessarily agree with all of the assumptions postulated by the authors in the introduction and recommendations, the authors do support their position with prior literature and sound argument. The results, limitations, and conclusions appear to be appropriate and relevant to the data. Although the reviewer does not necessarily agree with the recommendation to introduce robust psychological counseling examinations for employment, the authors are allowed to make that recommendation. Alternatively, consider how training programs for graduate students who intend to pursue faculty careers can better prepare future faculty for job performance (thus, improving support structures and not introducing additional barriers, which supports sustainability). Overall, the reviewer believes this study was well done and may be an important contribution to this line of inquiry.
Response: Thank you for the kind comments you have made about our paper.
We are grateful to you for sparing your valuable time to reading our paper and providing us with constructive comments to help improve the manuscript. Following your suggestion, we have added training programs for graduate students who intend to pursue faculty careers in the “Discussion” and “Conclusions” section on pages 16 and 17 at lines 490 to 494 and 561 to 563. Thank you.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe study has high justification and relevance, both socially and academically. It was carefully designed and conducted. The research method was adequate and respected the necessary ethical standards.
The results are congruent, and the conclusions were creatively grounded. The contribution of this research to the academic debate on the causes of burnout in the university environment among professors is relevant.
However, the Conclusion field needs one more paragraph, mentioning how the argument contained in SDG 8, which explicitly defends fair working conditions without work overload (including reasonable working hours and shifts), is considered in the face of all the authors' position that the problem of burnout is mainly on the psychological and cognitive profile of the teacher (on the worker) and not on the working conditions offered by the company (on the university).
To what extent should the recruitment of professors for a university privilege the levels of productivism in the profiles - instead of creativity or intelligence, for example - but who accept worse working conditions (this is a possible scenario among universities in expansion and internationalization) exhibiting a lower rate of burnout, in return? Are there universities where this characteristic is common among their professors, and are they obtaining better results? What is the profile of the most productive scientists/teachers? Are they refractory to burnout? Are there studies on this subject? If not, such knowledge gaps need to appear at the end of the article as a guideline for future research. The main argument of this research, however, is relevant and contributive.
Author Response
Reviewer 2 :
Comment:
1The study has high justification and relevance, both socially and academically. It was carefully designed and conducted. The research method was adequate and respected the necessary ethical standards.
Response: Thank you for the generous comment. It is very much appreciated.
Comment:
2.The results are congruent, and the conclusions were creatively grounded. The contribution of this research to the academic debate on the causes of burnout in the university environment among professors is relevant.
Response: Thank you for the kind comment and it is much appreciated by us.
Comment:
3.However, the Conclusion field needs one more paragraph, mentioning how the argument contained in SDG 8, which explicitly defends fair working conditions without work overload (including reasonable working hours and shifts), is considered in the face of all the authors' position that the problem of burnout is mainly on the psychological and cognitive profile of the teacher (on the worker) and not on the working conditions offered by the company (on the university).
Response: Thank you for your comment which is a very profound one. We have added a paragraph in the “Conclusions and Implications” section on page 17. Thank you.
Comment:
4.To what extent should the recruitment of professors for a university privilege the levels of productivism in the profiles - instead of creativity or intelligence, for example - but who accept worse working conditions (this is a possible scenario among universities in expansion and internationalization) exhibiting a lower rate of burnout, in return? Are there universities where this characteristic is common among their professors, and are they obtaining better results? What is the profile of the most productive scientists/teachers? Are they refractory to burnout? Are there studies on this subject? If not, such knowledge gaps need to appear at the end of the article as a guideline for future research. The main argument of this research, however, is relevant and contributive.
Response: Thank you for your kind comment. Your comments have pointed out the direction for our future research. Following your suggestion, we have added your comments in the "Limitations and Future Studies" section. Please see page 16. Thank you.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for Authors1. The abstract is too lengthy and confusing, and some expressions are not very clear. For example, “job burnout predicts the level of job performance”, in this article, job burnout was viewed as the outcome instead of the influencing factor of job performance, what do you mean by "predict"? Another example, what's the meaning of "Using purposive and random sampling this study examined psychological counselling as a pre-cautionary measure to address job burnout, and job performance level to regulate job burnout level"? What's worse, "Additionally, academics’ job burnout was significantly moderated by psychological counselling", it can not be said that job burnout was moderated by psychological counselling, do you mean that the effect of job performance on job burnout was moderated by psychological counselling? By the way, the expression of "Ha2: Psychological counselling has a distinct moderating effect on academics' performance when..." was also not correct.
2. Has the third objective "(3) Does reducing job burnout play an important role in supporting the achievement of SDGs?" been addressed in the empirical study?
3. The theoretical contribution of this study is limited. There have been many studies on the impact of job performance on job burnout, and the moderating effect of psychological counseling. The research conclusions lack of originality and inspiration. Besides, the authors should have provided several convincing practical implications based on their conclusions.
4. The two hypotheses was not developed on the basis of rigorous theoretical deduction.
5. The measures of Job Performance, Burnout Level, and Psychological Counselling are questionable. How the data was acquired? For example, "The data on burnout was acquired directly from the Mental Health Center of the universities included in this study's sample". Is there such a department in universities in China? And do they have accurate data about the job burnout of the academics?
6. Some other factors should be taken into consideration and used as control variables, such as majors, professional ranks and titles, marital status.
Author Response
Reviewer 3 :
Comment:
1.The abstract is too lengthy and confusing, and some expressions are not very clear. For example, “job burnout predicts the level of job performance”, in this article, job burnout was viewed as the outcome instead of the influencing factor of job performance, what do you mean by "predict"? Another example, what's the meaning of "Using purposive and random sampling this study examined psychological counselling as a pre-cautionary measure to address job burnout, and job performance level to regulate job burnout level"? What's worse, "Additionally, academics’ job burnout was significantly moderated by psychological counselling", it can not be said that job burnout was moderated by psychological counselling, do you mean that the effect of job performance on job burnout was moderated by psychological counselling? By the way, the expression of "Ha2: Psychological counselling has a distinct moderating effect on academics’ performance when..." was also not correct.
Response: Thank you for the insightful comment. We have now made the abstract much more concise. Please see page 1. Thank you.
For the expression of Ha2, we have modified the sentence, please see page 4. Thank you.
Comment:
2.Has the third objective "(3) Does reducing job burnout play an important role in supporting the achievement of SDGs?" been addressed in the empirical study?
Response: Thank you for your question on this issue. The solution to the third objective is based on the empirical results of the first and second objectives. Please see Table 3 on page 8, and subheading “Reducing Job Burnout for SDGs in Higher Education” on page 16. Thank you.
Comment:
3.The theoretical contribution of this study is limited. There have been many studies on the impact of job performance on job burnout, and the moderating effect of psychological counseling. The research conclusions lack of originality and inspiration. Besides, the authors should have provided several convincing practical implications based on their conclusions.
Response: Thank you for commenting on this. Following your suggestion, we have subsequently added some practical implications based on our conclusions. Please see “Conclusions and Implications” section on page 17. Thank you.
Comment:
4.The two hypotheses was not developed on the basis of rigorous theoretical deduction.
Response: Thank you for your comment. We have added the theory based on the hypotheses. Please see page 4. Thank you.
Comment:
5.The measures of Job Performance, Burnout Level, and Psychological Counselling are questionable. How the data was acquired? For example, "The data on burnout was acquired directly from the Mental Health Center of the universities included in this study's sample". Is there such a department in universities in China? And do they have accurate data about the job burnout of the academics?
Response: Thank you for your insightful comment. The study used secondary data which is collected from personnel departments of sampled universities. Similarly, secondary data are considered more reliable than self-provided data. The mental health centers are available in each university based on what is provided by government policy. We recognized the centers as officially termed by the policy “According to the Opinions on Further Strengthening and Improving Ideological and Political Education for College Students” (The State Council, 2004); each university should establish a specialized institution for mental health counselling. Meanwhile, according to the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Mental Health Work (National Health Commission, 2017), all universities must regularly provide psychological assessments, psychology-based healthcare, and other related services to their staff. The universities sampled provided the data once the due ethical considerations has been followed. Thank you.
Comment:
6.Some other factors should be taken into consideration and used as control variables, such as majors, professional ranks and titles, marital status.
Response: Thank you for pointing this out to us. Following your suggestion, we have added majors, professional titles and marital status as control variables. Please see Table 2 on page 6. Thank you.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThe comments have been addressed and the manuscript has been improved. Please continue to improve the expression of the paper, especially ensuring the accuracy of professional terminology.
Author Response
Reviewer 3 :
Comment:
The comments have been addressed and the manuscript has been improved. Please continue to improve the expression of the paper, especially ensuring the accuracy of professional terminology.
Response: Thank you for pointing this out to us. The paper has been edited and proof-read by a native speaker of the English language and the certificate for editing will be included in the submitted files. Thank you. See the certificate for editing.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
