Excessive work stress and job burnout among work safety regulatory inspectors have become a pressing concern in China. Burnout affects both individual well-being and safety regulatory performance. There is limited existing research on burnout among safety professionals, and within this work, the role of personal resources on burnout has not been fully explored. This study seeks to fill this gap by extending the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model to consider two aspects of personal resources: public service motivation (PSM) and person-job fit. Data was collected from 405 government safety inspectors from four cities in China using self-report questionnaires. The theoretical model was tested for mediating and moderating effects. The results show that PSM significantly mitigates job burnout among safety inspectors, and person-job fit plays a potential mediating role in this process. Specifically, PSM enhances the levels of need-supply fit and demand-ability fit among safety inspectors, which in turn reduces job burnout. The study also confirms the positive influence of work stress on job burnout among safety inspectors and finds that person-job fit can buffer the impact of work stress on job burnout. The practical implications stemming from the findings of this study may alleviate job burnout among safety inspectors and subsequently improve safety regulation performance.
 

Safety inspectors,job burnout,public service motivation,person-job fit,work stress,job demands-resources