Burnout, Presenteeism and Workplace Conditions of Korean Taekwondo Coaches of High-Performance Athletes

Abstract

Coaching is a stressful occupation, with expectations that are physically and psychologically demanding. Coaches are highly susceptible to occupational burnout and presenteeism, which ultimately affects the entire sporting community. In this study, coaching stress was evaluated by surveying taekwondo coaches to analyze the contributions of unique cultural predispositions and workplace conditions (environmental) to coach stress, burnout, and presenteeism. We verified the positive correlation between workplace conditions, burnout, and presenteeism for 210 taekwondo coaches; performed frequency, correlation, and confirmatory analysis using the compiled data; and the discussed the results within the framework of a formulated structural equation model. The research results are as follows. First, the workplace conditions of taekwondo coaches had a negative effect on burnout syndrome. Second, the workplace conditions of taekwondo coaches had a negative effect on presenteeism. Lastly, burnout of taekwondo coaches had a significant effect on presenteeism. Therefore, coaches' burnout decreases as their workplace conditions improve, and presenteeism decreases as their burnout increases in controlled workplace conditions.