Psychological mechanisms of work responsibility among Chinese university administrative staff: the roles of organizational identification, burnout, and role conflict

This study examined the psychological mechanisms underlying job responsibility among administrative staff in Chinese universities by integrating organizational identification, job burnout, and role conflict into a unified framework. Based on survey data from 438 administrative staff members at universities in southwestern China, structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed relationships. The results showed that organizational identification positively predicted job responsibility, whereas job burnout was negatively associated with job responsibility and partially mediated the relationship between organizational identification and job responsibility. Role conflict further moderated the relationship between job burnout and job responsibility, with burnout exerting a stronger negative effect under conditions of high role conflict. This study further extends the conceptualization of job responsibility by treating it as a responsibility-related behavioral orientation rather than merely a stable attitudinal trait. It also proposes a motivation, resource, context mechanism in which organizational identification provides motivational grounding, job burnout reflects psychological resource depletion, and role conflict represents contextual pressure. These findings extend research on responsibility-related behavior and offer practical implications for improving governance and service quality in higher education institutions.