This study examined the effect of the Protestant work ethic on burnout using a sample of 259 South Korean workers from a manufacturing firm. We also investigated the mediating role of emotional dissonance on this effect and addressed the moderating and moderated mediating roles of negative emotion regulation on the relationship between Protestant work ethic and emotional dissonance. Our empirical results indicated a significant direct negative effect of the Protestant work ethic on burnout, but there was no evidence of an indirect relationship between these. Results also found that negative emotion regulation changed the relationship between Protestant work ethic and emotional dissonance. In addition, negative emotion regulation changed the mediating role of emotional dissonance in the relationship between Protestant work ethic and burnout. The study is meaningful in that it grasped the importance of value as a major factor in job burnout, and it finally confirmed the antecedents of Koreans’ diligence.

Economic individualism—involving a belief that the individual should be in control of his/her own economic decisions and an increased emphasis on competition and achievement—is becoming more prominent in several areas of the world, but little is known about the implications of this characteristic for employee attitudes and behavior. Our study investigated the impact of economic individualism on job engagement. More specifically, the research developed and examined a model involving work motivation as a mediator and growth need strength as a moderator. Employees (N = 235, 58.3% male, 33.6% 20–29 years old, 53.2% with a bachelor’s degree) from several companies in South Korea completed survey measures of economic individualism, job engagement, work motivation, and growth need strength. Findings supported work motivation as a mediator and indicated that the indirect effect through work motivation was significant at high levels of growth need strength although not at low levels. These findings provide new insights regarding the individual-level engagement implications of economic individualism and when and why these implications hold, as prior research on economic individualism has focused on the organizational and societal levels.