Must "Service With a Smile" Be Stressful? The Moderating Role of Personal Control for American and French Employees.

Suppressing and faking emotional expressions depletes personal resources and predicts job strain for customer-contact employees. The authors argue that personal control over behavior, in the job and within the national culture, provides compensatory resources that reduce this strain. With a survey study of 196 employees from the United States and France, the authors supported that high job autonomy buffered the relationship of emotion regulation with emotional exhaustion and, to a lesser extent, job dissatisfaction. The relationship of emotion regulation with job dissatisfaction also depended on the emotional culture; the relationship was weaker for French customer-contact employees who were proposed to have more personal control over expressions than U.S. employees. Theoretical and research implications for the emotion regulation literature and practical suggestions for minimizing job strain are proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Turnover intention and emotional exhaustion "at the top": Adapting the job demands-resources model to leaders of addiction treatment organizations.

Compared with the large literature on subordinate employees, there are few studies of emotional exhaustion and turnover intention for organizational leaders. There is little research that has extended the job demands-resources (JD-R) model of emotional exhaustion to leaders. In this study, the authors adapted the JD-R framework to analyze data collected from a sample of 410 leaders of addiction treatment organizations. The authors considered whether two job demands (performance demands and centralization) and two job resources (innovation in decision making and long-range strategic planning) were associated with emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. The authors also examined whether emotional exhaustion fully or partially mediated the associations between the job-related measures and turnover intention. The results supported the partially mediated model. Both job demands were positively associated with emotional exhaustion, and the association for long-range strategic planning was negative. Emotional exhaustion was positively associated with turnover intention. Centralization and innovation in decision making were also directly associated with turnover intention. Future research should continue to examine this theoretical framework among leaders of other types of organizations using more refined measures of demands and resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contextualizing emotional exhaustion and positive emotional display: The signaling effects of supervisors’ emotional exhaustion and service climate.

In this study, we investigated how supervisors’ emotional exhaustion and service climate jointly influence the relationship between subordinates’ emotional exhaustion and their display of positive emotions at work. Using data from frontline sales employees and their immediate supervisors in a fashion retailer, we hypothesized and found that under the condition of a less positive service climate, subordinates’ emotional exhaustion was more negatively related to their positive emotional display when supervisors’ emotional exhaustion was higher rather than lower; this interaction effect of subordinates’ and supervisors’ emotional exhaustion was not significant in a more positive service climate. These results suggest that service climate and supervisors’ emotional exhaustion provide emotionally exhausted employees with important information cues about the possible availability of compensatory resources they need to uphold their efforts to display service-focused emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extending our understanding of burnout: Test of an integrated model in nonservice occupations.

C. L. Cordes and T. M. Dougherty (1993) provided a conceptual framework of job burnout in nonservice organizations. This study sought to determine the "fit" of that theoretical model within nonservice occupations. LISREL VIII was used to test this model on 165 participants, and the overall model fit the data well. Supervisory support moderated the relationships between the role conflict, role ambiguity, and quantitative role overload stressors and emotional exhaustion and between emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Unexpectedly, role conflict, role ambiguity, and quantitative role overload had a positive impact on emotional exhaustion when supervisory support was high. As expected, participation had a negative association with depersonalization. Employees experiencing emotional exhaustion were more likely to feel nervous or tense at work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship of emotional exhaustion to work attitudes, job performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors.

The authors investigated the negative consequences of emotional exhaustion for individual employees and their employers. On the basis of social exchange theory, the authors proposed that emotional exhaustion would predict job performance, 2 classes of organizational citizenship behavior, and turnover intentions. In addition, the authors posited that the relationship between emotional exhaustion and effective work behaviors would be mediated by organizational commitment. With only a few exceptions, the results of 2 field studies supported the authors' expectations. In addition, emotional exhaustion exerted an independent effect on these criterion variables beyond the impact of age, gender, and ethnicity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal abuse from outsiders versus insiders: Comparing frequency, impact on emotional exhaustion, and the role of emotional labor.

Research on aggression from organizational outsiders (customers, clients or patients) has ignored insider-instigated aggression, and has been limited to employees in emotional labor jobs (e.g., social work and customer services). The authors argue that customer-employee interactions have distinct characteristics from organizational insider interactions, and provide two studies to compare the frequency and strain of verbal abuse from customers, supervisors and coworkers. Furthermore, they assess whether customer verbal abuse is only a critical issue for employees in jobs requiring emotional labor, measured with both O*NET job codes and self-reported display rules. With a national random sample of U.S. employees (n = 2446) and a convenience sample of U.S. employees who have customer contact (n = 121), the authors find that verbal abuse from outsiders (1) occurs more frequently than insider verbal abuse, particularly for those with higher emotional labor requirements, and (2) predicts emotional exhaustion over and above insider verbal abuse, regardless of emotional labor requirements. The authors conclude that better integration of customer aggression and insider aggression research is needed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting workplace outcomes from the ability to eavesdrop on feelings.

Emotion recognition, the most reliably validated component within the construct of emotional intelligence, is a complicated skill. Although emotion recognition skill is generally valued in the workplace, "eavesdropping," or relatively better recognition ability with emotions expressed through the less controllable "leaky" nonverbal channels, can have detrimental social and workplace consequences. In light of theory regarding positive emotion in organizations, as well as research on the consequences of perceiving negative information, the authors hypothesized and found an interaction between nonverbal channel and emotional valence in predicting workplace ratings from colleagues and supervisors. Ratings were higher for eavesdropping ability with positive emotion and lower for eavesdropping ability with negative emotion. The authors discuss implications for the complexity of interventions associated with emotional intelligence in workplace settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of the stress–strain process for business owners and nonowners: Differences in job demands, emotional exhaustion, satisfaction, and social support.

One hundred sixty licensed morticians were surveyed to examine differences among business owners, managers, and employees on the relations proposed by G. F. Koeske and R. D. Koeske's (1993) stressor-strain-outcome model. Forty-eight percent of the morticians were owners, 16% were managers, and 36% were employees. Owners had less social support from work-related sources and perceived lower levels of role ambiguity and role conflict, less emotional exhaustion, and higher levels of job satisfaction and professional satisfaction than did nonowners. Social support from work-related sources and ownership each moderated the relationship between emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction but not between emotional exhaustion and professional satisfaction. Emotional exhaustion partially mediated the effect of stressors on job satisfaction and professional satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Workplace emotions: The role of supervision and leadership.

In this experience sampling study, the authors examined the role of organizational leaders in employees' emotional experiences. Data were collected from health care workers 4 times a day for 2 weeks. Results indicate supervisors were associated with employee emotions in 3 ways: (a) Employees experienced fewer positive emotions when interacting with their supervisors as compared with interactions with coworkers and customers; (b) employees with supervisors high on transformational leadership experienced more positive emotions throughout the workday, including interactions with coworkers and customers; and (c) employees who regulated their emotions experienced decreased job satisfaction and increased stress, but those with supervisors high on transformational leadership were less likely to experience decreased job satisfaction. The results also suggest that the effects of emotional regulation on stress are long lasting (up to 2 hr) and not easily reduced by leadership behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the meaning of Maslach's three dimensions of burnout.

The dimensionality of C. Maslach's (1982) 3 aspects of job burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment) was examined among a sample of supervisors and managers in the human services. A series of confirmatory factor analyses supported the 3-factor model, with the first 2 aspects highly correlated. The 3 aspects were found to be differentially related to other variables reflecting aspects of strain, stress coping, and self-efficacy in predictable and meaningful ways. Implications for better understanding the burnout process are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

2. The Individual in the Work Environment.

Introduces the upcoming articles in the next section, in which the authors attempt to bring together some important ideas regarding the functioning of the individual in his or her work environment. The topics include trends in worker motivation, emotion, and attitude in job behavior; employee socialization; job boredom; the aging worker; and work redesign. These articles offer alternatives to much of the technological impersonality that exists within industrial organizational psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional dissonance, burnout, and in-role performance among nurses and police officers.

Two studies including 108 nurses and 101 police officers tested the proposition that emotionally demanding interactions with recipients may result in emotional dissonance, which, in turn, may lead to job burnout and impaired performance. More specifically, on the basis of the literature on burnout and emotional dissonance, the authors hypothesized that emotional job demands would explain variance in burnout (i.e., exhaustion and cynicism/disengagement) through their influence on emotional dissonance. In addition, the authors predicted that emotional dissonance would be (negatively) related to in-role performance through its relationship with burnout. The findings of a series of structural equation modeling analyses supported both hypotheses. The implications for research and practice are discussed, as well as avenues for additional research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Staying well and engaged when demands are high: The role of psychological detachment.

The authors of this study examined the relation between job demands and psychological detachment from work during off-job time (i.e., mentally switching off) with psychological well-being and work engagement. They hypothesized that high job demands and low levels of psychological detachment predict poor well-being and low work engagement. They proposed that psychological detachment buffers the negative impact of high job demands on well-being and work engagement. A longitudinal study (12-month time lag) with 309 human service employees showed that high job demands predicted emotional exhaustion, psychosomatic complaints, and low work engagement over time. Psychological detachment from work during off-job time predicted emotional exhaustion and buffered the relation between job demands and an increase in psychosomatic complaints and between job demands and a decrease in work engagement. The findings of this study suggest that psychological detachment from work during off-job time is an important factor that helps to protect employee well-being and work engagement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional exhaustion as a predictor of job performance and voluntary turnover.

Recent research suggests that a better understanding of emotional exhaustion requires the development of new theoretical perspectives. To that end, with the conservation of resources model (COR) as the theoretical framework, the present 1-year longitudinal study was undertaken. Composed of 52 social welfare workers, this research examined the relationship of emotional exhaustion to job satisfaction, voluntary turnover, and job performance. Positive affectivity (PA) and negative affectivity (NA) were used as control variables. Whereas emotional exhaustion was unrelated to job satisfaction, it was associated with both performance and subsequent turnover. In addition, the relationship between emotional exhaustion and performance and also between emotional exhaustion and turnover remained significant above and beyond the effects of PA and NA. Future research directions and implications of the findings are introduced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Customer incivility as a social stressor: The role of race and racial identity for service employees.

Experiencing frequent incivility from customers is a noted social stressor linked with job burnout. Race (as a surface-level characteristic and as a deep-level identity) is proposed to explain emotional exhaustion, the primary burnout dimension, for service employees. The authors did not find that "microaggressions" were more likely toward racial minorities, nor any difference in job-related exhaustion between racial minority (primarily African American) and nonminority (White) retail employees. However, the centrality of minority employees' racial identity strengthened the association of customer incivility with emotional exhaustion because of increased stress appraisals, consistent with the Group Identity Lens Model. Proposals for future research on workforce racial diversity are made. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional exhaustion and job performance: The mediating role of motivation.

The literature concerning the relationship between emotional exhaustion and performance led researchers to raise questions about the extent to which the variables are related. In 2 time-lagged samples, the authors found that motivation mediates the emotional exhaustion-job performance relationship. Moreover, the authors found that participants appear to target their investment of resources in response to emotional exhaustion to develop social support through social exchange; specifically, emotional exhaustion was associated with communion striving resources that were manifest in the form of organizational citizenship behaviors targeted at individuals. Implications of this relationship for theories of burnout and for management practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The pro-protein convertase PC1 is induced in the transected sciatic nerve and is present in cultured Schwann cells: comparison with PC5, furin and PC7, implication in pro-BDNF processing

Emotional dissonance, or person-role conflict originating from the conflict between expressed and experienced emotions, was examined. The study was based on a reconceptualization of the emotional labor construct, with dissonance as a facet rather than a consequence of emotional labor. The effects of emotional dissonance on organizational criteria were isolated, thereby explaining some of the conflicting results of earlier studies. Empirically, job autonomy and negative affectivity as antecedents of emotional dissonance, and emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction as consequences of emotional dissonance, were explored. Self-monitoring and social support were tested as moderators of the emotional dissonance-job satisfaction relationship. Significant relationships with job autonomy, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction were found. Social support significantly moderated the emotional dissonance-job satisfaction relationship.     

Burnout and coping in human service practitioners.

Do many Spanish human service practitioners suffer from burnout? What coping strategies are used to combat work stress, and are they associated with lower burnout? Which strategies may the psychologist promote to improve organizations? With an eye toward helping organizations improve their workers' quality of work life and service delivery, 211 professionals, either child protection workers or in-home caregivers, completed an inventory on coping and another on burnout. Coping strategies alone do not preclude burnout but may help prevent worker turnover. High job and salary satisfaction, together with active coping strategies play an important role in promoting personal accomplishment. Low job and salary satisfaction and the use of passive or emotional strategies predict elevated emotional exhaustion. The results suggest some possible points of intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional labor in American professors.

An online survey was conducted on a national sample of United States professors to examine emotional labor and its relationship to work outcomes. Participants were queried on genuine, faking, and suppressing emotional expression facets of emotional labor, as well as emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and affective commitment. The sample of 598 included 71 instructors, 177 assistant professors, 168 associate professors, and 182 professors. A path analysis was conducted testing two models of emotional labor. Results supported a model indicating significant direct relationships between emotional labor, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction. Additionally, the relationship between emotional labor and affective commitment was mediated by emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. Genuine positive expression was the only emotional labor variable to have significant direct relationships with all outcomes. For U.S. faculty, the experience of emotional labor was related to several work attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)