Which type of emotional labour leads to burnout?

Abstract

Many studies have been conducted on the antecedents, consequences, conceptual framework, and measurement of emotional labor, examined and studied in organizational psychology research for many years. The studies conducted on the consequences of emotional labor focus on the effect of emotional labor on organizational performance and employees’ attitudes and behaviors toward work. For this reason, in this study, the effect of emotional labor types on burnout was examined. Participation consisted of service sector employees (N = 306). According to the findings, it has been determined that surface acting has a role in increasing employee burnout, while deep acting and naturally felt emotions reduce burnout. The findings show that examining and evaluating emotional labor according to types rather than generalizing the concept of emotional labor as a whole will serve more comprehensive and healthy inferences. Based on the findings, the destructive effects of emotional labor on employees occur predominantly in the context of surface acting. However, it seems that emotions expressed sincerely and naturally, rather than being destructive, can even indirectly contribute to the individual's psychological well-being.