Employees are frequently encouraged to engage in pleasant behavior while suppressing negative emotions, despite how they actually feel. But what happens when employees are too emotionally exhausted to go on? Researchers (Lam et al., 2010) addressed this question, exploring what kinds of contexts will help employees push through emotional exhaustion to continue being friendly, even when they feel drained. The researchers explored two potential factors: supervisor exhaustion and service climate.
THE RESEARCH STUDY
First, the researchers explored whether or not a supervisor’s level of exhaustion had an impact on the emotional exhaustion of the follower. Secondly, the organization’s service climate was considered, which is the level of policies and procedures employees believe to be in place about being friendly (e.g., being rewarded for smiling at customers). In a study of front-line sales employees, the results are clear: service climate matters the most. Service climate directly impacted employees’ positive emotional displays. Additionally, when service climate perceptions were low and supervisors’ emotional exhaustion was high, employees seemed to experience the lowest amount of positive emotional displays.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Organizations who want to save employees from emotional exhaustion (and ultimately job burnout) should help foster a service climate. After all, service with a smile is part of a hard day’s work, and any factor that can help employees do their jobs more effectively is typically appreciated.
Lam, C.K., Huang, X., & Janssen, O. (2010). Contextualizing emotional exhaustion and positive emotional display: The signaling effects of supervisors’ emotional exhaustion and service climate. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95, 368-376.
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