Emotional Dissonance and Sickness Absence Among Employees Working With Customers and Clients: A Moderated Mediation Model via Exhaustion and Human Resource Primacy

Abstract

Emotional dissonance, i.e., a discrepancy between required and felt emotions, has been established as a predictor of sickness absence in studies, but little is known about mechanisms that can explain this association. In order to prevent and reduce the impact of emotional dissonance on sickness absence, there is a need for greater attention to variables explaining when and how emotional dissonance is related to sickness absence. The overarching aim of this study was to examine whether emotional dissonance has an indirect association with sickness absence through exhaustion. In addition, we examined whether human resource primacy (HRP), which is the employer’s degree of concern for human resources, moderates this indirect effect. A sample of 7758 employees, all working with customers and clients, were recruited from 96 Norwegian organizations. Emotional dissonance, exhaustion, and HRP were measured through surveys and then linked to registry data on medically certified sickness absence for the year following the survey assessment. Results showed that exhaustion is a mediator for the relationship between emotional dissonance and sickness absence. Furthermore, higher levels of HRP were found to reduce the positive association between emotional dissonance and exhaustion, and the indirect effect of emotional dissonance on sickness absence through exhaustion is found to be weaker when HRP is high. By testing this moderated mediation model, the current study contributes to the literature on emotion work by clarifying mechanisms that are crucial for the development of targeted interventions that aim to reduce and prevent sickness absence in client-driven work environments.

“Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda”. Workers’ Proactivity in the Association between Emotional Demands and Mental Health

“…According to the present study, the dissonance between felt and displayed emotions enhances the likelihood to experience hostile relations that, in turn, are positively associated with mental ill-health conditions (i.e., mental health symptoms). This result corroborated the evidence that the experience of emotional dissonance among workers in client-driven environments could drain their resources and foster emotional exhaustion, which is subsequently associated with higher rates of certified sickness absence [45]. Moreover, the obtained results provided empirical support for the emotion regulation model developed by Grandey and Melloy [13].…”

Psychometric Properties of the Italian Version of the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT)

“…Physical and psychological ill-health have been extensively associated to burnout, including cardiovascular and metabolic disease problems [ 9 , 10 , 11 ], musculoskeletal disorders [ 12 , 13 ], need for recovery [ 14 ] and depressive and sleep symptoms [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Negative occupational outcomes associated with burnout include sickness absences [ 19 , 20 , 21 ], poor job performance [ 22 , 23 ], turnover intentions [ 24 , 25 , 26 ] and worker and patient negative safety outcomes [ 27 , 28 ]. Moreover, burnout is often considered a social problem, especially in welfare states, where national social health systems cover sickness absence and work-related health problems [ 2 , 24 ].…”

Is Deep Acting Prevalent in Socially Responsible Companies? The Effects of CSR Perception on Emotional Labor Strategies

“…First, our results are based on cross-sectional data. Although cross-sectional data are still widely used in emotional labor studies (e.g., Molino et al, 2016; Indregard et al, 2018a,b), using time-lagged data would increase the persuasiveness of the suggested causal relationships in this study. Future research would thus benefit from using time-lagged data to analyze the dynamics of employees’ CSR perceptions on their organizational attitudes and behaviors.…”