The relationship between emotional labor and professional burnout:A comparative analysis between work of teachers and employees of commercial service sector

摘要

Background: Nowadays more and more employees are required to perform emotional labor (EL) which means that they need toexpress emotions set by the organizational procedures, simultaneously masking the true feelings. Employees, while performingemotional labor, choose between one of the two strategies (surface acting or deep acting) and this leads to e.g., burnout. As theperformance of emotional labor and its consequences depend on the specification of work and chosen strategy, it was assumedthat the consequences of EL may be different for workers in various occupations. Material and Methods: The authors performeda comparative analysis between teachers (N = 129) and professionals of commercial service sector (N = 136). In the analysis thePolish adaptation of deep acting and surface acting scale (DASAS) and the Polish version of OLBI (Oldenburg Burnout Inventory)were used. Results: The statistical verification of hypotheses showed that employees of commercial service sector show a greatertendency toward choosing surface acting than teachers. Furthermore, in the group of teachers negative consequences are morerelated to emotional exhaustion, while both components of burnout are at the same level among employees of the other group. Inboth groups of respondents surface acting leads to the increase in burnout. Conclusions: Emotional labor can lead to a variety ofnegative consequences, e.g., burnout or psychosomatic diseases. Based on this knowledge, organizations can develop standards forthe expression of emotions and preventive actions, such as identification with organization, which can counteract the negative ELconsequences. Med Pr 2017;68(5):605–615