Journal Case Study

Akemi Yagi Mendoza

Emotional labor and burnout among female teachers: Work-family conflict as mediator

´ Author: Noraini M. Noor and Masyitah Zainuddin

´ Department: Psychology, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

´ Journal: Asian Journal of Social Psychology ( 2011)

Agenda:

´ Introduction

´ Concepts

´ Hypothesis

´ Method

´ Measures

´ Data Analysis

Brief explanation about the case study :

´ -Increase productivity among women in the workforce

´ - Less time spent with children and house work

´ -Increase in levels of stress/emotional burnout

´ - Understand the interrelationship between emotions and the demands of work

´ -Evaluating sample size n= 102 married female Malay teachers (Primary and secondary teacher)

´ -Know how to control their anger, direct influence on students

´ -Determine the relationship between emotional labor and burnout

´ -Combines two areas of interest in the current organizational literature: emotional labor and work-family

´ -Organizations put emphasis on emotional labor

´ -Want to make contribution to the family, improve lifestyle

´ Making an impact in their productivity levels

´ Here is a demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOj-0fm79AA

Definition of key concepts:

´ Emotional Labor- Effort, planning, and control needed to express organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions ( Morris&Feldman, 1996 P. 987)

´ Work-family conflict is experienced--- Is associated with diminished job satisfaction and lower levels of psychological well- being Ex) Time spent at work VS. Time spent with the family.

´ Woman have more responsibilities, emotional labor-being.

´ burnout, high levels of fatigue, lack of time-----> leading to higher levels burnout compared to man .

Definition of key concepts:

´ Burnout according to Lee and Ashforth 1996; Shirom, 2002. Emotional exhaustion, depersonalization ( negative feelings and cynical attitudes towards the recipients of one’s service or care)

Emotional behavior carried out in two ways:

´ SA ( Surface acting)- Powerful positive predictors of burnout. ( Brotheridge and Lee)

´ DA ( Deep acting)

´ Meta- analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationship between emotional labor and burnout which indicated significant, positive associations of emotional labor (SA) but not with DA.

´ Job related stress effects-– personal health, psychological well-being, and job-satisfaction--à Teaching, high stress occupation ( Gold and Roth, 1993) Ex) Asian cultures, woman, duties

´ Examine, how emotional labor and work-family conflict-à Burnout

Identifying the Hypothesis:

´ H1: Emotional labor will be positively related to burnout. Of the two measures of emotional labor, we predicted SA to be more strongly related to burnout than DA, because in SA, there is a discrepancy or dissonance between felt and dis-played emotions.

´ H2: Female teachers who combine work and family responsibilities will experience. High emotional labor because they have to regulate their emotions, which will lead to work-family conflict, and consequently burnout.

´ H3: Work-family conflict will moderate the relationship between emotional labor and burnout, such that the emotional labor-burnout relationship will be stronger when work-family conflict is higher.

Figure 1: Graphical depictions of three pathways:

Method:- Participants: Malay married, female teacher .

-Location: Selangor, Malaysia

-Technique: Survey distributed to women with at least 1 child.

-Time collected: within one week

Total number of questionnaire: 180 were distributed--> 102 completed

- Age: 26 to 57 years old

- Number of children: Between one and eight

- Teaching experience: 1 t0 34 years

Measures:

´ SA and DA: Brotheride and Lee’s (1998) six-item scales

´ Questions such as: SA “On an average day at work how frequently do you resist expressing your true thoughts?”

´ A sample item for DA was “How frequently do you try to actually experience the emotions that you must show?

´ Both items: Five point scale, 1= not at all 5=always

´ For the present study, reliabilities were 0.79 for SA and 0.84 for DA.

Measures: ( Continuation)

´ Burnout: Using the Teacher Burnout Inventory ( Leong, 1995, unpublished data.)

´ Scale: 22 items, assessing the three components of burnout- Emotional exhaustion, depersonalization was used.

´ 7 point scale= > 0= never to 6=always. * Higher scales indicate > burnout

´ Cronbach alpha ranged from 0.74 to 0.79.

´ Sample of 295 teachers in Malaysia

´ Internal consistency was 0.76 for emotional exhaustion and 0.72 for depersonalization.

Measures (Continuation) :

´ Work- Family conflict: Scale recommended by the Sloan Work Family Researchers Electronic Network ( MacDermid, 2000)

´ Measuring: 9 items

´ Technique: Five point Likert scale

´ Range 1= never to 5=always * Higher scores indicating higher work-family conflict.

´ Alpha level= 0.89 reported by Montgomery, internal consistency was 0.92.

Data Analyses:

´ Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data.

• Standard deviations

• Interco relations

• Regression analyses were conducted for the burnout measure

• Analysis: Less experience, younger teachers > burnout, #of children > work leading to work family conflict, < well-being.

Four separate regressions were recommended:1. Independent variable ( emotional labor), dependent variable ( burnout)

must be significant. 2. Independent variable ( emotional labor) to the mediator ( work-family

conflict) must be significant. 3. Mediator ( work-family conflict) to the dependent variable ( burnout) must

be significant. 4. Independent variable no longer had any effects on the dependent

variable when the mediator was controlled, complete mediation will happen.

Results:

´ Table 1: Standard deviations and Interco relations among the variables are expressed in table 1:

´ As expected of the demographic variables, age was found to be positively correlated with number of children and length of teaching experience. Out of the two measures of emotional labor, only SA was related to work.

´ By obtaining the results from the tables above:

´ Work- family conflict was correlated with both exhaustion and depersonalization. SA was also correlated with the two burnout measures, but DA was correlated only with depersonalization.

Table 1: Means, standard deviations, and Interco relations of measures

Table 2: Regression analysis predicting burnout

Testing for mediation:

´ SA and DA were into the regression analysis.

´ SA fulfill the mediation requirements.

´ SA was a significant and positive predictor of emotional exhaustion, in the second model only SA was significant and a positive predictor of work family conflict.

´ DA did not fulfill the necessary mediation requirements.

Table 3: Testing mediation effect on burnout

Discussion:

´ Better understanding of the variables: emotional labor-burnout relationship

´ When conducting the regression analysis, only SA was found to be positively associated with burnout.

´ DA was not associated to burnout ( even though a small correlation between DA and depersonalization was observed. )

´ Women with high responsibility level experience high SA level because they have to regulate their emotions causing emotional exhaustion.

Limitations of the study:

´ Size of sample relatively small

´ All women working for government schools

´ Results would be different ( not considering teachers in the private sector, quantity of work)

´ Teaching in urban areas

´ Only focused on married woman with at least one child

´ All measures were self-reports

´ Design of the study was cross-sectional

´ Job demands, organizational climate, and support at home were not controlled.

Implications and recommendations:

´ Understand the women's emotions regarding the working environment -> well-being

´ Recognize that emotions and emotional work demands will affect on their job performance, and personal well-being.

´ Have to be assisted to learn how to manage these demands.

´ Important to train teachers by designing special programs. ( emotional , stress and conflict management, relaxation techniques.)

´ The teachers need to have a balance between work and family demands.

´ Equal role from husbands, to reduce the level of work-family conflict.