Running Head: EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 1
Emotional Exhaustion among Hotel Employees: The Interactive Effects of Affective
Dispositions and Positive Work Reflection
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 2
ABSTRACT
Hospitality employees inevitably face emotional exhaustion when performing their jobs. The
purpose of this study was to investigate dispositional antecedents of hospitality employees’
emotional exhaustion, including self-instability, pessimism and affect variability, and how
employees’ affect variability mediates the relations between self-instability and pessimism
and emotional exhaustion. In addition, we explored the moderating role of positive work
reflection on the relation between affect variability and emotional exhaustion. A total of 224
frontline employees in 18 four- and five-star hotels in Ecuador responded to surveys about
their emotions and work lives. The findings suggest that (a) emotional exhaustion was
influenced by affect variability; (b) affect variability mediated the relations between self-
instability and pessimism and emotional exhaustion and (c) the relation between affect
variability and emotional exhaustion was weakened by positive work reflection. The results
highlight the importance of potential low-cost, easily trainable interventions that could help
in attenuating the negative effects of highly variable emotions and the resulting exhaustion
that are prevalent in the hospitality industry. This research is among the first to examine the
dispositional antecedents of emotional exhaustion, and the first to highlight the role of
positive work reflection as a moderating variable that can buffer the negative effect of affect
variability on emotional exhaustion.
Keywords: Emotional exhaustion; affect variability; self-instability; pessimism; positive work
reflection
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 3
Emotional Exhaustion among Hotel Employees: The Interactive Effects of Affective
Dispositions and Positive Work Reflection
The quality of the interaction between customers and frontline employees has a
profound impact on customers’ satisfaction levels, their intentions to repatronize and their
willingness to share positive word-of-mouth about an organization. Hospitality organizations
require employees to focus on flawless service to maintain success in the industry. Employee
demeanor plays an important role in that process, and managing employee emotions and
involving employees in frequent and intense interpersonal contact with customers have both
been recognized as important aspects of maintaining loyal customers (Lee & Ok, 2012).
However, employees are not always good at managing their emotions and they often feel
exhausted (Grandey, 2000). They are confronted with emotional exhaustion, which is a key
aspect of employee burnout (Maslach & Jackson, 1981) and is defined as “the extent to which
employees feel emotionally overwhelmed and drained by their work” (Janssen, Lam, &
Huang, 2010, p.788).
Emotional exhaustion gives rise to a number of negative job-related consequences,
including decreased job satisfaction (Lewig & Dollard, 2003), low job performance
(Halbesleben & Bowler, 2007), low organizational citizenship behavior (Cropanzano, Rupp,
& Byrne, 2003), poor general health and psychological and physiological well-being
(Khamisa, Oldenburg, Peltzer, & Ilic, 2015), and eventually high propensity to leave their
jobs (Kraemer & Gouthier, 2014). Against this backdrop, it is critical to understand the
factors that predict emotional exhaustion. Identifying the antecedents of emotional exhaustion
will help hospitality organizations solve of the riddle of why employees remain exhausted
and complain about the workplace. This study sheds light on the ways in which various
factors impact emotional exhaustion and can help hospitality managers to take measures to
reduce employee emotional exhaustion.
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 4
Research has shown that one of the influential predictors of emotional exhaustion is
negative valenced affect because emotional exhaustion involves feelings of negative tone;
being emotionally overextended and drained by one’s work (e.g., Burke, Brief, & George,
1993; Wright & Cropanzano, 1998). In addition to negative affect, affect variability is an
understudied affective disposition that is likely to be related to emotional exhaustion. To
illustrate the meaning of affect variability, an individual characterized by higher levels of
affect variability experiences affect that reaches higher extreme levels and shows greater
deviations from the mean level of affect. Affect variability plays a significant role in
predicting individuals’ psychological and physical functioning, above and beyond average
levels of affect (Eid & Diener, 1999; Gruber, Kogan, Quoidbach, & Mauss, 2013).
Little research has examined the antecedents of affect variability, and what factors can
protect employees who experience a high level of fluctuations of emotions. Using the
cognitive appraisal theory of emotions (Frijda, 1986), we propose self-instability and
pessimism to be critical factors related to affect variability, and in turn related to emotional
exhaustion. Another important element to consider is how employees’ non-work experiences
during leisure time could attenuate the negative effect of affect variability on emotional
exhaustion. As such, we introduce a potential buffer to reduce the effect of affect variability
on emotional exhaustion: positive work reflection during leisure time. The conceptual model
of this research is depicted in Figure 1.
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Conceptual Model and Hypotheses
Affect variability and emotional exhaustion
We anticipated that employees’ emotional exhaustion would be influenced by affect
variability. Affect variability is defined as the frequency, speed, and magnitude of
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 5
fluctuations in affective states (Oliver & Simons, 2004). Some individuals are stable in terms
of their affect, whereas others experience fluctuations in their affect that may include extreme
emotional states. High degrees of affect variability render individuals vulnerable to the
sufferings of everyday life. For example, feeling very happy one moment and very unhappy
the next could trigger a physiological stress response, which could alter cortisol profiles
(Human, Whillans, Hoppmann, Klumb, Dickerson, & Dunn, 2015) and have negative long-
term consequences for both psychological and physical health (e.g., Houben, Van Den
Noortgate, & Kuppens, 2015). This could then further translate into emotional exhaustion,
job dissatisfaction, and absenteeism, which have been shown to negatively impact
customer/employee interactions in service contexts (Grandey, 2000).
Emotional exhaustion is characterized by feelings of being overextended, drained and
depleted of one’s resources (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001). According to theory on
personal resource depletion (e.g., Hobfoll, 1989), individuals have limited personal resources
that allow them to engage in various taxing events throughout a day. Completing a variety of
emotional activities – especially in hospitality contexts requiring an effortful regulation of
emotions – could be particularly draining because of the depletion of psychological resources
(e.g., Shani et al., 2014). Individuals with higher affect variability are more likely to have to
engage in affect regulation in order to fulfill the emotional requirements of the job, relative to
those with lower affect variability. Therefore, employees whose affective states are more
variable and erratic could experience a higher depletion of their psychological resources at
work, in comparison to employees whose affective states are more stable. Excessive
consumption of resources is related to unfavorable results, such as lower levels of motivation,
task focus, well-being and psychological health (Hobfoll, 2010), which could ignite a
downward spiral of further emotional exhaustion. Given the aforementioned argument, it is
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 6
expected that affect variability would be positively associated with emotional exhaustion
because of emotional resource depletion and therefore it is hypothesized that:
Hypothesis 1: Affect variability will be positively related to emotional exhaustion.
Antecedents of affect variability
In this study, we examine how self-perceptions are related to affect variability, which
is in turn associated with emotional exhaustion. Self-perceptions are important to understand
emotional traits (Dizen & Berenbaum, 2011). The cognitive appraisal theory of emotions
(Frijda, 1986) conceptualizes self-perceptions as the antecedents to emotional reactions,
which elicit, differentiate, and influence the intensity of different emotions (Dizen &
Berenbaum, 2011). Most of the previous literature has used the cognitive appraisal theory of
emotions to examine which specific cognitive appraisal dimensions predict which discrete
emotions (e.g., a perception of self-blame predicts guilt and fear; Lutwak, Panish, & Ferrari,
2003). This study was based on the expectation that cognitive appraisal theory could also
help in explaining affect variability, since individuals tend to be relatively stable in many
important aspects of their appraisals and perceptions of events (e.g., Peterson & Villanova,
1988), which in turn contributes to their being relatively stable in how they respond
emotionally. Based on the cognitive appraisal theory of emotions, it is posited that affect
variability will be positively associated with instability of self-concept and pessimism.
Self-instability
Self-instability refers to the instability of one’s self-concept (e.g., perceived personal
attributes), self-perceived inconsistency, and temporal instability of self-aspects (Dizen &
Berenbaum, 2011). Individuals higher in self-instability have a less clearly and confidently
defined self-concept, or they have a less organized knowledge of traits, values, episodic and
semantic memories about the self, and have little control of the processing of self-relevant
information (Campbell, Trapnell, Heine, Katz, Lavallee, & Lehman, 1996). According to
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 7
Conley (1984), self-instability is an opinion about the self, a type of individual difference that
can be assessed as a trait and a state that is susceptible to environmental influences.
Most relevant literature on the relation between self-instability and emotional
reactions is part of the extensive research on self-esteem variability, which is defined as the
magnitude of fluctuations in one’s level of self-esteem (Dizen & Berenbaum, 2011). The
existing research suggests that the extent to which people’s self-esteem fluctuates contributes
to changes in their affect. Someone whose self-esteem is consistently threatened or bolstered
differentially over time will experience the concomitant affective reactions associated with
these negative and positive experiences. For instance, Kernis, Grannemann, and Barclay
(1989) demonstrated that self-esteem instability was positively related to variability in mood.
Additionally, past research has also found that self-esteem instability was positively related to
variability in both positive and negative affect (e.g., Rhodewalt, Madrian, & Cheney, 1998).
However, the specific relation between self-instability and affect variability has rarely
been examined (Dizen & Berenbaum, 2011). Based on cognitive appraisal theory, we argue
that a higher level of affect variability will be related to a higher level of instability in
perceptions of self-concept. Individuals higher in self-instability tend to be more vulnerable
to external events. The theory assumes that specific events trigger thoughts and feelings in
one’s self-concept that are most relevant to the immediate context, and are also likely to
similarly stimulate simultaneous arousal and emotions as a natural response to these events.
Therefore, the affect of individuals higher in self-instability will be more positive after
positive events and be more negative after negative events, thus producing higher affect
variability over time (Campbell, Chew, & Scratchley, 1991).
Researchers (e.g., Lee-Flynn, Pomaki, DeLongis, Biesanz, & Puterman, 2011) have
argued that individuals with less self-instability may be less affected by and more able to deal
with the external events or stressors. For instance, individuals who are certain of their self-
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 8
concepts (i.e., low self-instability) are more likely to seek out information that verifies self-
beliefs that they are certain about (Arkin, Oleson, & Carroll, 2013) and less likely to change
their self-beliefs (Swann, Pelham, & Chidester, 1988). Therefore, they are more resilient to
external events. When they deal with external events that are threatening and uncontrollable,
they would respond more effectively by using the clear and certain aspects of the self,
resulting in less affect variability. On the contrary, individuals with unstable self-concepts, or
high self-instability, are more likely to show intense reactions to external events, because
their self-concepts cannot provide them with effective and consistent knowledge of how to
respond (Kernis, Paradise, Whitaker, Wheatman, & Goldman, 2000), resulting in higher
affect variability. Thus, individuals higher in self-instability who feel inauthentic across
different contexts or across different time periods will likely experience higher fluctuations in
affect as well (Campbell et al., 1996). Thus, it is hypothesized that:
Hypothesis 2: Self-instability will be positively related to affect variability.
Pessimism
Additionally, we examine the relation between affect variability and pessimism.
Pessimism is defined as holding negative expectations about future events, or the belief that
adverse results will occur in the future (Kuppens et al., 2007). Kaiser, Major, and McCoy
(2004) argued that a pessimistic outlook involves threatening appraisals and is associated
with greater psychological vulnerability. We believe that investigating sources of
vulnerability, such as pessimism, could help to make sense of variability in employees’
affective responses to work events.
Pessimism has been theorized to influence individuals’ adjustment through its impact
on cognitive appraisals, and has been found to be negatively associated with psychological
adjustment because pessimists tend to appraise stressful events as more taxing and
threatening and are not as able to cope with the events, compared to optimists (Brissete,
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 9
Scheier, & Carver, 2002). Generally, theories on emotion regulation and self-development
suggest that people with poor psychological adjustment are characterized by higher levels of
variability of reported affective experiences over time (Ram, Gerstorf, Lindenberger, &
Smith, 2011). In addition, individuals who are high in pessimism tend to hold low self-beliefs
about their own affect and are low in their capacity to regulate mood. When they feel
confused about their emotional knowledge capability and have low confidence in their own
emotional regulation ability, they would lose control over stressful situations, showing lower
psychological health functioning and higher affect variability (Extremera, Durán, & Rey,
2007). Thus, we predict the following:
Hypothesis 3: Pessimism will be positively related to affect variability.
The moderating effect of positive work reflection
Scholars addressing physiological (Linden, Earle, Gerin, & Christenfeld, 1997) and
organizational (Trougakos, Beal, Green, & Weiss, 2008; Westman & Eden, 1997) strategies
have argued that exposure to processes associated with recovery are crucial for tackling
emotional exhaustion at work. For instance, Trougakos et al. (2008) demonstrated that self-
regulatory breaks (such as low-effort activities and socializing) can help employees replenish
resources and experience more positive affect, compared to breaks that are used for chores.
Research also has shown that several non-work experiences can alleviate the negative effect
of emotional exhaustion and benefit individuals’ well-being. For example, psychological
detachment, or refraining from thinking about work-related events during employees’ leisure
time, predicted decreased emotional exhaustion and increased work engagement (Sonnentag,
Binnewies, & Mojza, 2010). In addition, Lee, Choo, and Hyun (2016) found that recovery
experiences such as psychological detachment, relaxation, and learning a new skill during
off-job hours can benefit employees’ subjective well-being.
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 10
One type of non-work recovery experience that has received relatively little attention
is thinking about the positive side of one’s job during leisure time. According to O’Neill and
Davis (2011), working in hospitality jobs can be especially stressful due to the combination
of coworker-, work overload-, and customer-related stressors. Because of these stressful
situations in hospitality contexts, employees might need to actively think about the positive
side of work during leisure time to replenish their energetic and psychological resources.
Engaging in this type of behavior has been found to reduce blood pressure and health
complaints and to buffer the negative effect of high job demands on well-being (Bono,
Glomb, Shen, Kim, & Koch, 2013).
Positive work reflection during leisure time can assist to build resources and thereby
decrease the experiences of stress (Fritz & Sonnentag, 2006). Positive work reflection
involves realizing the positive side of work and considering what one likes about it. However,
empirical research on positive work reflection during leisure time is scant (Fritz &
Sonnentag, 2005, 2006; Binnewies, Sonnentag, & Mojza, 2009). The lack of literature is
surprising because literature has demonstrated that capitalizing on positive events (e.g., by
considering the good aspects of work) is beneficial for employees’ psychological and
physiological health (Binnewies et al., 2009). Positively reflecting on one’s work is argued to
be resource-providing and it benefits employees’ health and well-being for several reasons
(Bono et al., 2013). First, positively reflecting about work involves a positive reappraisal of
work events or experiences, which can reduce the negative consequences of job-related strain
(Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Second, positive work reflection involves thinking about
achieved goals, pleasant events, or supportive relationships when doing one’s job (Fritz &
Sonnentag, 2006). As a result, positive work reflection could build up or increase ones’
resources, such as positive emotions, sense of competence, and self-efficacy, which, in turn,
would benefit employee well-being. Therefore, positive work reflection works as a
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 11
mechanism to regain lost valuable resources and facilitate further resource gains (Westman,
1999).
We anticipate that positive work reflection will weaken the relation between affect
variability and emotional exhaustion. When not positively reflecting about work during
leisure time, the variability in affect remains mentally present and may elicit exhaustion
reactions, including fatigue, anxiety, or impaired sleep. Positive work reflection, however,
entails thinking about fulfilled tasks and other positive events in the workplace, allowing one
to recover and to rebuild psychological resources, hence helping employees with high affect
variability reduce emotional exhaustion. As a result, positive work reflection should attenuate
the positive relation between affect variability and emotional exhaustion: when levels of
positive work reflection during leisure time are high, the relation between affect variability
and emotional exhaustion should be weaker than when levels of reflection are low. Thus, we
predict the following:
Hypothesis 4: Positive work reflection will weaken the relation between affect
variability and emotional exhaustion.
Based on above discussions and hypotheses, it is expected that affect variability
would act as a mediator such that self-instability and pessimism will be related to affect
variability, which will, in turn, be related to emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, it is expected
that this mediation would be moderated by positive work reflection, such that the mediation
effect would be weakened by positive work reflection.
Hypothesis 5: There is a moderated effect of positive work reflection on the mediation
effect of affect variability. Positive work reflection moderates the indirect effect (via
affect variability) of self-instability and pessimism on emotional exhaustion, such that
this indirect effect is weaker under conditions of greater positive work reflection.
Method
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 12
Data collection
A total of 224 frontline employees in 18 four- and five-star hotels in the three largest
cities in Ecuador participated in a Spanish-language survey. Three of the authors approached
the general managers via personal connections and invited them to distribute the paper-and-
pencil surveys to their employees. The employees were instructed to refer to their current
employment experiences. They were informed that the research was for academic purposes
only, and that their participation was on a voluntary and anonymous basis. The average age
of the respondents was 31.83 (SD = 9.12) and 60% of them were male. Approximately 10%
of the respondents had not finished high school, 30% had high school degrees, 30% had some
university classes completed, and 30% had a bachelor’s degree or higher. The average tenure
in the current organization was 4.73 years (SD = 5.74).
Measures
To make sure that the Spanish survey accurately reflected the original survey in
English, we utilized a back translation method (Brislin, 1980). Specifically, one bilingual
author and one bilingual expert translated the questionnaire from English to Spanish. Next,
two additional bilingual authors translated the Spanish questionnaire back to English to verify
the accuracy of the Spanish version. All measures utilized seven-point Likert scales ranging
from 1 “strongly disagree” to 7 “strongly agree.” The survey contained the following
sections, each derived from previous literature.
Emotional Exhaustion. To measure emotional exhaustion, the nine-item Maslach
Burnout Inventory developed by Maslach and Jackson (1981) was used. One sample item is
“I feel used up at the end of the workday.” Cronbach’s alpha for emotional exhaustion
was .89.
Affect variability. To measure levels of affect variability, we used the 18-item
Affective Lability Scale (Oliver & Simons, 2004). A sample item is “At times I feel just as
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 13
relaxed as everyone else and then within minutes I become so nervous that I feel light-headed
and dizzy.” Cronbach’s alpha for affect variability was .93.
Self-Instability. We measured self-instability using a 12-item scale developed by
Campbell et al. (1996). A sample item from this scale is “My beliefs about myself seem to
change very frequently.” Cronbach’s alpha for self-instability was .81.
Pessimism. We used the Pessimism Scale (Kuppens et al., 2007), which consists of
three items that assess the inclination to believe things that will turn out to be negative. A
sample item is “I often expect the worst.” Cronbach’s alpha for pessimism was .81.
Positive Work Reflection. We measured positive work reflection during leisure time
with one item developed by Fritz and Sonnentag (2005; 2006; i.e., “During leisure time, I
consider the positive aspects of my job”). Earlier research has argued that a single well-
chosen item is sufficient when individuals are asked to rate straight-forward unidimensional
constructs in terms of recent experiences (Fisher & To, 2012).
Data analysis
As shown in Figure 1, we proposed a moderated mediation model, in which affect
variability serves as a mediator and positive work reflection serves as a moderator. Thus,
Hayes’s (2013) PROCESS macro was utilized to analyze the data. Because we have two
independent variables, we ran separate PROCESS models such that one included self-
instability as an independent variable and pessimism as a control variable and the other
included these variables reversed (see Hayes, 2013).
Results
Means, standard deviations, inter-correlations, and reliability estimates for the key
constructs in this study are provided in Table 1. As can be seen, affect variability was
positively related to self-instability (r = .67, p < .01) and pessimism (r = .61, p < .01), and
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 14
emotional exhaustion was positively related to affect variability (r = .51, p < .01). These
findings provided preliminary support for Hypotheses 1-3.
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Hypotheses testing
Affect variability was significantly related to emotional exhaustion, b = 0.41, p < .01,
supporting Hypothesis 1. Self-instability and pessimism were both significantly related to
affect variability, b = 0.55, p < .01 and b = 0.20, p < .01, respectively, supporting Hypotheses
2 and 3. These results are summarized in Table 2. By definition, these relations are the same
regardless of which variable is entered as the independent variable and which one is entered
as the control variable in the PROCESS model.
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Hypothesis 4 proposed that positive work reflection would moderate the relation
between affect variability and emotional exhaustion. The predicted interaction (affect
variability X positive work reflection) was statistically significant, b = -0.10, p < .01,
supporting Hypothesis 4. The simple slope for affect variability at higher levels of positive
work reflection (1 SD above the mean) was 0.42, p < .01, and at lower levels of positive work
reflection (1 SD below the mean) was 0.85, p < .01. This moderation effect is graphically
depicted in Figure 2, such that the effect of affect variability on emotional exhaustion was
weaker when individuals have higher positive work reflection.
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Hypothesis 5 proposed the conditional indirect effects such that the indirect relations
between self-instability/pessimism and emotional exhaustion would be moderated by positive
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 15
work reflection. The conditional indirect effects are presented in Tables 3A and 3B.
Specifically, the indirect effects of self-instability and pessimism under higher levels of
positive work reflection, b = 0.12 and b = 0.04, respectively, are lower than those of under
lower levels of positive work reflection, b = 0.33 and b = 0.12, respectively. Hayes’ (2013)
index of moderated mediation also provides a test for the strength of the mediator at different
levels of the moderator. The index was found to be significant when self-instability was
entered as the independent variable (controlling for the effect of pessimism), effect = -0.05,
SE = .02, 95% CI (-0.09, -0.02), and when pessimism was entered as the independent
variable (controlling for the effect of pessimism), effect = -0.02, SE = .01, 95% CI (-0.04, -
0.01). Thus, these tests indicate that the impact of self-instability and pessimism on emotional
exhaustion through affect variability decreases as positive work reflection increases, in
support of Hypothesis 5.
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Discussion
The purpose of this study was to investigate the antecedents of emotional exhaustion
and the interactive effect of affective dispositions and positive work reflection on employee
emotional exhaustion in a hospitality context. Based on prior research, we anticipated that
emotional exhaustion would be influenced by affect variability, and affect variability would
be more prevalent among employees with higher self-instability and pessimism. In addition,
we expected that positive work reflection during leisure time would weaken the relation
between affect variability and emotional exhaustion. The results of the empirical tests fully
supported the research model: self-perception variables (i.e., self-instability and pessimism)
predicted affect variability and that greater variability in affect was related to increased
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 16
emotional exhaustion. In addition, positive work reflection weakened the positive relation
between affect variability and emotional exhaustion.
The results are helpful in understanding the swinging of the “emotional pendulum”
and its association with emotional exhaustion. Specifically, individuals whose affect varied
more exhibited higher levels of emotional exhaustion compared to individuals with lower
variability in affect. The evidence suggests that less emotional exhaustion is characterized by
lower affective fluctuations that are more homeostatically tied to baseline levels. It is
plausible to assume that individuals with stable affective trajectories have a sense of control
and security, relating to an optimal level of well-being. If one’s emotions are characterized as
swinging and dramatically changing, one’s life becomes less coherent and more exhausting.
This contributes to resource depletion theory: in a hospitality setting, individuals with higher
affect variability are more likely to have to engage in effortful emotion regulation to match
display rules and therefore expend their emotional resources; thus, a depletion of resources as
a consequence of affect variability evokes emotional exhaustion.
Our results also suggest a moderating role of positive work reflection during leisure
time. This finding is consistent with the framework of positive psychology that discusses
positive conditions and processes that contribute to one’s optimal functioning (Binnewies et
al., 2009; Gable & Haidt, 2005; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Capitalizing on
positive work reflection as a positive appraisal of work experience could serve as activating
cognitive behaviors that help to build personal and social resources to benefit employees
(Daniel & Sonnentag, 2014). The resources were found to help to buffer the negative effect
of affective variability on emotional exhaustion in this study. In addition to this moderating
effect, we also found that positive work reflection was significantly and negatively correlated
with emotional exhaustion. Therefore, the more employees think about the positive aspects of
their jobs during leisure time, the less likely it is that they will experience emotional
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 17
exhaustion. This finding indicates that positive work reflection, as a unique construct,
functions as a fundamental basis for other job-related attitudes and perceptions.
Practical implications
Practitioners can benefit from this study in understanding the antecedents of
emotional exhaustion in hospitality organizations and finding ways to manage it more
effectively. The results suggest that affect variability was influenced by self-instability and
pessimism. Managers could use the current results in selection and hiring processes and
identify those candidates who are prone to be less emotionally variable and pessimistic and
have less self-instability. HR managers could measure applicants’ self-instability, pessimism
and affect variability in the application forms or employment tests. There are other behavioral
indicators that may be easier to observe. For example, selfish behaviors could indicate
pessimism (Salekin, 2002), and attentional difficulties could indicate self-instability (Parnas
& Sass, 2001). Affect variability could be indicated by difficulties in remembering details,
making decisions or concentrating (Wender, 1998). Managers could use those behavioral
indicators to infer the applicants’ traits. There are also other related traits that HR may
already measure, such as neuroticism (Griffith et al., 2010) and emotional intelligence (Leible
& Snell, 2004). Those indicators could help managers to detect whether the applicants are
more prone to become exhausted in the workplace and make hiring decisions.
Managers could actively use interventions to reduce emotional exhaustion and
promote well-being and psychological health for their employees. Specifically, it is suggested
that psychological interventions could be most successful in companies when these
interventions reduce variability in affective states, as opposed to only concentrating on
enhancing employees’ peak positive experiences. For instance, implementing innovative
practices such as regularly practicing on-site yoga and encouraging meditative breaks would
help employees to reduce affect variability and stress (Deshpande, 2012). Employers may
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 18
also assist employees to schedule micro-breaks to help them regulate emotions (Trougakos et
al., 2008), such as a paid 15-minute rest period for each 2-hour work period. Additional
training in deep acting and how to deal with difficult customers can also be implemented, so
that employees feel more in control and thus less likely to suffer from ups and downs
(Sawyerr, Srinivas, & Wang, 2009). Mangers could also provide supportive management or
coaching to reduce affective variability and emotional exhaustion (Gyllensten & Palmer,
2005). Although the difficulty to estimate the return on investment of such programs could
not be ignored, we suggest that it is an important step that managers should make to broaden
their role in enhancing employees’ quality of life, even though those programs may not
directly tackle hazards including work overload or lack of control (Gyllensten & Palmer,
2005). In fact, those programs are not initially difficult for organizations and implementing
these types of programs can be efficacious in the long run (see Long & Christian, 2015;
Wenk-Sormaz, 2005). In addition, Lourijsen, Houtman, Kompier, Grundemann (1999)
demonstrated that the estimated benefits exceeded costs of such emotional exhaustion
reducing interventions within a hospital context.
In addition, it is vital that positive work reflection during leisure time should be
encouraged because it not only directly reduces emotional exhaustion but also buffers the
negative effect of affect variability and may prevent emotional exhaustion before it occurs.
Managers should encourage employees to reflect about the positive side of work during
leisure time, and those efforts should especially be targeted at emotionally labile employees.
Interventions could include providing positive feedback (Battmann, 1988), rewarding
employees for important achievements and enhancing a supportive group climate (Elovainio,
Kivimaki, Eccles, & Sinervo, 2002), encouraging employees to have fun at work and
generating positive events for employees (Tews, Michel, & Allen, 2014; Tews, Michel, &
Stafford, 2013). Organizations could also updates to their employees (e.g., newsletters) that
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 19
highlight the positive aspects of the job (e.g., employee benefits or positive guest
experiences) in an effort to elicit positive reflections about their jobs. Such interventions
should also be timed to follow events of emotional upheaval among employees, such as
layoffs and crisis situations.
Limitations and future research directions
The authors acknowledge the following limitations of this study and identify some
future research directions. This research employed a cross-sectional approach. Future
research can utilize an experience sampling methodology (ESM; Hektner, Schmidt, &
Csikszentmihalyi, 2007), which permits researchers to track employees’ levels of state
emotions over time to investigate within-person processes and allows a better understanding
of the contingencies of behavior (Scollon, Prieto, & Diener, 2003). Utilizing ESM also helps
researchers to address limitations associated with retrospective methods. Future research
could also use latent growth curve modeling (Preacher, Wichman, MacCallum, & Briggs,
2008) to identify the change trajectories of employees’ emotions.
Future research could examine whether perceived instability regarding one’s
significant others (parents or close friends) cause affect variability in the individual. In
addition, our study focused on emotional exhaustion as a dependent variable. In the future,
researchers may want to extend the scope of the dependent variables and include behavioral
or physiological measures that are important in hospitality research (e.g., physical/mental
health, absenteeism) that are also likely to be affected by affect variability. Other moderators
such as psychological detachment (Sonnentag & Bayer, 2005) and respite activities during
work (Trougakos et al., 2008) that could weaken the relation between affect variability and
emotional exhaustion are also worthy of investigation.
Conclusion
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 20
The dispositional antecedents of emotional exhaustion is a topic that has not been
fully investigated in the hospitality literature. By examining the antecedents of emotional
exhaustion with a sample of frontline employees in Ecuador, we demonstrated that self-
instability and pessimism were positively associated with affect variability, which, in turn,
increased emotional exhaustion. In addition, it is demonstrated that positive work reflection
weakened the relation between affect variability and emotional exhaustion. Those findings
have implications for managing employee’s exhaustion and understanding affect with a
unique sample of frontline employees.
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 21
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TABLE 1
Descriptive statistics and correlations among variables
M SD 1 2 3 4 51. Self-instability 2.86 1.13 (.81)2. Pessimism 2.19 1.28 .61** (.81)3. Affect variability 2.73 1.16 .67** .55** (.93)4. Positive work reflection 4.61 2.08 -.02 -.07 .06 --5. Emotional exhaustion 3.02 1.37 .44* .53** .51** -.15* (.89)Note. n = 224 * p < .05; ** p < .01. The internal consistency reliability estimates are presented on the diagonal.
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 30
TABLE 2
Results for moderated mediation
Predictors Coefficien
t
t LLCI ULCIAffect variability regressed on:
Constant -2.02** -13.06 -2.33 -1.72Pessimism 0.20** 3.59 0.09 0.31Self-instability 0.55** 8.59 0.42 0.68
R2 = .69, p < .01
Emotional exhaustion regressed on:Constant 2.23** 8.49 1.72 2.75Pessimism 0.35** 4.71 0.20 0.49Affect variability (AV) 0.41** 4.73 0.24 0.58Self-instability 0.01 0.06 -0.17 0.20Positive work reflection (PWR) -0.12** -3.28 -0.18 -0.05Interaction (AV X PWR) -0.10** -3.30 -0.15 -0.04
R2 = .64, p < .01Note. n = 224 * p < .05 ** p < .01.
LLCI: 95% Lower Level Confidence Interval; ULCI: 95% Upper Level Confidence Interval.
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 31
TABLE 3A
Conditional effect of self-instability on emotional exhaustion through affect variability
for various values of positive work reflection
Mediator Positive work reflection Effect SE LLCI ULCI
Affect variability -1 SD 0.33 0.07 0.19 0.480 0.23 0.06 0.12 0.35
+1 SD 0.12 0.07 -0.01 0.24
TABLE 3B
Conditional effect of pessimism on emotional exhaustion through affect variability for
various values of positive work reflection
Mediator Positive Work Reflection Effect SE LLCI ULCI
Affect variability -1 SD 0.12 0.05 0.04 0.240 0.08 0.04 0.03 0.18
+1 SD 0.04 0.03 0.00 0.13
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 32
FIGURE 1.
Conceptual model of the antecedents of hospitality employee emotional exhaustion
Positive Work Reflection during leisure time
Employee self-instabilityEmployee pessimism
Employee emotional exhaustion
Employee affect variability
EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AMONG HOTEL EMPLOYEES 33
FIGURE 2.
The moderating role of positive work reflection
Low AV High AV2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Low PWRHigh PWR
Em
otio
nal E
xhau
stio
n
Note. AV = Affect Variability, PWR = Positive Work Reflection.
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