Do Personality and Gender Mitigate the Adverse Effects of Emotional Labor? Empirical Evidence From Healthcare During Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Purpose: The impact of emotional labor on organizational outcomes is contingent upon numerous factors. Moreover, after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, the implications of emotional labour practices, especially among physicians, have become more uncertain. This study aims to address these notions by examining the multigroup moderating effect of social and enterprising personalities and gender on a model of emotional labour. The aim is to determine whether emotional labour affects emotional exhaustion and well-being varies across these groups.
 Methodology: Serial mediation and multigroup moderation methods were employed to test the proposed hypotheses. Data was collected from 400 physicians across Pakistan. Snowball sampling method was adopted for data collection. Structural equation modelling, including serial mediation and multigroup moderation techniques were employed for data analysis.
 Main Findings: Physicians with highly social personalities and low enterprising personalities are more likely to experience detrimental effects of surface acting. Genuine emotions improve well-being for high social and enterprising as well as low enterprising personality physicians. No across-group differences exist for deep acting. For gender, females are found to be more susceptible to negative repercussions of emotional labor than their male counterparts. Positive effect of genuine emotions remains somewhat the same for both.
 Implications/Applications: This study assists healthcare organizations in making the right choices during the recruitment and selection process to choose the most suitable candidates for tasks involving emotional labor, i.e., ones whose personality and gender attributes are aligned with the affective or emotional component of work. This would aid in ensuring doctors’ high psychological and physical well-being at work.
 Novelty/Originality of this study: This research proposes a model of emotional labour strategies and their effects on physicians' emotional exhaustion and well-being. Multigroup moderating effects of two personality types, i.e., social and enterprising, and gender, are investigated with respect to the proposed model to see if there lie any differences between physicians belonging to various personality or gender groups.

Physician challenges and supports during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed methods study

“…For example, several studies investigating the effectiveness of interventions on reducing burnout have explored the relationship between personality and burnout ( 7 ). More specifically, previous studies have found that the personality trait of neuroticism is linked to an increased risk of burnout, whereas emotional stability is linked to better implementation of coping strategies and ultimately better well-being ( 6 , 8 – 10 ). Ultimately, when designing and evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to reduce physician burnout, researchers and practitioners alike should take into consideration the factors mentioned above to ensure greater precision around intervention effectiveness for various groups of physicians ( 7 ).…”

Exploring the Pathways of COVID-19 Fear Leading to Depression and Anxiety in Public Sector Workers: The Mediating Effect of Emotional Labor

“…있었다[2][7][8][14][15][16][17]. 코로나19 대유행 시기 근로자가 감정노동을 수행하면 정서적 긴장과 피로가 급증하여 소진 및 탈진이 초래될 가능성이 높았다[7][14]. 코로나19 대유행은 근로자에게 정서적 사건으로써 두려움과 불안으로 작용했고 감정노동에 대해 보다 부적응적인 행동전략을 채택하게 하였다[2][15-17].…”