How the Paradoxical Treatment of Asian Americans as Model Minorities and Perpetual Foreigners Shape Their Burnout Experiences in Local Government

How Self-Determination Moderates Burnout in Public Organizations Across Gender, Race, and Generation

“…One possible explanation is that women have learned to use interpersonal distancing as a mechanism for dealing with gendered mistreatment from residents. Research has shown that women are more likely than men to receive harsh treatment, sexist comments, and a general lack of respect in their interactions with the public; and depersonalizing those interactions through emotional labor may be an adaptive coping mechanism (Guy et al, 2008; Healy et al, 2011; Le & Barboza-Wilkes, 2022; Meier et al, 2006).…”

“…These additional differences in relational job design and ambition would help to capture variations in job experiences, resources, and demands that moderate burnout. In addition, this study is unable to account and control for external differences that could potentially influence burnout experiences within the organization, such as experiences with discrimination and collective trauma outside of work exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., anti-Asian violence; Le & Barboza-Wilkes, 2022). This limitation is less of a concern, however, as this study is able to capture group-specific forms of discrimination and trauma by controlling for social identities (e.g., race/ethnicity).…”

“…In general, burnout leads to adverse outcomes for employees, including reduced well-being and risk of resignation, which consequently impact the organization’s functionality (Linos et al, 2022). Within public sector contexts, research (e.g., Barboza-Wilkes et al, 2023; Le & Barboza-Wilkes, 2022; Linos et al, 2022) on burnout explores similar relationships among emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and loss of personal accomplishment but focuses on additional drivers specific to public service, such as prosocial motivation and experiences engaging directly with residents through public service provisions. The detrimental consequences of a public workforce experiencing burnout are well documented (Linos et al, 2022), including disruptions to public services and threats to representative bureaucracy, but less work has been done to identify ways to address and reduce burnout in the public sector.…”

“…This is particularly true of service work in organizations that adopt a philosophy of “the customer is always right” or “service with a smile,” leading employees to endure taxing and verbally abusive encounters with little recourse to assert emotional boundaries. Emotional labor is defined as the process of manipulating the expression or experience of emotions to meet the expectations of the organization, and is linked to burnout through the experiences of dissonance or inauthentic emotion regulation (Davis et al, 2022; Grandey et al, 2013; Le & Barboza-Wilkes, 2022). Taxing encounters with residents result in emotional labor that contributes to burnout in the form of emotional exhaustion (Le & Barboza-Wilkes, 2022).…”

“…Emotional labor is defined as the process of manipulating the expression or experience of emotions to meet the expectations of the organization, and is linked to burnout through the experiences of dissonance or inauthentic emotion regulation (Davis et al, 2022; Grandey et al, 2013; Le & Barboza-Wilkes, 2022). Taxing encounters with residents result in emotional labor that contributes to burnout in the form of emotional exhaustion (Le & Barboza-Wilkes, 2022). Alternatively, the relational job design literature suggests that frequent contact with beneficiaries (e.g., residents) could increase employees’ affective commitment to residents and their perceptions of the impact of their work (Grant, 2007), suggesting an increase in their sense of personal connection with residents and personal accomplishment.…”