LITERATURE REVIEW - Job Demands and Emotional Exhaustion in Vietnam Service Industry: The Moder

This purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of Emotional Exhaustion, Job Demands and Psychological Contract Breach based on previous research. The first section opens up general view of job burnout with the focus on Emotional Exhaustion. The second section gives definition and literature review of Job Demands, which includes Workload, Emotional Demand and Cognitive Demand. The last section is Psychological Contract Breach review. In each section the relationship among all variables will also be analyzed then stated in the form of hypotheses.

Emotional Exhaustion

Emotional Exhaustion is one of the three main dimensions of job burnout, which has become the long-term challenge to employers and worrying concern to employees in this modern world. The early concept of burnout was described in 1970s as reaction to interpersonal stressor in working (Freudenberger, 1974; Maslach, 1976). Maslach and Jackson (1984) defined job burnout as “a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who work with people in some capacity” (p.134). Specifically, first Emotional Exhaustion appears when employees overworked and used up their energy; then a negative distant attitude towards interaction at work, known as depersonalization happens. Last, workers suffer reduced personal accomplishment or the tendency to underevaluate their own achievement and feel insufficient to do their job. Initially, the Maslach -Burnout Inventory (MBI) introduced by Maslach and Jackson (1981) based on this definition. Later, the MBI- General Survey Schaufeli et al. (1996) to cover the broader prospect of job burnout, and the subdimensions changed to Emotional Exhaustion, Cynicism and Professional Efficacy.

Burnout is considered the foundation for prolonged job stress in human services industry (Freudenberger, 1974; Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001) and has detrimental impact on work outcomes. For example, past research found burnout and Emotional Exhaustion in various occupations, from social workers (Kim et al. 2011) nurses (Chen & Chen, 2018), teachers (Van Maele

& Van Houtte, 2015), human service employees (Thomas, Kohli, & Choi, 2014). The consequences of burnout were found to be decrease in job performance (Demerouti, Bakker, & Leiter, 2014), increase in job absenteeism, job dissatisfaction (Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998) and turnover intention (Gharakhani & Zaferanchi, 2019). Specifically, Peterson et al. (2011) proved that long-term sickness

(over three months) was resulted from Emotional Exhaustion. This research was conducted with over 6,000 employees in Sweden during nearly four-year period.

More concern was also raised for Emotional Exhaustion as the first symptom of burnout, and also as predictor for stress-related health problems (Ager et al., 2012; Bakker et al., 2014). Emotional Exhaustion was proved to predict increase in absenteeism because of sickness (Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998), coronary heart diseases, flu or cold (Honkonen et al., 2006; Kim et al., 2011), leading to decrease in job performance (Taris, 2006). Furthermore, past research also stated that Emotional Exhaustion has connection to depression, even from early 18^th century (McKnight & Glass, 1995) to recent study (Aloha & Hakanen, 2007; Madsen, Lange, Borritz, & Rugulies, 2015), anxiety (Besèr et al., 2014). Specifically, the research conducted by Ahola, Hakanen, Perhoniemi and Mutanen (2014) included more than 3000 dentists and observed results in seven years period showed that burnout, including Emotional Exhaustion developed together with depressive symptoms. Another research by Kim et al. (2011) was conducted in three years with social workers as data sample concluded that burnout led to health deterioration in just 12 months. Some consequences stated including headaches, mood imbalance and respiratory problems.

There are diverse opinions from past scholars about antecedents of job burnout and Emotional Exhaustion. First, Bakker and Costa (2014) stated two main causes including situational and individual reasons. Situational factors refer to the high in job demands and low in job resources.

However, there are various kinds of job demands proven to be related to burnout. Among all, role conflict, work pressure, excessive workload are most common antecedents (Lee & Ashforth, 1996;

Zohar, 1994). Moreover, poor communication, dissatifaction with manager, role ambiguity are also associated with burnout (Levinson, 1980; Pizam & Neumann, 1988). Regarding individual characteristics, over-dedicated or over-motivated employees are more susceptible to burnout (Dijkstra, van Dierendonck, Evers, & De Dreu, 2005). Alarcon, Eschleman and Bowling (2009) also concluded that “self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control, emotional stability, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, positive affectivity, negative affectivity, optimism, proactive personality, and hardiness, each yielded significant relationship with burnout” (p.244). Additionally, Ghorpade, Lackritz and Singh (2007) conducted a research about personality in relationship with burnout for 265 instructors in a public university and found out that the more extroverted and emotionally stable workers are, the lower risks of emotional exhaustion may occur. However, openness to experience is positively correlated to Emotional Exhaustion.

Meanwhile, the mediation model of burnout by Leiter and Maslach (2003) in Figure 2.1 also gives a detailed explanation about the potential causes and effects of job burnout in general and Emotional Exhaustion specifically. The main six job characteristics including workload, job control, financial rewards, community, fairness and values gained all have positive association with burnout, including Emotional Exhaustion. Consequently, the more serious burnout that employees suffer from, the more frequency of absent, together with the decrease in health, job outcomes, satisfaction and cost effectiveness in the workplace. This framework is based on vast literature review and also share the common finding with past scholars, the only difference is how they see the antecedents of burnout.

Even though each scholar sees burnout from different angles, they all made significant contribution to burnout knowledge, with detailed factors causing burnout and if this issue worsens, what results will occur.

Figure 2.1. Mediation model of Job burnout and engagement. Adapted from “Areas of worklife: A structured approach to organizational predictors of Job burnout,” by M.P. Leiter, & C. Maslach, 2003, Research in Occupational Stress and Well Being, 3(1), 91-134.

From the literature review, over the past decade, past research showed devastating consequences of job burnout and Emotional Exhaustion, regarding both physical and psychological effect, which in the end can directly threaten the quality of human resources and decide the long-term future of the organization. Additionally, the majority of research focuses on human service jobs, from only one occupations to general service positions, however all are related directly to human. However, there is still lack of reseach about burnout in Vietnam as one of the fast-developing countries in Asia, only one or two study about nurses (Nguyen et al., 2018), even though Vietnam has very large population with over 96.48 millions people (General Statistics Office, 2019) and a lot of problems about human

Worklife

resources management. Considering the great influentiality of burnout for the organizational development, especially Emotional Exhaustion as the first symptom to appear, this study will investigate Emotional Exhaustion in service industry in Vietnam in the relationship with other variables to figure out this issue in more detail and find out solutions.

Job Demands

In line with the fast pace of global development, employees nowadays have to face a lot of challenges in their jobs, especially the increase in Job Demands to adapt to changes. Job Demands is not a new topic of research as it contributes significantly to human resource development for long-term. However, this study will only focus on Job Demands in several aspects which are directly related to service industry jobs.

In the literature review of Job Demands, there are several different points of view from past scholars. Karasek (1979) considered Job Demands as part of psychological stressors, which was also agreed by Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling and Boudreau (2000), whose research proved there are mainly two types, namely challenge demand (obstacles that are stressful but can bring potential results for employees, such as the amount of work or task complexity) and hindrance demand (things that can interfere with the employees’ accomplishment, such as job insecurity or organizational constraints). Meanwhile, in the research by Bakker and Demerouti (2014), Job Demands refer to

“physical, psychological, social or organizational aspects of the job that require physical and psychological effort at a cost ” (p.38). More specficially, Job Demands is about quantitative (Workload – the amount of work required or time constraints), Cognitive Demand (the level of hardness required mentally), Emotional Demand (demands related to level of emotion or feelings in working) and physical requirements of a position (Houtman, 2005). As Vietnamese working people in service industry is the target of this study, only Workload, Cognitive Demand and Emotional Demand are Job Demands’ chacracteristics that are taken into account. The main reason is that when people do human service, they normally do not suffer from physical requirements as strictly as manufacturing or agricultural industry, instead the major challenge is about psychological effort required. Past research also supported this selection as the crucial aspects of Job Demands (Demerouti et al., 2001; Lee & Ashforth, 1996).

Relationship between Job Demands and Emotional Exhaustion

Empirical study proved that Job Demands has profound impact on job burnout, especially Emotional Exhaustion. This positive relationship was confirmed and explained clearly via the Job demand – resources model (Bakker, Demerouti, & Sanz Vergel, 2014), which is the extension of the model from Demerouti et al. (2001). This model stated Job Demands and resouces were two main aspects of work that causes Emotional Exhaustion (Figure 2.2.), and the highest chance of depleting engery occured in situations with high demands and low job resources (Demerouti et al., 2001).

Job demands – resources model as theoretical underpinning. Specifically, the higher Job Demands become, the more likely employees will be psychologically affected, leading to depression and using up their energy (Xanthopoulou et al., 2007), increasing in absenteeism (Petitta & Vecchione, 2011) and reducing their performance (Bakker, Demerouti, & Verbeke, 2004). More serious consequences involving lower commitment to the organization (Khan et al., 2014), lower well-being quality and eventually more turnover intention (Lu & Gursoy, 2016) has also been confirmed by past research. Therefore, the relationship between Job Demands and Emotional Exhaustion has provided broader angle for understanding the burnout issues in workplace.

Figure 2.2. Job demands - resources model. Adapted from “Burnout and work engagement: The JD-R approach” by A.B. Bakker, E. Demerouti, & A. Sanz Vergel, 2014, Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1, 389-411.

Relationship between Workload and Emotional Exhaustion. Additionally, there are some research focuses on how Workload results in Emotional Exhaustion. Baeriswryl, Krause, Elfering and Berset (2017) examined 462 workers in academic research firm to find out that Workload has positive impact on emotional depletion, with the mediating effect of sickness presenteeism. In other words, the higher the Workload for employees, the more chances they still have to go to work despite sickness, eventually increases the chances for Emotional Exhaustion. The demand – control theory by Karasek and Theorell (1990) also supported that when employees are overloaded with work or do not have

Job

sufficient time to conduct their work, the mismatch in Workload and job control occurs, which in turns causes stress and Emotional Exhaustion. As one of the main six job characteristics, work overload was proved to be the root cause for Emotional Exhaustion, representing the most influential factors in Job burnout (Leiter & Maslach, 2003; Maslach, 2006). Therefore, based on past literature review, this study will give a detailed view on Emotional Exhaustion in the relationship with Workload as one dimension of Job Demands. Specifically, Workload is predicted to have positive influence on Emotional Exhaustion.

Relationship between Emotional Demand and Emotional Exhaustion. Emotional Demand also took a long time to be proved as relevance to Emotional Exhaustion as the majority of empirical study focused on general Job Demands. Some scholars found the impact of Emotional Demand on mental health issues and noted these demands to be of equal importance as quantitative demand (Workload) or sometimes more crucial, especially in human-related jobs (Grynderup et al., 2012 ; Wieclaw, Agerbo, Mortensen, & Bonde, 2006). Together with conflicting roles, emotional requirement in a job has been proven as ‘most import risk factors for psychological distress in workers’

(Johannessen, Tynes, & Sterud, 2013). Moreover, via a closer look at teachers as an example of service industry people, Sutton and Wheatley (2003) also suggested that emotional aspects has profound impact on work motivation and strain (burnout). Both cross-section and longitudinal research have documented the link of Emotional Demand to increased risks of burnout and Emotional Exhaustion. These research also divese in sample target, from nurses (Freimann & Merisalu, 2015), insurance salespersons (Peng et al., 2010), teachers (Tuxford & Bradley, 2015), or human service workers (Borritz et al., 2005). Among all, the longest time research is by Borritz et al. (2005) with 952 partipants in 3 years. Emotional Demand was found to have positive correlation to Emotional Exhaustion after controlled the sociodemographic variables. However, the majority of these studies focus on only one occupation, with the exception of research conducted by Borritz et al. (2005), also there is lack of moderating or mediating effect of other factors to better understand the Emotional Exhaustion issues. Considering the effect of Emotional Demand in the past literature and relevance of Emotional Exhaustion contribution in human-related jobs, it is necessary to look into the relationship of Emotional Demand with Emotional Exhaustion in general population for service industry, as a comprehensive picture of multiple occupations but still suitable as human-related jobs application.

Importance of Cognitive Demands. However, for service industry, only a few past research investigated the effect of comprehensive Job Demands dimensions on Emotional Exhaustion and mostly lack of cognitive requirements. For instance, some few research that divided Job Demands is Tuxford and Bradley (2015) about teachers, the author found that self- efficacy, Job Demands (emotional and non-emtional) and social support all contributed to explaining Emotional Exhaustion with negative influence. Another research by Vegchel, Jonge, Soderferlt, Dormann and Schaufeli (2004) examined Job Demands including quantitative and emotional requirements in relationship with burnout. The result showed that there both types of Job Demands were positively correlated to Emotional Exhaustion, and Emotional Demand had better effect than quantitative demands in this relationship. There is actually one research by Viotti and Converso (2016) conducted among 522 nurses about Cognitive Demand as one type of Job Demands that are positvely correlated with Emotional Exhaustion, leading to intention to leave and decrease in job satisfaction. However, Job Demands in this study did not cover Emotional Demand, instead the author used disproportionate expectations, quantitative demands and Cognitive Demand. Considering that service industry is one of the most cognitively demanding jobs, and the limitation to evaluate this factor from past research, Cognitive Demand will be included as one dimension of Job Demands in this study, along with Workload and Emotional Demand.

In summary, based on the discussion in literature review part with Job demand – resources model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014) as theoretical foundation, it is proposed that all three dimensions of Job Demands (Workload, Emotional and Cognitive Demand) will be able to predict Emotional Exhaustion, thus the following hypotheses can be stated as below.

Hypothesis 1: Job Demands are positively related to Emotional Exhaustion.

Hypothesis 1a. Workload has a positive association with Emotional Exhaustion.

Hypothesis 1b. Cognitive Demand has a positive association with Emotional Exhaustion.

Hypothesis 1c. Emotional Demand has a positive association with Emotional Exhaustion.

Psychological Contract Breach

In an organization, a contract is defined as the agreement between two parties which has legal value about mutual benefits and obligations. Psychological contract serves as one type of contract for employment relationship but without legal approval (Herriot, Manning, & Kidd, 1997). According to Rousseau (1989), psychological contract is the unwritten rules and reciprocal responsibilities between employers and employees. Psychological Contract Breach occurs when employees perceive the unfairness between efforts and rewards or employer did not fulfill their promises even though employees already completed obligations (Robinson & Morrison, 2000). Pschological contract thus has for long time become the foundation for understanding the relationship between employers and employees, with lots of past study proving its significant impact on working attitude, performance and work engagement (Rousseau, 1995; Yeh, 2012; Zhang, Ren, & Li, 2019).

Even though empirical research mainly focuses on psychological contract from employee’s perspective, it is still in debate whether employer’s viewpoint should also be considered. The emphasis on both parties’ point of views was first suggested by Argyris (1960) as a method to meet each other’s needs. Other scholars including Kotter (1973) and Schein (1965) also supported this bilateral perspective, with focus on the role of employers and how the psychological contract is correlated to organizational culture. Meanwhile, Rosseau (1990), Sparrow and Hiltrop (1997) stated that psychological contract should only be viewed as what employees can achieve in return for their efforts. Recent studies including Guest and Conway (2002), Clinton and Guest (2014) pointed out the limitation of looking into only the employees’ perspective by arguing that mutual obligation should come from both parties, with an analysis review of flexible employment contracts on workers’

attitudes and behavior using psychological contract as a framework. However, as time passes by, more and more scholars followed the framework suggested by Rosseau, and in this study, this psychological contract concept is also applied to understand the characteristics of working environment, regarding the possibility of looking at both employees and employers’ perspective in future research.

The nature of psychological contract can be further explained through three main types as discovered by Rousseau (1995) and later supported by Hui, Lee and Rosseau (2004) – table 2.1. First, transactional psychological contract – the most popular type available in companies (Maguire, 2002) refers to the exchange of service from employees for monetary value from employers (Rousseau,

1995). These contracts are for limited time and clear exchange. By contrast, relational psychological contracts are more open-ended in terms and apply for long-term exchange, normally to build up relationships between the two parties. This type of contract involves both emotional attachment and financial rewards (Rousseau, 1995). Rosseau (1990) also found out that firms in service industry applied relational contracts by offering potentials to develop and promotion for long-term career path.

Last but not least, balanced psychological contracts combined the characteristics of the two above-mentioned types of contracts, with the advantage of more flexibility, thus help companies gain competitive advantage (Hui et al., 2004). This kind of contract specifically offered for long-term relationship with specified terms and become the objective of long-term human resource management practices in workplace.

Table 2.1.

Types of Psychological Contracts

Duration Specificed performance terms Not Specified performance terms

Short-term Transactional Transitional/ No guarantees

Long-term Balance Relational

Note. Adapted from “Psychological contract and organizational citizenship behavior in China:

Investigating generalizability and instrumentality” by C. Hui, C. Lee, & D. M. Rousseau, 2004, Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(2), 311-321.

Psychological Contract Breach (PCB) results when the balance principle for this contract breaks.

In particular, employees perceive the unfairness between efforts and rewards or employer did not fulfill their promises even though employees already completed obligations (Morrison & Robinson, 1997). For example, the manager promised to a new employee that he/she would get annual bonuses of at least two- month salary if completed the job successfully or get promoted in the next two years.

However, the employee in the end did not get bonus or any promotion even though he/she did the good job, leading to Psychological Contract Breach. Breach in this sense is different from violation.

Previously, Psychological Contract Breach and violation are regarded as similar concepts, but from 1997 the distinction was proved in Morrison and Robinson’s study. Specifically, violation refers to

the depression or negative emotional feeling resulted from breach, which only focuses on employees’

perception.

As a result, Psychological Contract Breach occurs more often when the organization suffers difficult time in terms of revenue or operation, or there is lack of interaction and clear instruction prior to onboarding time. Past research also shows that if employees had experienced PCB in previous job or had multiple job choices during the time they came to the current company, they are more likely to perceive PCB again (Robinson & Morrison, 2000). These two scholars also listed reneging and incongruence as two fundamental reasons of perceived PCB. Reneging occurs when the organization knows what their obligations are but consciously does not fulfill that promise. For instance, the recruiter in the interview guaranteed to one candidate that he can work flexible hours if he accepts the

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