Emotional exhaustion as a predictor of job performance and voluntary turnover.

TLDR

Recent research indicates that understanding emotional exhaustion requires new theoretical perspectives. The study used the conservation of resources model to examine emotional exhaustion over one year. A 52‑person longitudinal sample of social welfare workers was assessed for emotional exhaustion’s links to job satisfaction, turnover, and performance, controlling for positive and negative affectivity. Emotional exhaustion was unrelated to job satisfaction but predicted poorer performance and higher turnover, effects that persisted after accounting for affectivity.

Abstract

Recent research suggests that a better understanding of emotional exhaustion requires the development of new theoretical perspectives. To that end, with the conservation of resources model (COR) as the theoretical framework, the present 1-year longitudinal study was undertaken. Composed of 52 social welfare workers, this research examined the relationship of emotional exhaustion to job satisfaction, voluntary turnover, and job performance. Positive affectivity (PA) and negative affectivity (NA) were used as control variables. Whereas emotional exhaustion was unrelated to job satisfaction, it was associated with both performance and subsequent turnover. In addition, the relationship between emotional exhaustion and performance and also between emotional exhaustion and turnover remained significant above and beyond the effects of PA and NA. Future research directions and implications of the findings are introduced.