Empathy and Burnout in Human Service Work

Abstract

Burnout is an often-cited danger of human service work, and emotional communication is one of the most important causes of burnout in such jobs. In this paper, we review theoretical work on emotional communication and burnout, concentrating on the Empathic Communication Model of Burnout (Miller, Stiff, & Ellis, 1988). We then argue that a consideration of job involvement, organizational role, and attitude regarding service recipients could enhance the extent to which this model constitutes a complete understanding of the burnout process. We pose several research questions and one hypothesis regarding the role of these variables in affecting the fit of the Empathic Communication Model and test them with a sample of workers who provide services to the homeless. The results of our research provide support for a modified version of the Empathic Communication Model and suggest that the moderating variables of job involvement, organizational role, and attitude about service recipients influence the impact of various portions of the model in explaining burnout.