Integrating emotional contagion in the JD-R Model: joy & anger predict burnout in nurses & doctors

At the same time that emotional contagion (EC) serves important adaptive functions, it is also a key predictor of burnout in caregivers. The present study adds novel knowledge to the literature on EC, discrete emotions, burnout, and the management of healthcare professionals by simultaneously considering EC as both a job demand and a job resource that has multiple social pathways. Integrating theories of EC and emotions with the Job Demands-Resource (JD-R) Model of Burnout, we develop and test a conceptual model predicting that the absorption of joy through EC acts as a job resource that buffers caregivers from burnout whereas the absorption of anger through EC acts as a job demand that promotes burnout. By including an analysis of the different stakeholder sources of emotional exchanges, we consider the possibility that leaders, colleagues, and patients play a differential role in caregivers’ absorption through EC of positive (i.e., joy) and negative (i.e., anger) emotions. We tested this nomological network using structural equation modelling and invariance analyses on a sample of 354 nurses and doctors from a wide variety of healthcare wards in three Italian hospitals. Our findings provide theoretically and practically important evidence that not all emotional exchange sources contribute to the emotional contagion experience or likelihood of burnout. Specifically, in our sample of caregivers, we found that doctors only absorbed joy and anger from their colleagues but not from their leaders or patients. In contrast, nurses absorbed joy and anger from all three stakeholder groups. Moreover, we found an unexpected difference in the EC-burnout relationship between these job positions, with absorbed joy and anger being related to exhaustion and cynicism for doctors, but only to cynicism for nurses. We conclude with suggestions for advancing research and practice in the management of emotions for preventing job burnout.