Direct and indirect effects of Effort Reward Imbalance in the educational sector: The roles of emotional labor and work autonomy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3917/grhu.132.0060Keywords:
Effort Reward Imbalance, Emotional Labor, Deep acting, Surface acting, Emotional Consonance, Work Autonomy, Burnout, Organizational Commitment, TeachersAbstract
The present study examined emotional labor and its sub-dimensions as mediators, and work autonomy as a moderator of the relationship between Effort Reward Imbalance (ERI) and work outcomes (burnout and organizational commitment). Survey data were collected in two distinct studies from 137 and 191 Tunisian teachers. The hypotheses derived from the ERI and the emotional labor theories. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that emotional labor mediated the positive relationship between ERI and burnout but not between ERI and organizational commitment. This unexpected result was explained in study 2 which showed that only deep acting mediated this positive relationship. Surface acting mediated the positive relationship between ERI and burnout while emotional consonance mediated the positive relationship between ERI and burnout and the negative relationship between ERI and organizational commitment. Work autonomy moderated the negative relationship between ERI and burnout. Theoretical and practical implications of the differential mediating effects of emotional labor dimensions and of the moderating effect of work autonomy are discussed.
