Emotional dissonance and burnout among cabin attendants

Abstract

This study used a sample of 220 cabin attendants to test the hypothesis that emotional dissonance is an essential predictor of human service burnout. We hypothesized that, in addition to the "classical" variables in Karasek's (1979, 1998) demands-control model, emotional dissonance would make an independent contribution to explaining variance in burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion and depersonalization). The findings of a series of SEM-analyses supported this hypothesis. Moreover, emotional dissonance was a more important predictor of burnout among cabin attendants than quantitative job demands and job control. In addition, consistent with Leiter's (1993) model, emotional exhaustion was found to play an important mediating role between work characteristics and depersonalization. No support was found for the predicted interaction between job demands and job control and between these two variables and emotional dissonance. Finally, results of exploratory qualitative analyses point to the importance of understanding emotion work as a dynamic process that is actively regulated by the human service worker on the basis of interaction, reciprocity, and learning. I acted as if the whole world was my best friend, because that is the concept that one is slowly being fitted into. In fact, one is learned to love everybody. You love your colleagues, the purser, the pilots and especially the passengers. You love the whole world and actually you don't make any differentiation in that. In reality, however, you completely run down on energy. (Anonymous cabin attendant)