Emotional Labor and Emotional Exhaustion in Emergency Medical Service Employees, Pakistan

Abstract

The work of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is stressful and drains them emotionally. This research investigates the impact of Emotional Labor Strategies i.e. Surface Acting, Deep Acting and Authenticity or Expression of Naturally Felt-emotions on Emotional Exhaustion of EMS employees in Pakistan. By nature this study is quantitative, and 110 employees (Emergency Medical Technicians) of Punjab Emergency Service Rescue 1122 participated in the data collection process. Primary data was collected through questionnaire. Data was further analyzed by descriptive statistic, correlation and linear regression. Results illustrate that EMS professionals are mostly engaged in deep acting and authenticity or expression of naturally-felt emotions than surface acting. Linear regressions were run to investigate the impact of each emotional labor strategy i.e. Surface acting, deep acting and authenticity or ENFE on Emotional Exhaustion. Results reveal that surface acting has positive impact on emotional exhaustion while deep acting and authenticity or ENFE have negative association with emotional exhaustion. This study adds to the extant literature by giving empirical insight into the relationship between emotional labor strategies and emotional exhaustion. It provides guidance to Emergency Medical Service’s (EMS) as how to familiarize and employ the effective emotion’s coping strategies.