The influence of organizational respect on emotional exhaustion in the human services

Abstract

The influence of organizational respect on emotional exhaustion was examined in a longitudinal field study in the human services industry. Of a sample of 108 Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) working in a long-term health care facility for the elderly, those CNAs who reported greater organizational respect at Time 1 experienced less emotional exhaustion 16 months later (Time 2). Through a longitudinal field experiment, we also examined the outcomes of an organizational change intended to increase organizational respect for the facility's employees. As predicted, CNAs on units undergoing organizational change experienced a decrease in emotional exhaustion from Time 1 to Time 2 compared to CNAs on the control units, and this effect was partially mediated by the degree of organizational respect reported by the employees. CNA's satisfaction with the change was also related to a decrease in emotional exhaustion, and this effect was completely mediated by the degree of reported organizational respect.