VU Amsterdam

The impact of
emotional labor ACADEMIC SK I LL S - PERIOD 3

and workload
on stress

XUELIN ZHOU – 2664694

1 EL BAROUDI
TEACHER: SABRINE
 Introduction
How come that some employees burn out and others are so motivated to work? During the
past five decades this question has received a great amount of research attention (Bakker &
Demerouti, 2014). Especially the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rise in stress, fear, anxiety
and depression among the population (Rodríguez-Hidalgo et al., 2020). The COVID-19
pandemic has affected our lives greatly. Many of us are faced with challenges that can be
overwhelming, stressful, and can cause strong emotions in children and adults, such as
working from home (COVID-19 and Your Health, 2020). Thus, stress is a important topic
these days. Hans Selye (1956), a pioneer of stress research, proposed the first and most
generic definition of stress, namely “stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any
demand".
Many studies have explored the causes and effects of stress. To start with a
longitudinal study by Pearlin et al. (2016) which observed how life events, self-concepts,
chronic life strains, coping, and social supports coordinate to form a process of stress. This
study used the combination of three major conceptual domains, namely the sources of stress,
the mediators of stress, and the manifestations of stress, as the process of social stress.
Another study, conducted by Dhabhar (2014), investigated the good and the bad effects of
stress on immune function. Finally, a study by Michie (2002) looked at the interaction
between the individual and the situation at work when examining stress. Given these points,
prior studies of stress have shown that stress has been conducted within different fields.
However, this has not been done under the conditions of COVID-19.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of job demands on stress, and in
particular the impact of emotional labor and workload on stress. We investigate this with the
following research question: what is the impact of emotional labor and workload on stress? by
using the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model to examine the relationship between the
three theoretical constructs. In the following sections, we provide the theoretical background
of the Job Demands-Resources model. We begin with an introduction of the JD-R model,
followed by a discussion of the model and the corresponding theoretical constructs.
Subsequently, we present two hypotheses which we support with several empirical studies.
Furthermore, we provide a research model of the relationships between the theoretical
constructs.

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 Literature review
We introduce the Job Demands-Resources model by Demerouti et al. (2001) and Bakker &
Demerouti (2007) which is used to predict employee burnout and engagement. In this respect,
job design theory has played an important role. Job design scholars tried to figure out which
job characteristics satisfy people and motivate them to achieve organizational goals. In that
sense, this model can be used as a tool for human resources management.
Bakker & Demerouti (2007) describe the Job Demands-Resources theory which
assumes that whereas every occupation comes with its own causes of employee well-being,
these factors can be classified in two general categories, namely job demands and job
resources. Job demands are referred to those physical, social, psychological, or organizational
aspects of the job. Such aspects are high work pressure, poor environmental conditions, and
emotionally demanding interactions with clients which demand sustained physical and/or
psychological skills or effort. Therefore they are associated with certain physiological and/or
psychological costs. Physical, social, psychological, or organizational aspects of the job that
are either/or (a) functional in achieving work goals; (b) diminish job demands and the
associated psychological and physiological costs; (c) stimulate personal growth, learning and
development, are addressed as job resources. Thus, job demands are in general the most
important predictors of outcomes such as exhaustion, health complaints and repeating strain
injury (Bakker et al., 2003), whereas job resources are generally the most important predictors
of motivation, work enjoyment and engagement (Bakker et al., 2007, 2010). More simply, job
demands cost effort and consume energetic resources in contrast to job resources which fulfill
basic psychological needs. Examples are social support, autonomy and performance feedback
(Bakker, 2011).
A premise of the Job Demands-Resources model is that job demands and job resources
initiate two different underlying psychological processes which play a role in the development
of job strain and motivation. Health impairment is the first process, which suggests that high
(chronic) job demands or poorly designed jobs, such as work overload and emotional
demands, drain mental and physical resources of employees. For that reason they may cause
exhaustion of energy and health problems (e.g. general health and repeating strain injury)
(Bakker et al., 2003; Demerouti et al., 2000, 2001). The second process is motivational in
nature. Job resources, as follows from the definition, may play either an intrinsic motivational
role because they promote the growth, learning and development of employees, or they may
play an extrinsic motivational role because they are favorable in accomplishing work goals.
As previously mentioned, job resources fulfill psychological needs. Proper feedback, for
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instance, promotes learning. Altogether, this process assumes that job resources have
motivational potential and lead to high work engagement, excellent performance and low
cynicism.
To sum up, the JD-R model assumes that, irrespective of the type of occupation,
burnout develops when job demands are high and job resources are limited because working
conditions like this lead to energy exhaustion and respectively undermine employees’
motivation (Demerouti et al., 2001).

According to the JD-R model there is a positive relationship between job demand and stress.
Girdano et al. (1993) state that “stress is the body reacting. It is psychophysiological (mind-
body) arousal that can fatigue body systems to the point of malfunction and disease.” (p. 7).
Hence, popular and scientific definitions identify ‘stress’ as a process of the interaction
between internal and external stimuli, where triggers activate a response system that may
cause exhaustion and vulnerability (Wheaton, 1996). An example of job demands is
emotional labor. The term emotional labor is conceived by Hochschild (1983) and is defined
as those jobs that (a) require face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact with the public; (b) require
the workers to produce an emotional state in another person; and (c) allow the employer to
exert a degree of control over the emotional activities of frontline employees. Due to high
expectations of customers for instance, the emotional labor expected form frontline
employees is intense, and therefore emotional labor is considered as a job demand.
We can then assume that there is a positive relationship between emotional labor and
stress. This theoretical claim is supported by empirical research. First, a study conducted by
Jung & Yoon (2014) examined the stress of employees created through emotional labor and
the experience of emotional dissonance in a job context. This study is based on the data
collected from front employees in family-style restaurants in Korea. The results showed that
employees’ emotional labor has a positive effect on job stress. Another study, conducted by
Karimi et al. (2013), investigated the relationships among emotional labor, emotional
intelligence, and their interaction effects on the level of well-being and job stress of
Australian community nurses. Also this study showed that high levels of emotional labor lead
to higher levels of job-stress, and thus that there is a positive relationship between the two
constructs. Lastly, a study on employees of a mid-sized public university in the United States
by Pugliesi (1999) examined the effects of emotional labor on work stress, job satisfaction,
and well-being. The results of this study as well showed that emotional labor increases job
stress. Based on this theoretical and empirical evidence, the first hypothesis is as follows:

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Hypothesis 1: Emotional labor has a positive effect on stress.

Another example of job demand is workload. Over the past few decades within the domain of
ergonomics or human factors (HF) psychology the ‘mental workload’ construct or more
simply ‘workload’ had been developed (see Gopher & Donchin, 1986; Hancock & Desmond,
2001; Hancock & Meshkati, 1988; Huey & Wickens, 1993; Moray, 1979 & 1988; Tsang &
Wilson, 1997; Wickens & Hollands, 2000; Xie & Salvendy, 2000). Hancock & Meshkati
(1988) define workload as “the cost incurred by a human operator to achieve a particular level
of performance” (p. 140). Therefore, we can conclude that workload is job demanding.
As mentioned earlier, the JD-R model suggests that there is a positive relationship
between job demands and stress, and thus there is a positive relationship between workload
and stress. Consequently, workload is considered a job demand which gives reason to suggest
that workload has a positive relationship with stress. This theoretical claim is supported by
empirical research. Firstly, the effects of workload on stress and performance was conducted
through a work simulation by Glaser et al. (1999). In this simulated work environment,
employees were hired to work ten days. Results of this study showed that there is a significant
positive relationship between workload and stress. Secondly, a study conducted by Boyd &
Wylie (1994) examined the workload of academic, general, support, library, and technical
staff of New Zealand. The focus of this study was on different levels of workload, changes in
workload levels, relationships between workload and stress, and staff attitudes towards the
effects of the changing workload. Results showed that the major impacts of workload changes
were more stress and more pressure. Lastly, a study on Ghanaian outpatient department nurses
by Kokoroko & Sanda (2019) investigated the effect of workload on job stress. Also this
study supported the significant positive relationship between workload and stress. We propose
the second hypothesis based on this empirical evidence:
Hypothesis 2: Workload has a positive effect on stress.

Figure 1. Research model.

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