Responses to emotional exhaustion: do worker cooperatives matter?
| Pages | 438-453 |
| Date | 04 March 2019 |
| Published date | 04 March 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-08-2017-0253 |
| Author | Rhokeun Park |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Responses to emotional
exhaustion: do worker
cooperatives matter?
Rhokeun Park
College of Business, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Korea
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of organizational identification in
the relationship between emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. It also examines the moderating roles
of worker cooperatives in the relationships of emotional exhaustion with organizational identification and
turnover intention.
Design/methodology/approach –Surveys of worker cooperatives and capitalist firms in the Seoul
metropolitan area were conducted in 2016. The hypotheses of this study were tested through multilevel
moderated mediation analyses.
Findings –This study revealed that organizational identification partially mediated the relationship
between emotional exhaustion and turnover intention. The findings of the study provided evidence that
worker cooperatives alleviated the adverse relationships of emotional exhaustion with organizational
identification and turnover intention.
Research limitations/implications –Since it was conducted with a cross-sectional data set, this study is
not free from the issue of causality. However, the findings provide insights into how emotional exhaustion
may be associated with organizational identification and turnover intention, and how worker cooperatives
may alter these relationships.
Practical implications –Capitalist firms should provide their employees with more autonomy and more
opportunities to participate in organizational decision-making, as in worker cooperatives, to induce their
employees to hold more positive attitudes.
Originality/value –There is no extant research on the mechanism through which emotional exhaustion is
associated with turnover intention via organizational identification, and on the moderating roles of worker
cooperatives in this mechanism.
Keywords Burnout, Organizational identification, Turnover intention, Worker cooperatives,
Psychological contract
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Burnout constitutes an increasing problem for modern organizations since it has an adverse
influence on organizations, as well as employee health and well-being (Cropanzano et al.,
2003). When employees are burned out, they may be discontent and less identified with their
organization, and thus have the intention to leave the organization in order to escape the
unpleasant working conditions. A majority of previous studies (e.g. Cropanzano et al., 2003;
Maslach et al., 2001) argued that burnout is an antecedent of a variety of outcomes, such as
job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention and productivity. On the
other hand, some studies (e.g. Avanzi et al., 2015; Das et al., 2008; Wegge et al., 2006) asserted
that burnout is a consequence of organizational identification, which has a close relationship
with organizational commitment (Ashforth and Mael, 1989). Thus, it is necessary to examine
the relationship between burnout and organizational identification in more detail.
In Maslach’s(1982) model, burnout consistsof emotional exhaustion, cynicismand reduced
efficacy. Emotional exhaustion refers to chronic feelings of physical and emotional depletion.
Cynicism or depersonalization refers to interpersonal callousness and detachment. Finally,
reduced efficacy or accomplishment refers to a negative self-evaluation or feelings of
Personnel Review
Vol. 48 No. 2, 2019
pp. 438-453
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-08-2017-0253
Received 29 August 2017
Revised 1 March 2018
11 May 2018
Accepted 4 June 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
This work was supported by Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund.
438
PR
48,2
incompetence (Cropanzano et al., 2003; Maslach et al., 2001). The current study focuses on
emotional exhaustion because it constitutes the central quality of burnout and has been
examined as the keycomponent of burnout (Babakus et al., 2009;Maslach and Jackson, 1981;
Maslach et al., 2001). For the present study, a meta-analysis by Lee and Ashforth (1996)
indicated that turnover intention was most strongly associated with emotional exhaustion
among the three d imensions.
As employees are emotionally exhausted, they may perceive that a psychological
contract with the organization has been breached (Zhao et al., 2007). Due to this perception,
employees are less willing to identify with their organization, and are more willing to leave
it. Thus, this study investigates the mediating role of organizational identification in the
relationship between emotional exhaustion and turnover intention.
Although emotional exhaustion may have detrimental relationships with organizational
identification and turnover intention, those relationships may depend on organizational context.
To date, however, little extant research focuses on the interaction of emotional exhaustion
and organizational contexts. Given the importance of organizational contexts in the OB and
HRM fields, this issue requires further investigation. This study pays attention to worker
cooperatives as such an organizational context because members of worker cooperatives own
and control the enterprises in common, and thus may perceive emotional exhaustion differently
and hold different attitudes from employees of capitalist firms.
In South Korea, where this study was conducted, the number of worker cooperatives has
rapidly increased since the Cooperative Basic Act was enacted in 2012. This act embraces social
cooperatives and general cooperatives, such as consumer cooperatives, producer cooperatives
and worker cooperatives. Prior to this act, cooperatives had been established under a jurisdiction
of the government only in some industries, such as agriculture, fishing and forestry. By being
recognized as a legal entity by this act, various types of cooperatives can be established. This act
stipulates that a cooperative must be established by at least five persons, and important
decisions are made by the one person-one vote rule as in cooperatives of other countries.
As indicated in Figure 1, this study aims to elucidate the mediation mechanism in the
relationship between emotional exhaustion and turnover intention through organizational
identification. Furthermore, the study examines the moderating roles of worker cooperatives
in the relationships of emotional exhaustion with organizational identification and turnover
intention.Thus, this study contributes to the extantliterature on how emotional exhaustionis
associated with organizational identification and turnover intention, and how worker
cooperativesmay amend the relationships that have beenrevealed in the OB and HRM fields.
Theory and hypotheses
Organizational identification as a mediator
In a psychological contract relationship, the organization is expected to treat employees
fairly and provide them with acceptable working conditions, and the employees are
expected to exhibit good attitudes and beneficial behaviors toward the organization
(Hekman et al., 2009; Morrison and Robinson, 1997). A psychological contract refers to
“an individual’s beliefs about the terms and conditions of reciprocal exchange agreement
Level 2:
Identification
Level 1:
Worker Cooperative
Exhaustion Turnover Intention
Figure 1.
A conceptual model
for the hypotheses
439
Responses to
emotional
exhaustion
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