Supervisory Emotional Support and Burnout: An Explanation of Reverse Buffering Effects

The current operating and economic conditions for organizations have had a substantial impact on employees' work demands and obligations. Businesses are increasingly pressured to make rapid changes to their workforce as the trends toward restructuring and downsizing continue to be an integral part of the economic and employment landscape (Coffey et al., 1994; Hitt, 1998). In some instances, staff reductions created through restructuring and downsizing have resulted in "lean and mean" organizations, which may lead to increased work expectations and longer working hours on the part of the surviving employees (Moskal, 1992). Corresponding with all of these changes, researchers and practitioners have attempted to uncover job and organizational factors that contribute to the employee burnout process (see Cordes and Dougherty, 1993; Kahn and Byosiere, 1992). Over the last two decades, most of the research focus has been on investigating the relationships between specific demands or stressors of the job and adversi ve employee outcomes or strains (for example, burnout), with subsequent consequences for the organization (job dissatisfaction, poor in-role job performance, and intentions to quit). Moreover, research has also focused on those factors that may alleviate the adversive effects of some of these job stressors. Theoretically, at the heart of this study is the relationship between stressors and strains as described by Beehr (1995) in his model illustrative of the occupational stress research program. Work environment stressors, such as role conflict and time pressure, are characteristics of the work that may adversely affect an individual (cause human strains). Burnout is an example of a psychological strain (Beehr et al., 1990; Gaines and Jermier, 1983). Although most researchers agree that burnout is composed of three factors (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment; Cordes and Dougherty, 1993), several authors see the emotional exhaustion component as the main factor (Beehr et al., 1990; Gaines and Jermier, 1983; Maslach, 1982). Emotional exhaustion is a feeling of being emotionally depleted and exhausted by one's work (Maslach and Jackson, 1981). As such, emotional exhaustion might be seen as a rather extreme result of chronic emotional stress (Maslach and Jackson, 1986). Man y researchers (for example, Burke and Greenglass, 1995; Lee and Ashforth, 1993; Wright and Bonett, 1997) have not only argued that emotional exhaustion plays a salient role in the burnout process, but have found emotional exhaustion to be a strong predictor of job and life satisfaction, subsequent job performance, absenteeism, commitment, and turnover intentions. One factor which may alleviate the effects of job stress is the amount of supervisory support an employee receives during stressful events and occurrences (see House, 1981; Kasl and Wells, 1985). That is, once employee stress is recognized and noticed, supervisors can provide the individual employee with both emotional and instrumental support that serves to buffer or reduce the effects that job stressors can have on job-related attitudes and outcomes. Thus, the association that exists between these stressors and adverse employee behaviors is moderated by the employee's perception of supervisory support, both emotional and instrumental, given to him/her through daily interactions in the work environment. Emotional support is often characterized by actively listening and caring about the needs of an employee, whereas instrumental support is often characterized by the behaviors of giving tangible assistance and expertise in completing a job responsibility or task (Kaufmann and Beehr, 1986). However, as asserted by Fenlason and Beehr (1994), the debate over the buffering effects of these types of support has yet to be settled. Across many studies, the results have been inconsistent in investigating the function of support as a buffer between job stressors and burnout. …