Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of nurses' emotional labor on job satisfaction and burnout. We also investigated the moderating effect of emotional intelligence in order to understand the associations among study variables. Methods: The purposive sampling method was adopted to select two medical centers in Taiwan. In each of these, 20% of the nurses were randomly selected to receive a questionnaire. A total of 236 questionnaires were distributed, and 219 valid questionnaires (92.8%) were returned. These were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, t-tests, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation analysis, regression analysis, factor analysis and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques. Results: The results showed that emotional labor was positively correlated with both job satisfaction(r=0.769, p<0.01) and burnout(r=0.413, p<0.01); nevertheless, burnout was negatively correlated with job satisfaction(r=-0.708, p<0.01). A moderating effect of emotional intelligence was not found. Conclusions: As hypothesized, emotional labor was positively correlated with both job satisfaction and burnout; but, burnout was negatively correlated with job satisfaction. More studies are needed to investigate other factors that may affect the overall model and to clarify the role of emotional intelligence.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of nurses' emotional labor on job satisfaction and burnout. We also investigated the moderating effect of emotional intelligence in order to understand the associations among study variables. Methods: The purposive sampling method was adopted to select two medical centers in Taiwan. In each of these, 20% of the nurses were randomly selected to receive a questionnaire. A total of 236 questionnaires were distributed, and 219 valid questionnaires (92.8%) were returned. These were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, t-tests, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation analysis, regression analysis, factor analysis and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques. Results: The results showed that emotional labor was positively correlated with both job satisfaction(r=0.769, p<0.01) and burnout(r=0.413, p<0.01); nevertheless, burnout was negatively correlated with job satisfaction(r=-0.708, p<0.01). A moderating effect of emotional intelligence was not found. Conclusions: As hypothesized, emotional labor was positively correlated with both job satisfaction and burnout; but, burnout was negatively correlated with job satisfaction. More studies are needed to investigate other factors that may affect the overall model and to clarify the role of emotional intelligence.