Effects of Teacher Personalities on Emotional Exhaustion: Mediating Role of Emotional Labor

One of the most indispensable and important elements of education is teachers whose personality closely affects training and education. In this context, this study examined the effects of teachers personality traits on their emotional exhaustion in a mediating model which centers around emotional labor. Data were obtained from 798 teachers working in primary and high schools in Ankara and Eskisehir. According to the findings of hierarchical regression analysis, neuroticism and extraversion were found to significantly affect emotional exhaustion whereas other dimensions of personality were not found to be predictive of emotional exhaustion. In general, personality traits were found to predict emotional labor and all dimensions of emotional labor were found to affect emotional exhaustion. Further, findings of mediation analysis showed that surface acting was the only mediator in the relation between neuroticism and emotional exhaustion.