Emotional labour and work engagement among nurses: examining perceived compassion, leadership and work ethic as stress buffers

Aim. The study examined whether three resources, that is, compassion, transformational leadership and work ethic feasibility, buffer against the negative effects of emotional labour on work engagement. Background. Emotional labour is a common job stressor among nurses, but little is known about whether certain personal and work resources buffer against it in relation to work engagement. Revealing buffers of emotional labour would help organizations to design tailored interventions. Design. Cross-sectional online survey conducted in 2014. Methods. Participants were 3466 Finnish nurses. Hypotheses were tested via hierarchical moderated regression analyses. Results. Higher emotional labour related to lower engagement. Two interaction effects were found. First, work ethic feasibility buffered against emotional labour: the nurses who perceived work ethic feasibility as high in a situation of high emotional labour, scored higher on engagement compared with those nurses who in this stress situation perceived work ethic feasibility to be low. Second, high compassion was detrimental to engagement in the presence of high emotional labour. Transformational leadership did not act as a buffer but showed a positive relationship with engagement. Conclusion. Work ethic feasibility (being able to work according to high ethical standards) is an important resource in nursing as it protects an employee against the negative effects of emotional labour and as it also directly promotes engagement. However, compassion may not always be beneficial in nursing, especially if co-occurring with high job stress. Transformational leadership has potential to improve engagement in nursing although it may not operate as a stress buffer.