Ricerc@Sapienza

The present study adds novel knowledge to the literature on emotional contagion (EC), discrete
emotions, job burnout, and the management of healthcare professionals by simultaneously considering
EC as both a job demand and a job resource with multiple social pathways. Integrating
EC into the job demands?resource model, we develop and test a conceptual model wherein multiple
stakeholder sources of emotional exchanges (i.e., leaders, colleagues, patients) play a differential
role in predicting caregivers’ absorption of positive (i.e., joy) and negative (i.e., anger)
emotions, and in turn, burnout. We tested this nomological network using structural equation
modeling and invariance analyses on a sample of 252 nurses and 102 doctors from diverse
healthcare wards in three Italian hospitals. Our findings show that not all emotional exchange
sources contribute to the EC experience or likelihood of burnout. Specifically, we found that
doctors absorbed joy and anger from their colleagues but not from their leaders or patients. In
contrast, nurses absorbed joy and anger from leaders, colleagues, and patients. Surprisingly, we
found that joy?absorbed and anger?absorbed were related to doctors’ exhaustion and cynicism,
but only to nurses’ cynicism. We conclude with suggestions for advancing research and practice
in the management of emotions for preventing burnout.