Master s thesis. Marcin Dokutowicz BSc ANR MSc Social Psychology. Work and Organizational Psychology. School of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Transcription

1 1 The relationship between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion the role of psychological resilience and perceived organizational support among employees of Polish prison services. Master s thesis Marcin Dokutowicz BSc ANR MSc Social Psychology Work and Organizational Psychology School of Social and Behavioral Sciences Tilburg University First supervisor: MRs. Dr. Marieke van den Tooren Second supervisor: MRs. Dr. Yvette Straznicky Van Osch

2 2 Abstract Throughout the years, several models were developed that explored mechanism underlying stress in a workplace. Among many findings, research has identified that an increase of job demands is associated with negative job outcomes (e.g. burnout). Based on theoretical assumptions underlying the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation (DISC) model, this study attempts to determine, whether psychological resilience (a personal resource) and perceived organizational support (POS) (an organizational resource) could potentially act as a moderators of the relationship between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion in the context of work in the Polish prison services (SW). It is expected that a strong positive relationship will exist between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion (Hypothesis1). Psychological resilience will moderate that relationship in a way that as resilience increases the effect of the emotional job demands on emotional exhaustion will decrease (Hypothesis 2). POS will moderate that relationship, in a way that as POS increases the effect of emotional job demands on emotional exhaustion will decrease (Hypothesis 3). Cross-sectional survey data were collected from the staff of the eight prisons located under jurisdiction of OISW Katowice in Poland. 271 people filled out the questionnaire (response rate =.89). The data were analyzed with a use of hierarchical regression. A positive association between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion was found supporting hypothesis 1. The stress buffer interaction of the resilience and perceived organizational support however were found to be insignificant. Findings and limitations are discussed. Several theoretical and practical concerns are presented along with recommendations for future research.

3 3 Key words: Emotional job demands, emotional exhaustion, perceived organizational support, resilience, personal resources, organizational resources, stress buffer effect.

4 4 Acknowledgements I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to MRs. Dr. Marieke Van Den Tooren, for the support and supervision throughout the process of developing this Master thesis project. Your expertise, as well as encouragement majorly contributed towards the final product of my MSc degree. This project also would not be completed without a support from the Polish Prison Services, and here I would like to express my special thanks to ppor. mgr Andrzej Bednarz, ppor. mgr Jan Joachim, por. mgr Artur Piszczek, por. mgr Robert Piorun, ppor. mgr Agata Urbanowicz- Murzynowska, plk. mgr Miroslaw Gawron, mjr. Miroslaw Wieclaw, and the Regional Inspectorate of Prison Services in Katowice for substantive and logistic support. Finally there were also a few special people whose contribution cannot go unnoticed. Mum and Dad, thank you for your faith and investing your resources to facilitate my growth. To my grandparents and Magdalena Baran, for hospitality and help with the data input. At last but not the least, I would like to thank to two dear friends of mine Cana Karaduman and Oscar Smallenbroek I don t know if you guys will ever get cited, but the amount of the support and warmth I have received from you this year definitely earns you a special place on this acknowledgement page. Thank you, Marcin Dokutowicz

5 5 Table of content Abstract... 2 Acknowledgements... 4 Table of content... 5 Introduction... 6 Development of the Demand Induced Stress Compensation Model... 8 The relationship between emotional demands and emotional exhaustion The moderating role of resilience The moderating role of perceived organizational support The context of Polish Prison Services (SW) Method Participants Procedure Materials Emotional job demands Emotional exhaustion Resilience Perceived organizational support Statistical Analyses Results Correlation analyses Regression analyses Discussion Summary and interpretation Limitations and future research Theoretical implications Practical implications Conclusion References Appendix Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D Appendix E Appendix F Appendix G... 58

6 6 Introduction Most of life s a shambles, Work is but a joke, constantly I m pushing, time goes up in smoke. Got the burnout blues, so I just sit and stare, feel too many stressors, and no one seems to care (Paine, 1982, pp. 9-10) Although these two verses of Paine ballad have not gain popularity among literary circles, they have highlighted job stress and burnout as issues, which persist to be one of the central themes of the industrial and organizational psychology. Over the years, researchers have proposed several ways in which personal and environmental factors contribute to individual health and well-being; most commonly in a form of conceptual models, that help to portray how specific variables may be influencing one another. With a use of these models, psychological research successfully identified some of the aspects of the workplace environment, which are directly impacting employees health, functioning and performance. Among many findings, the most well documented one is the relationship between the job demands and negative job outcomes (e.g. emotional exhaustion, limb problems or memory functioning to name a few). Job demands can be broadly conceptualized as the aspects of a job that require effort (van den Tooren, de Jonge, & Dormann, 2008). In the context of human service jobs the most predominant type of demands faced by the employees are emotional demands (Grandey 2003; Maslach & Jackson, 1981), and as the service sector continues to expand worldwide, so does the likelihood of experiencing negative outcomes associated with those demands. One of the most frequently reported consequences of emotionally taxing jobs is burnout, which has been described as chronic occupational stress characterized by feelings of emotional exhaustion, cynical attitudes towards clients and dissatisfaction with ones accomplishments (Maslach & Jackson, 1981). While many would argue, that negative job outcomes could be reduced by

7 7 manipulating job demands, frequently job demands cannot be reduced as they are a part of the job itself. As the growth of the job demands appears to be exponential, researchers focused on the role of job resources, which are a work related assets (e.g. emotional support from colleagues, job autonomy, stationary equipment) that can be used to address job demands. The moderating role of the job resources is frequently referred to as a stress buffer effect (de Jonge & Dormann, 2003), which suggests that people who face high job demands, will experience fewer negative job outcomes only when they have a sufficient amount of resources to cope with these demands (van den Tooren & de Jonge, 2011) (Figure 1.1). A stress buffering effect could be best portrayed with an example of a manual labor. A worker who has to frequently moves heavy objects (a job demand) could be reduced by providing him with appropriate lifting device (a job resource), and thus he will be less likely to experience negative job outcomes (e.g. back pain, physical exhaustion). Figure 1.1: The stress buffer effect

8 8 Although, a notion that job resources could counteract and protect employees from negative job outcomes inflicted by an increase of job demands has been around for some time (e.g. Job Demand Resources Model; Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001), the empirical research examining their moderating role produced inconclusive results (van den Tooren, 2010). The recent emergence of the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation (DISC) model provided some clarity by focusing on conditions, which need to be met for the stress buffer of job resources to occur. This study looks at the relationship between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion in the context of work in the prison services. Up until now, researchers mostly concentrated on matching the job resources, and how matched job resources influence the relationship between job demands and strain. Therefore, this study will look at potential role of personal and organizational resources in regulating this relationship. Explicitly, a goal of this research is to see how this relationship changes when employees resilience (a personal resource) and perceived organizational support (an organizational resource) are taken into account. More specifically, these two resources will be examined as potential stress-buffers, which could counteract the experiences of emotional exhaustion. Development of the Demand Induced Stress Compensation Model Our understanding of the relationship between work environment and employees health and well-being is constantly evolving. Throughout the years of extensive research several theoretical models were developed, among many they include the Demand-Control (D-C) model (Karasek, 1979), the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) model (Siegrist 1996), the Job Demand-Resources (JD-R) model (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001). Theoretically, all of these

9 9 models have a lot in common, for example they all suggest that every job brings some kind of demands with it. Another similarity between the models is that they job demands require effort or skills, high amount of job demands can cause a worker to experience job strain (e.g. emotional exhaustion). Finally, all of the models propose that job resources are interacting with the relationship between job demands and job strain. Although the differences as to which job resources are particularly important are apparent (e.g. the D-C Model emphasizes a role of locus of control over ones job, the ERI model focuses on the role of rewards and JD-R model on the wide spectrum of job resources such as autonomy, job security and support from colleagues), overall these models imply that job resources are stress buffering the detrimental relationship between job demands and job strain (e.g. emotional exhaustion). While a staggering amount of evidence suggest a positive association between increasing job demands and strain (Greenglass, Burke & Fiksenbaum, 2001; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004; Demerouti, Bakker & Nachreiner, 2001; Bakker, Demerouti, & Verbeke, 2004; Hakanen, Schaufeli, & Ahola, 2008; Crawford, LePine, & Rich, 2010 Bakker, Demerouti & Euwema, 2005 ; Bakker, Demerouti, Taris, Schaufeli & Schreurs, 2003; Xanthopoulou, Bakker, Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2007 ), the stress buffering effect of job resources on this relationship up until now remains inconclusive. For instance, testing the D-C model resulted only in a weak relationship between high demands low control condition and a job strain (de Lange, Taris, Kompier, Houtman, & Bongers, 2003). Findings of Xanthopoulou et al. (2007) revealed that only in 21 out of 32 cases (66%) of possible two-way interactions, the relationship between job demands and burnout was buffered by job resources. Earlier same relationship was studied by Baker, Demerouti, and Euwema (2005), and their findings supported only 18 out of 32 (56%) interactions. One of the possible explanations offered by scholars was that the vast majority of

10 10 previous investigations often treated job demands and job resources as one-dimensional constructs, therefore the stress buffering potential of specific job resources could have been obscured (de Jonge, Dormann, & van den Tooren, 2008; de Jonge & Dormann,2003). In recent years, psychological research attempted to address this particular problem by introducing the Demand Induced Strain Compensation Model (DISC), which unlike other models available focuses on identifying conditions which need to be met in order for moderation effects to become more evident (de Jonge & Dormann, 2003). This assumption was made based on several key principles, which are unique to the DISC model. A first principle is the multidimensionality of concepts, which points out that job demands, job resources and job outcomes are multidimensional and can be divided into cognitive, emotional and physical domains. The cognitive domain includes job demands which require mental processing (e.g. an accurate execute complex arithmetic calculations), and job resources that could simplify this task (e.g. having a time to complete these calculations). The emotional domain is concerned with job demands which are emotionally taxing (e.g. dealing with angry customers), and job resources which reduce emotional pressure (e.g. having support from colleagues) (van den Tooren, 2010). Lastly physical job demands are tasks which require a physical effort (e.g. lifting heavy objects) and a physical job resource to address that could be having an equipment that reduces physical strain (e.g. appropriate lifting device). Same distinction can be applied to the job outcomes, as excessive cognitive job demands could lead to memory problems, dealing with angry customers could lead to emotional exhaustion and lifting heavy objects could be a cause of a body pain (van den Tooren, 2010). The triple match principle states that the moderating effect of job resources is more likely to occur when job demands, job resources and job outcomes are all concerned with the same

11 11 domain. For example cognitive job resources will be more likely to moderate the relationship between cognitive job demands and cognitive job outcomes (Van den Tooren, de Jonge, & Dormann, 2011). Authors of the model distinguished between three types of match; a triple match where all job demands, job resources and job outcomes are concerned with the same domain, a double match where two out of three (e.g. only job demands and job resources) are of the same domain, and non-match where job demands, job resources and job outcomes are of the different kind. Theoretically, as the level of match between job demands, job resources, and job outcomes increases, the likelihood of finding a moderating effect of resources increases. The compensation principle suggests that the adverse effects of high job demands on workers health and well-being can be neutralized when the job resources at workers reach are sufficient to address demands faced. Furthermore, the resources which are matching the demands will be causing the strongest compensation (van den Tooren 2010). Lastly, the balance principle which argues that the mixture of high, yet not overwhelming job demands along with matching job resources, ultimately leads to worker activation (e.g. learning, performance and creativity). Linking it back to the manual labor example, the same worker who is facing a great deal of physical demands is likely to experience a productivity increase, as long as he is provided with sufficient amount physical resources to address the demands faced. This however will be less likely to occur when the resources at workers disposal are insufficient or inappropriately matched. So far the studies using the DISC model approach have produced very promising results. For example, de Jonge, Dormann, and van den Tooren (2008) overview of findings supporting the key assumptions suggested that in 15 out of 19 DISC studies have found support for the triple

12 12 match principle. In updated meta-analytical review of the 29 empirical DISC studies suggested partial support for the triple match and the compensation principle, since the effects were found only for the stress buffer effect but not for the activation-enhancing effect (van den Tooren, de Jonge, & Dormann, 2011). Despite of lack of support for the balance principle, these findings do suggest, however that the strength of moderations may depend also on how well particular aspects of the model complement each other (Van den Tooren, 2010). On the other hand, further investigations with a use of vignette studies showed that although people generally favor use of job resources that match, they are also likely to use job resources which do not necessarily correspond to job demands. For instance, it was found that workers used emotional support from colleagues to address cognitive demands. One of the explanations suggested that when workers believe that matching job resources are unavailable, they will be inclined to use non-matching job resources as a substitute (Hobfoll 2001). It was also proposed that workers tend to use nonmatching job resources as a supplement if they believe that existing matching job resources are not powerful enough to deal with specific type of job demands (Hobfoll 2001; Westman, Hobfoll, Chen, Davidson & Laski, 2005). This premise was explored in another vignette study, which revealed that non-matching job resources were chosen as a supplement rather than substitute to the matching job resources (van den Tooren, de Jonge, Dormann 2012). This particular project does not attempt to test the DISC model, but rather account for the findings regarding its principles. Specifically, as demonstrated by previous findings, a stress buffer effect of the job resources on the relationship between job demands and job outcomes is the most evident in a case of the triple match. Therefore this study will be restricted only to the relationship between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion, and rather than looking at the buffering effect of job resources, a role of a personal resource (psychological resilience)

13 13 and an organizational resource (perceived organizational support (POS)) will be investigated. As further chapters will reveal, these particular resources by their definition can be classified as an emotional. While studies have demonstrated that workers appear to have a strong preference for matching job resources and supplementary role of non-matching job resources (van den Tooren & de Jonge, 2010; van den Tooren, de Jonge & Dormann, 2012), considerably less attention was devoted to the role of matching personal and organizational resources and their stress-buffering potential. The relationship between emotional demands and emotional exhaustion Based on the findings regarding the DISC Model, it is clear that job demands, job resources and job outcomes can be can all be subdivided into emotional, cognitive and physical components ( multidimensionality of concepts ), the job resources can moderate the effect of job demands on negative job outcomes ( compensation principle ), especially when all aspects of the model are complementing each other ( triple match principle ). As this study focuses on the negative job outcomes, the balance principle is omitted since it is the least relevant to the subject of investigation. As stated previously, in order to make use of theoretical assumptions underlying the DISC Model, this study focuses exclusively on the emotional job demands and their relationship with the emotional exhaustion a negative job outcome that has been commonly acknowledged as a core dimension and ascendant of burnout syndrome (Le Blanc, Bakker, Peeters, Van Heesch, & Schaufeli, 2001; Maslach &Leiter, 1997; Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001; Sulsky & Smith, 2005). Although, researchers demonstrated that burnout syndrome consists of three dimensions (Maslach & Leiter, 1997; Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001) this study examines only the emotional exhaustion since it has a clear emotional component, while other two dimensions

14 14 (cynicism and lack of accomplishment) are much harder to be specifically classified as an emotional job outcomes. Emotional job demands can be conceptualized as work-related tasks that require emotional effort (Van den Tooren, 2010). These include situations which require emotional regulation, for example continuous display of customer friendly attitudes even when they are not reflecting genuine feelings of an individual (Le Blanc, et al, 2000) the emotional exhaustion refers to the feeling of emotional resources depletion and being emotionally strained (Maslach & Leiter, 1997; Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001). It is common for emotionally exhausted individuals to feel drained, used up, unable to face daily hassles of work or even recover from the previous day (Maslach & Leiter, 1997; Sulsky & Smith, 2005). It is also typical for the emotionally exhausted employees to experience lack of energy to deal while approaching their regular working duties and feeling tired when they wake up in the morning as they have not slept at all (Maslach & Leiter, 1997). Although intensity of emotional demands varies between different occupations, the strongest association between emotional demands and burnout (i.e. emotional exhaustion) has been found predominantly in the service sector jobs (Grandey, 2003; Maslach & Jackson, 1981) Among various populations examined, such a relationship was found among nurses (Bakker, Heuven, 2006) police officers (Kop, Euwema, & Schaufeli, 1999), human service workers (Van Vegchel, De Jonge, Soderfeldt, Dormann, Schaufeli, 2004), and care providers (Le Blanc, et al. 2001). Based on the literature reviewed in this section it is evident that the high emotional job demands are related to the emotional exhaustion, thus the first hypothesis can be formulated as follows.

15 15 Hypothesis 1: There will be a strong positive relationship between the emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion. The moderating role of resilience There are individuals who seem to have an ability to successfully and relatively quickly bounce back from negative experiences, whereas others take longer or are unable to overcome their negative streaks (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004). Block & Block (1980) conceptualized the ability bounce back from negative emotional events as psychological resilience and theorized that individuals achieve this through flexible adaptation to the changing demands of stressful experiences. More recently, Ugnar (2008) suggested that resilience can be understood in a wider socio-ecological context, and developed more comprehensive definition by describing it as follows: Resilience is both the capacity of individuals to navigate their way to the psychological, social, cultural, and physical resources that sustain their well-being, and their capacity to individually and collectively negotiate for these resources to be provided in culturally meaningful way (Ugnar, 2008, p.19) This definition points out that resilience is not simply experiencing distress, but rather being able to skillfully use available resources and negotiate for these resources to be provided, while facing various stressful situations. (Ugnar, 2008). Unlike previous Block and Block (1980) conceptualization of resilience, Ugnars account allows understanding it as a part of wider socioecological framework, and rather than uniformly describing it as an individual quality, it emphasizes a role of negotiation for various resources to be provided in a meaningful way. Some researchers theorized that positive emotions are crucial for psychological resilience to occur (e.g.

16 16 Tugade, Fredrickson & Feldman, 2004); and have found strong positive relationship between positive emotions and resilience (Tugade & Fredrikson, 2004; Ong, Bergeman Bisconti & Wallace, 2006). Based on these conceptualizations we can speak of resilient person as of someone who is adaptive, able to balance negative emotions with positive ones, capable of communicating what is needed in order to address the problems effectively, and successfully recover from negative experiences. Considering these theoretical assumptions, it is reasonable to propose that employees confronted with high emotional demands will experience less strain, if they possess qualities of a resilient individual. This possibility however, has not been examined as concept of resilience was mainly researched in relation to children and families (e.g. Hunter & Chandler, 1999; Coleman & Ganong, 2002), rather than in the context of a workplace. More recently, several studies have demonstrated that psychological resilience could effectively reduce experiences of strain among nurses. For instance, Edward & Hercelinskyj (2007) have found that learning resilient behaviors among nurses contributed to suppression of experiences of stress and reduced burnout among nurses. Similar findings were reported by, Jackson, Fritko and Edenborough (2007) who suggested that resilience building activities among nurses contributed to overcoming work adversity and helped to cope with stress, concluding that developing personal resilience could potentially reduce their vulnerability. Although, these particular studies suggest a direct negative relationship between resilience and job strain, it does not rule out possibility that if personal resilience is build prior to job strain, it could have stress-buffering properties. In this research, resilience could work as a moderating factor because of couple of reasons. Firstly, depending on resilience, it could be that more resilient individuals will be able to recover quicker from the emotional demands faced at work, through their adaptive skills. Therefore it

17 17 could be that less resilient individuals are unable to adapt to demands thus they are unable to recover. Secondly it could be that more resilient individuals are better at using available resources or negotiating for their availability to address the job demands, thus less resilient individuals will be doing that to a lesser extent. It is therefore possible that more resilient individuals in a face of emotionally demanding situations will be better at navigating their way through the hardships and experience less emotional exhaustion, as opposed to their not resilient counterparts. Lastly, accounting for the findings on Based on this, the second hypothesis can be formulated: Hypothesis 2: Resilience will moderate the relationship between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion, in a way that as resilience increases the effect of the emotional job demands on emotional exhaustion will decrease. The moderating role of perceived organizational support Another variable of interest in this study is an organizational resource - Perceived Organizational Support (POS). POS refers to individual perceptions whether the organization provides help to an individual in order to carry out tasks effectively or deal with stressful situations (George, Reed, Ballard, Colin & Fielding 1993). POS is a main component of the Organizational support theory (OST), which states that in organizational settings, people tend to form perceptions concerning the extent to which the organization values their contribution while carrying for their well-being. Theory argues that employees do so in order to meet their socio-emotional needs and to evaluate the benefits or losses that could be associated with an increase of their work efforts. Furthermore, as perceptions of support increase, employees feel an obligation to reciprocate by fulfilling organizational objectives, increase their affective commitment to an organization and

18 18 improve overall performance ( Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison & Sowa, 1986; Shore and Shore 1995; Rhoades and Eisenberger 2002 ). Empirical research suggests that POS is positively related to positive organizational outcomes, such as performance, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction; and negatively associated with negative organizational outcomes such as withdrawal behavior and absenteeism (Eisenberger & Rhoades, 2002). While several some investigators suggested that POS is directly linked to experiences of job strain such as fatigue or burnout (Cropanzano, Howes, Grandey & Toth, 1997), George et al. (1993) theorized that POS could have a stress buffering effect on the stressor-strain relationship, through indication of the availability of material aid and emotional support while facing high demands at work. This suggestion was supported with empirical evidence, as George et al. (1993) have found that the relationship between degree of contact with AIDS patients and negative mood among nurses was being buffered by POS. It could be argued that for nurses a contact with patients who suffer from terminal illness is an example of emotional job demands, which intensity is manifested by an increase of negative mood (an emotional job outcome), especially among nurses believe that their organization is not supportive. Similar buffering effect of POS was also found on the relationship between reception of threats and violence and experienced well-being among British pub employees (Leather, Lawrence, Beale, & Cox, 1998). Hypothetically, Reception of threats and violence from the perspective of pub employees could be interpreted as emotional demands, which take their toll on their wellbeing as an outcome, especially when they perceive their organization as less supportive. All of this evidence highlights that POS could have a stress-buffering properties. In this research, POS will be examined as a moderator due to following reasons. Based on theoretical assumptions, literature reviewed in this section characterizes POS as a concept, which

19 19 likewise to resilience belongs to a socio-emotional sphere of work. Therefore, it could be that as employees who perceive organization as more supportive when faced with high emotional job demands could experience less emotional exhaustion. At the same time, the individuals who perceive organization as less supportive may feel that their emotional needs at work are not met, thus they could be more likely to experience emotional exhaustion when subjected to high emotional job demands. Moreover, based on the empirical evidence reviewed in this chapter some indication of buffering effect of POS on stressor-strain relationship already exists. Assuming that is the case, accounting for research findings on the DISC model, the moderation of POS could become even more evident, when its buffering role is regressed on the relationship between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion. Based on this, the third hypothesis can be formulated: Hypothesis 3: Perceived organizational support will moderate the relationship between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion, in a way that as Perceived organizational support increases, the effect of emotional job demands on emotional exhaustion will decrease. The context of Polish Prison Services (SW) This study also contributes to the existing literature through the sample used. Firstly, this study investigates aforementioned relationship within population of people employed in prison services settings, who similarly to other previously examined professions (e.g. health care settings, accountants, police officers) are also likely to be exposed to emotionally demanding situations (e.g. through their contact with inmates, who could be potentially aggressive or socially inadequate). Similar observation was made by Piotrowski (2011) who suggested that people working in the Prison Services are likely to experience psychological burden that originates from the environment they are working in, and emphasized the importance of identifying psychosocial

20 20 aspects of work, that could minimize a risk of burnout. Secondly, as pointed out by Schaufeli, Maslach & Marek (1993) and Maslach et al. (2001), there is considerably less attention was devoted to the research on burnout syndrome in non-western countries and cultures, highlighting a need for more cross-national and cross-cultural investigations. This research project to some extent may address this, by examining a prevalence of emotional exhaustion among the sample of employees of the Polish prison services (SW). All of the hypothesized relationships are graphically presented in the Figure 1.2. Figure 2.1: The graphical representation of the predicted main effect (H1) and interactions (H2 and H3)

21 21 Method Participants The data were collected from the eight prisons under supervision of Regional Inspectorate of Prison Services (OISW) located in Katowice, Poland. The data was collected from both remand and penitentiary prisons. The difference between the remand and penitentiary prison is that prisoners of the remand prison are being held prior to being charged with a criminal offense as a preventive measure, while prisoners held in penitentiary are those who have serve actual sentence. Out of 305 questionnaires delivered, 271 returned producing total response rate (RR) of.89; 31 responses were collected from remand prison in Bielsko Biala (RR=.88), 38 from remand prison in Zabrze (RR=.95), 38 from remand prison in Tarnowskie Gory (RR=.95), 39 from remand prison in Gliwice (RR=.98), 22 from Remand prison in Katowice (RR=.55), 29 from remand prison in Bytom (RR=.96), 38 from penitentiary prison in Wojkowice (RR=.95) and 36 from penitentiary prison in Zabrze (RR=.90).The questionnaires, which were filled out inappropriately (for ex. two responses on response scale, missing demographic data, skipped items etc.) and employees who did not consent for participation were excluded from the analysis. Only 22 questionnaires did meet this inclusion criterion, therefore data collected from 249 participants were included in the analysis. Demographically, sample consisted of 176 were males (70.7%) and 73 females (29.3%) of Polish nationality. The youngest participant was 22, the oldest 58, with the sample mean of 35.9 year (SD = 6.75). 153 subjects have had a Masters degree (61%), 23 Bachelors degree (9%), 67 finished secondary education (26%) and 6 post-secondary (4%) (non-degree). All of the participants were full-time employees and occupied different job positions within organizational

22 22 units; 42 were educators(16%), 54 inspectors(22%), 53 wards(21%), 15 instructors(6%), 14 managers(6%), 12 guards(5%), 11 psychologists(4%), 9 technicians(4%), 7 officers(3%), 7 nurses(3%), 6 independent positions(2%), 4 shift commanders(2%), 3 drivers(1%), 2 warehouse keepers(>1%) and 1 deputy director(>1%). 48 participants were single(19%), 177 were married(71%), 21 divorced(9%) and 3 widowed(1%). The mean tenure in prison services was year (SD = 6.31), with the shortest tenure of.5 year and longest tenure of 30 years. Lowest monthly household net income reported in polish zloty (pln) was 1000 pln/240 euro and the highest pln/3597 euro, with a mean of 4126 pln/989 euro (SD = ) (2013, 4 th quarter mean salary in Poland was reported at the level of a pln/920 euro). 46 participants reported no other dependents on household income (18%), 52 reported one additional person dependent on the household income(21%), 63 reported two people (25%), 58 reported three people(23%), 27 reported 4 people (11%), 1 reported 5 (>1%) and 2 people reported six (%>1). With regards to frequency of interaction with inmates only one person has reported no interaction at all (>1%), 20 reported infrequently ( 8%), 33 sometimes (13%), 72 frequently(29%) and 123 always (49%). Procedure A letter was issued to the Director of OISW Katowice requesting for permission to conduct the research (Appendix A). Following positive consideration of the request to conduct research by the Director of OISW Katowice (Appendix B) questionnaires were personally delivered to the eight prisons covered by the inspectorate. The director of OISW Katowice, distributed an official letter (Appendix C) to the Directors of specific prisons requesting a delegation of one member of the personnel in each prison, who were appointed to serve as a point of contact and supported the delivery of the questionnaires. The researcher was responsible for contacting the appointed

23 23 people to arrange drop off and pickup dates of the questionnaires, as well as the means of delivery (e.g. whether an appointee or researcher was to hand out the questionnaires). Along with the pen and paper questionnaire, all of the participants received an information sheet and informed consent form (Appendix D), which ensured them of the anonymity and confidentiality of all the data collected. Those who expressed their willingness for participation filled out the questionnaire (Appendix E). Following this, all participants were fully debriefed and thanked for participation (Appendix F). After data collection the data withdrawal was impossible due to the anonymity of the questionnaire. The data gathered were manually typed into the SPSS prior to data analysis. During this process, the subjects who did not consent for participation, did not filled out the questionnaire appropriately (e.g. gave more than one response per item) or did not filled out questionnaire completely (e.g. skipped some of the items) were excluded from the data file. Materials The first part of the survey consisted of eight demographic items. The demographic data that were collected for statistical control were: age, gender, education, marital status, organizational tenure, position occupied in prison services, amount of dependents and household net income. Additionally, one 7-point rated item was added in which participants were asked to estimate a frequency of a personal contact with inmates, ranging from; 0 never to 6 everyday. This was done in order to control for the frequency of contact, as various people employed within the organization could interact with prisoners to a different extent. The second part of the questionnaire was concerned with the core variables broken down below.

24 24 Emotional job demands 6-items from an adapted version of the Demand Induced Strain Questionaire (DISQ) 2.1 (de Jonge et al. 2009), were used to assess the emotional job demands. This scale included items such as I have to do a lot of emotionally draining work. Responses were rated on 5-point scale ranging from 1very rarely to 5 very often. For the purpose of this study, several changes were made to the original scale in order to avoid misunderstandings and increase readability. Firstly, the items of the original scale referred to another employee (e.g. employee X will have to deal with people (e.g. clients, colleagues or supervisors) who get easily angered towards him/her. ). Therefore all of the items were adapted to refer to the participants in a first person (e.g. I have to deal with people (e.g. clients, colleagues or supervisors) who get angry at me with ease. ). Secondly, all of the items assessing the emotional job demands were translated from English into Polish. In order to do so, the translation by committee method (Marin & Marin, 1991) was employed, in which the researcher whose mother tongue was Polish produced a translation of the measures that was later on consulted with a certified English teacher. Same method was utilized for the translation of the remaining scales (Emotional Exhaustion, Resilience and POS). Translated scale has produced Cronbach s α =.85, which is comparable to the values reported by Naring, Vlerick & Van de Ven (2012). Emotional exhaustion Nine emotional exhaustion items were extracted from MBI -Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1981). The scale includes items like; I feel emotionally drained from my work. All of the items were rated on 7-point scale, ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (everyday). The translated scale produced Cronbachs α =.92, which is congruent with findings of psychometric analyses conducted by Maslach & Jackson (1981).

25 25 Resilience The brief resilience scale (Smith, Dalen, Wiggins, Toole, Christopher & Bernard, 2008) was used to measure participant s resilience. The scale included items such as; I tend to bounce back quickly after hard times. All 6-items were rated on 5-point scale; (1= strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Translated scale produced Cronbachs α =.81, which is consistent with psychometric analyses of Windle, Bennett, & Noyes (2011). Perceived organizational support Perceived organizational support was measured with SPOS Short Perceived Organizational Support scale (Eisenberger et al., 1986). An example item from that scale is; The organization values my contribution to its well-being. All 8-items were rated on 7-point scale; (1 = strongly disagree, 7= strongly agree). Translated scale produced Cronbachs α =.88. This value is also consistent with those reported by Rhoades & Eisenberger (2002). Statistical Analyses All of the analyses conducted in the study were performed with a use of SPSS. Firstly, prior to the hypothesis testing, the control variables used in this study were (age, gender, education, marital status, organizational tenure, position occupied in prison services, amount of dependents, household net income and frequency of personal contact with prisoners) were correlated with an outcome variable (Emotional Exhaustion), to determine which of the variables could potentially account for any variation. The results of the correlation analysis between emotional exhaustion and control variables used in this study are presented in a Table 3.1. A small negative correlation was found between remand prison in Tarnowskie Gory and emotional exhaustion (r=-.14, p<.05). Similar correlation was found for Instructors and emotional exhaustion (r= -.16, p<.05). Also small, but positive correlation was found between remand prison in Katowice and emotional

26 26 exhaustion (r=.17, p<.05). Similar correlation was found between nurses and emotional exhaustion (r=.20,p<.01). Small and positive correlations between emotional exhaustion were also found for tenure (r=.15, p<.05) and Age (r=.16, p<.05). These results suggest that these specific variables could be potentially responsible for explaining small but significant amount of variance of in emotional exhaustion. Although these correlations are considered to be very small, these specific variables were subsequently included as control variables during testing of all hypotheses as control variables. Secondly, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to determine whether the emotional job demands (IV) have an effect on levels of emotional exhaustion (DV), as stated by hypothesis 1. In the first step, the control variables which were found to significantly correlate with the emotional exhaustion were loaded into the equation. In the second step, emotional job demands were added into the equation. Thirdly, a two separate three-step hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the moderating effect of resilience (Hypothesis 2) and POS (Hypothesis 3). In the first step of hypothesis 2 testing, the control variables that were found to have a significant relationship with an outcome variable were entered into the equation. This was followed by calculation of Z-scores for emotional job demands and individuals resilience. In the second step, both the standardized emotional job demands scores and standardized individuals resilience scores were added into the equation. In the third step, the interaction term represented by the product of the emotional job demands and individuals resilience scores was added to test the moderation effect.

27 27 The same procedure was applied to test the moderation of perceived organizational support (Hypothesis 3). In the first step the control variables that were found to have a significant relationship with an outcome variable were entered into the equation. Before a second step a z- scores for perceived organizational support were calculated. In the second step, the standardized emotional job demands and standardized POS scores were added to the equation. Lastly in the third step, the interaction term represented by the product of the emotional job demands and POS scores was added to test the moderation.

28 28 Table 3.1: Correlation between all control variables and the outcome variable (Emotional Exhaustion) (n = 249). Emotional Exhaustion Variables Pearson Correlation Location of Organizational Unit Bielsko Biala Zabrze Tarnowskie Gory -.135* Gliwice.106 Wojkowice.079 Katowice.173** Zabrze Bytom.092 Marital status Single Married.001 Divorced.107 Widowed.020 Education Elementary. 1 Vocational. 1 Secondary.03 Post-Secondary -.01 Bachelor s Degree -.00 Masters Degree -.02 Position within Prison Services Educator.063 Instructor -.161* Inspector.001 Psychologist Nurse.196** Ward.077 Guard Consultant Manager Technician Officer.037 Independent position Deputy Director Shift Commander Warehouse keeper Driver Age.158* Tenure.149* Amount of Dependents.083 Monthly Household Income Contact with inmates.097 *p <.05, two-tailed. **p <.01, two-tailed. 1 No Data

29 29 Results Correlation analyses Table 4.1 shows the means, standard deviations number of items, Cronbach s alphas and Pearson zero-order correlations of the main variables. The strong, positive correlation was found between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion (r=.69, p<.01). Emotional Job demands also have shown moderate negative correlation with Resilience (r=-.39, p<.01) and POS (r= -.43, p<.01). Additionally, strong negative correlation was found between Resilience and Emotional exhaustion (r= -.60, p<.01), and POS and Emotional Exhaustion (r= -.58, p<.01). Finally, a moderate positive correlation was found between Resilience and POS (r=.36, p<.01). All of the predictor variables in the study are highly correlated with the outcome variable (Emotional exhaustion). As only moderate correlations were found between predictors, the presence of multicolliniearity is unlikely. Based on these findings, the emotional job demands are largely and positively correlated with emotional exhaustion. Table 4.1: Means, Standard Deviations, Number of Items, Cronbach s Alphas and Pearson Zero- Order Correlations (n = 249) M SD # Items α Emotional job demands Resilience ** - 3. POS **.36** - 4. Emotional exhaustion ** -.60** -.58** - Note. M = mean; SD = standard deviation; α = Cronbach s alpha. *p <.05, two-tailed. **p <.01, two-tailed.

30 30 Regression analyses The first hypothesis that emotional job demands are having a positive impact on emotional exhaustion was tested with a use of hierarchical regression analysis. The results revealed a statistically significant relationship between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion (β=.64, p<.01). In the first step, the control variables that were correlating with an emotional exhaustion were simultaneously regressed on emotional exhaustion. Only instructors (β=-.14, p <.05), nurses (β=.19, p <.01) and remand prison in Katowice (β=.16, p <.05) were found to have a significant relationship with an emotional exhaustion. As a whole a first model was found to be significantly related to emotional exhaustion ( F (6,245)=5.67,p <.01) and accounted for 12% of variance (R²=.12). In the second step, emotional job demands were added to the equation to test first hypothesis. Emotional job demands were found to be significantly related to the emotional exhaustion (β=.64, p<.01), and the second model was found produce a significant change ( F(6,245)=172.83,p <.01) by explained additional 37% (Δ R²=.37) of variance in emotional exhaustion. The results are summarized in a Table 4.2. Table 4.2 Hierarchical Regression Analysis Hypothesis 1: Predicting Emotional exhaustion from Emotional job demands. (n=249) Emotional exhaustion Model 1 Model 2 Variable b (SE) β b (SE) β Constant 1.75 (.48) (.40) Position in Prison Services: - Instructor - Nurse Location of Organizational Unit: - Tarnowskie Gory - Katowice Age Tenure in Prison Services -.66 (.28) -.14* 1.2 (.40).19** -.25(.19) (.24).16*.01(.02) (.02) (.22) (.31) (.15) (.19) (.01) (.01).01

31 31 Emotional job demands.86 (.07).64** R² Δ R² F 5.67** 32.99** ΔF 5.67** ** Note. b = unstandardized coefficient; β = standardized coefficient; SE = standard error. *p <.05, two-tailed. **p <.01, two-tailed. Table 4.3, shows the results from the three-step hierarchical multiple regression analysis which was used in order to test moderation of resilience (hypothesis 2). Results revealed that the stress buffer effect of resilience (represented as the interaction term of emotional job demands and resilience) was not significant (β=.06, p >.05). Moreover, adding the interaction term did not produce a significant change in the model ( F(6,245)=1.89,p>.05) and produced hardly any variation while controlling for standardized main effects (Δ R²<.01). Based on these results hypothesis 2 must be rejected. Table 4.3: Hierarchical Regression Analysis Hypothesis 2: Predicting Emotional exhaustion from Emotional job demands, loading Resilience as a moderator. (n = 249) Emotional exhaustion Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Variable b (SE) β b (SE) β b (SE) β Constant 1.75 (.48) 2.07 (.32) 2.12 (.32) Position in Prison Services - Instructor - Nurse Location of Organizational Unit: - Tarnowskie Gory -.66 (.28) -.14* 1.2 (.40).19** -.25 (.19) (.19) (.27).08*.06 (.13) (.19) (.27).08*.06 (.13).02

32 32 - Katowice Age Tenure in Prison Services.64 (.24).16*.01 (.02) (.02) (.16) (.01) (.01) (.16) (.01) (.01) -.04 Emotional job demands.56(.05).51**.56 (.05).51** Resilience -.43 (.05) -.39** -.44 (.05) -.41** Emotional job demands x Resilience.06 (.04).06 R² Δ R² F 5.67** 47.64** 42.65** ΔF 5.67** ** 1.89 Note. b = unstandardized coefficient; β = standardized coefficient; SE = standard error. *p <.05, two-tailed, **p <.01, two-tailed. The third hypothesis suggested that POS will act as a moderator of a relationship between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion. Similarly to resilience, the interaction term composed of emotional job demands and POS was not significantly related to emotional exhaustion (β=-.02, p >.05) while controlling for standardized main effects. The third model testing stress buffering hypothesis of POS, was not significantly different from the second model ( F(6,245)=.13,p>.05) and did not explain any additional variance (Δ R²<.01). Based on this, hypothesis 3 is rejected. The results of this hierarchical multiple regression analyses are presented in the table 4.4.(See appendix G for SPSS Data File & Syntax).

33 33 Table 4.4: Hierarchical Regression Analysis Hypothesis 3: Predicting Emotional exhaustion from Emotional job demands, loading Perceived Organizational Support as a moderator. (n = 249) Emotional exhaustion Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Variable b (SE) β b (SE) β b (SE) β Constant 1.75 (.48) 2.05 (.33) 2.04 (.33) Position in Prison Services: - Instructor - Nurse Location of Organizational Unit: - Tarnowskie Gory - Katowice Age Tenure in Prison Services -.66 (.28) -.14* 1.2 (.40).19** -.25(.19) (.24).16*.01(.02) (.02) (.2) (.28).09*.2 (.14) (.17).09*.01 (.01) (.01) (.2) (.28).09*.2 (.14).06.37(.17).09*.01 (.01) (.01).05 Emotional job demands.53(.05).48**.53(.05).48** POS -.41(.05) -.38** -.41(.05) -.38** Emotional job demands x POS -01 (.04) -.02 R² Δ R² F 5.67** 44.59** 39.51** ΔF 5.67** **.13 Note. b = unstandardized coefficient; β = standardized coefficient; SE = standard error. *p <.05, two-tailed. **p <.01, two-tailed

34 34 Discussion Summary and interpretation This research project investigated the relationship between emotional demands faced by the employees of Polish prison services staff and their emotional exhaustion. Next, the moderating role of both; personal resource individual resilience, and organizational resource POS was closely examined. These specific variables were chosen as they theoretically belong to the emotional domain, and accounting for the growing body of research concerned with the DISC model, this could increase the likelihood of finding the potential stress-buffering effects. The sample consisted of 249 employees of eight different prisons, and who have occupied various positions within Polish prison services. Three hierarchical regression analyses were conducted in order to test the main effect of emotional job demands on emotional exhaustion and test the stress buffering effect of resilience and POS separately. The main effect hypothesis was confirmed as emotional job demands were predicting emotional exhaustion. This finding is in line with previous research in this field that have found the similar effects among populations of health services (Bakker & Heuven, 2006), municipal services (Kop, Euwema, & Schaufeli, 2010) and human service workers (Van Vegchel et al., 2004). This means, that people employed in prison services settings are also facing emotional demands at work, and consequently are at risk of experiencing emotional strains. It also confirms earlier observations made by Piotrowski (2011), who suggested that prison services staff is likely to be at risk of developing psychological health complications due to emotionally taxing nature of prison work. Contrary to the expectations, the stress buffering effects of resilience (Hypothesis 2) and POS (Hypothesis 3) on the relationship between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion

35 35 were found to be not significant. These findings are not aligned with the theoretical anticipations build upon reviewed literature and recent findings concerning the DISC model, which suggested that stress-buffering effect of job resources on the relationship between job demands and negative outcomes is the most likely when they are all of the same kind (e.g. they are all concerned with emotional domain). Since the aim of this research was to check whether these findings could also apply for personal and organizational resources, by examining possible stress buffering role of psychological resilience and POS, it must be concluded that this study found no support for such interaction. While the argument as to why resilience could act as a moderator was built only on theoretical assumptions, lack of support for stress buffering effect of POS is challenging existing empirical evidence regarding its stress buffering properties (e.g. George et al., 1993; Leather, et al., 1998). Building upon this, there are several possible explanations which could be offered. With regards to resilience, perhaps the most plausible explanation is that personal characteristics (such as how resilient you are) are less important in the job-stress process, than characteristics of the job itself; such as job resources (van den Tooren et al. 2011). Therefore, it is possible that the relying on personal resources (such as resilience), does not happen in most of the situations as long as there is a sufficient amount of other job resources to address demands faced by the employee. As pointed out by van den Tooren and de Jonge (2010) and van den Tooren, et al. (2012) there is an evidence to suggest that despite of preferences for matching job resources, people tend to use non-matching job resources to compensate when matching job resources are unavailable. Considering this it is possible that employees facing shortage of matching job resources will seek for and use non-matching job resources, in order to avoid relying or investing personal resources. As a result, employees to prevent loss/investment of personal resources may

36 36 be actively seeking for any job resources possible to address the demands, thus by-passing banking on resilience. Future research could look at whether people facing emotional job demands in a situation where no job resources are available to address particular problem, will attempt to use personal resources in order to minimize potential negative outcomes. However, bearing in mind methodological, practical and ethical constraints, a design of such a research project seems rather improbable to develop in a near future. Another explanation could derive from the fact that overall, the sample of the prison services employees used in this study appear to be a very resilient population (Mean = 3.63 SD =. 62). Therefore, it could be that either the characteristics of the prison work are attracting resilient individuals or/and that personnel selection mechanism used by Polish prison services are selecting less resilient individuals out. This could make such a moderation effect much harder to demonstrate. Such an explanation is even more conceivable as resilience is a personal resource, which could be developed not only prior to strain, but prior to experiencing demands at work. In fact studies conducted on resilience in the context of family (e.g. Coleman & Ganong, 2002), suggested that having positive relationships inside and outside ones family is the most critical factor in developing a resilient personality. While there are some doubts regarding to individual resilience occurring post or prior to the job demands, this is rather unlikely with respect to POS, as perceptions of support from organization cannot occur prior to facing demands. In other words, before an employee can make an assessment of how much support is available, he needs to have some demands that he could be supported with. Furthermore, since Cropanzano et al. (1997) suggested that POS could have a negative direct effect on the job strains (including burnout); it could be that POS serves a mediating role in the stressor-strain relationship. An indication of POS being a mediator can be

37 37 also found in this study, as POS was moderately correlating with emotional job demands (r= -.43, p<.01) and with emotional exhaustion (r= -.58, p<.01). Nevertheless, the mediating role of POS on the relationship between job demands and job outcomes should be a subject of investigation for the future research. Limitations and future research The major limitation of this study is the use of a cross-sectional design, as it requires caution in terms of inferring the causality. Although, it is rather unlikely that the emotional exhaustion occurs prior to emotional demands being faced by employees, the use of the longitudinal designs would be more appropriate for causal inferences; especially in terms of determining outcomes of prolonged exposure to the emotional job demands more accurately. It is also important to note that results of this research project are overall consistent with previous findings, including those which did use longitudinal design (e.g. Houkes, Janssen, de Jonge, & Bakker 2003). While the sample size (N = 249) is considered to be relatively big in comparison to other projects of this sort, there are however, several issues which need to be addressed. Firstly, as all of the data were collected via self-report questionnaires, this could lead to problems validity problems. Although all of the measures used in this study were previously validated, some of the employees could have answer items in a socially desirable ways. For example, an employee who has a doubts regarding to anonymity or confidentiality of the questionnaire, could decide to provide answers that are not reflecting his true feelings. Although an informed consent reassuring anonymity and confidentiality was given to all of the participants, the interpretation of any self-report study requires carefulness. Secondly, sample was selected through convenience sampling and although any person employed within the prison services could participate, the prisons were selected due to proximity to the researcher, thus the results of this research may not

38 38 reflect on the entire population. This requires particular carefulness in generalizing the results towards wider populations (e.g. Prison services staff Poland-wide). At the same time, due to a wide scope of different positions occupied by the participants, thus different nature of contact with prisoners, relatively low response rate from particular prisons (e.g. Remand prison in Katowice), and some populations being underrepresented (e.g. only one deputy director ) limits conclusions strictly to the sample of this study. Since this research used a very macro approach to the prison services, it is recommended for future samples to be restricted to fewer positions, in order to accurately determine which specific positions are at risk of experiencing emotional exhaustion (e.g. compare levels of exhaustion between instructors and educators). Although reliability analysis of the scales used in this study showed that measures used in this study can be considered as highly reliable, the reliability of the resilience scale could be improved by removing item 3 ( The Brief Resilient Scale item 3: It is hard for me to snap back when something bad happens ). Considering that the scales were translated from English into Polish by the researcher, this suggests that item 3 could be perhaps rephrased. Additionally, translation by committee could be improved by employing back-translation method; which would require two independent translators to translate measures from the original language to the target language back and forth to determine discrepancies. As rightly pointed out by Marin & Marin (1991) translation by committee could skew instrument translated in some cases (e.g. when committee members happen to have similar world view some of the alternate ways of translating could be omitted). Nevertheless, considering very subtle differences between Cronbachs α values of original scales, and those produced by their Polish translation used in this study, it can be presumed that the employed translation method was sufficient to generate reliable results.

39 39 While researcher attempted to control for the frequency of contact with prisoners, the intensity of that contact remains unknown. While most of the prison services staff does interact with prisoners on daily basis, the nature of that interaction could enable a greater insight into identifying causes of exhaustion (e.g. Workers or particular positions which report greater intensity of contact than others, could experience greater emotional exhaustion). Therefore, for future research concerning this specific population, it is recommended to add an intensity dimension. As far as recommendations for future research go, further investigations of the relationship between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion should examine role of other psychosocial variables (e.g. job autonomy), that could be involved in the process of emotional exhaustion, in order to provide some clarity and determine which of them could buffer from negative job outcomes. Additionally as only emotional exhaustion was a subject of investigation, to provide more concrete cross-cultural support for burnout syndrome, future researchers should include remaining two dimensions; cynicism and lack of accomplishment. Theoretical implications This research project is enriching existing literature in couple ways. Firstly, a significant positive relationship between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion was found. Bearing in mind that an emotional exhaustion is a core component of burnout syndrome, the results of this project provide some evidence to suggest that burnout syndrome caused by emotional demands could occur cross-culturally. Nevertheless, such inferences cannot be made without a great degree of uncertainty, since only one dimension of the burnout syndrome was examined. Therefore, it is crucial for future research to investigate all of its components to make this conclusion more concrete.

40 40 Secondly, Based on these findings, it must be concluded that neither resilience, nor POS can on their own, buffer the relationship between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion. As these findings are contrary to the expectations, which derived from existing evidence on the DISC model, sound theoretical argumentation of resilience as a potential moderator and both; theoretical argumentation along with support of empirical evidence for POS as a stress buffer, perhaps some theoretical considerations can be drawn. This study highlights that the principles of the DISC model could apply only to the job resources in order to find a meaningful moderation. It also could mean that match between personal resources or organizational resources and the relationship between job demands and job outcomes is not important, as both of them could serve only supplementary function to the matching job resources. Nevertheless, confirmation of these considerations requires further empirical investigation. Practical implications This study highlighted several important points from the practical point of view. As the hypothesis 1 was supported, there is a reason to believe that people working in prison services, similarly to other occupations studied by previous research, are being at risk of emotional exhaustion incurred by emotional job demands. Therefore, it is important to make sure that different occupations within the prison services organization are designed in a way that accounts for and keeps emotional demands of the jobs to the minimum. The Polish prison services appear to engage in activities that are identifying stress in the workplace as an issue. This is supported by the content of Polish prison services website, which includes a whole section devoted to the stress in the workplace (Andysz, Wężyk, and Służba Więzienna, n.d. ), and provides scientifically based information about symptoms and consequences of stress, as well as coping strategies such as physical activity, mindfulness, or

41 41 deep breathing. Sadly, despite of good quality of the material, it must be noted that not all of the employees have an access to computers or the internet, as in many cases their job role does not require it. As a matter of fact, several conversations with employees who approached me personally with enquiries seemed rather surprised that such content exists. A lack of employees awareness about availability of these particular resources, could result in its ineffectiveness by missing the desirable audience. To address this issue, the prison services management should consider alternate means of delivery of these particular resources and perhaps increase their availability in a hard form. In a light of this research, this might be particularly important, as raising awareness could be interpreted by the employees as supportive activity, thus vicariously increase perceptions of support received from organization. Conclusion All in All, as predicted by hypothesis 1, emotional job demands are significantly related to the emotional exhaustion of Polish prison services staff. This finding suggest that likewise to other populations examined (e.g. nurses), people who work in the prison settings are running at risk of burnout caused by emotional demands faced at work. Unfortunately, despite of good theoretical underpinnings, the stress buffering effects of both resilience and POS were found to have no significant effect on this relationship. While stress buffering effect of resilience was built only upon theory, with regards to POS this finding is contrary to the previous research which suggested such an interaction. Future research should consider testing POS as a mediator of the relationship between stressor and strain, as some of the correlational findings could be interpreted as an indication of such interaction. As the role of the personal and organizational resources remains unclear, further studies should examine role of other contextual and personal factors that might be in some way implicated in the process of emotional exhaustion.

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49 49 Appendix Appendix A

50 Appendix B 50

51 Appendix C 51

52 Appendix D 52

53 Appendix E 53

54 54

55 55

56 56