Emotional labor and burnout among Turkish primary school teachers

Emotional labor and burnout among Turkish primaryschool teachers

Ugur Akın • Inayet Aydın • Cetin Erdogan •

Nihan Demirkasımoglu

Received: 26 February 2013 / Accepted: 6 December 2013 / Published online: 19 December 2013

� The Australian Association for Research in Education, Inc. 2013

Abstract Emotions play a critical role in teaching, especially in primary schools.

Teachers have to manage their feelings in order to sustain a positive classroom

climate. Managing feelings as a requirement of work is called emotional labor,

which is a relatively new area of research in teaching. The main aim of this research

was to investigate the type of emotional labor strategies Turkish primary school

teachers often use and whether emotional labor is a predictor of burnout for primary

teachers in a Turkish context. Also, the authors explore if there is a significant

variation in emotional labor in terms of gender and school type (public/private). A

survey was conducted with the participation of 370 primary school teachers from

Ankara, Turkey. Results indicated that Turkish primary school teachers mostly

engage in genuine emotions in their relationships with students. Female teachers use

deep and surface acting strategies more often than males. Also, private school

teachers were found to use deep acting strategies and display genuine emotions

more often than public school teachers. Finally, it was found that emotional labor is

a significant predictor of burnout among Turkish primary school teachers.

U. Akın (&)

Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Education, Gaziosmanpasa University,

60100 Tokat, Turkey

e-mail: [email protected]

I. Aydın � N. Demirkasımoglu

Department of Educational Administration and Policy, Faculty of Educational Sciences, Ankara

University, Cebeci, 06590 Ankara, Turkey


N. Demirkasımoglu


C. Erdogan

Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Education, Yıldız Technical University, Istanbul,

Turkey


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Aust. Educ. Res. (2014) 41:155–169

DOI 10.1007/s13384-013-0138-4

Keywords Managing feelings � Emotional labor � Burnout � Primary

school teachers

Introduction

The meaning of contemporary labor, especially in the service sector, has extended

beyond reshaping materials. Many organizations define standards to regulate their

employees’ relationships with customers, including the rules regarding feelings.

Adhering to feeling rules requires managing emotions in line with an organizations’

expectations (Hochschild 1979). Although schools are explicitly different from

other organizations, schools do employ feeling rules to regulate teachers’ emotions

in relationships with students (Bellas 1999; Naaring et al. 2006). Such feeling rules

in employee–customer or teacher–student relationships have created a new kind of

labor: emotional labor (Ashfort and Humphrey 1993).

The concept of emotional labor has been widely studied in various professions

(Diefendorff et al. 2005; Hennig-Thurau et al. 2006; Kruml and Geddes 2000;

Schaible and Gecas 2010; Tracy 2005). In the field of education, there are studies on

instructors (Bellas 1999; Ogbonna and Harris 2004), high school teachers (Cukur

2009; Richardson et al. 2008), elementary science teachers (Zembylas 2004), and

caring teachers (Isenbarger and Zembylas 2006). The relationship between

emotional labor and burnout has also been studied in various professions

(Brotheridge and Grandey 2002; Erickson and Grove 2007; Erickson and Ritter

2001; Grandey 2003; Martinez-Inigo et al. 2007). This relationship in education has

been examined in lecturers (Meier 2005; Zhang and Zhu 2008), middle school

teachers (Carson 2006; Naaring et al. 2006) and elementary school teachers (Uysal

2007). However, there is a dearth of research on the relationship between emotional

labor and burnout, particularly in primary school teachers. In Turkey, the primary

school teachers teach in the first four grades. A student stays with only one teacher

from the first to the fourth grade. Thus, it can be asserted that the primary school

teachers have closer interactions with students than the teachers who teach in

middle school, high school, or college. Because of this, the emotional labor

performed by the primary school teachers may differ from others (see Hargreaves

2000). Hence, it is thought that the research will cater to the need for such a study in

the literature.

Emotions in work life and the concept of emotional labor

According to Hochschild (1979), emotion management is a kind of work performed

by employees to display the expected feelings. Such work is conceptualized as

emotion work or emotional labor. Emotional labor is defined by Hochschild (1983)

as ‘‘the silent work of evoking or suppressing feeling in ourselves and in others’’. In

156 U. Akın et al.

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organizational context, emotional labor involves displaying the expected feelings by

employees during service encounters.

Organizations define display rules to enable employees to manage their feelings

in the desired way. Employees are expected to follow such rules regardless of how

they really feel (Diefendorff et al. 2005). Employees may develop certain strategies

in following these rules. Three strategies of performing emotional labor are deep

acting, surface acting, and genuine emotions.

Deep acting refers to employees’ efforts to follow the expected display rules

(Ashfort and Humphrey 1993). Deep acting can be defined as changing feelings to

change the expression of emotions (Tsang 2011). In deep acting, employees try to

modify their feelings to act in line with expectations (Grandey 2003). Deep acting is

also described as ‘‘faking in good faith’’ (Rafaeli and Sutton 1987). An employee

engaged in deep acting tries to treat customers cheerfully even though he/she feels

sad or angry.

Surface acting refers to an employee’s efforts to pretend to experience certain

emotions even if he/she does not really feel them (Ashfort and Humphrey 1993;

Diefendorff et al. 2005). Changing expressions to change feelings can be a

definition of surface acting (Tsang 2011). In surface acting, employees modify their

feelings as if experiencing the expected emotions without actually changing their

feelings. Surface acting may appear as pretending to experience a positive emotion

or suppressing a negative emotion (Grandey 2003). In this respect, surface acting

might be taken as ‘‘faking in bad faith’’ (Rafaeli and Sutton 1987). An employee

engaged in surface acting may pretend to be sad when encountered with customer

problems.

In addition to deep acting and surface acting as suggested by Hochschild (1979,

1983), Ashfort and Humphrey (1993) argue that emotional labor has a third

dimension: naturally felt emotions or genuine emotions. Diefendorff et al. (2005)

empirically studied genuine emotions to show the differentiation between deep and

surface acting. Feeling really sad in case of a customer’s problem is an example of

genuine emotion.

Emotional labor in teaching

Most of the professions require performing emotional labor at different levels

(Brotheridge and Lee 2003). The service sector employees such as a friendly and

sincere stewardess, a cheerful secretary, a calm customer representative, an

urologist who does not get sick of patients, or a teacher who loves all students

equally have to display emotional labor (Hochschild 1979). Teaching as a

profession requires a high level of emotional labor (Day 1999, p. 49; Isenbarger

and Zembylas 2006; Ogbonna and Harris 2004; Zembylas 2004) and is different

from other professions in certain ways.

Teaching is an emotional practice (Hargreaves 2000), and good teaching is

charged with positive emotions (Guy and Newman 2004; Hargreaves 1998).

Positive teacher-student relationships are essential to create a sound classroom

atmosphere (Kaliska 2002). So, teachers are expected to suppress their

Emotional labor and burnout 157

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disappointment, unhappiness, or anger and go on teaching eagerly despite all

negative aspects. Students would like to have strict but not authoritative, witty but

not sarcastic teachers who are able to give special interest to every student and act

fairly in terms of punishments or awards (Wragg and Wragg 1998). In one study

(Wragg 1994), students defined a good teacher as ‘‘polite’’, ‘‘kind’’, ‘‘loving’’ and

‘‘friendly’’. Teachers are expected to be enthusiastic and lively to maintain the

constant attention of the students (Zembylas 2004). All of these expectations force

teachers to manage their feelings and perform emotional labor.

Furthermore, teaching requires high-level acting skills, including acting

emotions. As Bellas (1999) and Naaring et al. (2006) stated, teachers are expected

to adopt extreme ebullience when praising a student for a good answer or give an

impression of calm confidence when confronted with a disruptive student. In such

cases, it is inevitable for teachers to perform emotional labor. Therefore teaching, by

nature, requires intense emotional labor.

Teacher burnout caused by emotional labor

Employee-customer relationships, particularly in the service sector, are generally

based on the psychological, social, or physical problems of customers. Solving

customer problems is not an easy process, and employees experience burnout

caused by chronic stress during this process (Maslach and Jackson 1981). Schwarzer

et al. (2000) define burnout as chronic exhaustion and fatigue caused by long term

interpersonal stress. Burnout has three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, deper-

sonalization and reduced accomplishment (Maslach 1993; Maslach and Jackson

1981). Emotional exhaustion is seen as a stress factor and defined as emotional

resource depletion. It is characterized by fatigue, debility, loss of energy, and wear-

out. Depersonalization is accompanied by negativity, nervousness, and loss of

idealism. An employee experiencing depersonalization may treat customers

negatively, unemotionally, or indifferently. Reduced accomplishment refers to

reduced professional competence, productivity and capacity, low motivation, and

inability to deal with job requirements (Schwarzer et al. 2000).

Teachers are among those who experience a high level of burnout (Chang 2009).

Environmental, interpersonal, and internal stress factors at schools cause burnout

(Rottier et al. 1983). Depersonalization and emotional exhaustion result in

estrangement from teaching and personal development, indifference to students,

and treating students as objects rather than as individuals. Thus, teachers

experiencing depersonalization often humiliate students. Moreover, reduced

accomplishment causes teachers to have negative personal perceptions and a

diminished view of personal skills and accomplishments (Maslach et al. 1996).

Emotional labor is reported to increase job stress (Pugliesi 1999) which is known

to cause burnout (Schwarzer et al. 2000). Surface acting leads to self-alienation

(Ashfort and Humphrey 1993) which also brings about burnout (Tracy 2005).

Furthermore, there is empirical evidence that emotional labor is positively

correlated to burnout (Brotheridge and Grandey 2002; Erickson and Ritter 2001;

Grandey 2003; Schaible and Gecas 2010; Zapf and Holz 2006). In the teaching

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profession, as in other professions, one of the most important consequences of

emotional labor is burnout (Carson 2006; Meier 2005; Naaring et al. 2006; Uysal

2007; Zhang and Zhu 2008).

Role of gender and school type on emotional labor in teaching

Gender has been proposed as one of the most important variables in emotional labor

studies (Meier et al. 2006). Professions requiring emotional work were thought of as

women’s work (Guy and Newman 2004; Taylor and Tyler 2000) because women

are expected to manage their feelings more effectively than men (Morris and

Feldman 1996). In the same line, there are many research results showing that

females use surface acting strategy more often than males (Erickson and Ritter

2001; Kruml and Geddes 2000; Schaible and Gecas 2010). Ogbonna and Harris

(2004) found that female teachers also use deep acting strategy more often than

male teachers. On the other hand, Meier (2005) and Uysal (2007) could not find any

variation that as a result of gender among teachers. Different results in the literature

show that it is important to explore the role of gender on emotional labor in

teachers.

Besides gender, school type (public/private) is thought to be related to emotional

labor. In Turkey, private school teachers are hired by the school administration and

work according to the employment contract. School administrators are authorized to

dismiss teachers (Private Instruction Institutions Code 2007). On the other hand,

public school teachers are on the permanent staff, and their employer is the Ministry

of Education directly (Basic Code of National Education 1973). In such a situation,

private school teachers are closely monitored by parents and the school adminis-

tration. As mentioned above, emotional labor is closely related to the organizational

display rules, and the school administrator and parents are the ones observing

obedience to these rules. Accordingly, emotional labor displayed by the public and

the private school teachers is expected to be varied.

Aim and research questions

The main aim of this research was to investigate which emotional labor strategies

are mostly used by Turkish primary school teachers, whether there is a significant

variation in emotional labor in terms of gender and school type (public/private), and

if emotional labor in primary teaching causes burnout. The research questions were

as follows:

1. What are the levels of emotional labor performed by the primary school

teachers in the dimensions of deep acting, surface acting, and genuine

emotions?

2. Do emotional labor scores vary significantly in terms of gender and school type

(public/private)?

3. Is emotional labor a significant predictor of burnout?


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Method

Participants

The population of the study consisted of 10,028 primary school teachers from

Ankara, Turkey. It was assumed that a group of 370 teachers would represent the

population (Sekaran 1992, p. 253). The participants were randomly selected from 18

public and 6 private schools. 76.8 % (n = 284) of the participants were female and

23.2 % (n = 86) were male. 80.8 % (n = 299) of the participants were from public

schools and 19.2 % (n = 71) were from private schools. The authors followed all

ethical procedures in researching human participants such as gathering the data

anonymously.

Measures

No scale had been previously developed to study emotional labor in primary

teaching. Thus, three scales were developed based on the previously developed

scales (Brotheridge and Lee 1998, 2003; Diefendorff et al. 2005; Grandey 2003;

Kruml and Geddes 2000; Zhang and Zhu 2008), the literature, a focus group

discussion with teachers and suggestions of experts from the field of education. The

scales were named deep acting scale (DAS), surface acting scale (SAS) and genuine

emotions scale (GES).

Nine teachers were included in the focus group discussions in which emotional

labor was explored in teacher-student relationships. The teachers were asked to give

examples of situations where they manage their feelings in relationships with their

students. Data were analyzed by content analysis and an item pool was formed

based on this analyses. The items were rearranged to obtain understandability and

face validity in the light of experts’ suggestions and they were then finalized for the

pilot study.

A pilot study with 86 primary school teachers was conducted for the validity and

the reliability studies. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) was used for validity

studies. Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) test was used to see if the sample was

adequate to apply EFA. KMO values were 0.91 for DAS, 0.83 for SAS and 0.78 for

GES.

EFA results showed that DAS, SAS and GES are unidimensional constructs. A

cut-off point of 0.40 was accepted for factor loadings and the items lower than 0.40

were extracted. The factor loadings can be seen in Table 4. The total variances

explained were 48.3 % for DAS, 35.1 % for SAS and 52 % for GES.

Item total correlations and Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency coefficients

were calculated for the reliability tests. The items correlated greater than 0.30 were

considered reliable, and the values ranging from 0.20 to 0.30 were considered

acceptable when compulsory. Item-total correlations ranged from 0.32 to 0.74 in

DAS, 0.26 to 0.66 in SAS, and 0.44 to 0.59 in GES. Cronbach’s alpha internal

consistency coefficients of the scales ranged from 0.74 to 0.87. Finally, the scales

consisted of ten items in DAS, 13 items in SAS and five items in GES and they were

formatted as a 5-likert type rating scale.

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Maslach burnout inventory (MBI) was used to measure the teachers’ burnout.

The inventory developed by Maslach and Jackson (1981) consists of three

dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced accomplishment.

The scale was adapted to Turkish culture by Ergin (1992) for a study with nurses. A

reliability study of the scale for the teacher group was carried out by the researchers

and total item correlations in this study ranged from 0.25 to 0.70 in emotional

exhaustion, from 0.43 to 0.71 in depersonalization and from 0.32 to 0.57 in reduced

accomplishment. Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency coefficients of the inventory

were calculated as 0.85 for emotional exhaustion and 0.78 for depersonalization and

reduced accomplishment.

Data analysis

Frequencies and percentages for participants’ demographic profiles and means and

standard deviations for the level of emotional labor were calculated. T test was used

to test the variation of emotional labor across gender and school type. Multiple

linear regression analysis was conducted to ascertain if emotional labor dimensions

predict burnout.

Results

Emotional labor levels of teachers

The mean scores were 4.47 for deep acting, 3.99 for surface acting, and 4.53 for

genuine emotions on a five-point Likert scale (see Table 4 for means and standard

deviations of the items). Turkish primary school teachers are mostly engaged in

genuine emotions followed by deep acting and surface acting.

Variation of emotional labor across gender and school type

An independent-samples t test was conducted to compare the means of emotional

labor scores in the female and the male teachers. Table 1 shows the t test results.

As is clear from Table 1, the female teachers used deep acting (t(368) = 2.465;

p \ 0.05) and surface acting (t(368) = 3.794; p \ 0.05) strategies significantly more

often than the male teachers. On the other hand there were no significant differences

in genuine emotions scores.

Another independent-samples t test, illustrated in Table 2, was conducted to

compare the means of emotional labor scores for the public and the private school

teachers.

Table 2 shows that the private primary school teachers used deep acting strategy

(t(368) = -3.270; p \ 0.05) and genuine emotions (t(368) = -3.298; p \ 0.05) more

often than the public school teachers. On the other hand, there was no significant

difference across school type in surface acting scores.


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Emotional labor and burnout

A multiple linear regression model was tested to explore if emotional labor

dimensions predict burnout. Results are given in Table 3.

As it can be seen from Table 3, the model testing whether deep acting, surface

acting and genuine emotions together predict emotional exhaustion is statistically

significant (F(3–366) = 6.37; p \ 0.05). These dimensions of emotional labor predict

5 % of emotional exhaustion (R2 = 0.05). T values predicate that deep acting and

surface acting are dependent predictors of emotional exhaustion (p \ 0.05). As deep

acting increases, emotional exhaustion decreases (partial r = -0.147). On the other

hand, as surface acting increases, emotional exhaustion also increases (partial

r = 0.110). According to b coefficients, deep acting is the most significant predictor

of emotional exhaustion (b = -0.220).

Also, the model testing deep acting, surface acting and genuine emotions

together as predicting depersonalization is also statistically significant

(F(3–366) = 13.21; p \ 0.05). These dimensions predict 9.8 % of depersonalization

(R2 = 0.098). T values show that deep acting and surface acting are dependent

predictors of depersonalization as in the emotional exhaustion (p \ 0.05). As deep

acting increases, depersonalization decreases (partial r = -0.265). On the other

hand, as surface acting increases, depersonalization also increases (partial

r = 0.121). According to b coefficients, deep acting is the most significant

predictor of emotional exhaustion (b = -0.398).

Table 1 T test results for gender

Emotional labor strategy Gender N M SD df t p

Deep acting Female 284 4.50 0.41 368 2.465 0.014*

Male 86 4.37 0.46

Surface acting Female 284 4.06 0.59 3.794 0.000*

Male 86 3.78 0.64

Genuine emotions Female 284 4.54 0.40 0.750 0.454

Male 86 4.50 0.44

* p \ 0.05

Table 2 T test results for school type

Emotional labor strategy School type N M SD df t p

Deep acting Public 299 4.43 0.42 368 -3.270 0.001*

Private 71 4.62 0.41

Surface acting Public 299 3.97 0.61 -1.375 0.170

Private 71 4.08 0.63

Genuine emotions Public 299 4.49 0.41 -3.298 0.001*

Private 71 4.67 0.37

* p \ 0.05

162 U. Akın et al.

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Table 3 shows the statistical significance of the model testing whether emotional

labor dimensions together predict reduced accomplishment (F(3–366) = 30.35;

p \ 0.05). These dimensions of emotional labor predict 19.9 % of reduced

accomplishment (R2 = 0.199). The t values show that deep acting and genuine

emotions are dependent predictors of emotional exhaustion (p \ 0.05). As deep

acting (partial r = -0.170) and genuine emotions (partial r = -0.184) increase,

reduced accomplishment decreases. According to b coefficients, the genuine

emotions construct is the most significant predictor of emotional exhaustion

(b = -0.239).

Discussion and Conclusion

In Turkey, primary school teachers mostly display genuine emotions in their

relationships with their students, followed by deep and surface acting. On the other

hand, Zhang and Zhu (2008) reported that lecturers used deep acting strategy most

often in relationships with their students in China. We think that employees’

emotional labor strategies may vary depending on cultures. For instance, American

employees are expected to act cheerfully towards customers, while in Russia, such

an attitude might be regarded as mocking (Ashfort and Humphrey 1993). However,

much research is needed to strengthen the claim that cultures have significant effects

on the way teachers display emotional labor. Further cross-cultural research on

emotional labor strategies used by primary school teachers is needed.

Female primary school teachers use deep and surface acting strategies more than

male teachers. Research results report that gender is not an influential factor on

Table 3 Multiple regression summaries for emotional labor predicting burnout

Variables B SE B b t p ZO r p r

Emotional Exhaustion

Deep acting -0.377 0.133 -0.220 -02.834 0.005 -0.192 -0.147

Surface acting 0.118 0.056 0.128 2.116 0.035 -0.015 0.110

Genuine emotions -0.208 0.260 -0.058 -00.801 0.423 -0.159 -0.042

R = 0.223 R2 = 0.050 F(3–366) = 6.374 p = 0.000

Depersonalization

Deep acting -0.400 0.076 -0.398 -05.251 0.000 -0.287 -0.265

Surface acting 0.074 0.032 0.138 2.333 0.020 -0.054 0.121

Genuine emotions 0.109 0.149 0.052 0.730 0.466 -0.171 0.038

R = 0.313 R2 = 0.098 F(3–366) = 13.210 p = 0.000

Reduced Accomplishment

Deep acting -0.273 0.083 -0.235 -03.300 0.001 -0.413 -0.170

Surface acting -0.009 0.035 -0.015 -00.261 0.784 -0.245 -0.014

Genuine emotions -0.580 0.162 -0.239 -03.582 0.000 -0.412 -0.184

R = 0.446 R2 = 0.199 F(3–336) = 30.352 p = 0.000

* p \ 0.05


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emotional labor among teachers (Meier 2005; Uysal 2007). On the other hand,

studies on other professions conclude that females perform more emotional labor

than males (Erickson and Ritter 2001; Kruml and Geddes 2000; Schaible and Gecas

2010). Our finding demonstrates that gender is also an influential factor on

emotional labor among primary school teachers. Our findings about the relationship

between emotional labor and burnout show that deep acting decreases burnout,

while surface acting has an increasing effect. Given this situation, advising female

teachers to use deep acting strategies rather than surface acting may decrease their

burnout. But it must be noted that a limitation of this study is most of our

participants were female (76.8 %). Considering female and male teachers equally in

sampling for future research may be a more consistent way to judge gender effect.

Private school teachers perform the strategies of deep acting and genuine

emotions more often than public school teachers. In Turkey, private school

administrations have more power and authority on teachers than they do in public

schools. Private schools can hire or dismiss teachers when necessary (Private

Instruction Institutions Code 2007). However, public school teachers are assigned

centrally and have life-time employment guarantee. This guarantee applies in spite

of poor performance or problematic relationships with students (see Erdogan and

Demirkasımoglu, 2011). In private schools, teachers are closely monitored by the

school administration, and parent expectations are considerably high when

compared to public schools. Parents choosing private schools are more sensitive

about the care of their children when compared to public school parents because

they are generally more educated. As stated by Hebson et al. (2007) high

expectations of accountability and performance for primary school teachers increase

the probability of performing more emotional labor. Therefore, it might be asserted

that private school teachers follow display rules more strictly than their publicly

employed colleagues.

As deep acting increases, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced

accomplishment decrease among primary school teachers. In the literature, there are

both similar and different findings. Zhang and Zhu (2008) and Meier (2005)

reported a positive correlation between deep acting and burnout among lecturers.

Similarly, Schaible and Gecas (2010) found a positive correlation among deep

acting, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization in police officers. Brotheridge

and Grandey (2002) found a negative correlation between deep acting and reduced

accomplishment among public and private service sector employees. On the other

hand Erickson and Grove (2007) stated that there was no correlation between deep

acting and burnout in nurses. Accordingly, Grandey (2003) found no correlation

between deep acting and emotional exhaustion in executive assistants. It is

understood that studies of different professional groups have provided different

results, and much more research is needed to clarify the relationship between deep

acting and burnout in teachers, as well as among those who work in primary

schools.

In this study, it was found that as the level of surface acting increases, emotional

exhaustion and depersonalization increase too. Diefendorff and Gosserand (2003)

argue that the size of discrepancies between displayed and felt emotions is

positively related to burnout. In line with this argument surface acting is reported as

164 U. Akın et al.

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positively correlated with emotional exhaustion (Grandey 2003; Meier 2005;

Naaring et al. 2011), depersonalization (Brotheridge and Grandey 2002; Naaring

et al. 2006; Schaible and Gecas 2010) and burnout in general (Erickson and Grove

2007; Erickson and Ritter 2001; Zhang and Zhu 2008). Our findings support the

literature that claims surface acting is positively related to burnout. In line with the

literature, we could not find a significant relationship between surface acting and

reduced accomplishment.

As genuine emotions scores increase, reduced accomplishment scores decrease.

Similarly, Zhang and Zhu (2008) reported that genuine emotions scores are

negatively correlated to reduced accomplishment scores. Items of reduced

accomplishment generally focus on the quality of the relationships between

teachers and students. Displaying genuine emotions means teachers act just as they

feel at the time. It can be argued that instead of trying (deep acting) or pretending

(surface acting) to feel an emotion, displaying naturally felt emotions may have a

positive effect on the reduced accomplishment scores of primary school teachers.

In conclusion, as in previous research (Brotheridge and Grandey 2002; Erickson

and Grove 2007; Erickson and Ritter 2001; Grandey 2003; Meier 2005; Naaring

et al. 2006; Schaible and Gecas 2010; Zhang and Zhu 2008), surface acting is found

to be positively related to emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. This result

reflects that, like in other professions, surface acting causes burnout for primary

teachers. We think that this finding is important to understand the nature of burnout

in primary teaching.

Appendix

See Table 4.

Table 4 Means, standard deviations, factor loadings, and item total correlations of emotional labor

Scale Item M SD FLa ITCb

Deep acting

As a teacher, I try to be unbiased towards all students 4.71 0.50 0.812 0.737

I sincerely try to deal with special students in need 4.55 0.63 0.753 0.660

I try to have different viewpoints to avoid prejudices towards students 4.53 0.67 0.783 0.689

I make an effort to act empathetically in relationships with students 4.52 0.66 0.821 0.747

I do my best to help underachievers 4.49 0.68 0.472 0.388

I do my best so as not to reflect my personal problems 4.49 0.71 0.758 0.673

I make an effort to act fairly although I love some students more 4.46 0.76 0.616 0.525

I make an effort so as not to develop negative attitudes towards students

who have family problems

4.35 0.99 0.714 0.620

I try to control myself to stay calm in extraordinary situations in class

(e.g. an accident where a student gets injured)

4.32 0.75 0.686 0.591

I force myself to develop positive attitudes towards undisciplined

students to win them over

4.26 0.76 0.400 0.325


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References

Ashfort, B. E., & Humphrey, R. H. (1993). Emotional labor in service roles: The influence of identity.

Academy of Management Review, 18(1), 88–115.

Basic Code of National Education (1973). From Ministry of National Education website. Retrieved

March 18 2011. http://mevzuat.meb.gov.tr/html/88.html.

Bellas, M. L. (1999). Emotional labor in academia: The case of professors. The ANNALS of the American

Academy of Political and Social Science, 561, 96–110.

Brotheridge, C. M., & Grandey, A. A. (2002). Emotional labor and burnout: Comparing two perspectives

of ‘‘people work’’. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 60, 17–39.

Brotheridge, C.M., & Lee, R.T. (1998, August). On the dimensionality of emotional labor: Development

and validation of an emotional labor scale. Paper presented at the first conference on emotions in

organizational life, San Diego, USA.

Table 4 continued

Scale Item M SD FLa ITCb

Surface acting

I pretend to be happy when students display positive behaviors in order to

reinforce such behaviors

4.33 1.00 0.744 0.614

I pretend to seem well so as not to reflect my personal problems 4.24 0.88 0.320 0.262

I pretend to care about students’ problems when they share their

problems

4.22 1.01 0.600 0.467

I demonstrate affection to special students although I am not eager to 4.20 1.07 0.770 0.666

I pretend to be happy when students tell me something that makes them

happy

4.19 0.94 0.760 0.643

I pretend to be sad when students tell me something that makes them sad 4.19 0.87 0.628 0.535

I respond to demonstrations of affection by students even when I do not

feel like doing so

4.12 0.86 0.619 0.509

I hide my feelings from those who I like more than others 4.11 0.89 0.342 0.300

I pretend to be enthusiastic even when I am in a bad mood in order to

motivate students

4.10 0.81 0.425 0.361

I laugh at students’ jokes even when they are not funny 3.77 1.00 0.466 0.387

I pretend to be sad to prevent students’ negative behaviors 3.71 1.07 0.614 0.519

I exaggeratedly praise students’ correct answers even when I do not feel

like doing so

3.57 1.07 0.747 0.658

I pretend to be cross with students to prevent the repetition of undesirable

student behaviors

3.16 1.17 0.402 0.306

Genuine emotions

I feel good when I see students being cheerful 4.85 0.39 0.762 0.575

I compassionately support students with health problems for their

academic achievement

4.68 0.53 0.791 0.598

I sincerely support underachievers by believing in them 4.44 0.70 0.759 0.585

In case of emergency (e.g. fire), I stay calm 4.35 0.75 0.647 0.446

I feel sad when I see students being sad 4.32 0.80 0.636 0.445

a Factor loadings (for pilot study)b Item total correlations (for pilot study)

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Author Biographies

Dr. Ugur Akın works as an assistant professor in the field of educational administration and supervision

at Gaziosmanpasa University. His is interested in researching organizational behavior in educational

organizations.

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Dr. Inayet Aydın works as a professor in the field of educational administration and supervision at

Ankara University. Her research interest focuses on supervision of education, ethics in education, and in-

service education.

Dr. Cetin Erdogan works as an assistant professor in the field of educational administration and

supervision at Yıldız Technical University. His is interested in researching school administration.

Dr. Nihan Demirkasımoglu is an assistant professor in the field of educational administration and

supervision at Ankara University. Her research interest focuses on human resources management and

psychological contract in organizations.


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Emotional labor and burnout among Turkish primary school teachers

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