Supportive Climate and Its Protective Role in the Emotion Rule Dissonance – Emotional Exhaustion Relationship: A Multilevel Analysis

Emotion work, or the requirement to display certain emotions during service interactions, may produce burnout when these emotions are not truly felt – emotion rule dissonance. Building on the support-buffering model we hypothesized that a supportive climate should provide emotional resources to employees protecting them against strain from emotion work. We tested this multilevel prediction in a sample of 317 front-line employees nested in 99 work units at large Spanish hotels and restaurants. Our results showed that supportive climate protects employees against experiencing emotional exhaustion (main effect) and attenuates the negative effects of emotion rule dissonance on emotional exhaustion (moderating effects). These results provide empirical evidence for the important role of supportive climate as a buffer between emotion work and well-being.