Emotional exhaustion and job performance: The mediating role of motivation.

In 2 time-lagged samples, the authors found that motivation mediates the emotional exhaustion-job performance relationship and participants appear to target their investment of resources in response to emotional exhaustion to develop social support through social exchange.

Abstract

The literature concerning the relationship between emotional exhaustion and performance led researchers to raise questions about the extent to which the variables are related. In 2 time-lagged samples, the authors found that motivation mediates the emotional exhaustion-job performance relationship. Moreover, the authors found that participants appear to target their investment of resources in response to emotional exhaustion to develop social support through social exchange; specifically, emotional exhaustion was associated with communion striving resources that were manifest in the form of organizational citizenship behaviors targeted at individuals. Implications of this relationship for theories of burnout and for management practice are discussed.