Job Demands and Emotional Exhaustion in Vietnam Service Industry: The Moderating Effect of Psychological Contract Breach

Abstract

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Emotional Exhaustion as first symptom of Job burnout has become a critical issue for service occupations. In recognition of the job challenges in this industry and the consequences on employees’ health and wellbeing, this study aims to examine the influence of Job Demands on Emotional Exhaustion for Vietnam service workers. Furthermore, Psychological Contract Breach which arose perceived unfairness in employees was also tested for moderating effect on the relationship between Job Demands and Emotional Exhaustion. This study applied quantitative approach with survey- based methodology for Vietnam service employees. Both online and paper-based questionnaires were distributed to collect data, with the total of 245 respondents. The statistic software SPSS 23.0 was used to test all hypotheses in this study. The resulted presented that Job Demands (including Workload, Cognitive Demand and Emotional Demand) all positively related to Emotional Exhaustion. Meanwhile, Psychological Contract Breach strengthened this relationship, not only for Job Demands in general, but also each dimension in particular. Overall, these findings not only contributed to the literature by broadening knowledge about Job Demands, Psychological Contract Breach and Emotional Exhaustion issue with the theory of Job Demands-resources as the based framework, but also provided meaningful practical implications for service industry practitioners in Vietnam.