The source of display rules and their effects on primary health care professionals' well-being

Employees' perceptions of the emotional requirements of their work role are considered a necessary antecedent of emotion work. The impact of these requirements on the emotions employees display, their well-being, and their clients' satisfaction has been explored in previous research. Emotional requirements have been characterized as organizationally-based expectations (e.g., Brotheridge & Lee, 2003), formal and informal organizational rules (e.g., Cropanzano, Weiss & Elias, 2004), occupational norms (e.g., Rafaeli & Sutton, 1987; Smith & Kleinman, 1989) and job-based demands (Brotheridge & Lee, 2002). Although all these definitions assume some kind of shared source for perceptions of emotional requirements, it remains unclear to what extent these different sources contribute and to what extent the requirements are shared by different units, teams and individuals in the organization. The present study analyses the perception of emotional requirements from a survey of ninety-seven Primary Health Care teams composed of general practitioners, nurses and administrative staff (N = 1057). The relative contribution of different sources of variance (team, organizational, and occupational) to perceived emotional requirements and the effects on employees' job satisfaction and well being are examined. Results confirm the relevance of the source and show the contribution of emotional demands to prediction of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction levels.