Curvilinear relationship between emotional labour and work engagement in nurses: A correlational study

To examine if there was a curvilinear relationship between emotional labour and work engagement in Chinese nurses.

Emotional labour has both positive and negative effects on work engagement, but the curve relationship between the two has not been tested.

Correlational design.

Multi-stage stratified random sampling was used to recruit samples, and 528 nurses from 5 tertiary first-class general hospitals were recruited in Henan Province. Data were collected by using Hong and Kim's Emotional Labor Scale for nurse and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-9. Curve estimation was used to explore the functional model between emotional labour and work engagement. Results were reported according to the STROBE Statement.

The three dimensions of emotional labour, 'emotional control effort in profession', 'patient-focused emotional suppression' and 'emotional pretense by norms', had a function relationship of quadratic (R²  = .57, p < .001), quadratic (R²  = .569, p < .001) and cubic (R²  = .238, p < .001), respectively, with work engagement.

There was a one-way increasing quadratic function relationship between 'emotional control effort in profession' and work engagement. However, 'patient-focused emotion suppression' and 'emotional pretense by norms' had an inverted U-shaped curve relationship with work engagement. Below the moderate level, 'patient-focused emotion suppression' and 'emotional pretense by norms' were positively related to work engagement. After a certain level, they were negatively related to work engagement.

Our results may provide evidences to manage nurses' emotional labour and improve their work engagement. It seems that encouraging or training nurses to learn and master more strategies of emotional control may improve work engagement. Moreover, nursing managers should fully recognise the positive and negative effects of different levels of emotional suppression and emotional pretense on work engagement, so as to develop targeted management strategies.