Emotional labour job characteristics in compassion work – differentiating exposure, empathy, compassion, and distancing

ABSTRACT

Previous research on compassion work has focused on the emotion regulation of human services workers. However, little attention has been paid to the job characteristics of this work. In this paper, we conceptualise a model of compassion work that differentiates the task characteristics (1) exposure and (2) empathy, and the work style requirements (3) compassion and (4) distancing. We tested an operationalisation of our compassion work model for its factor structure and validity in two studies (total N = 985). Our findings confirmed the proposed four-factor structure. Moreover, as expected, exposure was positively related to engagement and burnout, suggesting exposure is a challenge stressor in compassion work; empathy was positively related to burnout, suggesting empathy is a hindrance stressor in compassion work; compassion was positively related to work engagement and work meaningfulness, suggesting it supports self-enhancement in compassion work; and finally distancing was negatively related to burnout, suggesting it supports health and well-being in compassion work. Overall, these findings suggest our model is a promising vantage point for future research, job design, and health prevention in compassion work.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotional labour
• compassion
• empathy
• empathic distress
• detached concern
• work role analysis

Acknowledgements

Editor Paula Brough and two anonymous reviewers made significant suggestions to improve a former version of our manuscript and we greatly appreciate their careful attention and valuable suggestions to what we hoped to accomplish.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 O*NET defines work styles as personal characteristics that can affect how well someone performs a job, see https://www.onetonline.org/find/descriptor/browse/1.C/1.C.1/1.C.4/1.C.5/1.C.3/1.C.7/1.C.2.

2 The online supplement can be found at: Andrea Fischbach (2023). Online Supplement. figshare. Online resource. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22548109.v2.