Abstract
Arlie Russell Hochschild (1983), who pioneered the field of emotional labor studies, contends that performing emotional labor has detrimental effects on the human psyche. Burnout, which is defined as a symptom of emotional numbness, is one of the effects mentioned. However, the empirical examinations of her contention have revealed somewhat equivocal results (e.g., Wharton 1993). Moreover, the question of how the performance of emotional labor could lead to burnout has been left for further examination. This is also true of the Japanese academic community, because scholars in Japan have seldom conducted empirical research on this topic. This paper, therefore, attempts to explore the mechanism involved in the relation between emotional labor and burnout by analyzing a set of empirical data collected through interviews with care laborers.
The results of this study indicate that not being able to perform emotional labor, rather than performing it, is associated with the care laborers' experiences of burnout. More specifically, it is suggested that care laborers who internalize their emotion work roles well are more likely to experience burnout when the work environment does not allow them to fulfill their roles. These should be regarded as significant findings, because they can refute the often claimed assumptions that performing emotional labor causes burnout, and that role internalization acts as a preventive measure against the emotional laborers' experiencing burnout.
