Effects of quality of work life on emotional exhaustion: A study among nurses in Malaysia

Abstract

This research aimed to check the curtailment of the emotional exhaustion among the staff nurses in Malaysia using the quality of work-life scale (QWL) at the workplace provided by the health care organizations. This research used self-reported adopted scales and collected data from 432 respondents analyzed with partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results revealed that the social integration at work, social relevance of work, and work and total life span had significantly reduced the impact of emotional exhaustion among the nurses in Malaysia. The effects of the constitution at the work organization, the opportunity for growth and security, and work and life span can insignificantly affect the curtailment of emotional exhaustion. The results of the PLS-SEM importance-performance map analysis revealed that the most important four dimensions of QWL that influence the curtailment of emotional exhaustion were safe and healthy working conditions, social integration in the work organization, the social relevance of work, and constitution at the work organization. The managers of the health care industry must provide the necessary QWL attributes to address emotional exhaustion among nursing staff. By addressing the emotional exhaustion issue among the nursing staff, their work responsibilities and work performance can be enhanced.