The Mediating Effect Of Organizational Trust On The Link Between The Areas Of Work Life And Emotional Exhaustion

Abstract

The study tests an integrative model that considers the plausible effects of different areas of work life on emotional exhaustion. It also tests the mediating effect of organizational trust on this relationship. More specifically, while perceived incongruence in six areas of work life (workload, fairness, reward, community, control and value) is treated as a predictor of emotional exhaustion, organizational trust is treated as a mediating factor in understanding the underlying mechanism of emotional exhaustion in academicians. Data were collected from 201 academicians working in public universities in Turkey and were analyzed using a structural equation model. Results provided partial support for the proposed conceptual model. Specifically, organizational trust mediated the link between four areas of work life (i.e., workload, fairness, reward, and value) and emotional exhaustion. Contrary to our expectations, the mediating effect of organizational trust was found to be insignificant for community and control. Findings suggest the importance of building organizational trust by focusing on six areas of work life in order to prevent burnout in academicians.