The role of high-involvement work practices, supervisor support and employee resilience in supporting the emotional labour of front-line nurses

Emotional labour (EL) is garnering increasing attention due to the potential negative consequences on employees and organisations. This is especially prevalent with front-line healthcare workers, resulting in high occupational turnover intention. Our study examines the use of high-involvement work practices (HIWPs), supervisor support and resilience as support resources for front-line nurses’ emotional labour and work engagement to mitigate occupational turnover intention among nurses in Australia. Data was collected via a nationwide survey of 2,984 nurses and midwives. A significant positive relationship was identified between EL and occupational turnover intentions, mediated by work engagement. The provision of HIWPs resources, supervisor support and individual resilience play an important role in ‘buffering’ the negative impact of emotional labour on work engagement and the occupational turnover intention of nurses. The key message of our study demonstrates that multi-level resources, organisational (HIWPs), relational (supervisor support) and individual (employee resilience) are important for mitigating the effects of emotional labour on occupational turnover intentions.