Toxin handlers risk emotional exhaustion
Apr, 2009
This research, being done in collaboration with Carol Kulik from the University of South Australia and Christina Cregan from the University of Melbourne, has just been accepted for publication by the Human Resource Management Journal.
By Isabel Metz
Organisational behaviour senior lecturer
Melbourne Business School
Working with toxic emotions in the workplace, created by stress such as organisational change or retrenchment, can be as hazardous to HR managers as working with physical toxins.
Research by Isabel Metz, organisational behaviour senior lecturer at Melbourne Business School, and her colleagues has found that repeated exposure to colleagues' toxic emotions dulls the sensitivities of HR managers, and negatively impacts the effectiveness of their work and the health and quality of their lives.
But formalising toxin handling activities buffers HR managers from its negative effects, according to Metz.
"Toxin handlers" are organisational members, usually HR managers, who help colleagues manage negative emotions in the workplace.
"Toxin handling activities may help distressed employees to remain productive, but these activities put the toxin handler at risk of emotional exhaustion," Metz says.
"This research evaluated the experience of more than 400 HR managers or toxin handlers, who manage emotionally-charged employee problems.
"It found that HR managers whose organisations had made handling emotionally-charged employee problems a formal part of HR responsibilities experienced lower levels of emotional exhaustion, and perceived HR as more effective, even when they engaged in high levels of toxin handling."
Past research has focused attention on the dynamics that lead to developing human strength and resilience in an organisation. However, little empirical research has been directed toward toxin handling.
Metz claims it is important to examine toxin handling because the HR profession is undergoing dramatic changes and as the HR professional's goals become more closely aligned with management, short-term profitability goals may dominate, and improving employee satisfaction, empowerment, and job security may be neglected.
She adds that emotions are contagious and the positive emotions created by the transfer of help from one individual to another can spread through the organisation.
The HR managers in this study reported that almost 25% of their time, on average, is spent on emotionally-charged problems.
In the absence of HR managers proactively engaging in toxin handling, employees are likely to rely on their friendship network. However, this is risky strategy. Not all employees have well-developed friendship networks in their workplace and employee problems may escalate and be transformed into union grievances or legal claims.
Based on this research, Metz suggests some simple strategies for protecting HR managers from toxic fallout.
Firstly, write toxin handling responsibilities directly into an employee's job description, set goals for accomplishing these responsibilities, and monitor and reward these responsibilities during performance reviews.
Encourage problem-focused coping mechanisms by showing the HR professional how to put aside other activities to focus specifically on the problem.
Also encourage "role separation," differentiating between oneself and one's role so that the emotional demands of the patient are absorbed by the role rather than the role holder.
And finally, where possible, inform the HR manager of organisational change that might precipitate a spike in demand for emotional support, such as downsizing.
