Katherine I. Miller

Communication and empathy as precursors to burnout among human service workers

This research considers the role of communicative responsiveness, empathic concern, and emotional contagion as precursors to burnout among human service workers. Theory and research drawn from the areas of stress and burnout, empathy, and patient‐doctor communication are used to formulate a causal model of the burnout process. The model is tested with data from employees at a large psychiatric hospital. The results indicate that empathic concern leads to communicative responsiveness but that emotional contagion decreases responsiveness. Communicative responsiveness, in turn, leads to the prediction of three dimensions of burnout and occupational commitment. The implications of the model for theory and practice are discussed.

An Integrated Model of Communication, Stress, and Burnout in the Workplace

This research presents an integration of past research and theory that models the impact of stressful aspects of the workplace and key communication variables on employee burnout, occupational commitment, and work satisfaction. Two theoretical frameworks—social information processing theory (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978) and uncertainty reduction theory (Berger & Calabrese, 1975)—are drawn on to propose a model in which communication variables lead to two stress variables then to burnout and finally to job satisfaction and occupational commitment. Data to test the proposed models were drawn from employees at a private psychiatric hospital. The results indicate that both participation in decision making and social support have important impacts on perceived workplace stress, burnout, satisfaction, and commitment for both care-givers and support personnel. Perception of participation in the decision-making process was found to be particularly crucial in reducing role stress and increasing perceptions of satisfaction and personal accomplishment for hospital care-givers. The implications of the model for theory and practice are discussed.

The Influence of Communication Structure and Social Support on Job Stress and Burnout

This study examined the relationship among structural communicative variables and perceptions of social support, stress, and burnout in a sample of elementary school teachers. Specifically, it was hypothesized that participation in decision making, network link strength, and link multiplexity would influence perceptions of supervisory (principal) and co-worker support. These perceptions, and workload, then influence burnout and job satisfaction. The results provide support for a model that (a) suggests a differentiation between relational depth and relational breadth in predicting perceived support, (b) highlights the importance of supportive communication in reducing role ambiguity, and (c) suggests that burnout has distinctive affective and exhaustion dimensions that should be considered in future research.

Empathy and Burnout in Human Service Work An Extension of a Communication Model

Burnout is an often-cited danger of human service work, and emotional communication is one of the most important causes of burnout in such jobs. In this paper, we review theoretical work on emotional communication and burnout, concentrating on the Empathic Communication Model of Burnout (Miller, Stiff, & Ellis, 1988). We then argue that a consideration of job involvement, organizational role, and attitude regarding service recipients could enhance the extent to which this model constitutes a complete understanding of the burnout process. We pose several research questions and one hypothesis regarding the role of these variables in affecting the fit of the Empathic Communication Model and test them with a sample of workers who provide services to the homeless. The results of our research provide support for a modified version of the Empathic Communication Model and suggest that the moderating variables of job involvement, organizational role, and attitude about service recipients influence the impact of various portions of the model in explaining burnout.

“Let Me Tell You About My Job”: Exploring the Terrain of Emotion in the Workplace

Because of the rapid growth in literature on emotion and communication in organizations and the many disciplinary homes of this work, scholars use many conceptualizations of emotion in the workplace. In this article, the authors map the terrain of emotion and communication in the workplace. They first review extant literature and argue for five types of organizational emotion: emotional labor (inauthentic emotion in interaction with customers and clients), emotional work (authentic emotion in interaction customers and clients), emotion with work (emotion stemming from interaction with coworkers), emotion at work (emotion from nonwork sources experienced in the work-place), and emotion toward work (emotions in which work is the target of the feeling). They then explore these types of emotion through an analysis of workplace narratives from the books Working (Terkel, 1972) and Gig (Bowe, Bowe, & Streeter, 2000). Themes that characterize workplace emotion are considered, and directions for future research are proposed.

The Experience of Emotion in the Workplace Professing in the Midst of Tragedy

Emotion in the workplace has increasingly become an issue of importance to organizational and management scholars. This article takes a very personal look at emotion in the workplace. Using autoethnographic and interview methods, the experience of teaching in the days following the Texas A&M University “bonfire” collapse in November of 1999 is examined. The lens of emotional labor is placed on this event by considering the intense experience of emotions and the struggle to balance emotional needs of students with the need to cover course material. Scholarship in the areas of emotion, identification, and community are drawn on in the consideration of lessons learned from this experience.

Occupational Differences in the Influence of Communication on Stress and Burnout in the Workplace

This article reports on research that explored the experience of stress and burnout, and the influence of communicative variables on stress and burnout, in four distinct employee groups within a single organization. Research and theory reviewed suggest that distinctions in job characteristics and organizational subcultures should influence relationships among stressors, burnout, and communicative behaviors for different occupations. The research conducted bears this out. There were not large differences among employee groups in terms of levels of stress, burnout, and satisfaction, or in the relationships between stressors and burnout and between burnout and satisfaction. However, the role of communication in the burnout process varied in the different employee groups. Participation in decision making had a large impact on burnout for administrative employees and support from co-workers had a large effect on burnout for nursing employees.

Communication and Coordination in an Interorganizational System Service Provision for the Urban Homeless

Homelessness in todays urban centers poses a problem of huge proportions. Increasingly, the homeless and the urban dilemma are intertwined. Cause and effect are blurred as the needs of the homeless confront and affront while shaping urban policy. Because of the diverse nature and needs of the American homeless population, individual organizations are not able to provide the range of services necessary for survival on the street and long-term recovery off the street. The authors present a grounded theory study of coordination and communication in the provision of service to the urban homeless. They begin by reviewing theoretical perspectives on communication and coordination in interorganizational relationships. They then consider this literature in light of the urban homelessness context.

Communication and Materiality: A Conversation from the CM Café

The Communication Monographs Cafe´ first opened six months ago when it hosted agroup of scholars to talk about issues social justice and public scholarship. Theconversation was wide-ranging and stimulating, so we knew it was important to openthe Cafe´ on a regular basis for more interaction about the issues that are engagingtoday’s communication researchers. This time, we opened the Cafe´ during thesummer months*iced drinks were the norm, and there was a bit of coming andgoing with busy schedules of travel and school responsibilities closing down. ThisCafe´opening was initially suggested by Tim Kuhn (University of Colorado) and PaulLeonardi (Northwestern University) who were interested in talking about theintersection of communication, materiality, and knowledge. Four other scholarswere also excited to be part of the conversation: Mark Aakhus (Rutgers University),Dawna Ballard (University of Texas), Andrew Flanagin (University of CaliforniaSanta Barbara), and Jennifer Mease (Texas A&M University).As before, the CM Cafe´was facilitated through a private group on Facebook. And,as before, this setting for the Cafe´ was both enabling in allowing for asynchronousengagement in the conversation and constraining (i.e., an entire post from Paul waslost in the ether and Mark at one point posted ‘‘I really hate this FB interface’’).As you’ll see, however, the Facebook context was also important fodder for thediscussion! The talk in the Cafe´ was wide-ranging and engaging, covering issues ofdefinition, theory, and application. Interestingly, though the conversation turned onoccasion to the issue of knowledge originally planned for the Cafe´, the majority ofposts concerned topics of materiality and communication. Thus, given the spaceconstraints of the journal and the volume of posts to choose from, I decided toconcentrate on issues of communication and materiality in my excerpting of theconversation. I organized the text here by first considering the initial question I raisedin the Cafe´ regarding materiality and communication. Three threads of explicationemerged from this question, and then the conversation converged on an example.From there, Cafe´ participants attended to related questions of technology and whatcommunication scholars can contribute to the ongoing research. So I invite you,reader, to pour yourself a beverage and enjoy the conversation.**********

Communication and Mental Health: A Conversation from the CM Café

The Communication Monographs Café is once again open for business. After stimulating conversations about social justice and public scholarship (Volume 78, Issue 2), about communication and materiality (Volume 78, Issue 4), and about theory and research in the age of new media (Volume 78, Issue 2), in the spring of 2012 I found myself casting about for another topic that would consider critical interests in society and the discipline, that would engage us in both theoretical and applied ways, and that would cut across subdisciplinary boundaries. I asked some key members of my editorial board for ideas, and one idea surfaced several times a consideration of the role of communication in processes of mental illness and mental health. Luckily, a number of scholars engaged with this topic agreed to stop by the CM Café in June, and the conversation commenced. Joining me in the Café for this round were Carla L. Fisher (George Mason University), Daena Goldsmith (Lewis & Clark College), Kristen Harrison (University of Michigan), Cynthia A. Hoffner (Georgia State University), Chris Segrin (University of Arizona), and Kevin Wright (St. Louis University). As before, the CM Café was facilitated through a private group on Facebook, and the setting of the Café allowed participants to drop in and out of the conversation, post their own questions as desired, and take each other down new paths as ideas diverged and converged. It was an early summer conversation, and participants who were celebrating the end of the school term engaged in high-spirited and interesting discussion. I opened the Café with a few questions the simplest of these being ‘‘How and why is communication associated with mental health?’’ Chris Segrin took the first shot at this question, and from there participants jumped in with thoughts of their own, discussions of relevant research programs, and movements down a variety of theoretical and methodological paths. So relax with your beverage of choice, and listen in to the conversation. Chris: Because human beings are inherently social animals, connections with other human beings are essential to well-being. When communication problems prevent or corrupt those connections our psychological systems react accordingly. For a parallel, consider how physiological systems react to a lack of nourishment.