Abstract

Emotional inertia refers to the rate of change in emotional experiences and it is generally operationalized as the autocorrelation of an emotion. The present study aims at investigating the associations of emotional inertia in negative emotions with emotional exhaustion at work. The sample is composed of 94 Italian workers who work directly with the public. In accordance with the principles of COR Theory (Hobfoll, 1989), we hypothesize that individuals high in emotional exhaustion may lack the resources to adapt their emotions to external events. Results from multilevel analyses confirmed the hypothesis of the study. All in all, our results attest the significant links between emotional inertia and a core dimension of burnout, namely emotional exhaustion.