Emotional Exhaustion in University Teachers: Contributing Aspects and Mediating Mechanisms

Nowadays, employees in the higher education sector are faced with an increasingly demanding environment, which can lead to high levels of stress and emotional exhaustion. In this context, the Demand-Resource Model can explain the different variables that influence the emotional exhaustion of professors. However, although the model has been tested on different samples of workers, there is a lack of literature on other variables that may mediate this relationship. In this sense, this research aims to investigate the mediating effect of psychological capital, a positive psychological construct, on the relationship between job demands and resources and its impact on emotional exhaustion. To this end, we conducted a survey of 205 professors from different Ecuadorian universities. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was applied to the data collected. The results showed that high work resources had a direct impact on emotional exhaustion, as suggested by the model, and that this relationship was mediated by psychological capital. Similarly, high job demands (high work rhythms and emotional demands) were another source of emotional exhaustion, although in this case the relationship was not significantly mediated by psychological capital. The study shows that high job demands significantly increase emotional exhaustion, whereas an adequately resourced work environment, such as fair leadership and supervisor support, promotes psychological safety and reduces emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, psychological capital positively modulates the influence of resources on emotional exhaustion but shows no significant mediation with job demands.