Organizational Support and Emotional Labor of the Employees in a Government Hospital

Abstract: COVID-19 presented an unprecedented challenge for healthcare workers and systems around the world. This study explored the extent of organizational support and level of emotional labor of the employees in a government hospital in Negros Occidental amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a mixed method research which also described the experiences of healthcare workers of a government hospital. A survey questionnaire thru google form was sent to 313 respondents and an online and face to face interview were done with 3 participants for the qualitative part. Age, sex, length of service, status of employment and division assigned were the demographic variables in the study. Based on the aspects of organizational support that includes; perceived organizational support, organizational empowerment and organizational rewards, employees rated these aspects as to great or to great extent of organizational support. On the part of Level of Emotional Labor, the overall result obtained a moderately high level of emotional labor. And it is also noted that on the aspect of deep acting, result showed that there is a high level of emotional labor for the employees of a government hospital. In conclusion, the findings provide a clear insight that employees of a government hospital are satisfied with extent of organizational support that the organization is providing them and maintains a moderately high level of emotional labor in the organization. For the qualitative side of study, the following themes resulted in the study: (4) significant themes described their experiences, namely: 1) Challenges experienced by healthcare workers, with sub themes (Workplace changes during the pandemic, work challenges brought by pandemic, Social stigma and discrimination, Mental and Emotional Health Concerns 2) Pulling through COVID-19 and 3) Support for Frontline Health Care Workers and 4) Healthcare workers’ resilience. Keywords: Business Administration, Organizational support, emotional labor, healthcare workers, concurrent mixed methods research design, Philippines