Detached Concern, Me and My Clients – Professionals’ Emotion Regulation, Burnout, and Patients’ Care Quality at Work

Abstract

Detached Concern and its core dimensions – employees’ concern toward and detachment from their clients – are important facets of the emotion-generative process during client interaction in people-oriented work environments. We studied the intra- and interpersonal effects of Detached Concern on professionals’ burnout (N = 1411) and patient-centered care quality (N = 332 patients; 43 physicians). Our findings indicate different Detached Concern types. Balanced employees (scoring high on concern and detachment) yielded lower burnout levels compared to imbalanced professionals. Patients’ perception of care quality was positively related to their physicians’ concern and detachment, and was significantly higher for the balanced than for the imbalanced physicians.

Citation

Lampert, B. and Unterrainer, C. (2017), "Detached Concern, Me and My Clients – Professionals’ Emotion Regulation, Burnout, and Patients’ Care Quality at Work", Emotions and Identity (Research on Emotion in Organizations, Vol. 13), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 111-133. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1746-979120170000013007