Cognitive processes of emotional regulation, burnout and work engagement.

BACKGROUND: Workers constantly resort to cognitive processes of emotion regulation to deal with emotions they experience in the workplace. These processes belong either to the “automatic” (preconscious and fast) or the “elaborative” (conscious and slow) mode. This study aims to determine the role of these variables in the work setting and to analyze their relationship with positive and negative affect, engagement and burnout.

METHOD: 350 employees (54.8% men and 45.2% women) were presented with several instruments measuring burnout, engagement, affect and cognitive emotion regulation strategies in a prospective study. An explanatory model was tested through structural equation modeling analysis.

RESULTS: Acceptable fit indices and a significant explanatory value both for burnout (61%) and engagement (58%) were obtained. The use of “automatic” cognitive regulation strategies was associated with the presence of negative affect and burnout whereas “elaborative” processes were associated with positive affect and engagement.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings underscore the importance of the role of cognitive emotion regulation in organizational settings.