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“Yuck, that’s disgusting!”—“No, not to me!”: Antecedents of disgust in geriatric care and its relation to emotional exhaustion and intention to leave

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Abstract

Core disgust is a common but hushed up stressor in nursing. We seek to change this problematic situation by examining several antecedents (e.g., emotional self-efficacy, job autonomy) and consequences of core disgust (e.g., emotional exhaustion, intention to leave) based on affective events theory. Furthermore, we investigate the moderating role of organizational identification in the relation between inauthenticity and intention to leave, proposing that high identification buffers negative effects. Data were collected from 423 geriatric nurses working in 50 care institutions. Multi-level structural equation model was applied and indicated a good data fit of our model. Emotional self-efficacy and job autonomy were negatively associated with core disgust; core disgust was positively related to inauthenticity and emotional exhaustion. Indirect effects were identified for core disgust on intention to leave, mediated by inauthenticity and emotional exhaustion. Finally, organizational identification was a significant moderator. Thus, an appropriate coping with core disgust is important for (geriatric) nurses’ health and should deserve more attention in research on turnover.

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Acknowledgments

This study is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG; WE 1504/12-1). We are very grateful for the comments that the two reviewers have given us on our initial submission.

Conflict of interest

No author of this study has any conflicts of interests pertaining to this submission to Motivation and Emotion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Institute of Work-, Organizational- and Social Psychology, TU Dresden, Zellescher Weg 17, 01062, Dresden, Germany

    Katharina Julia Goerdeler, Jürgen Wegge & Paulina Bilinska

  2. Department of Psychology, Institute of Educational- and Developmental Psychology, TU Dresden, Zellescher Weg 17, 01062, Dresden, Germany

    Nadine Schrod

  3. Department of Psychology, Institute of General-, Biological Psychology and Methods of Psychology, TU Dresden, Zellescher Weg 17, 01062, Dresden, Germany

    Matthias Rudolf

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  1. Katharina Julia Goerdeler
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Goerdeler, K.J., Wegge, J., Schrod, N. et al. “Yuck, that’s disgusting!”—“No, not to me!”: Antecedents of disgust in geriatric care and its relation to emotional exhaustion and intention to leave. Motiv Emot 39, 247–259 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-014-9431-4

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