Survey ofAn Investigation of the Relationship between Emotional Labor and Job Satisfaction among the Executives and Nursing Managers of the Teaching Hospitals Affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences

Introduction and Due to vast and varied nature of their work, managers need to operate in a wide range of emotions. In addition, managers must be able to determine when to show certain emotions. This shows the important role of emotional labor in management positions which can in turn affect the manager's job satisfaction. Therefore the current study aims to investigate the relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction among executives and nursing managers of educational hospitals of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. This is a descriptive, correlation study using field survey method. The study population consisted of executives and nursing managers of educational hospitals of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. The sample size of 250 people was selected using census method. Data collection was carried out using a translated version of a questionnaire whose validity and reliability were approved (α=0/81). The questionnaires were distributed among the study population and the resulting data was analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics with the help of SPSS18 software. The rate of emotional labor among the executive and nursing management of the selected hospitals was average while the job satisfaction, deep interaction and genuine emotions were reported to be above average and the rate of surface interaction was lower than average. The results showed that there is a direct and significant statistical relationship between the genuine emotions dimension of emotional labor and job satisfaction (P<0/05). However there was no statistically significant relationship between the other dimensions of emotional labor (surface interaction and deep interaction) and job satisfaction of the managers. It can be concluded that, like in general population, the closer the emotional labor of the managers is to what they really feel (genuine emotions); the greater their job satisfaction.