The Effect Of Perceived Supervisor Support By Health Care Professionals On Emotional Labor: A Comparative Study Of A Public And A Private Hospital

The purpose of the present paper is to set forth the effect of perceived supervisor support on emotional labor through comparing public and private medical institutions, in order to seek the answer to the question “To what extent is the support given by the supervisor to healthcare professional effective on the healthcare professional manifesting the expected emotional labor behavior?”. The sample group of the study consists of a total of 300 randomly selected healthcare professionals, 150 from a public health institution and 150 from a private health institution in a province in Thrace Region. In the testing of the hypotheses, by implementing statistical analyses on the data obtained from an 8-item ‘perceived supervisor support’ scale and an 13-item, 3-subdimension ‘emotional labor scale’ it was determined supervisor support has partial effect on emotional labor for healthcare professionals working in both public and private health institutions. While in both health institutions these effects cover the effect of supervisor support within the in-depth behavior dimension, in private health sector the effects also cover those within the intimate behavior dimension. In terms of occupational and demographic characteristics, on the other hand, supervisor support perception differentiates both in public and private health institutions. In terms of occupational and demographic characteristics, on the other hand, supervisor support perception differentiates in choosing occupation in both public and private health institutions. It has been further determined that while gender differentiates supervisor support perception and intimate behavior in public health institutions, in private health institutions having a child differentiates superficial behavior and holding watch differentiates in-depth behavior