Limitantes de la producción agroindustrial costera

known about the importance of social support as a buffer to wellbeing deficits in work situations in which interpersonal contact and active emotional management is an important part of the role. Support from co-workers was most important for employees groups due its availability and a sense of shared experience and understanding.

This research showed that those employees who expended the greatest emotional resources in their role had the greatest need for support. Furthermore, the type of

support that was most beneficial matched the type of expenditure in each situation. For example, palliative care nurses showed the greatest emotional investment in their role of all four groups. The type of emotional expenditure was mainly emotion focused. Their engagement with clients‟ and their work in helping them to come to term with issues surrounding death was central to their role. In response to their emotional expenditure, the palliative care nurses sought out emotional support from co-workers. This support was clearly very important with a good deal of forethought as to how this might be accessed when it was most needed.

The emergency nurses also showed evidence of emotional engagement and mangement as being important in their role; however the purpose of this level of emotional work was mainly as a means of protecting themselves and others in the vicinity and to ensure the ongoing viability of treatment in the department. Therefore, it could be said that they mainly used emotion management skills instrumentally and not as an end in itself. In line with this instrumental purpose, the support that was most crucial to them was also instrumental with only a few references to emotional support.

co-workers when confronted with violent or abusive clients. In addition, the

organisational mechanisms that assisted and sanctioned the authority of emergency nurses to have abusive and violent clients removed from the workplace were also very important sources of instrumental support. This support gave the emergency nurses confidence to assert their right to be treated respectfully.

In contrast to the high level of emotional management in the roles of the palliative care and emergency nurses, the patient registration and clerks showed evidence of a lower level of the use of emotional management strategies. Consistent with COR theory, this greater emotional distance was associated with reduced need for support as an ongoing requirement in the role. When necessary, it appears as though co- workers were still important, however the clerks‟ sanctioned ability to remove

themselves physically from the interactions with clients completely, was an

individualised emotional management strategy not available to employees in any of the other groups.

The situation for the renal nurses was quite different and serves as an important indicator that extreme types of contact may bring with it unique challenges in terms of emotional regulation. In respect to support, the relaxed, family like environment of renal dialysis wards with the very long and intensive contact with clients was associated with an apparent absence for the need for ongoing support as a buffer to emotional

management and the emotional expenditure involved. However, during and after emotionally disturbing instances, the renal nurses described a lack of preparedness to respond on the part of both co-workers and the organisation. Even though the instances in which a significant level of required support may have been rare, descriptions of their

aftermath and a failure to provide adequate support during these times indicates the likelihood of lasting individual and organisational problems. In comparison, the salience of, and constant need for support in the palliative care and emergency nurses was

associated with a high level of preparedness. This preparedness to support and be supported may result in less emotional exhaustion and other wellbeing and performance problems even in these environments requiring a great deal of ongoing emotional expenditure.

The social support findings in the current research supports Hobfoll‟s (1989) COR model as a way of explaining the importance of support and its relationship to emotional expenditure. Specifically, this research shows that the required level of support varied in response to the level of emotional expenditure, and the type of support needed to match the type and purpose for emotional expenditure. In addition, available and more relevant sources of support become more important when other sources were unavailable.

Previous research has identified various types of support to be important in affecting positive wellbeing outcomes in a variety of situations. The evidence from the current research is largely in line with what has been found previously. For example, a combination of supervisor and co-worker support has been found to lead to increased job satisfaction (Lewig & Dollard, 2003), and reduced levels of emotional exhaustion (Halbesleben, 2006; Lewig & Dollard, 2003). Perceptions of organisation support has been linked to reduced levels of emotional exhaustion (Jawahar et al., 2007) and lower absenteeism (Eisenberger et al., 1986). In health care, the role of the CNS was been

that they were exposed to (Skilbeck & Payne, 2003) and Smith (1992) found that emotionally demanding clients were avoided if support from senior staff was perceived as lacking. Nurses working in a baby care unit explained how co-workers were

extremely important due to their presence and understanding and when nurses had to work alone, coping was more difficult (Lewis, 2005). Similarly, nurses have explained that support from co-workers and a sense of working together was important in assisting them to remain in the profession (Gunther & Thomas, 2006).

The current findings suggest that co-worker support was the most important source of support followed by supervisor support. The situation in relation to organisational support was more difficult to assess. There were few direct, positive references to the importance of organisational support. However, there was evidence that organisational support may have been very important to underpin employee

attempts to deal with clients. For example, emergency nurses were sanctioned to use the security service to remove abusive clients from the hospital and the community

palliative care nurses described a culture of support in their organisation which was underpinned by procedures, policies and support services. It could be the case that organisational attempts to support employees may be less visible but just as important as other sources. Therefore, further investigation is necessary to identify the relationships between different types of support and wellbeing outcomes in different groups.

Another important finding was that relationships between co-workers were more carefully cultivated and protected where the co-worker support was more important. For example, the palliative care and emergency nurses were reliant on co-workers and these nurses described their co-workers in very positive terms and obviously made substantial

efforts to provide support and were aware of its importance. In contrast, the renal nurses and clerks relied less on support and consequently there were less effusive descriptions of co-workers and less focus on the importance of providing support. The clerks and renal nurses were more critical of their co-workers and their working relationships were not associated with the same close bonds. It appears to be the case that the level of need for support is associated with efforts to ensure that supportive relationships are protected and maintained.

5.4.1 Emotionally demanding interactions. A consistent theme to emerge