Navigating the Dark Side: Emotional Labor's Impact on HR Professionals' Wellness

Author

• Esmeralda Amelia Rendon, Abilene Christian UniversityFollow

Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

8-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Department

Organizational Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Shawnte Elbert

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Lawrence Davenport

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Stuart Allen

Abstract

This qualitative descriptive study was designed to document and describe how female-identifying human resource (HR) generalist practitioners serving as sole or primary employee relations practitioners in small- to medium-sized organizations across the United States experience and manage emotional labor in their roles, cope with its demands, and how these experiences impact their wellness and perceptions of organizational support. Despite the centrality of emotional labor (EL) in human resource professionals’ (HRPs) roles, little was known about how HRPs in these underresourced environments cope with these demands. Data were collected through semistructured virtual interviews with eight participants and analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase thematic analysis. Five themes emerged from the data: emotional labor as invisible and embodied work, role isolation, EAP paradox, desire to be seen, and self-directed coping. These themes revealed that EL in HR is inherent to the role, is constant, and goes unacknowledged, leaving the practitioner to manage the emotional load with little preparation and no organizational support. This study gave language and scholarly recognition to an experience that eight female-identifying HRPs, and countless like them, have carried largely in silence.

Keywords: emotional labor, HR professionals, qualitative descriptive, emotional labor theory, job demands-resources model, role isolation, employee wellness, coping strategies

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Rendon, Esmeralda Amelia, "Navigating the Dark Side: Emotional Labor's Impact on HR Professionals' Wellness" (2026). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1047.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/1047