The Dynamic Interplay Between Friendship Ties and Emotional Exhaustion: A Longitudinal Investigation

Research has shown that employees tend to exhibit similar levels of emotional exhaustion as their social ties. As a result, scholars commonly contend that emotional exhaustion is contagious. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we propose an alternative perspective, asserting that emotional exhaustion and friendship ties are interdependent and reciprocally influence each other. To test our coevolutionary theory, we conducted a three-year longitudinal study with psychometric and network data collected at annual observation waves from all employees of an award-winning, high-end Italian architecture studio. We employ a stochastic actor-orientated model that allows us to estimate the interdependent contributions of friendship ties and emotional exhaustion, while at the same time accounting for the complex dependencies inherent in social network data. Consistent with widespread beliefs, we find a contagion effect. Friendship ties work as conduits of emotional exhaustion, where employees assimilate to the average level of emotional exhaustion of their friends. At the same time, emotional exhaustion also predicts friendship dynamics. Elevated levels of emotional exhaustion lead to higher likelihood of friendship retention and lower activity in friendship formation. These effects are stronger for individuals high in neuroticism, but do not depend on the emotional exhaustion of the alter. We discuss implications of these findings for burnout and network dynamics in organizations.