Considering some significant gaps in the Emotional Exhaustion（EE）literature, the study tried to develop a research model of EE based on COR theory, and to explore the relationships among “multiple role stressors”, EE, and job outcomes. The model was tested on samples of car salespeople in Taiwan.
The major findings include:
（1） Multiple role stressors all have significant influences on EE, especially work/family conflict, with stronger impact than role conflict, is one stressor the Management should pay attention to. Besides, contrary to western literature, emotional regulation shows negative impact on EE and positive impact on OCB. The results prove that, to Chinese, emotional dissonance due to surface acting is not just a stressor causing only negative outcomes, but through “Zan” (or Self-Control) as the psychological mechanism, may transform distress into eustress.
（2） EE is one significant predictor of workplace depression, OCB and intention to leave. This finding points out that after salespeople’s inner resources draining out, the negative influences take place both on the individual and organizational levels. The result also supports “the Burnout Partial Mediation model” viewpoint. Therefore, EE as an intervening variable should be included into “the Direct model” of role stress.
（3） The variances of intention to leave can be explained by role conflict, EE, workplace depression and OCB, within which EE has the strongest impact. Therefore, salespeople’s intent to leave has much to do with loss of their key resources, and their turnover issue can be analyzed from viewpoints of COR theory and emotional stress.