“My space”: A moderated mediation model of the effect of architectural and experienced privacy and workspace personalization on emotional exhaustion at work Gregory A. Laurence a, * , Yitzhak Fried b , Linda H. Slowik c a School of Management, University of Michigan, Flint, 2151 Riverfront Center, 303 E. Kearsley St., Flint, MI 48502, USA b Martin J. Whitman School of Management, Syracuse University, USA c Department of Psychology, University of Detroit e Mercy, USA article info Article history: Available online 27 July 2013 Keywords: Workspace personalization Privacy Emotional exhaustion Burnout abstract This research examined a model in which experience of privacy served as a mediator between archi- tectural privacy and emotional exhaustion in the workplace and personalization of one’s workspace served as a moderator, mitigating the adverse effect of low levels of experienced privacy at work on emotional exhaustion. The results generally supported our hypotheses by indicating that in its role as a mediator, experience of privacy is initially affected by architectural privacy and its effect on emotional exhaustion is contingent on (moderated by) personalization of the employee’s personal work area (i.e., quantity of personal items in one’s work area). As expected, higher personalization at work reduced the adverse effect of the experience of low levels of privacy on emotional exhaustion. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Emotional exhaustion is the key component of the construct of burnout (Grant & Sonnentag, 2010; Maslach & Jackson, 1981). It is a syndrome under which individuals feel that their emotional re- sources are depleted, a feeling that manifests itself through physical fatigue and the experience of feeling psychologically and emotionally “drained” (Maslach & Jackson, 1981; Shirom, 1989; Zohar, 1997). There is ample evidence indicating that when em- ployees experience emotional exhaustion they tend to respond negatively by showing declines in such outcomes as job perfor- mance, organizational citizenship behaviors, or customer service, as well as increases in absenteeism, turnover, and physical health risks (see e.g., Cropanzano, Rupp, & Byrne, 2003; Firth & Britton, 1989; Grant & Sonnentag, 2010; Halbesleben & Buckley, 2004; Melamed, Shirom, Toker, Berliner, & Shapira, 2006; Taris, 2006). There is also ample evidence to support the notion that emotional exhaustion is affected by adverse conditions at work (e.g., high role ambiguity or overload) or the work environment (e.g., strained interpersonal relationships at work) that place constraints on em- ployees’ abilities to function successfully at work (Fritz & Sonnentag, 2005; Grant & Sonnentag, 2010; Halbesleben, & Buckley, 2004; Jahncke, Hygge, Halin, Green, & Dimberg, 2011). However, there is a need for a deeper understanding as to how contemporary conditions in the work environment may affect the experience of emotional exhaustion, and what factors might miti- gate or buffer this experience (Grant & Sonnentag, 2010). In the present study we aim to close the gap on these issues by investigating how the experience of privacy at work (associated with architectural privacy) is related to emotional exhaustion, and how personalization of one’s workspace moderates the relation- ship between these variables. We theorize that low architectural privacy (i.e., not having a traditional office with four walls and a door) contributes to low experience of privacy and that this low experience of privacy has the strongest negative effect on emotional exhaustion when the amount of personalization is low rather than high. 2. Privacy in the workplace Privacy has been discussed as a process of information control, as the regulation of interactions with others, and as freedom from control by others (cf., Altman, 1975; Kelvin, 1973; and see Newell, 1995; Stone & Stone, 1990 for reviews). Of these approaches, Altman’s (1975) more comprehensive definition, focusing on pri- vacy as a dialectic, optimizing process, seems most useful in the organizational context. At the core of Altman’s definition of privacy * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 810 424 5527. E-mail address: glaurenc@umflint.edu (G.A. Laurence). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Psychology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jep 0272-4944/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2013.07.011 Journal of Environmental Psychology 36 (2013) 144e152