Autonomic feedback in stressful environments: How do individual differences in autonomic feedback relate to burnout, job performance, and job attitudes in salespeople?

Individual differences in autonomic feedback-the dispositional tendency to experience signs and symptoms of autonomic nervous system activity in respo nse to positive and negative emotionally evocative stimuli-were hypothesize d to relate to affective and behavioral job outcomes in occupations charact erized by job stress because higher autonomic feedback would intensify reac tions to emotional evocation. In a cross-sectional study of Dutch salespeop le, individual differences in autonomic feedback were independent of role s tress and yet were strongly and positively related to burnout and negativel y related to extra-role performance and job satisfaction; they were also no nsignificantly and negatively related to in-role job performance. Further, when job stress was higher-high role stress or low managerial support-indiv idual differences in autonomic feedback were more strongly related to burno ut, especially emotional exhaustion.