Relation Between Emotional Labor and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: An Investigation Among Chinese Teaching Professionals

This study examined the association between emotional labor and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and the mediation of work engagement in this relationship. A total of 264 teachers in Mainland China were recruited for this study. Bivariate correlation showed that both deep acting and the expression of naturally felt emotion were positively related to the two dimensions of OCB, namely, OCB toward the individual (OCBI) and OCB toward the organization (OCBO), whereas surface acting was not related to the OCB dimensions. Work engagement was also positively associated with both OCB dimensions. Regression results showed that work engagement partially mediated the relation between deep acting and OCBO, and that between the expression of naturally felt emotion and OCBI. Work engagement also fully mediated the association between deep acting and OCBI, and that between the expression of naturally felt emotion and OCBO. In light of these findings, strategies that encourage employees to display emotions consistent with their inner experience were discussed.     

情绪劳动策略对主动破坏行为的影响

如何开展员工情绪劳动管理,避免负面行为结果,是服务行业面对的重要问题。以788名呼叫中心员工为研究对象,本文获得的结果表明:1)表层动作显著促进主动破坏行为,而深层动作的影响不显著。2)政策强度感知显著调节表层动作与主动破坏行为间关系;当政策强度感知较低时,表层动作对主动破坏行为的正向影响更为显著。3)情感社会分享显著调节深层动作与主动破坏行为间关系;当情感社会分享水平较高时,深层动作对主动破坏行为的负向影响更为显著。本研究从资源保存视角提出工作场所开展情绪劳动管理的有效策略。     

Teachers’ emotions and emotion management: integrating emotion regulation theory with emotional labor research

While the similarities between emotion regulation (Gross in J Personal Soc Psychol 74:224–237, 1998a) and emotional labor (Hochschild in The managed heart: commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1983) have been theoretically discussed, empirical research on their relation is lacking. We examined the relations between the two constructs as well as their relations with teachers’ discrete emotions in a sample of 189 secondary school teachers. The results showed that reappraisal correlated positively with deep acting, whereas suppression correlated positively with surface acting. The findings further suggest that reappraisal and deep acting are linked to experiencing positive emotions, whereas suppression and surface acting are linked to experiencing negative emotions. However, there also were some differences in how emotion regulation and emotional labor were related to teachers’ discrete emotional experiences. Specifically, reappraisal and deep acting strategies were positively related to enjoyment; in addition, deep acting was negatively related to negative emotions such as anxiety, anger, and frustration. By contrast, suppression and surface acting strategies were positively associated with negative emotions (i.e., suppression with anxiety; surface acting with anxiety, anger, and frustration), and surface acting was negatively associated with the positive emotion enjoyment. Implications for integrating research on teachers’ emotion regulation and emotional labor are discussed.     

Emotional Intelligence as a Moderator of Affectivity/Emotional Labor and Emotional Labor/Psychological Distress Relationships

Emotional labor refers to effort, planning, and control required to display organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions and performed by individuals either through deep acting or surface acting. Deep acting refers to the modification of inner feeling in order to express the organizationally desired emotions, whereas surface acting refers to the change of emotional expression without facilitating the change of inner emotional state. The authors examined the moderating role of emotional intelligence dimensions (self-emotional appraisal; others’ emotional appraisal, use of emotion, and regulation of emotion) in the affectivity (a general positive or negative tendency to experience a particular mood)-emotional labor and emotional labor-psychological distress relationships among 210 university teachers. Specifically, we found that (a) regulation of emotion was a particularly important emotional intelligence dimension in influencing the use of deep acting, both directly and indirectly through the interaction with negative affectivity; (b) positive affectivity emerged as an important affectivity dimension in influencing the use of deep acting both directly and indirectly through the interaction with self-emotional appraisal; (c) negative affectivity was a particularly important affectivity dimension in influencing the use of surface acting, both directly and indirectly through its interaction with emotional intelligence dimensions of self-emotional appraisal and use of emotion; and finally (d) regulation of emotion interacted with deep acting to influence the psychological distress arising from EL requirements.     

The dimensionality and antecedents of emotional labor strategies

This investigation had two purposes. The first was to determine whether the display of naturally felt emotions is distinct from surface acting and deep acting as a method of displaying organizationally desired emotions. The second purpose was to examine dispositional and situational antecedents of surface acting, deep acting, and the expression of naturally felt emotions. Results supported a three-dimensional structure separating deep acting, surface acting, and the expression of naturally felt emotions. In addition, the dispositional and situational variables exhibited theoretically consistent and distinct patterns of relationships with the three emotional labor strategies. Overall, the results of this study expand the nomological network of surface acting and deep acting and suggest that the expression of naturally felt emotions is a distinct strategy for displaying emotions at work and should be included in research on emotional labor.     

Knife-like mouth and tofu-like heart: emotion regulation by Chinese teachers in classroom teaching

This study attempts to bring together two lines of enquiry into teacher emotion, emotional labor and emotion regulation, arguing that the process of teachers’ emotional labor is their regulation of feelings and expressions to achieve professional goals. Through the analysis of qualitative data collected from two projects concerning teacher emotion in China, the study summarizes three categories and seven strategies adopted by Chinese teachers to regulate their emotions in the classroom. Teachers regulate their emotions by genuinely expressing their feelings in teaching, along with surface acting and deep acting. These emotion regulation strategies help teachers fulfill their professional goals, and may therefore influence their well-being. The influence of Chinese culture on the emotion regulation of teachers, and the teacher–student relationship in China, are also discussed.     

Emotions naturally and laboriously expressed: Antecedents,consequences, and the role of valence

The emotion regulation literature has focused primarily on comparing the methods of surface acting and deep acting, yet scholars have also noted the importance of naturally felt emotions as a means for achieving a desired emotional display. The literature has also mainly examined positive displays, yet there are many situations that call for the display of negative emotions. To advance theory and research, we draw from theory on central principles of approach/avoidance motivation to understand why an individual would choose a given emotional display method, as well as the extent to which a given method is beneficial versus harmful to individuals. In doing so, we identify the valence of the emotion being displayed as a critical factor influencing the benefits and detriments of emotional display methods. Results of a 3-week experience-sampling study of 218 employees revealed that mood was associated with the natural display of positive emotion, promotion focus was associated with deep acting, and prevention focus was associated with surface acting. In positive display contexts, displaying emotion naturally was most beneficial (in terms of effects on emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and work withdrawal), whereas surface acting was most detrimental. In negative contexts, this relationship pattern was reversed.     

员工负性情绪对情绪劳动策略的影响

情绪劳动指的是员工在工作中按照组织的要求来调节自己的情绪感受和表达, 是服务行业普遍关注的问题。本研究基于自我调节理论(Self-Regulation Theory), 探讨了员工个体内负性情绪对情绪劳动策略的影响效应, 以及个体间水平上员工工作年限和情绪智力对该效应的跨层次调节作用。通过分析收集自210名呼叫中心员工14个工作日的追踪数据, 本研究发现员工每天的负性情绪显著抑制了深层动作; 工作年限和情绪智力显著调节了个体内负性情绪对情绪劳动策略的影响效应。数据分析结果支持了情绪劳动的研究中自我调节理论的作用, 本研究也据此讨论了理论意义和实践应用价值。     

Quality of Work Life as a Mediator Between Emotional Labor and Work Family Interference

Purpose  We adopted the conservation of resources model (COR, Hobfoll Am Psychol 44:513–524, 1989; Hobfoll in Stress, culture, and community: the psychology and philosophy of stress, Plenum, New York, 1998) to examine the associations among emotional labor, work family interference, and quality of work life. Design/Methodology/Approach  Cross-sectional, self-reported data were obtained from 442 Hong Kong Chinese service employees. Findings  Correlation and hierarchical regression analyses showed that surface acting was a salient correlate of work-to-family interference, even when organizational display rules and employees’ demographic information were controlled. Furthermore, quality of work life had partially mediated the relationship between surface acting and work-to-family interference. However, deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotion did not relate to work-to-family interference. Finally, we found that family-to-work interference was a salient correlate of the use of surface acting in workplace. Implication  This study provided useful information of how adopting different emotional labor strategies related to work family interference. Based on our results, the use of deep acting should be promoted in workplace because it related positively to quality of work life and it did not amplify the work-to-family interference. Originality/value  While past studies often explored the role of emotional labor as the precursor of work family interference, our study is among the first attempt to examine family-to-work interference as the antecedent of emotional labor. Additionally, we had also confirmed the role of quality of work life as an important mediator between emotional labor-work-to-family interference.     

特质应对与展现规则对情绪劳动的影响

采用2×3组间设计, 检测特质应对(积极与消极)与展现规则(积极、消极、无规则)对情绪劳动的影响。结果表明, 积极应对引起更多深层动作; 积极规则下出现较少表层扮演(与消极应对比)。积极和消极规则都引起较多深层和表层动作。积极应对在积极规则下表层扮演较少(与消极规则比); 消极应对在积极规则下表层扮演较多(与消极规则比)。研究提示, 特质情绪性可能是调节展现规则与情绪劳动关系的重要原因。     

A Meta‐Analytic Structural Model of Dispositonal Affectivity and Emotional Labor

The exponential growth of the service economy has increased the attention that organizational researchers have paid to the concept of emotional labor. Although much progress has been made in the field, few studies have provided an integrated picture of how individual dispositions, perceived display rules, and emotional labor behaviors shape employee outcomes. To clarify and compare results across this growing body of literature, a quantitative review was developed, along with a theoretically derived path diagram of key emotional labor constructs. Evidence from our structural meta‐analytic model based on 116 primary studies demonstrates that examining affective dispositions and emotional labor constructs and the pattern of positive and negative results helps to clarify and add specificity to the literature. Results were consistent with the perspective that surface acting emotion regulation strategies have a pattern of negative relationships with work outcomes of job satisfaction and stress/exhaustion (but not with job performance), whereas deep acting emotion regulation strategies have a pattern of positive relationships with all of these work outcomes.     

Emotional labor among trainee police officers: The interpersonal role of positive emotions

The aim of this study is to get an insight of the interpersonal process of emotional labor, and the role of positive emotions in the interaction between the sender and receiver, while taking both the perspective of the sender and the receiver into account. We tested the influence of the perceived display of positive emotions of Dutch trainee police officers (N?=?80) during an interaction with offenders on perceived authenticity and perceived performance success, incorporating the senders’ emotion regulation technique (i.e., deep acting and surface acting). Consistent with hypotheses, results of structural equation modeling analyses showed that perceived authenticity mediates the relationship between the perceived display of positive emotions and perceived performance success, while the specific senders’ emotion regulation technique was not related to perceived performance success. Furthermore, results showed that perceived performance success mediated the relationship between the perceived display of positive emotions and senders’ felt positive emotions after the interaction, controlling for senders’ positive affect.     

The mediating role of engagement and burnout in the relationship between employees' emotion regulation strategies and customer outcomes

Service employees' emotional display plays an important role in service interactions, but little is known about the effects of employee's emotional regulation strategies on customer outcomes. This study examines a model in which emotion regulation is associated with customer satisfaction and loyalty intentions as mediated by employee burnout and engagement. Data collected from 135 employee–customer dyads following service interactions was analysed with structural equation modelling. The results show that engagement fully mediates the relationship of deep acting, and burnout partially mediates the relationship of surface acting, with customer satisfaction and loyalty intentions.     

情绪劳动与抑郁及焦虑的关系：情绪耗竭的中介作用

本研究探讨情绪劳动与抑郁、焦虑的关系,着力考察情绪耗竭在二者之间的中介作用。采用情绪劳动量表、情绪耗竭量表和SCL-90对328名零售业员工进行调查。结果表明：表面行为与情绪耗竭、抑郁及焦虑没有显著相关;深度行为对情绪耗竭、抑郁及焦虑有显著的负预测作用;情绪耗竭在情绪劳动与抑郁及焦虑之间起完全中介作用。     

Spillover Effects of Emotional Labor in Customer Service Encounters Toward Coworker Harming: A Resource Depletion Perspective

This research examines how the implications of emotional labor can transfer from customer encounters to coworker interactions using temporally lagged data from a sample of frontline service employees. The results show that surface acting in customer service encounters is positively, and deep acting is negatively, related to ego depletion. Employees’ ego depletion, in turn, is positively associated with their interpersonally harmful behavior toward coworkers. Hence, ego depletion appears as a mediating variable that translates the implications of distinct emotional labor strategies into coworker harming. Moreover, emotion regulation self‐efficacy moderates the role of surface acting. The positive indirect relationship between surface acting and coworker harming, via ego depletion, is buffered among employees with higher emotion regulation self‐efficacy. These findings shed new light on the complex and far‐reaching consequences of emotional labor. We demonstrate the relevance of emotional labor to third parties not directly involved in customer service encounters and highlight important mediators and boundary conditions of these indirect relations.     

Emotional labor and burnout among female teachers: Work–family conflict as mediator

With the increasing number of women in the workforce, there is a need to understand how the interrelationship between emotions and the demands of work and family influence their well‐being. This study examined how emotional labor [surface acting (SA) and deep acting] and work–family conflict contribute to explaining variance in burnout (emotional exhaustion and depersonalization). In a sample of 102 married, female Malay teachers, with at least one child living at home, results showed that SA was positively associated with emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. The results also showed that work–family conflict mediated the relationship between emotional labor and burnout. However, no moderation effect of work–family on the SA–burnout relationship was found. The results are discussed with respect to the general literature on the stress–strain relation and work–family conflict.     

There is more than obeying display rules: Service employees’ motives for emotion regulation in customer interactions

Although research has focused on how service employees regulate their emotions, few studies have explored why they do so. In this article, we first described which kinds of motives for emotion regulation exist in customer interactions. Second, we investigated how the motives are related to four emotion regulation strategies. The application of an explorative approach resulted in a list of 10 motives, which could be classified into the three motive categories: pleasure, prevention, and instrumental. Hierarchical linear modelling of 421 reported service interactions from a diary study revealed that the motive categories were differently related to the emotion regulation strategies. Motives of the instrumental category were only significantly positively related to surface acting. Motives of the pleasure category were positively related to deep acting and automatic regulation as well as negatively related to surface acting and emotional deviance. Motives of the prevention category were positively related to deep acting, surface acting, and emotional deviance as well as negatively related to automatic regulation. These results can be used by organizations not only to enhance the motivation of employees towards emotion regulation, but also towards more authentic emotional expressions.     

Abusive supervision and subordinate emotional labor: The moderating role of openness personality

We investigated the differential relationships between abusive supervision and two emotional labor strategies used by subordinates (surface acting and deep acting). Furthermore, we examined whether subordinates' openness personality moderated the above relationships. Using the questionnaire survey method, we collected data from 210 employees in China. The results of hierarchical regression showed that abusive supervision related positively to surface acting (regulating facial expression) but negatively to deep acting (regulating inner feeling). Openness personality moderated the relationships between abusive supervision and the two emotional labor strategies, such that the relationships were stronger for employees with lower openness. Findings of our study contribute to the literature on workplace emotions and negative leadership.     

IS EMOTIONAL LABOR MORE DIFFICULT FOR SOME THAN FOR OTHERS? A MULTILEVEL,EXPERIENCE‐SAMPLING STUDY

In response to 2 areas for development in the emotional labor literature—(a) the contemporaneous associations between emotional labor and affective reactions, and (b) whether emotional labor might be more personally costly for some employees than others—this study tested a conceptual model explaining the differential effects of deep and surface acting on job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion via their asymmetrical influences on mood, and whether extraverts fare better when engaging in emotional labor. As expected, surface acting was positively associated with negative mood, and this explained some of the association of surface acting with increased emotional exhaustion and decreased job satisfaction. Contrary to hypotheses, deep acting was unrelated to job satisfaction and was associated with lower positive affect. Extraversion moderated several emotional labor relationships such that, in general, surface and deep acting had more positive (or less negative) effects for extraverts (compared to introverts). Overall, the results support the importance of considering the roles of mood and disposition in the impact of emotional labor.     

Tailoring emotions in romantic relationships: A person-centered approach

Adapting the concept of emotional labor to romantic relationships, we examined how people tailor their emotions based on beliefs about partner expectations. Participants (N = 521) completed measures of faking one’s felt emotions (surface acting) and attempting to change felt emotions (deep acting) in response to four contexts. Using latent profile analysis, we identified five profiles (non-actors, deep-actors, moderates, actors, and extreme regulators), and evaluated how profile membership corresponded to relationship quality, self-esteem, and general emotional regulation tendencies. Relationship quality was higher among deep actors and non-actors compared with actors and extreme regulators. Although people may benefit from deep acting, the co-occurrence of surface acting appears to maximize the costs and minimize the benefits of deep acting in romantic relationships.