Surface acting has a significant positive impact on employees' turnover intention

Flight attendants often feign emotions (surface acting) to meet role expectations, which is linked to increased exhaustion. This reduces their involvement in workplace social exchanges (Leader–Member Exchange (LMX), Team–Member Exchange (TMX)). These patterns appear more pronounced among those with higher turnover intentions. The study explored these dynamics using Cognitive Dissonance, Conservation of Resources and Social Exchange theories, testing understudied relationships and the connection between quitting intentions and workplace social dynamics. Using non-probability sampling, survey data from 200 flight attendants of five airlines registered in Pakistan were analysed, revealing a 14.8% higher level of exhaustion among those who reported greater use of surface acting. This exhaustion was linked to reduced LMX (75.1%) and TMX (47.7%). The analysis also suggested emotional exhaustion’s possible mediating role in both LMX and TMX pathways, with noteworthy moderated-mediation effects in the model emphasising the importance of supporting employee well-being and addressing turnover intentions.

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Turnover Intention is a condition obtained by employees to switch from one company to another. One of the factors that can influence turnover intention is surface acting. This study aims to determine the effect of surface acting on turnover intention in debt collector employees. This study uses a simple quantitative regression approach. Respondents in this study were 153 debt collector employees who were obtained using the snowball sampling technique. The results showed that there was a positive and significant effect of surface acting on the turnover intention of debt collectors (b = 0.685, p = 0.00 <0.05) indicating that the higher the surface acting score, the higher the turnover intention of debt collectors. Additional test results show that recent education and age have no significant effect on surface acting on turnover intention among debt collectors (P = 0.00 > 0.05). This research can be a reference for finance companies to provide training regarding better emotional labor strategies. The next researcher’s suggestion is to use a qualitative approach method to describe conditions in more detail and conduct research on two emotional labor strategy variables (surface acting and deep acting) on turnover intention in debt collector employees.

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This study explores through the lens of the banking service sector the relationship between customer orientation and job burnout through emotional labor (deep acting and surface acting), and its impact on reducing turnover intention. This research also examines the moderating role of perceived organizational support (POS). Surveying 688 frontline employees working in commercial banks in Vietnam, the authors deployed a research framework based on the conservation of resources theory, job-demand resource model, and social exchange theory and used the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test the research hypotheses. The findings indicated that the two types of emotional labor mediated the association between customer orientation and job burnout. POS also dampened the relationship between job burnout and turnover intention. Finally, the study suggested implications for bank managers to reduce job burnout and employee turnover intention.

The hospitality industry is vulnerable to various forms of customer incivility, leading frontline employees to perform emotional labor. This study, grounded in the Job Demands–Resources (JD‐R) model and the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, aims to elucidate the mechanisms through which emotional labor leads to emotional exhaustion and ultimately increases turnover intention among casino dealers. Health promotion behaviors are examined as a coping strategy within this pathway. A quantitative survey was conducted with 325 casino dealers in South Korea, and the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings show that customer incivility exerts a partially significant impact on emotional labor, with physical incivility exerting a stronger influence. Surface acting significantly affects emotional exhaustion, whereas deep acting does not demonstrate a significant effect. Emotional exhaustion was identified as a strong predictor of turnover intention. Furthermore, health promotion behaviors did not show a significant direct effect on turnover intention.

Background This research investigated the interplay of emotional labor, job burnout, and leader-member exchange on turnover intentions among office workers in South Korea. Methods An online survey was conducted with 333 employees working in Korean small- and medium-sized enterprises. The target sample consisted of in-house employees who do not deal with external customers. All the measurement and structural models of this study were analyzed using SPSS 27.0 and Amos 28.0. Results The survey revealed that emotional labor indirectly influenced turnover intentions via job burnout and leader-member exchange. Deep acting intensified job burnout, thereby elevating turnover intentions, while surface acting mitigated job burnout. Conclusions The findings underscored the importance of managing emotional labor and job burnout and fostering robust leader-member relationships to reduce staff turnover. Moreover, leader-member exchange was found to mitigate the effects of emotional labor on job burnout and turnover intention, with higher leader-member exchange reducing the negative impact of deep acting on turnover intention through job burnout.

Synthesizing the conservation of resource theory, proximal withdrawal state theory, and job demands-resources theory, the present study examined the relationships between two dimensions of emotional labor (i.e., surface and deep acting) and turnover intention, as well as the moderating role of perceived organizational support in these relationships, such as the context of Korean firefighters. Using survey data drawn from fire organizations in Gyeonggi-do, the largest province of South Korea, we found that both surface and deep acting are positively related to firefighter turnover intentions. Further analysis indicates that the perceived organizational support of firefighters, vital for public health and safety, attenuates the positive relationship between surface acting and turnover intention but has no significant moderating effect on the relationship between deep acting and turnover intention. Our results suggest that perceived organizational support acts through essential psychological resources to recover the loss of emotional resources and contributes to the retention of firefighter personnel who primarily perform challenging and stressful work, including firefighting and offering emergency medical services. Thus, this study examines a crucial tool to ensure firefighters’ public mental health.

Turnover is a costly and time-consuming expense, especially for service industry businesses. To date, little is known about whether and how emotional labor may activate employee turnover intention in the service industry. In order to solve the above problems and fill the gaps, this study aimed to verify how emotional labor can trigger turnover intention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on job characteristics theory and job demands–resources theory, this study examined whether emotional display rules and emotional labor strategies affect turnover intention brought on by emotional exhaustion and job dissatisfaction, with fear of COVID-19 as a moderator. After testing our hypotheses using a sample of 623 individuals from China’s service industry, this study found that emotional display rules (positive and negative display rules) are significantly related to emotional labor strategies (deep acting, expression of naturally felt emotions, and surface acting). In particular, positive display rules have a positive impact on deep acting and the expression of naturally felt emotions and are more closely related to the expression of naturally felt emotions. Negative display rules negatively affect surface acting. Moreover, emotional labor strategies correlate significantly with emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction/dissatisfaction, and subsequent turnover intention. Thus, deep acting and the expression of naturally felt emotions are related to low emotional exhaustion and high job satisfaction, while surface acting is related to high emotional exhaustion and low job satisfaction. Emotional exhaustion has a negative effect on job satisfaction and a positive effect on turnover intention. Job satisfaction significantly weakens turnover intention. In addition, fear of COVID-19 has a moderating effect on the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. The group with a high fear of COVID-19 has higher turnover intention even in job satisfaction situations than the group with a low fear of COVID-19. This work advances emotional labor research by combining two dimensions of emotional display rules and three dimensions of emotional labor strategies into a framework, investigating the mechanism through which emotional labor influences turnover intention, and revealing the moderating effect of fear of COVID-19 in the process.

ABSTRACT This study aimed to elaborate on the mechanism by which workplace ostracism influences turnover intention through exploring the sequential mediation effects of emotional labour and nurse-patient relationship. Using a sample of 379 nurses collected from a time-lag survey in a tertiary public hospital in China, we applied structural equation modelling techniques to test our hypothesized model. Our findings revealed that workplace ostracism positively influenced surface acting and deep acting. Workplace ostracism influenced turnover intention through the sequential mediation of surface acting and nurse-patient relationship. The findings of this study imply that nurses should receive education and training in emotional management skills to deal with workplace ostracism. Besides, fostering positive nurse-patient relationships may help reduce nurses’ turnover intention.

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PURPOSE To investigate the effect of nurses' emotional labor on their turnover intention that was mediated by burnout and to examine the moderated mediation effect of authentic leadership. METHODS A total of 227 nurses working at two general hospitals in Seoul were recruited from March 21 to May 6 in 2016. Emotional labor including surface acting and deep acting; burnout factors such as emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment; and turnover intention were assessed. The data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 and SPSS PROCESS macro. RESULTS Surface acting significantly increased emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment. Deep acting significantly increased personal accomplishment. Emotional exhaustion significantly increased turnover intention. Conversely, personal accomplishment significantly reduced turnover intention. Surface acting had an indirect effect on turnover intention that was mediated by emotional exhaustion. Deep acting had an indirect effect on turnover intention that was mediated by personal accomplishment. Authentic leadership had a moderated mediation effect on the relationship between surface acting and turnover intention that was mediated by emotional exhaustion. CONCLUSION The findings of this study indicate that the establishment of strong authentic leadership by head nurses would help nurses reduce their burnout and turnover intention. Conducting intervention studies would be also important to promote better work environments that would enable nurses to fortify the positive aspect of emotional labor and to reduce their burnout levels.

ABSTRACT While the relations of Person-Organization (P-O) fit and Person-Job (P-J) fit with its influences on organisations have been widely examined, there are few studies focusing on these fit theories and emotive strategy and the impact on turnover intention in a sample of street-level bureaucrats. This study incorporates person-organisation fit and person-job fit simultaneously and examines the relationship with surface acting and deep acting, and turnover intention in the Korean government sector. The findings reveal that person-organisation fit emerges as the sole influence on surface acting and deep acting; person-organisation fit is negatively associated with surface acting and positively with deep acting. By contrast with our expectation, person-job fit does not affect surface acting and deep acting. In addition, engaging surface acting causes turnover intention and yet, deep acting reduces turnover intention. These findings may have several theoretical and practical implications.

With the improvement of customer requirements for service quality, organizations of hospitality industry focus on the implementation frequency of employees' prosocial behaviors. This study attempts to explore the influence mechanism of emotional labor on prosocial behaviors, and then provides theoretical support for organizations to promote employees' prosocial behaviors. Based on SPSS software, this study adopts multiple linear regression method to investigated the impact of emotional labor on turnover intention of hotel front-line employee, as well as the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of prosocial behavior. The results indicate that: (1) Surface acting plays a positive effect on emotional exhaustion, and deep acting plays a negative effect on emotional exhaustion. (2) Surface acting plays a positive effect on turnover intention, and deep acting plays a negative effect on turnover intention. (3) Emotional exhaustion has a positive effect on turnover intention. (4) Emotional exhaustion plays a mediating role between emotional labor and turnover intention. (5) Prosocial behavior plays a moderating role between emotional labor and emotional exhaustion.

Emotional exhaustion is inherently tied to the occupation of flight attendants. This often leads to their turnover which incurs significant cost related to their rehiring and training. Existing literature extensively investigates the causes of flight attendants' turnover; however, it has not thoroughly explored how their workplace exchange relationships unfold during the critical period between their decision to leave and their eventual departure from the company. This study addresses this gap by leveraging social exchange and resource conservation theories. Data was collected from 200 flight attendants employed across five airlines registered in Pakistan. Benefiting from Smart PLS 4.0, confirmatory factor analysis, reliability, validity, and predictive relevance were established prior to conducting the mediation and moderation analyses. The results indicate a significant inclination (64%) among emotionally exhausted flight attendants to consider leaving their jobs, with surface acting intensifying this effect even further (71%). Consequently, their contributions to Team Member Exchange (TMX) and Leader Member Exchange (LMX) were found to decrease sharply by 36% and 41% respectively. These findings provide critical insights for flight services managers in the airline industry, underscoring the need to closely monitor exchange relationships among flight attendants and address declines in LMX and TMX. While turnover intentions may not always be overtly expressed, this research provides the empirical evidence suggesting that the observable decline in TMX and LMX can act as early warning signs. Recognizing and addressing these declines in a timely manner could enable these managers to proactively intervene, mitigate these potential challenges, and possibly prevent employee turnover, thereby fostering a more sustainable workforce.

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With organizational commitment acting as an intermediary variable in the study's analysis of the relationship between burnout and job satisfaction and intention to leave, employees. Nonprobability sampling methods with saturated sampling types are used in this sampling methodology. Using a Likert scale with five categories, the questionnaire asks for information. The data analysis method employed in this inquiry is the route analysis method. The analysis used in this study includes a validity test, a reliability test, a normality test, a coefficient of determination test, an f-test, a t-test, and a Sobel test to determine the mediating effect. The study's results show that burnout affects organizational commitment, job satisfaction affects organizational commitment, burnout and job satisfaction both affect organizational commitment, burnout affects turnover intention, job satisfaction affects turnover intention, organizational commitment affects turnover intention, and burnout toward work affects organizational commitment.

Leaders often accompany negative feedback with emotional displays of anger and frustration during organizational crises. These emotional displays can have detrimental effects on the followers’ emotional well-being. Our study examines the effect of such emotional outbursts through the construct of follower-inferred negative intention. We examine the relation between follower-inferred negative emotion and emotional exhaustion through surface acting and whether co-worker emotional support moderates the relationships. Survey data was collected from 367 Indian employees, all of whom were essential workers during the COVID-19 crisis. The authors found that follower-inferred negative intention from the leader’s emotional outbursts increased the follower’s emotional exhaustion both directly and indirectly through surface acting. The association between surface acting and emotional exhaustion was weaker for increased values of co-worker emotional support. Integrating Emotion-As-Social-Influence and Conservation of Resource theories, the present study investigates the inferred and received intention by the followers from the leader’s emotional displays.

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Background The purpose of this study is to examine the combined effects of organizational climate (OC) with emotional labor (EL) on turnover intention in Korean firefighters. Methods The data were obtained from the study Firefighters Research: Enhancement of Safety and Health. A total of 4,860 firefighters whose main duty was providing “emergency medical aid” were included. To examine the effects of OC on the relationships between five subscales of EL and turnover intention, four groups were created using various combinations of OC (“good” vs. “bad”) and EL (“normal” vs. “risk”): (1) “good” and “normal” (Group I), (2) “bad” and “normal” (Group II), (3) “good” and “risk” (Group III), and (4) “bad” and “risk” (Group IV). Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate the risk of turnover intention for the combinations of OC and EL. Results The results showed turnover intention was significantly higher in the group with “bad” OC (17.7%) than in that with “good” OC (7.6%). Combined effects of OC and EL on turnover intention were found in all five subscales with the exception of Group I for emotional demands and regulation. Groups II, III, and IV were more likely to experience risks of turnover intention than Group I (p for trend <0.001). Conclusions A positive and cooperative OC plays a role in decreasing the risk of turnover intention and in attenuating the negative effects of EL on turnover intention in firefighters.

Challenges faced by call centers in managing capacity, efficiency, service speed and quality, training, emotional labor, and turnover are intrinsically intertwined. Call center agents are considered frontline workers, and as such, they often deal with hostile behavior from rude customers. However, they are expected to suppress their feelings and maintain a courteous demeanor despite rude customer behavior, which results in emotional dissonance. Such working environments, where the frontline workers experience emotional dissonance, are termed emotional labor environments. Emotional dissonance, if sustained over a long period of time, can lead to an erosion of organizational identification (OID) among agents, unless they perceive adequate protection and support from the management. A low OID can lead to high employee turnover, which in turn results in high recruitment and training costs as well as loss of experience and compromised service quality. In this study, we examine how employee protection policies and leadership style manifest in mitigating the erosion of OID. We develop a research framework to understand the mediating role of agents’ perception of the efficacy of the firm's policies to protect them from rude customers and the relevant aspects of the servant leadership style of supervisors in mitigating the erosion of agents’ OID caused by the cumulative emotional dissonance over their tenure duration. For this study, we partner with a major multinational firm in Korea in the insurance industry. We find that the perceived organizational support for protection from rude customers and supervisors’ servant leadership style are positively related to agents’ OID. The agent's OID decreases with their tenure duration, unless mediated by the agent's perception of the efficacy of protection from rude customers. We provide insights for the retention of agents with implications for capacity and service quality for the call centers. These insights may be extended to frontline workers in other emotional labor environments.

The Food and Beverage (F&B) sector of the hospitality industry is characterized by high levels of guest interaction and performance-driven emotional expression. This research paper explores the phenomenon of emotional labor—defined as the regulation of emotional expressions to meet organizational expectations—as a central but underexamined component of F&B service roles. Drawing upon Arlie Hochschild’s foundational framework, the study investigates how surface acting, deep acting, and genuine expression affect employee mental health. Findings indicate that surface acting, the most prevalent form in fast-paced environments, is strongly correlated with emotional exhaustion, burnout, anxiety, depression, and reduced job satisfaction. The paper further examines how emotional labor contributes to high turnover rates and diminished employee retention. Through a review of empirical studies and industry case analyses, the research proposes evidence-based organizational interventions such as Emotional Intelligence training, empathetic leadership, supportive workplace culture, fair compensation, and mental health initiatives. The study concludes that recognizing and managing emotional labor is vital for sustaining employee well-being and enhancing the overall quality of service in the hospitality sector. These insights offer a strategic roadmap for organizations aiming to balance guest satisfaction with long-term workforce sustainability.

Abstract Understanding the antecedents of job satisfaction and employees’ turnover intentions in the restaurant industry is critical due to its high turnover ratio. Among various antecedents, emotional labor and role stress are critical antecedents to turnover intentions. However, prior research has mostly ignored whether a direct relationship exists between emotional labor and role stress for workers in boundary-spanning positions. Hence, this study analyzed the influence of emotional labor (emotive dissonance and emotive effort) on role stress (role stress and role ambiguity). The results found that emotive dissonance significantly increased role stress, while emotive effort decreased role stress. Emotive dissonance exhibited a negative influence on job satisfaction, while emotive effort positively influenced job satisfaction. Role conflict and role ambiguity both decreased job satisfaction, which decreased turnover intentions. Theoretical and empirical implications of these findings are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how perceived ability-job fit and commitment to display rules relate to emotional labor in business-to-business salespeople and the influence emotional labor has on important sales outcomes. This study develops a conceptual model and uses structural equation modeling to test hypotheses. The sample consists of 312 business-to-business salespeople from various sales organizations. Results show the importance of understanding how perceived ability-job fit and commitment to display rules influence the three types of emotional labor, as the type of emotional labor a salesperson engages in relates differently to sales outcomes. This research highlights important practical implications as perceived ability-job fit and commitment to display rules can be influenced by managers. Further, the three types of emotional labor are examined as they relate to turnover intention and behavioral performance. Research on emotional labor in business-to-business salespeople is scant. This work introduces new antecedents of emotional labor and expands the limited existing research on the third component of emotional labor; the display of naturally felt emotions.

This study empirically investigates the psychological underpinnings of voluntary employee turnover, with a specific focus on emotional exhaustion. Supporting Hypothesis 1 (H1), the findings demonstrate a strong positive association between emotional exhaustion and employees’ intentions to leave their organizations (r = 0.58, p < 0.01; B = 0.59, p < 0.001), accounting for 34% of the variance in turnover intention (R² = 0.34). Emotional exhaustion—characterized by chronic fatigue, stress, and emotional depletion—emerges as a primary psychological antecedent of turnover, undermining job satisfaction, engagement, and purpose. The study highlights generational and gender disparities: Gen Z, Millennials, and women report significantly higher levels of emotional exhaustion and turnover intention, pointing to unique stressors linked to evolving work values and gendered labour expectations. Sectoral analysis reveals elevated burnout levels in healthcare and IT, while public service and manufacturing show comparatively lower emotional strain—underscoring the role of organizational support, job security, and workload design. In addition to exhaustion, factors such as psychological contract breach, leadership dissatisfaction, lack of recognition, and workplace meaninglessness amplify turnover risk. Emotional exhaustion is thus embedded in a broader matrix of psychosocial and organizational stressors. These insights position emotional well-being not just as a health concern, but as a strategic lever for enhancing employee retention and organizational resilience. The study calls for multi-dimensional retention strategies—including leadership development, recognition systems, wellness programs, psychological safety, and meaningful work design—to mitigate emotional exhaustion and sustain workforce stability in a competitive labour landscape.

Previous studies have used various external variables and parameters as well as moderator variables such as emotional intelligence have been to understand emotional labor and its related problems. However, a comprehensive model to study such variables’ correlations with each other and their overall effect on emotional labor has not yet been established. This study used a structural equation model to understand the relationship between employees’ expression of emotional labor and perception of customer feedbacks. The study also looked at how the perception of customer feedback affects emotional exhaustion in order to understand how emotional exhaustion affects job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Further, in order to fully understand the effects of emotion on emotional labor at the service contact points, this study developed and tested a model of emotional labor with four factors of emotional intelligence as moderating factors. Five hundred and seventy nine emotional labor workers in service industries in the United States were collected and 577 valid survey results have been analyzed. The result shows that there exists moderating effects of emotional intelligence on how employees’ Deep Acting and Surface Acting recognize customers’ reactions, both positive and negative, that would affect employees’ Emotional Exhaustion and Job Satisfaction, and hence, Turnover Intention. The result suggests that employees with better understanding of their own emotions, although they are more likely to recover from emotional exhaustion, experience a greater negative effect when there is a discrepancy between what they feel and how they should act.

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Abstract Service encounter incivility is a common phenomenon across a broad spectrum of service industries globally. This paper examined the impact of service encounter incivility on employee job stress, turnover intentions and labor attrition in the fast food service industry in Zimbabwe. The Stressor-Stress-Outcome (SSO) framework and the Emotional labor theory underpinned this investigation. The study targeted frontline employees in the fast food service providers in Harare. An explanatory design and a quantitative approach were adopted. Using randomization and a structured hand administered questionnaire, 254 valid responses were obtained. Findings obtained through covariance based Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) confirmed the significant effect of customer incivility on employee incivility and employee job stress. The findings also revealed that employee incivility affects employee job stress. The positive influence of employee job stress on turnover intentions was also evident. The results were also confirmatory of positive effect of turnover intentions on labor attrition. The paper recommends that fast food service providers should foster contact employee training, better reward strategies, employee recovery and employee empowerment. Customer education on service site processes and procedures, standardisation of processes and technology were also urged to reduce incidences of service encounter incivility and labor turnover in the fast food industry in Zimbabwe. IMPACT STATEMENT Most businesses face challenges with customer misbehavior at service sites globally. It has been also been observed that employees often retaliate leading to service failure. This research investigates the effect of customer misbehavior and employee retaliation on employee job stress, quitting intent and labor turnover in fast food industry. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from employees. Results show that both customer misbehavior and employee retaliation cause employee job stress. Affected employees may show low morale, loss of job interest, low concentration and poor productivity. Employee stress explained quitting intentions, which also influenced labor turnover. The research demonstrates that customer misbehavior and employee venting causes loss of frontline staff within fast food service industry. The study encourages fast food businesses to adopt measures that reduce uncivil behaviors. To reduce dysfunctional encounters and labor turnover, using employees’ emotional intelligence, customer education, customer-centric culture and employee empowerment were suggested strategies.

Occupational fatigue and the resulting issues of low efficiency and employee turnover are important factors that constrain the high-quality development of labor-intensive industries. This article takes shoe manufacturing enterprises as the research object, explores the impact and mechanism of occupational fatigue on turnover intention, and provides reference for enterprises to optimize employee management systems. Based on a questionnaire survey of workers in Jiangxi shoe companies, an empirical model was constructed to test the impact of occupational fatigue on turnover intention, and the mediating role of psychological capital and the moderating role of emotional exhaustion were examined. The empirical results indicate that occupational fatigue exacerbates the turnover tendency of workers in shoe companies; Psychological capital plays a mediating role in the relationship between occupational fatigue and turnover intention; Emotional exhaustion can amplify the impact of occupational fatigue on turnover intention. Based on this, it is recommended that shoe-making enterprises establish a comprehensive psychological capital enhancement system and strengthen internal motivation; Optimize work environment and processes to reduce sources of occupational fatigue; Strengthen emotional management and build a positive working atmosphere.

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Employee management is crucial in the service industry, and efficient human resource management is essential because the competence and competitiveness of employees directly impact service quality. This study analyzes the impact of emotional labor and job stress faced by workers in the service industry on their intention to leave and be hired, and proposes strategies for employee retention. As a result of a study conducted on 200 service industry workers, it was confirmed that job autonomy and job culture have a quantitative interaction with emotional labor factors and a positive correlation with the intention to leave. Additionally, this study suggests that Employment the intention to hire and the intention to turnover as separate concepts, rather than conflicting, requires a separate study.

Background: Emotions play a central role in how employees respond to workplace bullying, influencing both their well-being and organizational outcomes. The purpose of the current study was to examine how workplace bullying and turnover intention are related to negative emotions and workplace unfairness. Methods: The research involved collecting data from 269 boundary-spanning bank workers (call center workers, frontline office staff, and customer service representatives) who experienced bullying. A moderated mediation was tested using Model 7 of the Process macro. The relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intention was analyzed, emphasizing the moderating effect of workplace unfairness and the mediating role of negative emotions. Results: The results validated the model, showing that an increase in negative emotions and workplace unfairness promotes the link between workplace bullying and the intention to leave. Increased negative emotions and perceived workplace unfairness amplified the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intention. Conclusions: The findings underscored the cumulative risk of bullying environments for employee well-being and retention, providing practical recommendations for HRM and leadership strategies to cultivate healthier, more inclusive workplace settings. This study adds to the bullying–turnover literature by examining the joint role of negative emotions and workplace unfairness in a moderated mediation framework. The study connects these findings to sustainable labor management, emphasizing both theoretical and practical implications for organizations.

Employee turnover has significant implications for organizations, including increased costs associated with recruitment, training, and loss of experienced employees. This study aims to explore the antecedents of employee turnover, specifically focusing on the role of promotional strategies. The research investigates the factors that contribute to employee turnover, such as dissatisfaction, lack of support, emotional burnout, biased promotions, inadequate training, and poor communication within the organizational hierarchy. The study also examines the impact of promotion-focused strategies on reducing turnover by enhancing employee motivation, productivity, and loyalty. The study adopts a comprehensive approach to understand the relationship between turnover and promotional strategies in the context of call centers. By analyzing the antecedents of turnover intention, this research provides valuable insights for organizations to address the underlying factors that contribute to turnover and implement effective strategies to reduce turnover rates. Data was collected from 295 call center employees from various private call centers. The research design of this study was non-experimental, quantitative and correlational in nature. The findings validated several hypotheses, including the positive link between emotional labor strategies and emotional burnout, the association between burnout and employee incivility, and the positive relationship between employee incivility and turnover intention. Nevertheless, the findings confirmed the positive relationship between regulatory focus strategies and service performance, the negative association between service performance and turnover intention, and the positive link between customer incivility and emotional burnout.

This study examined cross-cultural differences in the relationships between organizational dehumanization and both job satisfaction and turnover intentions through emotional labor (i.e., surface acting). In particular, we expected that power distance, that is, a critical value usually discussed as part of the national culture, would mitigate the deleterious effects of both organizational dehumanization and surface acting on job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Data were collected from employees in two countries that differ in power distance, namely Vietnam (N = 235) and the United Kingdom (N = 334). First, we found that perceptions to be dehumanized by one’s organization were indirectly related to poor job satisfaction and more turnover intentions through surface acting, regardless of the country. Second, our results showed that the deleterious effects of both organizational dehumanization and surface acting on work-related outcomes were weaker in Vietnam (a high power distance country) than in the United Kingdom (a low power distance country). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed from the perspective of organizational dehumanization and emotional labor literature.

ABSTRACT Drawing on the self-regulatory resource depletion theory, we unmask the process of surface acting and emotional exhaustion that takes place in the fine dining sector. We test a hypothesis and respond to three research questions using data with closed and open-ended questions from a purposive sample of frontline employees in the UK (N = 134). The findings offer a novel five-stage well-being model that explains how specific work conditions (Stage 1) trigger emotions that frontline fine dining employees regulate with surface acting (Stage 2), a phenomenon that gains momentum and magnitude as it continues, requiring employees to use resources (stage 3) which are limited and quickly depleted leading to emotional exhaustion (Stage 4), a negative work outcome that front-line employees in fine-dining use various strategies to cope with (Stage 5). Implications for practitioners are discussed and future directions for workplace wellness programmes are proposed.

Using the conservation of resources theory and social exchange theory as our conceptual frameworks, the current study examined how employee surface acting relates to their sabotage to customers through the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and explored the moderating roles of coworker exchange (CWX) and leader-member exchange (LMX). We collected two-wave time-lagged data from 540 clinical nurses and found that emotional exhaustion mediated the positive relationship between surface acting and employee sabotage to customers. In addition, we found that CWX buffered the positive effect of surface acting on emotional exhaustion, while LMX buffered the positive effect of emotional exhaustion on employee sabotage to customers, such that the effects were weaker when CWX and LMX were higher, respectively. These findings shed light on the effect of surface acting on employee harmful behaviors, the potential underlying mechanism, and boundary conditions to mitigate the negative consequences of surface acting.

Previous research has shown that surface acting—displaying an emotion that is dissonant with inner feelings—negatively impacts employees’ well-being. However, most studies have neglected the meaning that employees develop around emotional demands requiring surface acting. This study examined how employees’ responsibility attributions of client behavior demanding surface acting influence employees’ emotional exhaustion, and the mediational role of distributive justice in this relationship. Relying on Fairness Theory, it was expected that employees’ responsibility attributions of client behavior demanding emotion regulation would be related to their perceptions of distributive injustice during the service encounter, which in turn would mediate the effects of responsibility attribution on emotional exhaustion. In addition, drawing on the conservation of resources model, we contended that leader support would moderate the impact of distributive injustice on emotional exhaustion. Two scenario-based experiments were conducted. Study 1 (N = 187) manipulated the attribution of responsibility for emotional demands. The findings showed that distributive injustice and emotional exhaustion were higher when responsibility for the surface acting demands was attributed to the client. A bootstrapping mediational analysis confirmed employees’ attributions have an indirect effect on emotional exhaustion through distributive justice. Study 2 (N = 227) manipulated responsibility attribution and leader support. The leader support moderation effect was confirmed.

This study contributes to the constantly accumulating evidence on the effects of customer incivility (CI) on service employee exhaustion. Previous research has demonstrated that surface acting (SA) acts as a mediating variable in the relationship between CI and exhaustion. This study extended prior findings in two ways. The results of Study 1 (315 retail sales employees, 62.2% female) demonstrated that SA mediates the positive relationship between CI and exhaustion while controlling for employees’ trait positive and negative affectivity (NA). The results of Study 2 (292 customer service representatives, 51% female) supported a moderated mediation model demonstrating that trait emotional intelligence (EI) buffers the direct and indirect (through SA) effects of CI on exhaustion. Specifically, it was found that employees exposed to many uncivil customer behaviors but high in trait EI reported using less SA and, thus, experienced fewer exhaustion symptoms than their low in trait EI counterparts. These results highlight EI as an important personal resource that mitigates the adverse effects of CI on service employees’ exhaustion, and suggest that organizations should consider implementing EI training programmes for their frontline service employees.

This paper develops and tests a process model examining the sequential mediating roles of emotional exhaustion and surface acting on the relationships between employee perceptions of unfair treatment from customers and three forms of employee performance: in-role performance, customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCBC), and customer-oriented counterproductive work behavior (CWBC). In Study 1, we found support for our model demonstrating that the relationships between customer injustice and supervisor ratings of employees’ in-role performance and OCBC are each sequentially mediated first by emotional exhaustion and then by surface acting. In Study 2, using time-lagged data, we found additional support for our sequential mediation process when predicting CWBC. Moreover, we found that emotional demands–abilities fit moderated the sequential indirect effect of customer injustice on CWBC. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

— This study explores the relationship between customer orientation attitude, surface acting and employee exhaustion in the restaurant industry. The research method uses laboratory experiments, which are data collection techniques using a questionnaire with a case scenario of emotional exhaustion employes. A questionnaire was distributed to 190 economics faculty students department of management. The structural equation model (SEM) is then applied for data analysis. The results showed that customer orientation attitude was significantly related to surface acting in the restaurant industry. Surface acting variables cannot mediate the relationship between customer orientation attitude and emotional exhaustion. and surface acting has a significant impact on emotional exhaustion. Based on these findings, theoretical and practical implications are provided, as well as limitations and research recommendations for future studies.

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Objective: This study investigates the complex interplay among emotional labor strategies, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction, with a specific focus on examining the mediating role of emotional exhaustion. The primary objective of the research is to empirically evaluate the mediating influence of emotional exhaustion on the relationships between pharmacists' emotional labor behaviors (surface acting and deep acting) and their job satisfaction. Material and Method: The data for the study was collected through a survey of 186 pharmacists employed in various organizations in Karabük, Türkiye. The research hypotheses were tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), a robust analytical technique suited for examining complex multivariate relationships. Result and Discussion: The findings of the study reveal that deep acting, whereby pharmacists genuinely express their true emotions, has a direct negative effect on emotional exhaustion and a direct positive effect on job satisfaction. In contrast, the results indicate that surface acting, in which pharmacists suppress their authentic emotions and display artificial emotional responses, has a significant positive effect on emotional exhaustion, while its direct impact on job satisfaction is insignificant. Importantly, the study demonstrates that emotional exhaustion plays a partial mediating role in the relationships between both surface acting and job satisfaction, as well as between deep acting and job satisfaction. This suggests that the depletion of pharmacists' emotional resources is a crucial mechanism through which their emotional labor strategies influence their job satisfaction levels.

This study investigates the relationship between emotional labor and occupational burnout among bank employees, focusing on the mediating role of emotional exhaustion. Against the backdrop of financial technology development and the proliferation of intelligent equipment, counter services in banks have become increasingly complex and time-consuming. Heightened customer dissatisfaction has led to a significant surge in tellers' emotional labor load, making occupational burnout a prominent issue. The research finds that emotional labor, particularly surface acting, influences occupational burnout through the complete mediation of emotional exhaustion: the prolonged emotion regulation (surface/deep acting) progressively depletes employees' emotional resources, triggering emotional exhaustion. This exhaustion, in turn, activates the defense mechanism of depersonalization. Depersonalization, combined with emotional exhaustion, subsequently erodes personal accomplishment, culminating in full burnout. The conclusions provide insights for bank management: to prevent and alleviate emotional exhaustion, thereby safeguarding employee mental health and enhancing organizational effectiveness, strategies should include recognizing the value of emotional labor, constructing emotional buffer mechanisms, empowering employees, and cultivating a supportive organizational culture.

Background: Within the scope of the organization, performance is an important topic to be researched because of the facts that are crucial for the future and sustainability of the organization. To salesperson task performance are considered the most important and influential aspect in assessing their performance. In addition, emotional labor is known to be a display rule that is often found in front-line workers such as salesperson. So this study seeks to examine the relationship between emotional labor and task performance, through the mediating role of emotional exhaustion. Method: This study collected data from 58 participants who work as salesperson in the retail industry. The three instruments used in this study were the Emotional Labor Scale (ELS), the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and the Individual Work Performance Scale (IWPS). Result: The results showed that emotional exhaustion did not mediate the relationship between emotional labor (surface acting and deep acting) and task performance. Conclusion: However, the use of surface acting strategy is able to make retail salesperson experience higher exhaustion due to significant and positive relations. Novelty/Originality in this article:  This study offers a new perspective in understanding the complex dynamics between emotional labor, emotional exhaustion, and task performance among retail salespeople. This study provides important insights into how psychological factors may influence job effectiveness in an industry that relies heavily on customer interactions.

Background Employees’ withdrawal behavior concerns organization leaders and policymakers in many countries. However, the specific mechanism which emotional labor affects withdrawal behavior has yet to be thoroughly discussed. There needs to be systematic research on how different emotional labor strategies affect work withdrawal, whether directly or through individual perception, and how to respond. Methods A total of 286 hotel and catering service employees participated in our study. A series of hierarchical moderated regression analyses were performed to test the hypothesis. Results The results indicated that surface acting positively affected withdrawal behavior, while deep acting had a negative effect. Emotional exhaustion mediated in this relationship of surface acting with withdrawal behavior and deep acting with withdrawal behavior. Mindfulness showed moderation effects between emotional exhaustion and withdrawal behavior. Conclusions Emotional labor and emotional exhaustion are significant in predicting employees’ intentions to withdraw, given that emotional exhaustion partially mediates the effects of emotional labor on withdrawal behavior. Significantly, the relationship between emotional exhaustion and withdrawal behavior is weakened by mindfulness.

The consensus in the emotional labor literature is that surface acting is "bad" for employees. However, the evidence on which this consensus is based has been derived from contexts emphasizing the display of positive emotions, such as customer service. Despite the acknowledgment that many contexts also require the display of negative emotions, scholarly work has proceeded under the assumption that surface acting is harmful regardless of the valence of the emotion being displayed. In this study, we take a hedonic approach to well-being and challenge the consensus that surface acting is bad for employees by examining its effects on changes in emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction, through changes in positive and negative affect, for both positive and negative emotional displays. Using a within-person approach, we focus on managers, whose occupation calls for displays of both positive and negative emotions. Our 3-week, experience-sampling study of 79 managers revealed that faking positive emotions decreases positive affect, which harms well-being more than authentically displaying such emotions. In contrast and counter to what the extant literature would suggest, faking negative emotions decreases negative affect and increases positive affect, which benefits well-being more than authentically displaying such emotions. We further integrate construal level theory with hedonic approaches of emotion to identify trait construal level as an important boundary condition to explain for whom surface acting is harmful versus beneficial. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Surface acting has repeatedly been found to harm employee well-being, but weak or inconsistent findings have been reported for deep acting. A theoretical explanation put forth by researchers to explain this is that opponent processes may be involved in deep acting. Accordingly, there are countering processes in place for deep acting, effectively yielding a weak or null relationship with indicators of strain or well-being. Although often cited, this claim has never been tested empirically. The current study addresses this question by exploring the relationship between deep acting and emotional exhaustion via 3 underlying mechanisms: (a) psychological effort, (b) feelings of authenticity, and (c) rewarding interactions. Specifically, we expected that although being effortful, deep acting also results in feelings of authenticity and rewarding interactions with customers. However, contrary to expectations, results from an experience-sampling study (involving 3 daily surveys over the course of 7 days) revealed that deep acting did not relate to any of these mechanisms, nor was it directly or indirectly related to emotional exhaustion. These findings challenge previous suggestions that there are countering processes in place for deep acting. In addition, analyses revealed significant indirect relationships of surface acting with emotional exhaustion that were mediated by psychological effort and felt authenticity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the conclusion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Abstract Current study drew on Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) with differentiated job demand approach to explain the emotional labor strategies with burnout and work engagement. Besides, this study argued that emotional intelligence as personal resource in the JD-R model and could moderate the relationship between job demands and individuals’ well-being. Data were collected from 183 employees working in the hotels in Macau. Results revealed that (1) surface acting correlated to emotional exhaustion and cynicism positively; (2) deep acting was positively correlated to professional efficacy, cognitive, emotional, and physical work engagement; (3) the moderation role of emotional intelligence was found in the current study.

Addressing health-related risks for employees in the service sector, we identify emotion regulation (ER) ability-a dimension of emotional intelligence-as a promising resource with potential for facilitating emotional labor. We use an event-sampling design to investigate whether person-level ER ability moderates situation-dependent relationships of three different emotional labor strategies with emotional exhaustion in a beneficial way. Study 1 included data from 861 customer interactions from 187 service employees in the financial sector. All measures were self-ratings. Study 2 included 479 interactions from 101 employees in different service occupations; following a multimethod approach, ER ability was additionally assessed with peer ratings and an objective test. Controlling for age and gender, hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated main effects of event-level surface acting and automatic regulation on emotional exhaustion in both studies. Multilevel results showed that ER ability-in contrast to the global score of emotional intelligence-moderated relationships of three different emotional labor strategies with exhaustion. In particular, resource loss via surface acting was buffered. Overall, findings contribute to knowledge on emotional abilities in emotional labor processes, and differences in operationalizing and assessing ER ability. Practical implications concerning employee health are given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

This study examined how surface acting, or stretch acting, influenced organizational misalignment through the mediating roles of emotional strain and job fatigue. The research aimed to reveal the hidden costs of emotional labor in Indonesian mining corporations, where employees were often required to suppress authentic emotions to meet organizational demands. A quantitative survey was conducted among 291 employees from mining companies in Kalimantan. Data were collected using a five‑point Likert scale and analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Reliability and validity were confirmed, ensuring that the measures accurately reflected constructs such as surface acting, emotional exhaustion, job fatigue, and organizational misalignment. The findings indicated that surface acting had a significant positive effect on organizational misalignment. Emotional strain and job fatigue mediated this relationship, showing that employees who consistently repressed emotions experienced higher exhaustion, reduced motivation, and greater tendencies toward absenteeism, presenteeism, and neglect of supervisory instructions. These outcomes demonstrated that unmanaged emotional labor undermined employee commitment and contributed to organizational misalignment.

This paper systematically explored the literature to establish the mediating role of emotional labour, surface acting and deep acting in the relationship between workplace incivility from co-workers and superiors and emotional exhaustion. Grounded in Affective Events Theory (AET) and Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory, the paper illustrates how quality control (QC) managers, tasked with precision and compliance, face a dual burden of technical rigour and emotional regulation. The findings from the literature challenge industries to recognize emotional labour not as an individual responsibility but as a structural issue, where uncivil environments undermine well-being and quality outcomes. Surface and deep acting are critical links between incivility and emotional exhaustion. The framework presented in this paper challenges organizations to reconceptualize workplace interactions as behavioural issues and systemic drivers of emotional attrition. Mapping the mediating role of emotional labour offers QC professionals and organizational leaders actionable insights to disrupt the incivility-exhaustion cycle through targeted emotional skills training and cultural interventions. Theoretical and practical implications for quality control management in manufacturing settings are discussed. This paper calls for organizational strategies that mitigate incivility while equipping QC managers with emotional resilience, ensuring product standards and human sustainability.

Emotional labor, particularly in frontline service roles, has traditionally been examined through the lens of performance strategies, such as surface or deep acting. However, emerging research suggests that employees’ subjective interpretations of emotionally demanding situations—especially attributions of responsibility and perceived fairness—play a critical role in shaping their well-being. This study adopts a qualitative phenomenological approach to explore how frontline employees engage in meaning-making regarding the emotional labor demands during customer interaction. Drawing on six group semi-structured interviews, we conducted a thematic analysis to investigate ho<w workers attribute responsibility for emotion regulation demands and how these attributions relate to perceptions of distributive justice and emotional exhaustion. Results indicate that employees differentiate between emotional labor demands based on who they perceive as responsible for the triggering event—whether the client or themselves. Attributions of responsibility for these demands, especially when placed on clients, were associated with a stronger sense of distributive injustice and heightened emotional exhaustion. The evidence extend current emotional labor models by highlighting the centrality of meaning-making processes in employee experience and suggest that responsibility attribution and fairness appraisals are critical mechanisms through which emotional labor impacts occupational well-being. Implications for theory and workplace practices in service contexts are discussed.

Abstract -  The study aims to understand better the connections between emotional labor and emotional exhaustion and the relationship between affective organizational commitment and emotional exhaustion. Also, this study examines the mediating role of emotional exhaustion between emotional labor and affective organizational commitment. Researching how emotional laborers deal with their day-to-day difficulties in managing their emotions and understanding strategies and factors impacting their stress levels will help organizations create policies and practices that support employees in managing their emotions and well-being. This study examines the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion on emotional labor and affective organization commitment. The respondents are heterogeneous and come from a range of industries. The design of this investigation was based on a quantitative methodology. Structural Equation Modelling-Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) examined the causal link among variables. The data was collected through Google Forms, and 136 responses were collected. This study revealed that emotional labor positively affects emotional exhaustion, showing that employees who use a surface-acting strategy typically experience higher levels of emotional exhaustion. The relationship between emotional exhaustion and organizational commitment is mediated by emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion negatively affects affective organizational commitment. The researcher learned that surface acting in emotional labor significantly contributes to emotional exhaustion. It is also important for leaders to understand the factors leading to emotional exhaustion and how leaders can mitigate the risk of employees getting emotionally exhausted. Keywords: Affective Organizational Commitment; Emotional Exhaustion; Emotional Labor; Organizational; Commitment

The purpose of this study is to examine the linkage between political skill, emotional labor strategies, and two individual level outcomes; emotional exhaustion and subjective career success in the context of Chinese hotel industry. Political skill is hypothesized to have negative impact on surface acting, conversely, it was hypothesized to have positive impact on deep acting. Similarly, political skill is proposed to positively predict subjective career success and negatively to emotional exhaustion. Interactive effect of political skill with subjective career success and emotional exhaustion as outcome with surface acting as antecedent was also proposed. The emotional labor strategies were also hypothesized with emotional exhaustion and subjective career success as outcome variables. The setting of the study were hotels operating in Wuhan, Peoples Republic of China. Frontline hotel staff responded 212 questionnaires. Covariance based Structural Equations Modeling was used to conduct the factor analysis and test the hypothesis, AMOS V 20.0 was used for the purpose. Results show that political skill is a positive predictor of subjective career success, and a negative predictor emotional exhaustion. Emotional labor strategies were also related with emotional exhaustion and subjective career success as hypothesized. Political skill confirmed the hypothesized interactive effect with surface acting to predict emotional exhaustion and subjective career success. Lastly, the implications for theory, policy, practice and future research have been given.

Abstract. Emotional labour (hereinafter EL) is a form of work that involves managing emotions and emotional expressions during social interaction to achieve professional goals and to fulfil the emotional requirements of a job. EL can bring negative psychological consequences for employees such as burnout and exhaustion. Such negative outcomes are determined mostly by the EL strategy that employees implement. This article seeks to expand understanding of the dispositional and situational determinants of EL, and the role played by dispositional variables in determining the outcomes of EL. Drawing on survey data from 29 employees working in the service sector, we find that among EL strategies surface acting has been consistently shown to have the most detrimental effects on employee well-being. On the other hand, deep acting can be viewed as a healthier way to perform EL, and the expression of genuine emotions can even reduce the negative outcomes of EL. Understanding the antecedents of EL strategies would therefore enable more effective interventions to be developed aimed at reducing burnout by influencing the way in which employees perform EL. Keywords: emotional labour, burnout, antecedents of emotional labour

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Abstract Managing emotions at work can be challenging for employees in service roles. Most emotional labor research has been conducted in settings of brief service interactions with strangers. Yet, many traditional family roles, such as aged and child care are now outsourced to personal service roles that have ongoing relationships with clients. The continuing nature of those relationships may result in employees using previously unknown strategies to regulate emotions. To develop an understanding of intrinsic and extrinsic emotion regulation (ER) strategies in service relationships, we interviewed 42 aged care employees in China. Using template analysis we found three new employee-client relationship-based intrinsic ER strategies (i.e. family appreciation, filial reappraisal and deliberate distancing), a self-based strategy (i.e. self-deterioration anticipation) and three client-based strategies (i.e. client deterioration anticipation, vulnerability justification and meaning identification) in managing one’s own emotions in service relationships. When managing others’ emotions in ongoing service settings, a new relationship-based extrinsic ER strategy (i.e. communal bonding) along with situation-based and client-based extrinsic ER strategies were identified. Employees can regulate their own and others’ emotions by crafting their relationships with clients. This study suggests that service relationship is a critical dimension of client interactions and should be considered in workplace ER research.

Abstract Purpose – The primary aim of this study is to determine the effects that empathic anger can have on driving emotional contagion within workplace environments while also examining the mediating role that is played by the negative and positive affect. It further attempts to investigate how emotion regulation strategies moderate the relationship between affective states and emotional contagion. Design/approach/method – A purposeful judgmental sampling design was used to get responses from 564 working professionals in the service sector in Lahore, Islamabad, and Rawalpindi, Pakistan, who were asked to fill out an online research questionnaire. Findings – The findings of this study demonstrate that empathic anger plays a significant role in driving emotional contagion, with negative affect acting as a key mediator between them. The findings further reveal that while negative affect amplifies emotional contagion, positive affect does not exert a direct influence. Additionally, emotion regulation strategies serve as moderators, mitigating the impact of negative affect on emotional contagion while also diminishing the suppressive impact of positive affect. Value/contributions – This study adds to our knowledge of emotional contagion by looking at how moral emotions, especially empathic anger, affect the way people feel at work. The study gives a complex look at how emotions spread within organizations by examining the role of negative affect as a mediator and the effect of emotion regulation strategies as a moderator. The findings offer practical insights for managers aiming to cultivate emotionally intelligent workplaces, highlighting the importance of hiring employees with strong emotion regulation skills. Additionally, this study adds to the body of research on affective events theory by including moral emotions within the framework. This makes the research on affectivity at work more complete. Keywords. Empathic anger, emotional contagion, negative affect, positive affect, emotional regulation strategies Paper type. Research paper

Failure to attain important work‐related goals is a frequent source of negative emotion for employees, and research has identified supportive management as central in shaping work‐related outcomes following failure. However, there is limited research examining the specific behaviors that managers can use to respond to employees' negative affect. Drawing on the theory of interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) et al., 2009, we examine how specific IER strategies employed by managers influence employees' goal adjustment and turnover intentions. Across two experimental vignette studies ( N  = 1148), we test a mediation model in which employees' negative affect and trust in the manager act as parallel mechanisms linking IER strategies to behavioral intentions. In Study 2, we additionally investigate whether regulatory focus moderates these indirect effects. We conceptualize regulatory focus as a proximal self‐regulatory frame that shapes how individuals interpret and respond to goal failure. Our findings show that trust, more than affect, serves as the key mediator linking IER strategies to behavioral intentions. Regulatory focus did not moderate these paths. This study advances understanding of the relational dynamics underlying specific IER strategies and highlights the central role of trust in managing employee responses to goal failure.

Research has focused on employee emotion regulation as a stable dispositional tendency. Yet effective and healthy emotion regulation requires flexibly choosing between different regulation strategies in response to various workplace situational demands. In this study, we investigate the between- and within-person emotion regulation differences of 83 frontline managers across 10 working days. Using affective events theory, we examine managers’ use of three main emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, suppression, expression) in response to the negative affect they experience while engaging in various tasks, and the consequences for their daily stress. The moderating effects of four emotional intelligence abilities are also examined. Our results demonstrate negative emotions associated with work tasks are regulated in ways that are determined by stable, situational, and personal factors. Practical implications for organizations are considered. JEL Classification: JEL code - D23

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Variable-centered views of emotional labor suggest that high customer incivility and employee-felt negative affect should co-occur with high employee emotion regulation. Similarly, low customer incivility and employee positive affect should be accompanied by low emotion regulation. We theorize that these theory-based configurations of emotional labor variables represent only a subset of the possible ways that emotional labor events unfold. We propose that there are distinct subpopulations of emotional labor events, some of which conform to this standard view of emotional labor and some of which deviate from this model and that these distinct configurations suggest different underlying theoretical processes with implications for employee well-being. To investigate these ideas, we adopt an event-centered view (i.e., event-level profiles) that seeks to identify distinct configurations of emotional labor events. In a sample of 246 call center employees who provided ratings of 7,331 customer service interactions, results from multilevel latent profile analysis (MLPA) revealed 8 distinct event-level profiles, some of which align with variable-centered approaches and some of which suggest new ways to think about such events. We then linked these profiles to the event-level well-being outcomes of emotional exhaustion and psychological vitality, showing both longitudinal and concurrent effects. Finally, supplemental analyses detailed how this event-level profile approach differed from standard variable-centered analyses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Job satisfaction is a core variable in the study and practice of organizational psychology because of its implications for desirable work outcomes. Knowledge of its antecedents is abundant and informative, but there are still psychological processes underlying job satisfaction that have not received complete attention. This is the case of employee emotion regulation. In this study, we argue that employees’ behaviors directed to manage their affective states participate in their level of job satisfaction and hypothesize that employee affect-improving and -worsening emotion regulation behaviors increase and decrease, respectively, job satisfaction, through the experience of positive and negative affect. Using a diary study with a sample of professionals from diverse jobs and organizations, for the most part, the mediational hypotheses were supported by the results albeit a more complex relationship was found in the case of affect worsening emotion regulation. This study contributes to expanding the job satisfaction and emotion regulation literatures and informs practitioners in people management in organizations about another route to foster and sustain positive attitudes at work.

Promotive voice is an essential behavior in today’s organizations to facilitate improvements and make constructive changes in the way that work is conducted. Expanding previous research on the individual drivers of voice behavior in organizations, and drawing on theory about emotion regulation, I propose that speaking out with ideas at work is a function of employee emotion regulation and positive affect. Accordingly, results of a weekly diary study, conducted with professionals from diverse organizations and industries, showed that employees using emotion regulation strategies to improve their feelings increase the experience of positive affect at work, while behaviors oriented to worsen their own feelings were negatively related to the same outcome. Positive affect, in turn, increases the likelihood of promotive voice behavior. These results contribute to the voice behavior literature by showing that emotion regulation is an individual factor that participates in the construction of positive affective experiences, which is in turn conducive to speaking out with ideas for improvements and changes at work. Furthermore, these findings inform organizational practitioners about the value of training emotion regulation strategies to improve organizational effectiveness.

The Problem To create resilient organizations, Human Resource Development (HRD) must foster the conditions (both internal and external to the employee) that enable learning and development in the face of adversity. Yet the experience of adversity produces intense negative emotions that threaten learning and development. Resilience building programs typically focus on building resources internal to the worker (e.g., self-efficacy, optimism) as a means of buffering against the negative effects of future stressors, but considerably less focus is placed on supporting others in their attempts to cope. Additionally, the role of leadership in promoting follower resilience has received limited attention. The Solution This article begins by summarizing the role of emotion and emotion regulation in recent literature on employee resilience. Toward that goal, a literature search was conducted for reviews and theoretical models of employee resilience published in peer-reviewed journals over the past 10 years. Next, emerging scholarship on interpersonal emotion management (IEM) is introduced, with a focus on its application in work and leadership contexts. The argument is made that leaders are in a unique position to promote resilience in their followers, through the promotion of positive emotional states and through the mitigation of the negative emotional states that accompany adversity. As such, developing IEM skills in both resilience training and leadership development programs should increase employee resilience. The Stakeholders Leaders, scholars, and HRD professionals interested in promoting employee resilience and developing effective leaders will benefit from this application of interpersonal emotion management concepts to the topic of employee resilience.

When interacting with supervisors, employees often engage in emotion regulation (i.e., surface acting and deep acting), and the consequences may extend beyond work boundaries. Based on the spillover-crossover model and the strength model of self-control, we examined the relationship between employee emotion regulation during supervisory interactions and marital well-being (i.e., spouse's perceived marriage quality and satisfaction). Two survey studies using Chinese employee-spouse dyads showed that employees' surface acting was positively related to ego depletion. Surface acting was found to be negatively related to spouses' perceived marital well-being through the serial mediating roles of both ego depletion and social undermining behavior. Moreover, leader-member exchange (LMX) relationship quality moderated the association between surface acting and ego depletion such that the relationship was weaker for employees with a high-quality LMX relationship compared with those with a low-quality LMX relationship. These findings extend theory and research on emotion regulation to employee-leader interactions and contribute to future research and theory-building on emotion regulation, leadership, and work-family integration. Practical implications for leaders, organizations, and employees were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Big data era has brought big challenge for firms in human resource management, especially in employees‘ emotion. Drawing on emotion regulation and leadership theories, this study tests the mediating roles of emotion regulation for cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression in the relationship between spiritual leadership and job engagement. We made a field survey with 203 full-time employees to test our hypotheses. Empirical results show that the mediating effects of both cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression in accounting for the relationship between spiritual leadership and job engagement. Our study is among the first to examine whether and why spiritual leadership predicts job engagement. Our study contributes to the literatures on job engagement and emotion regulation.

The Indian IT-BPO sector, despite having a high growth rate, strong infrastructure, and a vast talent pool, continues to face persistent challenges with high employee attrition. This paper examines the relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI), Employee Engagement (EE), and Intention-to-Quit (ITQ) among employees working in this sector. Drawing on culturally grounded perspectives and validated scales, the study collected data from 110 employees working in IT-BPO companies. Using correlation, regression, and mediation analysis, findings reveal a significant inverse relationship between EI and ITQ, particularly through the components of emotional regulation and empathy. Furthermore, spiritually aligned engagement was found to mediate the relationship between EI and ITQ, highlighting the role of inner alignment and meaning, making in Indian workplace contexts. The study also emphasises that while emotional intelligence (EI) plays some role in understanding the employees’ intentions to quit, other factors, such as, compensation, work-life balance, and stress, may affect retention. Therefore, the paper highlights the need for formulating holistic HR strategies that integrate emotional development with contextual engagement practices to address attrition in India’s IT-BPO industry.

Research on emotional labor-the process through which employees enact emotion regulation (i.e., surface and deep acting) to alter their emotional displays-has predominately focused on service-based exchanges between employees and customers where emotions are commoditized for wage. Yet, recent research has begun to focus on the outcomes of employees engaging in emotion regulation, and surface acting in particular, with coworkers. Given that coworker interactions are qualitatively distinct from those with customers, we build on the emotional labor and emotion regulation literatures to understand why such acts of emotion regulation occur in coworker-based exchanges, and whether there are well-being and social capital costs and/or benefits for doing so. Across 3 complementary studies spanning over 2,500 full-time employees, we adopt a person-centered approach and demonstrate that four distinct profiles of emotion regulation emerge in coworker exchanges: deep actors, nonactors, low actors, and regulators. Further, our results suggest that certain employees are driven to regulate their emotions with coworkers for prosocial reasons (deep actors), whereas others are more driven by impression management motives (regulators). Our results also suggest that while nonactors and deep actors similarly incur well-being benefits (i.e., lower emotional exhaustion and felt inauthenticity), deep actors alone experience social capital gains in the form of higher receipt of help from coworkers, as well as increased goal progress and trust in their coworkers. Combined, our research delineates the motives that drive emotion regulation with coworkers and identifies when such regulatory efforts yield social capital gains for employees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

In service work, emotional labor is primarily performed by surface acting (modifying expressions) and deep acting (modifying moods). Deep acting is clearly more effective for performance and less costly to health, raising the question—why do employees use the less effective strategy of surface acting? Conservation of resources theory suggests that when employees lack sufficient energy resources, they are more likely to conserve resources and rely on less effective surface acting, which creates future resource loss (i.e., a loss spiral). We test this spiral prediction, while also integrating the effort‐recovery model to propose after‐work activities as a means of slowing resource loss spirals. Across two experience sampling studies of full‐time service workers, we find support for a resource loss spiral through surface acting in Study 1 and partial support in Study 2. Further, low‐effort activities like relaxing after work allowed employees to slow the loss spirals from surface acting in both studies. We conclude that the “poor get poorer” (maintaining surface acting) over time, whereas recovery after work effectively breaks the loss spiral of surface acting. Our study expands theoretical understanding of the resource‐based view of emotional labor and practical advice for how to replenish workers' resources over time.

ABSTRACT This study, based on the Conservation of Resources theory, investigates the use of micro-breaks as a resource conservation strategy in the hospitality industry. It examines how emotional labour influences deviant behaviours among frontline staff, with ego depletion serving as a mediator, and evaluates how micro-break activities can moderate the effects of ego depletion on these behaviours. Data from 573 online surveys and 30 semi-structured interviews indicate that surface acting is positively linked to deviant behaviour through emotional ego depletion, while deep acting reduces such behaviour. Importantly, short breaks at work assist in alleviating the detrimental effects of emotional labour on deviant behaviour, providing practical strategies for managing the pressures of emotional labour in the service sector.

This study used the Emotional Dissonance Theory and the Conservation of Resources Theory to investigate how emotional labor affects new hotel employees' anxiety over time. 534 employees were involved in the study, participating in three rounds of data collection. A latent class growth model and a repeated‐measure analysis of variance were utilized to analyze the data. Study 1 identified two distinct groups of employees; one group exhibited a low initial level of anxiety, which was subsequently followed by a significant increase. In contrast, the other group displayed low anxiety levels in three rounds of investigation. Study 2 discovered that employees adapted their emotional labor strategies in response to occupational chronic stress. Specifically, a combination of lower surface acting, higher deep acting, and natural emotional expression positively impacted the employees' psychological well‐being. The findings offer valuable insights for the hospitality management, guiding how to support the mental health of their employees.

Amid growing global concern for the psychological sustainability of healthcare professionals (HCPs), this study investigates the role of Workplace Spirituality (WOPS) as a soft total quality management (TQM) practice in enhancing employee wellbeing. Grounded in conservation of resources (COR) theory, WOPS is conceptualized as an organizational resource caravan that shapes emotional labour strategies specifically, surface acting, deep acting and genuine acting as mediators of wellbeing. A cross-sectional survey design was employed, utilizing data from 555 healthcare professionals working in private healthcare institutions in India. Validated, multi-dimensional instruments were used to measure WOPS, emotional labour strategies and employee wellbeing. The conceptual model was empirically tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to examine direct and mediated effects. The results provide robust empirical support for WOPS as a dual-pathway enhancer of wellbeing: directly through meaning-making and indirectly through emotional regulation. Specifically, genuine acting emerged as a significant positive mediator, indicating its resource-preserving and authenticity-enhancing function. In contrast, surface acting negatively mediated the relationship, reflecting its resource-depleting and dissonance-inducing nature. Deep acting was not a significant mediator, suggesting its limited adaptive value within high-intensity caregiving roles. Theoretically, this study advances COR theory by conceptualizing emotional labour strategies as asymmetrical mediators, where surface acting depletes, and genuine acting replenishes, psychological resources. Practically, it provides actionable guidance for healthcare leaders and HR professionals aiming to embed meaning-driven, value-oriented HRM practices that bolster emotional regulation and promote sustainable employee wellbeing. However, the cross-sectional design limits causal inference, and the exclusive focus on private healthcare professionals in India may restrict generalizability to public or cross-cultural contexts. Future research should adopt longitudinal, multi-level and cross-cultural methodologies to capture the evolving nexus between organizational spirituality, emotional regulation and wellbeing across settings and time. This study uniquely positions WOPS as a soft-TQM practice and redefines emotional labour as an organizationally shaped response rather than a solely individual burden. It introduces genuine acting as a critical yet underexplored emotional labour mechanism and expands the geographical scope of workplace spirituality research into the Indian healthcare context.

Introduction In the tourism industry, frontline employees are exposed to intense customer interactions that require emotional labor. It is critically important to understand the effects of surface acting and deep acting strategies—performed within the framework of organizational display rules—on adverse psychological consequences such as burnout and work alienation. Building on the Conservation of Resources (COR) and Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) theories, this study examines the mechanisms and boundary conditions of this negative cycle. This study examines an integrated model examining the mediating role of burnout in the relationship between emotional labor strategies (surface and deep acting) and work alienation, and the moderating (buffering) roles of service orientation (as a personal resource) and managerial support (as an organizational resource) in this process. Method Data were collected through random sampling from 1,252 employees working in five-star hotels located in the Alanya and Manavgat regions of Türkiye and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Results The findings revealed that surface acting significantly increased both burnout and work alienation, whereas deep acting significantly mitigated these adverse outcomes. Burnout was identified as a partial mediator in the relationship between emotional labor strategies and work alienation. A key finding was the significant buffering effect of both service orientation and managerial support on the relationship between emotional labor and burnout. These resources substantially weakened the positive effect of surface acting on burnout, thereby reducing its detrimental consequences. Discussion The results demonstrate that the negative psychological costs of emotional labor can be effectively managed through individual and organizational resources. Theoretically, integrating multi-level resources within a unified model provides a more nuanced understanding for the emotional labor literature. Practically, the findings suggest that hospitality organizations should prioritize selecting service-oriented individuals during recruitment and invest in training programs that foster supportive leadership behaviors among managers.

Drawing on insights from the conservation of resources theory and the job demands–resources theory, our study investigates the association between two types of emotional labor—surface and deep acting—and the psychological well-being of firefighters. In addition, it investigates the moderating effect of transformational leadership within this context. To this end, this study utilizes ordinary least squares models to analyze survey data from 1453 firefighters in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea’s largest province by population. The findings reveal a negative association between both types of emotional labor and the psychological well-being of firefighters. The study further demonstrates that transformational leadership mitigates the adverse effects of surface acting on psychological well-being. Our research indicates that transformational leadership plays a pivotal role in replenishing lost emotional resources, thereby enhancing the mental and emotional health of those engaged in demanding roles such as firefighting and emergency medical services. Accordingly, the study highlights a vital strategy for maintaining the psychological well-being of firefighters.

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Our study leverages insights from the conservation of resources theory and job demands–resources theory to explore the relationship between two types of emotional labor—surface acting and deep acting—and job performance among firefighters. Furthermore, we assess the moderating roles of transactional and transformational leadership within this framework. Using hierarchical multiple regression models, we analyzed data from 1453 firefighters in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea’s most populous province. The findings reveal that surface acting adversely affects job performance, whereas deep acting exerts no significant impact. The relationships between these two types of emotional labor are contingent on transactional and transformational leadership. The policy implications of this study include the need to manage employees’ emotional labor by distinguishing between surface and deep acting as well as the need for efforts and alternatives to facilitate transactional and transformational leadership.

In order to survive the fiercer competition, more and more service firms emphasize front-line employees’ role of creating excellent customer experience by displaying positive emotions during the service interactions. However, the underlying mechanisms for the relationship between transformational leadership and front-line employees’ emotional labor remain unclear. Drawing upon the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study develops a conceptual model in which transformational leadership influences front-line employees’ emotional labor through the mediator of psychological empowerment. By collecting data from 436 employees in five call centers, we tested our model and hypotheses through PROCESS 3.3 macro for SPSS developed by Hayes. The results show that transformational leadership shows positive and negative effects on deep acting and surface acting, respectively. The positive effect on deep acting is partially mediated by psychological empowerment, while the negative effect on surface acting is fully mediated by psychological empowerment. Specifically, two dimensions of psychological empowerment (impact, self-efficacy) play negative mediating roles between transformational leadership and surface acting, while impact, self-determination, and self-efficacy play positive mediating roles of transformational leadership and deep acting. The findings advance our understanding about how transformational leadership influences front-line employees’ emotional labor by introducing psychological empowerment as a mediator.

Hotel service dissatisfaction necessitates recovery for sustainable operations. Frontline employees, crucial for customer interactions, ensure quality service delivery and bear responsibility for rectifying service failures. Swift service complaint resolution is customer’s priority, with leader support impacting emotional labor and performance outcomes. This study explores servant leadership's vital role in fostering an environment where employees feel valued, contributing to successful service recovery. Employing SPSS, AMOS, and SEM, this study empirically extends existing leadership literature by exploring the uncharted relationship between servant leadership and service recovery performance within an underdeveloped nation's hotel industry, significantly contributing to the conservation of resource theory. Using a comprehensive survey of 625 frontline employees, findings of the study reveal servant leadership's positive impact on deep acting and negative effect on surface acting. The study confirms servant leadership fosters deep acting, positively influencing service recovery. Grounded in the conservation of resources theory, it proves hotels with servant leadership exhibit effective service recovery. This research contributes theoretically by linking emotional labor to the servant leadership and service recovery performance relationship, demonstrating its impact on genuine customer interaction restoration.

This study aims to explore the cascading influence of managerial coaching behavior (MCB) on employee service recovery performance (SRP) within the tourism and hospitality enterprises. Using a multilevel mediation model, it examines the cross-level indirect relationship between MCB and SRP, specifically how this relationship is sequentially mediated by surface acting and compassion fatigue. The research analyzed data from multiple sources comprising 52 supervisors and 352 employees using multilevel structural equation modeling, which supports the proposed cross-level mediation model. Individual-level SRP is strongly predicted by group-level MCB. In addition, the results indicate a significant sequential cross-level indirect pathway, wherein MCB influences SRP through its impact on surface acting and, subsequently, compassion fatigue. Organizations should promote active engagement in MCB among managers and supervisors, as their involvement positively influences subordinates’ performance in service recovery situations. In addition, management should implement training programs that help staff reduce surface acting by fostering genuine empathy and understanding toward guests, thereby alleviating compassion fatigue. The current research offers novel empirical evidence of a cross-level effect of MCB on SRP through the sequential mediating roles of surface acting and compassion fatigue within the tourism and hospitality sector. In doing so, it advances both conservation of resources theory and coaching literature in this context.

Abstract Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, this study investigates the impact of service-sales ambidexterity on employee behavior and customer outcomes in retail. Using a sample of 518 employees and 3,533 customers in 37 business units, we find that greater service-sales ambidexterity leads to increased use of surface acting tactics by employees. However, this is associated with reduced employee vigor and lower customer-oriented citizenship behavior ratings at both individual and store levels. We also find that higher levels of surface acting at the store level negatively affect customer delight and spending behavior. Additionally, the frequency of customer visits moderates the relationship between surface acting climate and customer outcomes, with a negative impact on customer delight and a positive impact on customer spending behavior.

No abstract available

Retailers like Walmart, Target, and Home Depot have adopted Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), leading to cost savings and efficient inventory and supply chain management. However, some companies, such as Nike, Waste Management, and Lidl, have faced challenges in transitioning from old to new systems, marked by changes in employee behavior, increased workload, and rising stress levels. Although extant literature focuses on employees’ technology-induced workload, limited insight exists into whether and how such workload transpired by ERP is transmitted from managers to employees and the implications on customer service. To address these gaps, we draw on the conservation of resources theory, utilizing multilevel and multirespondent data collected during the initial phases of ERP implementation in retail stores. We find an indirect crossover effect of technology-induced workload from managers to employees, mediated through manager close monitoring, and an indirect effect of manager technology-induced workload on customer-directed sabotage, serially mediated by manager close monitoring and employee technology-induced workload. Furthermore, surface acting amplifies the impact of employee technology-induced workload on customer-directed sabotage. The study contributes to the discourse between technology-induced workload as a technology-related stressor and customer service, two areas that have evolved in parallel fashion without much cross-pollination.

No abstract available

As workplace bullying has emerged as a serious social problem, many researches on the abusive supervision representing workplace bullying have been conducted. The abusive supervision has a significant negative impact on the subordinate's attitude and behavior, especially on the subordinate's trust in the supervisor, which has been confirmed to have a positive effect through many empirical studies. Therefore, it is necessary to properly recognize the impact of abusive supervision that occurs frequently in the organization on supervisor trust, and the need to manage it at the organizational level is increasing. Accordingly, this study focuses on the emotional mechanism of subordinates (the mediating effect of emotional labor strategies divided into deep acting and surface acting), and based on social exchange theory and conservation of resources theory, we clarify the impact of abusive supervision on supervisor trust. This study conducted a survey of organizational members working with their supervisors for empirical study, and a total of 317 samples were used for research hypothesis analysis. As a result of structural equation analysis, the abusive supervision did not have a statistically significant effect on supervisor trust, but the negative effect on deep acting and the positive effect on surface acting were confirmed. Deep acting had a positive effect on supervisor trust, and surface acting did not have a significant effect on supervisor trust. As a result of the mediating effect verification, it was found that deep acting mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and supervisor trust. Based on the above research results, theoretical and practical implications for the effect of abusive supervision were presented.

Is emotional labour a burden or a boon to service providers who have greater workplace spirituality (WS)? We test a moderated mediation model in which emotional exhaustion mediates the conjoint effect of WS and emotional labour on job satisfaction. Linking conservation of resources (COR) theory with the mechanism of ‘value congruence’ in person–environment fit theory, we theorize that spiritual values are a key factor in generating necessary resource gains for deep acting (DA) due to the value fit of these two motivational vectors. As a boundary condition for use of the benefits of DA, WS can bridge the gap between theoretical assumptions concerning the benefits of DA and the lack of empirical evidence that DA mitigates emotional exhaustion. Concurrently, we challenge the perception of WS as universally beneficial to employees’ wellbeing by proposing that WS amplifies the detrimental effects of surface acting because the externalized and inauthentic nature of this type of emotional regulation transgresses basic spiritual values. Our hypotheses find support in a study of 196 Israeli service providers at inbound call centres.

ABSTRACT Using an interactionist perspective and conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examined the interactive effects of resilience and role overload on family-work enrichment and the outcomes of surface acting, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction. The model was tested using a sample of 156 full time employees who completed surveys at two time periods. As expected, resilience was positively related to family-work enrichment and family-work enrichment was negatively related to surface acting and emotional exhaustion and positively related to job satisfaction demonstrating mediating effects for family-work enrichment. Role overload moderated the positive relationship between resilience and family-work enrichment such that the relationship was weaker when role overload was high indicating a boundary condition for the favorable effects of resilience. Finally, support was found for the conditional indirect effects of resilience on surface acting, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction through family-work enrichment such that the relationships were weaker when role overload was high.

Despite increasing interest being given to dysfunctional customer behavior in multiple service sectors, it is unclear how and why different types of dysfunctional customer behavior (verbal abuse, disproportionate demand, and illegitimate complaint) affect frontline employees’ emotional labor during the service interactions. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, we propose a conceptual model in which verbal abuse, disproportionate demand, and illegitimate complaint differentially influence frontline employees’ emotional labor strategies (surface acting and deep acting). Further, the boundary conditions of these relationships are considered by introducing perceived organizational support and customer orientation as moderators. Using survey data from 436 frontline employees of five call centers in China, hypotheses were tested through a hierarchical regression analysis. The results indicated that verbal abuse and illegitimate complaint exerted positive effects on surface acting. Particularly, these positive effects were weaker when frontline employees perceived organizational support was high. Also, verbal abuse’s positive effect on surface acting was weaker when frontline employees’ customer orientation was high. Customer’s verbal abuse, disproportionate demand, and illegitimate complaint negatively influenced frontline employees’ deep acting. The negative effect of disproportionate demand on deep acting was weaker when perceived organizational support was high. However, when frontline employees’ customer orientation was high, the negative effects of disproportionate demand and illegitimate complaints on deep acting were weaker.

Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, we investigate whether and how social support impact emotional labor of live streamers through professional identity. We also explore the boundary conditions by focusing on the moderation effect of emotional intelligence. Based on a sample of 331 live streamers in the content industry, the results show that social support weakens (enhances) live streamers’ surface acting (deep acting) by enhancing their professional identity. Emotional intelligence significantly moderates the professional identity - emotional labor relationship. In addition, we find that emotional intelligence strengthens the negative indirect effect of social support on surface acting through professional identity, but weakens the positive indirect effect of social support and deep acting through professional identity. We also discuss theoretical contribution in emotional labor literature and practical implications for live commerce.

The affective event of mistreatment in the workplace has been recognized as an important factor influencing employee affect and behavior. However, few studies have logically explained and empirically clarified the link between mistreatment by patients and nurses’ job satisfaction and turnover intention. The current study aimed to explore the effects of mistreatment by patients on nurses’ job satisfaction and turnover intention through work meaningfulness and emotional dissonance, as well as the moderating role of hostile attribution bias. Using three-wave survey data collect from 657 nurses who worked in three hospitals in China, we found that mistreatment by patients had a negative effect on nurses’ job satisfaction through work meaningfulness, mistreatment by patients had a positive effect on nurses’ turnover intention through emotional dissonance. Furthermore, nurses’ hostile attribution bias acted as an effective moderator on the relationship. These findings help uncover the mechanisms and conditions in which mistreatment by patients influences nurses’ job satisfaction and turnover intention.

Around the globe, in the services sector, customers’ demands and expectations are continuously increasing. To meet their expectations, employees face high pressure from their customers and top management, and sometimes employees face workplace incivility from customers and supervisors, which aggravates employee burnout and increases turnover intentions, especially in the hospitality industry. Based on the conservation of resource theory, this study develops a mechanism to reduce front-line employees' burnout and turnover intentions in two emerging economies, Pakistan and Malaysia. This study collects the data in three waves from 635 front-line employees working in 3-5-star hotels in Pakistan (361), and Malaysia (274), and analyzes the data through SMART PLS 4.0. The results revealed that employee burnout and employee performance significantly mediate the relationship between supervisor incivility and turnover intention, while this sequential mediation is not significant in the case of customer incivility and turnover intention in Pakistan.

No abstract available

Abstract Turnover intention (TI) in many countries has been widely discussed, but research on the turnover intention by Gen Z in Vietnam is still in its infancy. This study examines the role of affective commitment (AC) as a mediator in the relationship between job satisfaction (JOS), emotional exhaustion (EE), and TI. A survey dataset with 602 observations was primarily collected from major cities in Vietnam, and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied. The results indicate that AC is closely related to EE. Moreover, EE has a significant direct impact on TI. However, unlike previous studies, no direct relationship was found between JOS and TI for Gen Z in Vietnam. Given the increasing number of new small and medium-sized businesses in Vietnam, this study contributes significantly to helping organizations plan more rational human resource policies.

The research study focused is to determining the effect of employee burnout on employee creativity, affective commitment and turnover intention in the pharmaceutical industry in Nigeria. With the growing global trend and ease of migration ‘Japa’, the level of employee burnout has been on an increase as an aftermath of delivering on the performance demands. The study focused on Maslach Inventory Model which categorised employee burnout into emotional exhaustion, Depersonalisation, and reduced personal accomplishment. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from various pharmaceutical workers in the city of Lagos, Nigeria. A total of one hundred and eighty-four employees were sampled using the convenience sampling technique. The collated data were analysed using regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. The findings reveal that; there is a significant relationship between employee burnout and employee creativity, there is a significant relationship between employee burnout and affective commitment, and there is a significant influence of employee burnout on turnover intention. The study, however, recommends that to strengthen the organization's burnout-reduction system, the organisation need to encourage various strategic business or functional units to design burnout-reduction programs and initiatives that they believe would be beneficial in their units. In relation to how employee burnout is addressed, the business may also devise a method to award the best unit in terms of creativity, innovation, commitment, and productivity.

PurposeAlthough service researchers have long suggested that customer mistreatment adversely impacts service employees' outcomes, statistical integration of current empirical findings has been lacking. This meta-analysis aims to review and statistically synthesize the state of research on the relationship between customer mistreatment and service employees' affective, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe authors included 221 effect sizes of 135 independent samples from 119 primary studies (N = 47,964). The authors used a meta-analytic approach to quantitatively review the relationship between customer mistreatment and service employees' affective, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Meta-analysis structural equation modeling was used to explore the mediation mechanism of service employees' affective outcomes on the relationships between customer mistreatment and employees' attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Meta-regression was applied to explore the impact of contextual-level moderators (i.e. service provider type and service delivery mode) on these relationships. Furthermore, we compared the effects of customer mistreatment with the effects of other organizational-related factors on some commonly measured employee outcomes.FindingsThe results show that customer mistreatment has a significant negative impact on service employees' affective outcomes (i.e. negative emotions), attitudinal outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work engagement and turnover intention) and behavioral outcomes (i.e. job performance, surface acting and emotional labor). Additionally, service employees' negative emotions mediate the association between customer mistreatment and employees' job satisfaction, turnover intention, surface acting and emotional labor. Furthermore, the relationships between customer mistreatment and service employees' negative emotions and job performance are influenced by a contextual-level moderator (i.e. service delivery mode).Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the literature by providing robust meta-analytic estimates of the effects of customer mistreatment on a variety of service employees' affective, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes, as well as the different magnitudes of the effect sizes between customer mistreatment and other job-related and personality-related factors by quantifying the true variability of the effect sizes. The authors draw on current theories underpinning customer mistreatment to test a theoretical model of the mediation mechanism of service employees' affective outcomes (i.e. service employees' negative emotions) on the relationships between customer mistreatment and employees' attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The authors explore the effects of two contextual-level factors (i.e. service provider types and service delivery mode) related to the service delivery context that may account for the variability of effect sizes across empirical studies.

No abstract available

This study investigates the impact of emotional labor on employee well-being and interpersonal conflicts in service-oriented industries, with a particular focus on the moderating role of organizational support. Utilizing a quantitative research design, data were collected from 200 employees working across various sectors, including retail, hospitality, healthcare, and customer service, using a self-administered questionnaire. The survey included validated scales measuring emotional labor, employee well-being (including burnout and job satisfaction), interpersonal conflicts, and organizational support. Correlation and regression analyses, followed by post-hoc tests, revealed that emotional labor is significantly correlated with both burnout and job satisfaction, indicating that higher emotional labor is linked to increased burnout and decreased job satisfaction. Furthermore, the analysis showed that organizational support acts as a significant moderator, alleviating the negative effects of emotional labor on employee well-being. Specifically, the presence of supportive organizational practices mitigated the impact of emotional labor, enhancing employees' ability to manage emotional demands and leading to reduced burnout and increased job satisfaction. These findings underscore the importance of creating supportive work environments, particularly in service industries, to help employees better cope with emotional labor demands and improve their overall well-being.

Purpose This paper aims to identify types of robot service failure stressors and explores its impact on emotional labor and recovery work engagement from the employees’ standpoint. Design/methodology/approach The research adopted a mixed-method approach in the hospitality industry in China, which included 25 hospitality workers participating in semi-structured interviews and 435 hospitality employees participating in a two-stage questionnaire survey. Findings Three types of robotic service failure stressors – illegitimate tasks, customer mistreatment and robotic instability – were identified. These stressors significantly influence emotional labor strategies in employee subsequently shaping their recovery work engagement through dual pathways. The sequential mediation effect of deep acting and service empathy serves to enhance recovery work engagement, whereas the sequential mediation effect of surface acting and workplace depersonalization diminishes this engagement. Human–robot collaborative climate moderates these effects in this context. Practical implications The findings from this study yield several implications for hospitality managers in managing employees and service robots to perform human–robot collaboration tasks. Originality/value Current research has primarily delved into how robot service failures impact customer experiences, leaving the effects on employees less explored. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first empirical study to explore the relationship between robot service failure and employee emotional responses and behaviors, enriching the literature on service robots in the hospitality industry and also proposing new directions and frameworks for future human–robot interaction research.

Previous discussions on customer injustice and emotional labor have primarily focused on employee–customer dyads, often neglecting the role of service co-workers in shaping emotional labor dynamics. To address this gap, the current study integrates intrapersonal and interpersonal factors to explore their joint effects on employees’ emotional labor strategies when encountering customer injustice. A full-factorial experimental design with 2 (self-construal: independent vs. interdependent) × 3 (service co-workers: alone vs. positive attitudes vs. negative attitudes toward customer injustice) is employed, using data from 179 frontline service employees at high-star hotels in Shanghai, with self-construal and service co-workers operationalized as manipulated conditions. Results reveal that self-construal significantly influences surface acting: interdependent individuals are more inclined to engage in surface acting than independent individuals. By contrast, self-construal has no direct effect on deep acting. While service co-workers do not moderate the relationship between self-construal and surface acting, they play a critical role in the relationship between self-construal and deep acting: for interdependent employees, service co-workers’ attitudes (rather than their mere presence) decisively impact deep acting, with positive attitudes promoting deeper emotional engagement and negative attitudes reducing it. This study advances a dual-path framework highlighting how intrapersonal dispositions (self-construal) and interpersonal impression cues (service co-workers’ attitudes) interact to shape emotional labor. By expanding the traditional employee–customer dyad to a triadic model, the study bridges impression management theory and workplace injustice research, offering theoretical insights into how intrapersonal traits and interpersonal dynamics jointly shape contextualized emotional labor. This thereby provides a theoretical foundation for nuanced management strategies in service organizations.

Emotional exhaustion, a central dimension of burnout, is widely recognized as a critical antecedent of employee turnover intention, particularly in high-pressure service sectors such as hospitality. This study investigates the effect of emotional exhaustion on turnover intention among employees of Pangeran Beach Hotel Padang, Indonesia. Adopting a quantitative research design with total sampling, data were collected from 65 employees using a structured questionnaire and analyzed through Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results reveal that emotional exhaustion has a positive and significant impact on turnover intention, indicating that higher levels of emotional depletion substantially increase employees’ propensity to leave the organization. Theoretically, the findings extend burnout and turnover literature by providing empirical evidence from the underexplored Indonesian hospitality context. Practically, this study offers insights for hotel managers to implement targeted interventions—such as workload optimization, emotional support programs, and employee engagement initiatives—to reduce burnout and enhance retention. Limitations include the single-hotel focus and cross-sectional design, suggesting that future research should employ longitudinal and multi-site approaches to improve generalizability.

Public library employees in the United States constitute a fundamental example of street-level bureaucrats who endure pressure from politicization, affecting how they interact with the public. The politicization of public jobs may produce burnout and health issues, and embattled employees may even leave their profession. This study uses the job demands-resources model (JD-R) to investigate whether demands resulting from politicization increase turnover intention, emotional exhaustion, and reduced compassion, and whether resources or public service motivation (PSM) buffers these effects. Using a national survey of library workers, we find that greater demands are associated with negative workplace perceptions. Resources reduce these perceptions and weaken the relationship between demands and turnover intention. PSM, however, does not moderate the impact of demands on any outcome. Leaders in politicized organizations should provide institutional support to help employees cope with demands from politicization, though emotional exhaustion and reduced compassion may occur even with ample resources.

Frontline service employees face substantial physical, emotional and social challenges that undermine their well-being and job performance. Existing interventions often adopt a transactional approach, focusing on individual-level solutions rather than systemic changes. This paper aims to introduce social mindfulness – the thoughtful consideration of others’ needs – as an institutional arrangement geared toward improving service employee well-being. This conceptual paper integrates service-dominant logic (SDL) and its institutional arrangements concept to explore how social mindfulness, when embedded across actor groups (managers, employees and customers), can create improvements in workplace interactions. By positioning social mindfulness as an institutional arrangement, the study examines how its core components – attention, perspective-taking and considerate behavior – address employee challenges at multiple levels. Social mindfulness can aid in promoting psychological safety, reducing emotional labor burdens and enhancing employee well-being through co-created, prosocial interactions. When adopted collectively across actor groups, it can stimulate systemic behavioral change, strengthening the service environment. Social mindfulness represents an adaptable, scalable institutional arrangement that encourages reciprocal engagement across actors. This paper extends SDL by introducing social mindfulness as an institutional arrangement. It extends the literature on social mindfulness by considering the construct as an institutional arrangement rather than an individual trait. It contributes to the services marketing and employee well-being literature by demonstrating how prosocial institutional arrangements can enhance value co-creation and workplace resilience.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the emotional labor of service employees affects customer service misbehavior and repurchase intention and to explore the mechanism and boundary conditions. Methods We collected a total of 252 pairs of employee–customer valid matching data and used SPSS 24.0 and Mplus7.0 statistical analysis tools to perform statistical analysis and hypothesis testing. Results The results showed that employees’ surface acting has a significant positive impact on customer misbehavior and negative impact on repurchase intention via perceived face threat, while deep acting has a significant negative impact on customer misbehavior and positive impact on repurchase intention via perceived face threat. And customer face threat sensitivity not only moderates the relationship between service employee emotional labor and customer perceived face threat but also moderates the indirect effect of surface acting on customer misbehavior and repurchase intention via customer perceived face threat. Conclusion Based on face theory, this study explained how and when emotional labor of service employees may affect customer service misbehavior and repurchase intention. These results contribute to the emotional labor and customer service misbehavior literature by introducing perceived face threat as an underlying mechanism and face threat sensitivity as a boundary condition. In addition, this study suggests that service-oriented enterprises should pay attention to the management and guidance of employees’ emotional labor and try their best to let employees show deep acting rather than surface acting.

This study aims to analyze the effect of emotional labor on employee performance through work-life balance as an intervening variable at PT Bank Mandiri Pamekasan Regency. This study contributes by clarifying the mediating role of work-life balance in the context of banking services. A quantitative approach was used with a saturated sampling technique involving 54 front-line employees. Data were collected through questionnaires and analyzed using Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4.0. The results showed that emotional labor had a positive and significant effect on employee performance and work-life balance, while work-life balance also had a positive and significant effect on employee performance. In addition, work-life balance mediated the relationship between emotional labor and employee performance, which implies the importance of emotional management and work-life balance in improving sustainable employee performance.

Although service firms recognize the significance of frontline employees’ emotional labor in enhancing perceived service quality and sustaining competitive advantage, the theoretical mechanisms underlying this relationship remain insufficiently understood. Drawing on the Emotions as Social Information Model (EASI), this study proposed that frontline employees’ emotional labor influences customer perceived service quality through two distinct pathways: emotional contagion and inferential processing. Moreover, the relative strength of these two pathways is contingent upon customer involvement. Using dyadic data collected from frontline employees and customers in the banking sector, the results indicated the following: frontline employees’ different emotional labor strategies (deep acting and surface acting) exerted significant influence on perceived service quality through different pathways. Specifically, surface acting impacted service quality solely through emotional contagion process (via customers’ positive affect). Whereas deep acting influenced service quality through both emotional contagion (via customers’ positive affect) and inferential processing (via customer participation). Additionally, customer involvement moderated the relationship between deep acting and customer participation (strengthening the positive association), as well as the link between surface acting and customers’ positive affect (attenuating the negative association).

PurposeThe purpose of the present study is to examine the influence of innovative work behavior (IWB) on service recovery performance (SRP) with the intervention of emotional labor (EL) among frontline employees of Pakistan’s telecommunications sector.Design/methodology/approachBased on a positivist philosophy, the quantitative research design was considered suitable for attaining the intended research objectives. Data were collected purposively from 412 frontline employees from four mobile cellular companies in Pakistan using structured questionnaires. The hypothesized model was tested using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 25 with an extension of Process Model 4 and Smart PLS 4.FindingsThe results showed a significant positive relation between IWB and SRP. In addition, IWB positively influences the first dimension of EL, which is deep acting (DA), whereas it negatively relates to surface acting (SA) in another dimension. Furthermore, SA was also found to be negatively associated with SRP. On the contrary, the study found no significant relation between DA and SRP. The mediating results show that the relationship of DA was significant between IWB and SRP, whereas SA is insignificant between IWB and SRP.Originality/valueThe study focused on the intervening role of EL among IWB and SRP in Pakistan’s telecom sector. The use of IWB as an influencer on EL to predict SRP is relatively less studied. The research critically examines the influence of IWB on EL and how IWB regulates frontline employees’ emotions and vice versa. The study provides a new perspective and challenges existing assumptions to the management and authorities to revisit their work roles, settings and performance indicators for frontline employees in the telecom sector.

With the development of Taiwanese society, the tourist B&B industry has become particularly important, marking the origin of the significant development of the tourism industry. This study focuses on the quality of host–tourist relationships in B&Bs. It is proposed that tourists “discover” the emotions and feelings of B&B hosts through service contact processes. Although researchers have pointed out that frontline service employee personality traits affect the quality of interactions and satisfaction from the consumers’ point of view, very few studies have investigated the relationships between tourists and B&B hosts, the latter playing a double role—both as a host and a service worker. Data were collected from 422 tourists who had utilized B&B services. A quantitative analysis of the questionnaires was conducted through descriptive statistics, K-means clustering, one-way ANOVA and structural equation modeling (SEM), in order to determine the relationships among the three sets of variables. The results of this study reveal that the personality traits of B&B hosts directly affect their emotional labor and the quality of their relationships with tourists. However, the emotional labor of B&B hosts is found not to affect the quality of relationships; in this respect, our findings go counter to those of previous studies.

This study examines the effects of customer incivility on emotional labor through customer orientation and the moderating effects of conflict with supervisors or coworkers. This relationship can be explained using the transactional model of stress. Data were collected through a two-wave survey of 222 flight attendants working for a South Korean airline. The Mplus macro was used to test the relationship between customer orientation (leading to emotional labor through customer orientation) and the moderating effects of conflict with supervisors or coworkers. Higher levels of customer incivility were associated with lower customer orientation and deep acting. This relationship is moderated by conflicts with one’s supervisor. This study focuses on employee conflict, which is underrepresented in service literature. Specifically, it examines the effects of customer incivility on emotional labor when employees experience internal conflict. The findings indicate that interpersonal conflict with one’s supervisor exacerbates the negative effects of customer incivility. The study shows that customer incivility reduces customer orientation and deep acting and, thus, provides insights into the importance of internal organizational conflict and customer interaction in managing service employees.

In the modern service industry, the emotional interaction between service employees and customers is a core factor affecting the perceived service quality of customers. Based on human resource management practices in a Chinese restaurant in the UK, the study conducted an exploratory case study on the impact of service employees' emotional interactions with customers on employees' service decision choices. The study found that different emotional states of service employees and customers have an impact on employees' emotional labor strategies. Moreover, the study further summarizes the HRM practice factors that influence employee service decisions and provides an in-depth analysis of the role of HRM commitment in influencing employee emotional labor decisions. The paper concludes with suggestions on how the restaurant can improve the service quality of its employees from the perspective of human resource management.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a psychological factor which can increase employee’s ability and performance. Highly Emotional Intelligence employees are able to produce good quality products and services at their work environment. There is dearth of information on EI and turnover intentions of employees in family owned business in Zimbabwe which this qualitative study sought to address. However, the purpose of this research is to analyse the relationship of EI and turnover intentions of employees in small businesses. Through purposive sampling 20 respondents were interviewed to solicit the information where data was analysed and presented thematically. Findings indicated that employees with high emotional intelligence may properly balance the relationship between work and family and reduce job burnout thus resulting in less turnover intention. The findings shows that emotional intelligence (EI) improves employee engagement and these improvements can lead to lower absenteeism, higher productivity, and a decrease in employee turnover. The study also has some theoretical implications regarding employees’ perception of emotional intelligence (EI). Further study need to be done on EI and leadership commitment in small businesses in Zimbabwe

No abstract available

Purpose: This research aims to develop an emotional labor scale and examine the consistency of the emotional labor measurement model with empirical data. The study focuses on individuals with long-term work experience and incorporates cross-cultural perspectives to address gaps in current research. Additionally, it seeks to create a standardized model for measuring and evaluating emotional labor that is applicable to contemporary work environments. Methodology: The population is front-service employees of hotels in Chonburi Province, and the sample consists of 280 front-service employees of hotels in Pattaya City, Chonburi Province. The research methodology for developing the emotional labor scale in this phase is quantitative research, using confirmatory factor analysis to examine the consistency of the emotional labor measurement model. Findings: The results of the model fit analysis and quality assessment of the CFA model found that the RMSEA (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation) was 0.217, indicating a lack of fit between the model and data. The CFI (Comparative Fit Index) was 0.591. The TLI (Tucker-Lewis Index) was 0.442. Finally, the IFI (Incremental Fit Index) was 0.595. Based on the presented indices, this model has a poor fit with the data. The RMSEA, CFI, TLI, and IFI values are lower than the recommended criteria, indicating a discrepancy between the model and data. Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: These findings suggest that current emotional labor measurement models may not accurately capture the experiences of workers across different cultures and with varying lengths of work experience. Policymakers and organizations should consider developing more nuanced and culturally sensitive approaches to assess and manage emotional labor in the workplace. This could involve creating tailored training programs, revising performance evaluation metrics, and implementing supportive policies that acknowledge the complexity of emotional labor across diverse work environments.

PurposeThis study investigates how organizational control systems induce emotional labor in frontline service employees (FLEs). Drawing on the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) theory, we hypothesized that two control systems, an outcome-based control system (OBCS) and a behavior-based control system (BBCS), trigger work engagement rather than organizational dehumanization in FLEs, leading them to choose deep acting rather than surface acting as an emotional labor strategy.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed three-wave online surveys conducted 3–4 months apart to assess the time-lagged effects of S-O-R. We measured OBCS, BBCS (stimuli) and control variables at Time 1 (T1); work engagement and organizational dehumanization (organisms) at Time 2 (T2) and emotional labor strategies (responses) at Time 3 (T3). A total of 218 employees completed the T1, T2 and T3 surveys.FindingsOBCS increased work engagement, leading to increased deep acting. BBCS enhanced organizational dehumanization, leading to increased surface acting. Post-hoc analysis confirmed that the indirect effect of OBCS on deep acting through work engagement and the mediation effect of BBCS on surface acting through organizational dehumanization were statistically significant.Originality/valueThis study collected three-wave data to reveal how organizational control systems affect FLEs’ emotional labor in the S-O-R framework. It illustrated how organizations induce FLEs to perform effective emotional strategies by investigating the effects of organizational control systems on their internal states.