From surface acting to genuine care: emotional labor among SOS mothers in Sri Lanka

Background: Teaching physical education is an emotion-laden context which requires physical education teachers to engage in emotional labor in order to foster their well-being, as well as student’s outcomes. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictability of emotional labour strategies on job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion among secondary physical education teachers in South Korea. Specifically, the four forms of emotional labour (i.e., surface acting, deep acting, genuine positive expression, and genuine negative expression) were hypothesized to have different influences on job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Method: A total of 225 full-time physical education teachers were invited to participate in the paper-pencil survey. The questionnaires contained items measuring the four forms of emotional labour, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction which had been modified to fit the physical education setting. Results: The results indicated that surface acting, genuine positive expression, and genuine expression was significantly associated with emotional exhaustion whereas only genuine positive expression was significantly associated with job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Finally, emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between surface acting and job satisfaction, genuine positive expression and job satisfaction, and genuine negative expression and job satisfaction. Conclusion: These results suggest that emotional labour plays a critical role on physical education teachers’ well-being and job attitude. Keywords : emotional regulation, physical education teacher, genuine expression, Asian culture, surface acting

To examine the impact of display rules on nurses' caring behaviors and emotional exhaustion and the mediating role of emotional labor (surface/deep acting). Hospitals often implement emotional display rules for nurses with the expectation of performance benefits. However, these rules may have an impact on nurses' caring behaviors and emotional exhaustion. This cross-sectional correlational study included a sample of 746 nurses from five hospitals and used the STROBE checklist. Relationships between display rules, emotional labor, caring behaviors, and emotional exhaustion were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Display rules did not directly affect caring behaviors or emotional exhaustion. Emotional labor mediated the relationships. Display rules were associated more with surface acting. Deep acting increased caring behaviors and reduced emotional exhaustion; surface acting had the opposite effect. Findings challenge the assumption that display rules effectively promote caring behaviors. Display rules lead to emotional labor and emotional exhaustion. Reducing display rules, emotional labor, and surface acting while supporting deep acting may alleviate emotional exhaustion. Nurse managers should review the nature and implementation of emotional display rules and explore ways to reduce emotional labor, encourage deep acting, mitigate the negative impact of surface acting, and ultimately improve nursing caring behaviors.

BackgroundCollege counselors often endure significant work stress, which directly impacts their emotional labor. Although previous studies have described the association between work stress and emotional labor, the critical role of psychological resilience has been overlooked. The goal of this research is to explore the correlation between work stress and emotional labor among college counselors, and further tests the moderating effect of psychological resilience in this relationship. It aims to furnish empirical evidence for higher education institutions to manage stress effectively among this population, promote deeper expressions of emotional labor, minimize superficial displays. Additionally, it provides practical basis for career happiness management at both the institutional level and for individual counselors.MethodsA cluster sampling method was employed, and through online means, 351 full-time counselors were selected as research subjects. Data were collected using the Work Stress Questionnaire, the Psychological Resilience Questionnaire, and the Two-Dimensional Emotional Labour Questionnaire. Normality tests and common method bias tests were conducted using the K-S test and Harman’s single-factor method, respectively. Descriptive statistics were performed using mean z-tests, paired t-tests, and partial correlations. The moderating effect was tested using hierarchical regression analysis and simple slope analysis. The significance level for the analysis was α = 0.05 (two-sided).ResultsThe mean scores (M ± SD ) for work stress, psychological resilience, deep acting, and surface acting were (2.881 ± 0.699), (3.398 ± 0.800), (3.723 ± 0.837), and (3.234 ± 1.014), respectively. Deep acting was significantly higher than surface acting (t = 5.159, p < 0.001). Work stress was significantly negatively correlated with psychological resilience and deep acting (r = − 0.417, r = − 0.816, both p < 0.01), and positively correlated with surface acting (r = 0.812, p < 0.01). Psychological resilience was significantly positively correlated with deep acting (r = 0.679, p < 0.01) and negatively correlated with surface acting (r = − 0.562, p < 0.01). Psychological resilience did not have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between work stress and deep acting (β=−0.053, p > 0.05). However, it had a significant moderating effect on the relationship between work stress and surface acting (β=-0.167, p < 0.001), explaining 2.9% of the variance in surface acting (∆R²= 0.027).ConclusionCollege counselors experience high levels of work stress, with deep acting in emotional labor being higher than surface acting. The relationship between work stress and emotional labor among university counselors reveals a significant positive correlation with surface acting, while exhibiting a significant negative correlation with deep acting. Psychological resilience weakens the positive association between work stress and surface acting. It is recommended to reduce work stress and improve psychological resilience levels to enhance deep acting, reduce surface acting, and improve work efficiency among college counselors.

The concept of ‘emotional labour’ has been suggested as a useful framework for studying the relationship between emotionally demanding work and well being of health-care staff. The framework distinguishes ‘surface acting’ from ‘deep acting’ and suggests a predominant reliance on surface acting as a risk for emotional exhaustion. The relationship between emotional demands and emotional exhaustion among staff members working in high secure forensic psychiatric care (n = 131) was studied using the framework of emotional labour. Surface acting was found to partly mediate the relationship between emotional demands and emotional exhaustion. Experiencing the relationship with the manager as supportive contributed negatively to the prediction of emotional exhaustion. Workplace support did not moderate the relationship between emotional labour and emotional exhaustion. Although staff members working on wards in the direct care of forensic psychiatric patients tend to use both deep and surface acting during their work, our study results also show that deep acting and surface acting are differently related to emotional exhaustion. The framework of emotional labour indeed showed to be a useful paradigm within this population. Therefore, suggestions are made to pay attention to emotional labour strategies in future research and practice.

In the service industries, many service organizations have explicit or implicit emotional display rules – that is, showing the appropriate emotions and behaviors when front-line workers interact with customers face to face(Groth,Hennig-Thurau, and Walsh, 2009; Hochschild, 1983; RafaeliandSutton, 1987). Although workers acknowledge that they are required to complywith the organizational display rules, but their feelings inside are not alwaysconsistent with the roles they are playing. Even when they have the same job requirements, some handle the job easily, some are not, this shows the differences between individuals. The effects of personal factors or characteristics, such as gender, positivity or negativity, emotional expression, the Big Five, self-monitoring, andemotional intelligence, etc. on emotional laborhave been widely explored by previous researchers (BrotheridgeandGrandey,2002; Grandey, 2000;Kiffin-Petersen, Jordan, and Soutar, 2011;Schaubroeckand Jones, 2000; Callahan and McCollum, 2002;Wharton, 1993). However, the present studyfound that affective professional commitment as the antecedent of emotional labor remains untested.Toexpand the current literature on emotional labor, this studyintends toexaminethe extent to which doctors’affective professional commitment influence the emotional labor strategies (i.e., surface acting and deep acting) thatdoctors adopt. Moreover,apart fromexamining the possible effect ofemotional labor (i.e.,surface acting and deep acting) on emotion exhaustion, this study also attempts to investigate the unexplored relationship between emotional labor and customer orientation bytargeting patients as study subjects to fill out thequestionnaire ofcustomer orientation. This study chooses the doctors of clinic and rehabilitation center in Taipei and Tainan, mainly because this profession fits the features of emotional labor workers mentioned in Hochschild’s study (1982, 1983). The results of this study has shown that affective professional commitment did not have effects on surface acting, but had significant effects on deep acting. The effects of emotional labor on emotional exhaustion were significant, but the effects on customer orientation were not significant.

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.

Developing a structural equation model from Grandey's emotional regulation model to measure nurses' emotional labor, job satisfaction, and job performance

Emotional labor refers to the process by which employees are required to regulate their emotions in accordance with professionally specified requirements, rules, and guidelines. In the context of teaching, a significant portion of work is dedicated to the emotional labor of the teachers. Teaching, as a multifaceted profession, encompasses cognitive as well as emotional dimensions. Teachers consistently engage in emotional labor as an essential component of achieving pedagogical objectives and fostering positive learning outcomes. This review aimed to examine the emotional labor of elementary and high school teachers. The study was guided by four key questions: (1) What are the emotional labor levels of the teachers? (2) How do teachers engage in emotional labor in terms of surface acting and deep acting? (3) What is the relationship between naturally felt emotions and surface acting and deep acting? (4) What are the remaining gaps in the literature regarding the study of emotional labor, surface acting, and deep acting among teachers in elementary and high schools? We systematically selected ten articles relevant to our objective to confirm the components related to teachers&amp;rsquo; emotional labor, with a specific focus on surface acting, deep acting, and naturally felt emotions in elementary and high school teachers. A comprehensive database search was conducted, in adherence to the PRISMA statement, to locate relevant studies investigating &amp;ldquo;teachers&amp;rsquo; emotional labor&amp;rdquo; and synthesizing surface acting and deep acting. The PICOS approach was used to refine research inquiries and formulate search terms. Overall, the literature review highlights notable associations between surface acting and deep acting. However, there is no conclusive evidence that shows the correlation between deep acting and naturally felt emotions. There is considerable room for improving our understanding of emotional labor, including study methodologies, explored variables, and the recognition of historical and cultural influences that moderate and mediate the dynamics of emotional labor. This systematic review sought to delineate and consolidate existing research insights on teachers&amp;rsquo; emotional labor.

이 논문은 보육교사의 직무에서 정서표현규칙의 하위요인과 정서노동 수행전략 간의 관계 및 영향력을 알아보는데 목적이 있다. 이를 위해 서울 지역 어린이집에 근무하는 보육교사 268명을 대상으로 설문조사를 실시하였고, 자료 분석을 위해 상관관계 분석과 회귀분석을 실시하였다. 연구 결과 첫째, 정서표현규칙 지각은 정서노동의 내면행동, 표면행동과 유의한 정적 상관이 있는 것으로 나타났으며, 내면행동은 정서표현규칙의 교육, 몰입, 공정성, 명확성과 유의한 정적 상관이 있는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 정서표현규칙 지각은 표면행동, 내면행동에 정적인 영향을 미치고, 정서표현규칙에 대한 몰입이 내면행동에 유의한 정적 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과를 바탕으로 보육교사의 정서노동을 지원하고 교사의 정서관리 능력향상을 위한 교육방향을 제안하였다. The purpose of this study was to find out the linkage between emotional display rules and emotional labor strategy and the affects of the display rule factors on the emotional labor strategy. The participants of this study were 268 childcare teachers in Seoul, and the collected data were analyzed using correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. The results were as follows: First, display rule perception was positively related to deep acting and surface acting. And the deep acting was positively related to display rule education, commitment, fairness of display rule, and explicit display rule. Second, display rule perception has a positive effect on deep acting and surface acting. And the commitment to display rule has a positive effect on deep acting. This study provided practical implications to help childcare teachers' emotional labor, and suggested directions for the education program for the emotional competence of childcare teachers.

While the role of emotional antecedents of effective selling behavior would be important, the issue has not been fully addressed in the sales literature. To fill this gap, we conceptualize and empirically examine the relationships among salesperson``s emotional regulation processes such as emotional intelligence (EI) and emotional labor (EL), effective selling behavior, and sales performance on the basis of educational, occupational, social psychology literature and marketing literature (e.g., Henning-Thurau, Groth, Paul, and Gremler 2006; Kidwell et al. 2011; Liu et al. 2008; Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso 2008). First, salesperson``s EI is defined as his or her capability that enables correct perceptions about emotional situations in sales interactions. The EI is expected to work as psychological resources for different types of EL (i.e., deep acting and surface acting) to be performed by salesperson as emotional expression strategies (e.g., Lie et al. 2008). It is, then, expected that the features of EL selected by the salesperson would lead to different levels of adaptive selling behavior (ASB) and thereby sales performance (Monaghan 2006). Further, given that salesperson``s customer orientation (CO) is found to be an important correlate of ASB (Franke and Park 2006), it is expected that CO would moderate the relationship between EL and ASB (Rozell, Pettijohn, and Parker 2004). Hence, this research attempts to shed additional light on emotionally-driven (EL) as well as cognitively-driven (CO) antecedents of ASB (Frank and Park 2006). The findings of the survey research, done with 336 salespersons in insurance and financial companies, are summarized as follows. First, salespersons with a high level of EI are found to use both deep acting (regulating the emotions themselves) and surface acting (controlling only emotional expressions) in a versatile way, when implementing EL. Second, the more the salesperson performs deep acting, the more he or she shows ASB. It is, then, important for salespersons to use deep acting more frequently in the EL process in order to enhance the quality of interacting with customers through ASB. On the other hand, the salesperson``s surface acting did not have a significant relationship with ASB. Moreover, CO was found to moderate the relationship between the salesperson``s deep acting and ASB. That is, the context of high CO culture and individual salesperson``s deep acting would synergistically make the selling efforts adaptive to customer preferences. Conceptualizing and empirically verifying the antecedent roles of important emotional constructs such as EI and EL in salesperson``s effective selling behavior (ASB) and sales performance is a major theoretical contribution in the sales literature. Managerially, this research provides a deeper understanding on the nature of tasks performed by salespersons in service industries and a few guidelines for managing the sales force. First, sales organizations had better consciously assess EI capacity in the selection and nurturing processes of salespersons, given that EI can efficiently drive EL and the resulting effective selling behavior and performance. Further, the concept of EL could provide a framework to understand the salespersons`` emotional experiences in depth. Especially, sales organizations may well think over how to develop deep acting capabilities of their sales representatives. In this direction, the training on deep acting strategies would be an essential task for improving effective selling behavior and performance of salespersons. This kind of training had better incorporate the perspectives of customers such that many customers can actually discern whether salespersons are doing either surface acting or deep acting. Finally, based on the synergistic effects of deep acting and CO culture, how to build and sustain CO is always an ever-important task in sales organizations. While the prior sales literature has emphasized the process and structure of highly customer-oriented sales organization, our research not only corroborates the important aspects of customer-oriented sales organization, but also adds the important dimension of competent sales representatives who can resonate with customers by deep acting for sales excellence.

Objective To explore the status quo of emotional labor in operation room nurses and to analyze its effects on quality of professional life, so as to provide a reference for improving physical and mental health of operation room nurses and driving the building and development of the specialized nurse team. Methods Totally 203 operation room nurses from 4 general ClassⅢ Grade A hospitals in Jiangxi province from May to June 2018 were selected using convenient sampling, and the status quo of their emotional labor was investigated with the general information questionnaire, Nurse's Emotional Labor Scale and Nurse's Quality of Professional Life Scale. Results The total average score of emotional labor of the operation room nurses was (3.68±0.55) , including (3.57±0.76) for deep acting, (4.28±0.80) for emotional expression and (3.50±0.74) for surface acting from high to low. Univariate analysis revealed that there was statistically significant difference in surface acting scores between operation room nurses with different length of service, in deep acting scores between operation room nurses with different age, professional title and clinical teaching and in emotional expression scores between operation room scores with different educational background (P<0.05) . Emotional labor was correlated with the various factors of quality of professional life. Surface acting had negative predictive power for kindness satisfaction (β=-0.317, P<0.01) , and positive predictive power for job burnout (β=0.337, P<0.01) and secondary trauma (β=0.264, P<0.01) . Deep acting had positive predictive power for kindness satisfaction, and negative predictive power for job burnout (β=0.303, P<0.01) and secondary trauma (β=0.281, P<0.01) . Emotional expression requirements had positive predictive power for kindness satisfaction (β=0.191, P<0.01) . Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that surface acting, deep acting and emotional expression requirements were the main influencing factors to kindness satisfaction, and that surface acting and deep acting were the main influencing factors to job burnout and secondary trauma. Conclusions The emotional labor of operation room nurses stays at a medium level, and the emotional labor strategy mostly frequently used is deep acting. Surface acting, deep acting and emotional expression requirements in emotional labor have predictive power for quality of professional life, and managers should pay attention to the education and training of emotional labor for operation room nurses. Key words: Nurses; Operation room; Emotional labor; Quality of professional life

Hotel service providers’ emotional labor: The antecedents and effects on burnout

A study of emotional labor in librarianship

Customer service-based employees act as an interface between the consumer and the organisation using managed emotional display which is known as emotional labour. While much research into emotional labour has been conducted over the last three decades, disagreement persists regarding the consequences of emotional labour on employee well-being, ranging from job satisfaction to job burnout. Conflicting empirical findings suggests there is much to be understood regarding the impact of emotional labour on employee well-being, particularly the differential impact of the two types of acting associated with emotional labour: surface acting (faking emotional display) and deep acting (trying to manufacture ‘authentic’ emotional display) and the function of emotional dissonance (stressor). This research examines the employee processes and mechanisms used by University Student Services staff to manage the experience of emotional dissonance during the process of performing emotional labour (specifically, surface acting). This research presents and tests a theoretically derived model of emotional labour that integrates components of coping and cognitive dissonance theories that assists in explaining how employees may manage the affective consequences of emotional labour. Adopting a mixed methods approach, this research includes three sequential phases. The first stage is a qualitative evaluation of the constructs within the theoretical model within the applied setting of Higher Education Student Services. The second stage involves two phases of data collection to develop and test emotional labour focused measures of behavioural disengagement and effort justification (cognitive dissonance theory), as well as a measure of emotional dissonance. The third and final stage tests the proposed model within the applied setting using the scales developed in stage two of the research. Study 1- A qualitative evaluation of the theoretical model using semi-structured interviews on a sample of Student Services employees (n=18). This study is also used to inform item selection and development for Study 2. Study 2- Stage 1: An assessment of the theoretically derived measurement models for emotional dissonance, behavioural disengagement, and effort justification using SEM techniques on a sample of customer service-based employees (n= 355). Stage 2: A confirmation of the measurement models on a sample of customer service-based employees (n= 154). Study 3- A test of the theoretical model using SEM and regression-based techniques using a sample of Student Services employees (n= 175). The scales developed in Study 2 are used in this phase of the research. The results supported the proposed mediating relationship of emotional dissonance between surface acting and job burnout suggesting that the negative affective state is central to determining the nature of job outcomes associated with emotional labour. The findings also indicated that employees who engage in the cognitive reappraisal mechanisms of behavioural disengagement and effort justification are able to manage the level of emotional dissonance they experience when surface acting. This finding illustrates the salience of individual differences in managing the consequences of emotional labour and contributes to clarifying the complex relationship between emotional labour and burnout. Finally, preventive coping was the only individual coping style found to predict the choice of emotional labour based acting (deep acting). This research demonstrates the importance of understanding intrapersonal processes in determining individual responses to emotional labour-based role demands and, in part, helps to clarify the nature and management of emotional dissonance, its measurement and its impact on employee burnout.

Psychiatric nurses often encounter patients with mental health disorders and consequently experience prolonged periods of high stress, increased workload, and frequent incidents of workplace violence. These aspects can lead to a higher incidence of poor sleep quality. This study examined the interplay between workplace violence and emotional labour (surface and deep acting) to suggest measures for enhancing sleep quality among psychiatric nurses. A total of 300 completed and valid online questionnaires were collected. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was used to measure sleep quality, Workplace Violence Scale (WVS) to measure the occurrence of workplace violence, and Emotional Labour Scale to measure surface and deep acting. The data were analysed using Hayes' PROCESS macro with SPSS. Independent samples t-tests and one-way ANOVA were used to compare differences in sleep quality and emotional labour (surface and deep acting) between psychiatric nurses with different demographics. The prevalence of poor sleep quality (PSQI > 5) was 55% among the nurses. Surface acting in emotional labour partially mediated the relationship between workplace violence and sleep quality(a1*b1=0.035,95%CI: 0.002, 0.079), whereas deep acting had a suppressive effect(a2*b2=-0.033,95%CI: -0.071, -0.003). Occupational identity had a positive moderating effect on the relationship between workplace violence and surface acting(Effect=0.091,95%CI: 0.004, 0.179). The relationship between workplace violence and poor sleep quality was partially mediated by surface acting and suppressed by deep acting. Moreover, nurses with higher occupational identity engaged in more surface acting after workplace violence. Workplace violence, surface acting, and deep acting emerged as significant factors influencing sleep quality among psychiatric nurses. Deep acting can reduce the impact of workplace violence on sleep quality. The results provide a new and expanded view of the interplay between workplace violence and emotional labour concerning sleep quality. Interprofessional collaboration with clinicians, administrators, educators, and spiritual leaders can contribute to the development of related education and training. Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2200062347. https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=173264.