How Does Emotional Labor Impact Employees’ Perceptions of Well-Being? Examining the Mediating Role of Emotional Disorder

Yao Yao,Chen Chen,Mu Mu,Gao Gao

doi:10.3390/su11236798

Yao Yao, Chen Chen + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su11236798

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Abstract

Since bank employees are prone to high psychological pressure, it is key to explore the influencing mechanism of their emotional labor so as to relieve their pressure, as well as improve organizational performance and service quality. This study aimed to investigate the effects of emotional labor on bank employees’ well-being and to determine the mediating role of emotional disorder in this relationship. Employees responded to a survey regarding their use of emotional labor as well as perceptions of their well-being and emotional disorder. The results showed that employees’ use of emotional labor was related to their perceptions of well-being and confirmed the mediating role of emotional disorder in this relationship. The results indicated that surface acting has a significant negative impact on employee well-being, while deep acting has a significant positive impact. Moreover, emotional disorder played a role in mediating emotional labor and employee well-being, and emotional disorder was positively correlated with surface acting and negatively correlated with deep acting. The results revealed that developing deep-acting skills is important for increasing front-line bank staff’s well-being in China, who are accustomed to repressing their emotions, and emotional disorder might occur more often than has been previously believed, which worsens their well-being.

Highlights

Under the conditions of high-intensity and long-term emotional labor, bank employees are prone to psychological pressure
The survey consisted of five items pertaining to the general characteristics of the respondents, such as gender, age, years of work experience, marital status, and education level (Table 1); items related to emotional labor as the independent variable; items related to well-being as the dependent variable; and five items related to emotional disorder as the mediating variable
Most previous papers have discussed the relationship between emotional labor and employee well-being, whereas the and employee well-being, and emotional disorder was positively correlated with surface acting and negatively correlated with deep acting

Summary

Introduction

Under the conditions of high-intensity and long-term emotional labor, bank employees are prone to psychological pressure. According to the Chinese Medical Association, 72.8% of Chinese financial industry employees self-reported experiencing high pressure all the time [1]. In contrast to the work of service employees in other industries, every move that front-line bank staff makes is monitored, and their hard work consumes emotional resources. To create a good service image, the frequency of and attention paid to emotional expression are quite high; compared with other types of workers, front-line bank staff must perform more physical and mental labor, they consume more psychological resources, and they are more prone to mental health problems. Much attention has been devoted to the association of emotional labor with employee outcomes. Evidence suggests that the psychological states of employees can function as a mediator between emotional labor and employee outcomes [3,4,5,6]

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