Working with a SmileA Diary Study on Daily Emotion Regulation, Well-being and Work Engagement

Abstract

In this diary study, we examined intra-individual relationships between daily emotion regulation strategies (surface acting and deep acting) in customer interactions and in coworker interactions with daily emotional exhaustion and work engagement. In addition, we explored different mediators (daily emotional dissonance in customer and coworker interactions, daily rewarding relationships with customers and coworkers, and daily self-regulatory resources) in these relationships. In total, 82 employees from a furniture store responded to a general survey and five daily surveys over the course of one working week. Hierarchical linear modeling (N = 380 days) showed that both daily emotion regulation in customer interactions and in coworker interactions were related to daily emotional exhaustion and daily work engagement. Mediator hypotheses were partly confirmed showing differential relationships for predictor and outcome variables. Our results emphasize that with regard to employee well-being, we should not only consider emotional labor in customer interactions as an important predictor but also emotional labor in other interpersonal interactions, such as interactions with coworkers.