Workplace spirituality as a means of enhancing service employee well-being through emotional labor strategy choice

Abstract

This study examines whether workplace spirituality can influence the emotional labor strategy choices and the subjective well-being of service employees. We integrate conservation of resources theory and social role theory to examine the joint effects of workplace spirituality and gender differences on deep acting and surface acting. Our findings suggest that deep acting and surface acting differentially mediate the relationship between workplace spirituality and subjective well-being. Through a moderated mediation analysis, we demonstrate a stronger connection for females between subjective well-being and workplace spirituality through deep acting than for males. The results of this study shed light on how and why workplace spirituality and individual differences influence the emotional labor and subjective well-being of service employees. These results also expand our knowledge of how to help service employees gain and invest resources during their work processes and also provide a new practical way the service organization can decrease the potential negative effects of emotional labor on service employees.