Three decades after its introduction as a concept, emotional labor—regulating emotions as part of the work role—is fully on the map in organizational behavior and organizational psychology. As research has accelerated, roadblocks, such as fuzzy construct conceptualizations, assumed but untested processes, and methodological stagnation, have emerged. To provide direction to new scholars and suggestions to seasoned emotional labor researchers, we review theoretical perspectives and evidence for emotional labor and its (a) construct development and measurement, (b) chronic and momentary determinants, (c) prediction of employee well-being, and (d) influence on organizational performance. On this path, we introduce emotional labor as a dynamic integration of three components (i.e., emotional requirements, emotion regulation, and emotion performance), interpret personal and organizational moderators, and point to innovative new methodological approaches. Overall, we provide a new road map to jump-start the fiel...

Emotional Labor at a Crossroads: Where Do We Go from Here?

Integrating 2 theoretical perspectives on predictor-criterion relationships, the present study developed and tested a hierarchical framework in which each five-factor model (FFM) personality trait comprises 2 DeYoung, Quilty, and Peterson (2007) facets, which in turn comprise 6 Costa and McCrae (1992) NEO facets. Both theoretical perspectives-the bandwidth-fidelity dilemma and construct correspondence-suggest that lower order traits would better predict facets of job performance (task performance and contextual performance). They differ, however, as to the relative merits of broad and narrow traits in predicting a broad criterion (overall job performance). We first meta-analyzed the relationship of the 30 NEO facets to overall job performance and its facets. Overall, 1,176 correlations from 410 independent samples (combined N = 406,029) were coded and meta-analyzed. We then formed the 10 DeYoung et al. facets from the NEO facets, and 5 broad traits from those facets. Overall, results provided support for the 6-2-1 framework in general and the importance of the NEO facets in particular.

/pdf/hierarchical-representations-of-the-five-factor-model-of-2henpz3c5n.pdf

Hierarchical representations of the five-factor model of personality in predicting job performance: integrating three organizing frameworks with two theoretical perspectives.

Emotional labor has been an area of burgeoning research interest in occupational health psychology in recent years. Emotional labor was conceptualized in the early 1980s by sociologist Arlie Hochschild (1983) as occupational requirements that alienate workers from their emotions. Almost 2 decades later, a model was published in Journal of Occupational Health Psychology (JOHP) that viewed emotional labor through a psychological lens, as emotion regulation strategies that differentially relate to performance and wellbeing. For this anniversary issue of JOHP, we review the emotional labor as emotion regulation model, its contributions, limitations, and the state of the evidence for its propositions. At the heart of our article, we present a revised model of emotional labor as emotion regulation, that incorporates recent findings and represents a multilevel and dynamic nature of emotional labor as emotion regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record

The state of the heart: Emotional labor as emotion regulation reviewed and revised.

Intense emotions such as frustration, anger, and dissatisfaction often drive employees to speak up. Yet the very emotions that spur employees to express voice may compromise their ability to do so constructively, preventing managers from reacting favorably. I propose that to speak up frequently and constructively, employees need knowledge about effective strategies for managing emotions. Building on theories of emotion regulation, I develop a theoretical model that explains the role of managing emotions in the incidence and outcomes of voice. In a field study at a health care company, emotion regulation knowledge (1) predicted more frequent voice, (2) mediated by the emotional labor strategies of deep acting and surface acting, and (3) enhanced the contributions of voice to performance evaluations. These results did not generalize to helping behaviors, demonstrating that emotion regulation uniquely affects challenging but not affiliative interpersonal citizenship behaviors. This research introduces emotion regulation as a novel influence on voice and its consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rocking the Boat but Keeping It Steady: The Role of Emotion Regulation in Employee Voice

This article explores the role of within-person fluctuations in employees� daily surface acting and subsequent personal energy resources in the performance of organizational citizenship behaviors directed toward other individuals in the workplace (OCBI). Drawing on ego depletion theory (Muraven & Baumeister, 2000), we develop a resource-based model in which surface acting is negatively associated with daily OCBIs through the depletion of resources manifested in end-of-day exhaustion. Further integrating ego depletion theory, we consider the role of employees� baseline personal resource pool, as indicated by chronic exhaustion, as a critical between-person moderator of these within-person relationships. Using an experience-sampling methodology to test this model, we found that surface acting was indirectly related to coworker ratings of OCBI through the experience of exhaustion. We further found that chronic levels of exhaustion exacerbated the influence of surface acting on employees� end-of-day exhaustion. These findings demonstrate the importance of employees� regulatory resource pool for combating depletion and maintaining important work behaviors. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Too drained to help: A resource depletion perspective on daily interpersonal citizenship behaviors.

Surface acting and deep acting with customers are strategies for service performance, but evidence for their effectiveness is limited and mixed. We propose that deep acting is an effective strategy for most employees, whereas surface acting's effect on performance effectiveness depends on employee extraversion. In Study 1, restaurant servers who tended to use deep acting exceeded their customers' expectations and had greater financial gains (i.e., tips) regardless of extraversion, whereas surface acting improved tips only for extraverts, not for introverts. In Study 2, a call center simulation, deep acting improved emotional performance and increased the likelihood of extrarole service behavior beyond the direct and interactive effects of extraversion and other Big Five traits. In contrast, surface acting reduced emotional performance for introverts and not extraverts, but only during the extrarole interaction. We discuss implications for incorporating traits into emotional labor research and practice.

Kathleen Royer Krimmel

Papers

Want a Tip? Service Performance as a Function of Emotion Regulation and Extraversion.

"Want a tip? Service performance as a function of emotion regulation and extraversion": Correction to Chi, Grandey, Diamond, and Krimmel (2011).