Essential precursors and effects of employee creativity in a service context

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 733-752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inyong Shin ◽  
Won-Moo Hur ◽  
Hongseok Oh

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how the emotional labor strategies of service employees differently influence the level of their creativity, and whether creative employees consequently benefit from that creativity in terms of achieving a high level of job performance. Design/methodology/approach – The authors surveyed flight attendants from an airline in South Korea. The authors distributed 150 questionnaires to flight attendants, received 126 responses, and finally obtained 119 usable data. The authors used Mplus 7.13 to evaluate validity and test the hypotheses. Findings – Whereas employees using deep acting were found to be less emotionally exhausted and more affectively committed toward their organization, which produced a high level of creativity, those who selected surface acting were shown to suffer more emotional exhaustion and have less affective commitment, which generated a low level of creativity. Customer service personnel behaving creatively resulted in superior official job performance appraisals. Originality/value – This study makes distinct contributions to the literature by proposing emotional labor as the key antecedent of employee creativity in service organizations, by confirming emotional exhaustion and affective commitment as the motivational mechanisms through which emotional labor strategies influence service employee creativity, and by suggesting the value of employee creativity.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jungkun Park ◽  
Jiseon Ahn ◽  
Hyowon Hyun ◽  
Brian N. Rutherford

PurposeIn this study, the authors examine the impacts of two facets of retail employees' cognitive support and affective commitment on emotional labor-related outcomes.Design/methodology/approachTo test the study hypotheses, 521 retail service employees participated in the survey. By using the structural equation modeling, the results show that employees' perceived organizational support directly and positively employees' affective organizational commitment and emotional exhaustion.FindingsBy using the structural equation modeling, the results show that employees' perceived organizational support directly and positively influence employees' affective organizational commitment and emotional exhaustion. The extent of employees' affective organizational commitment directly and negatively influences emotional labor and exhaustion. Furthermore, employees' emotional exhaustion exerts an influence on retail employees' propensity to leave.Research limitations/implicationsDrawing on social exchange and conservation of resources theories, this study contributes to emotional labor research and practices by examining factors that potentially influences employees' propensity to leave. For future studies, researchers can expand the proposed framework of the current study to other retailing settings.Practical implicationsFindings of the study suggest that retail organizations need to manage employees' support and commitment concerning to understand emotional labor.Originality/valueThe current study found that employees' affective commitment influences key emotional labor constructs including emotional labor and emotional exhaustion. Employees who have a high level of identification, involvement and emotional attachment toward the organization, they are less likely to feel of overload and inefficiency. Given the importance of emotional labor in the retailing setting, the proposed model and findings of this study contribute the existing knowledge of retail employees' behavior.


2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Shih-Tse Wang

Purpose – This paper aims to extend the relationship marketing concept to examine which relationship bonds (social, structural and financial bonds) have different effects on employee affective (want to stay), normative (ought to stay) and continuance commitment (have to stay). Preventing emotional exhaustion in frontline employees and helping them stay on the job is an important topic for emotional labor research. The research also investigates which types of commitment influence emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions significantly. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through a self-reported questionnaire administered to 401 restaurant service industry frontline workers. Findings – The findings support the hypothesis that whereas social and financial bonds influence affective commitment, structural and financial bonds influence continuance commitment. Furthermore, affective commitment is a crucial factor for preventing emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions, whereas continuance commitment positively affects emotional exhaustion. Originality/value – This research offers academic and managerial insights into the various types of relationship bonds and controls these bonds for facilitating employee organizational commitment, which consequently affects emotional exhaustion and turnover intention.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-16
Author(s):  
Yuyan Zhang ◽  
Alexandra Luong

Purpose The current study aims to examine the antecedents and outcomes of emotional labor strategies (i.e. surface acting and deep acting) among service employees in China. The study proposed employees’ perceived closeness with customers and customers’ socioeconomic status will predict deep acting and surface acting, respectively. It further examined the mediating role of emotional labor between perceived customer attributes and employee well-being (i.e. burnout and job satisfaction). Design/methodology/approach One hundred and one employees at a jewelry store in China completed a survey regarding their perceptions of customers, use of emotional labor and well-being (e.g. job satisfaction and burnout). Correlational and regression analyses were conducted to examine the predictors and outcomes of different emotional labor strategies. Findings Perceived closeness with the customer group predicted employees’ use of deep acting, whereas perceived customer socioeconomic status did not predict the use of surface acting. Deep acting was negatively related with burnout, whereas surface acting did not predict burnout. Deep acting mediated the relationship between perceived closeness with customers and burnout. Practical implications To maintain employee well-being, organizations can promote a service climate to enhance employees’ perceived relationship with customers. Originality/value The study specifies the interpersonal context in which employees use different emotional labor strategies; the perceived closeness with customers predicts less burnout via the use of more deep acting. This study also supplements the existing research on emotional labor based on a Chinese sample; deep acting predicts employee well-being.


2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 605-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Won-Moo Hur ◽  
Su-Jin Han ◽  
Jeong-Ju Yoo ◽  
Tae Won Moon

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to attempt to investigate how emotional labor strategies (i.e. surface acting and deep acting) affect job performance through job satisfaction. Another important objective of this study was to see whether perceived organizational support (POS) moderates the relationship between emotional labor strategies and job-related outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction and job performance). Design/methodology/approach – Structural equation modeling analysis provided support for the hypotheses from a sample of 309 South Korean department store sales employees. Findings – The results revealed that surface acting had a negative effect, whereas deep acting had a positive effect on job satisfaction. In addition, the relationship between emotional labor strategies (i.e. surface acting and deep acting) and job performance was significantly mediated by job satisfaction. Finally, POS significantly moderated the relationship between surface acting and job satisfaction, as well as the relationship between deep acting and job performance. Originality/value – The findings of this study contributed to the literature by identifying the relationship between surface and deep acting on organizational outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction and job performance), especially in a collectivist society (i.e. South Korea). In addition, this study also confirmed the important role of POS based on the norm of reciprocity between an organization and its members.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 2845-2861
Author(s):  
Tae-Yeol Kim ◽  
Brad Gilbreath ◽  
Emily M. David ◽  
Sang-Pyo Kim

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test whether self-verification striving serves as an individual difference antecedent of emotional labor and explore whether various emotional labor tactics acted as mediating mechanisms through which self-verification striving relates to employee outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The sample used in this paper consisted of supervisor–subordinate dyads working in six hotels in South Korea and used multi-level analyses and the Monte Carlo method to test the research hypotheses presented in this paper. Findings Self-verification striving was positively and directly related to job performance as well as two out of three forms of emotional labor (i.e. the expression of naturally felt emotions and deep acting). Self-verification striving also indirectly related to job satisfaction through the expression of naturally felt emotions and indirectly related to job performance through deep acting. Practical implications The findings of this paper suggest that organizations should consider self-verification striving as an employment selection criterion and provide training programs to help their customer service employees engage in appropriate types of emotional labor. Originality/value This paper is the first to explore the underlying mechanisms through which self-verification striving relates to employee outcomes. It also empirically bolsters the notion that expressing naturally felt emotions is an important means of authentic self-expression that positively contributes to job satisfaction. Further, the authors found that self-verification striving positively relates to job performance partially through deep acting. Moreover, they have shown that self-verification striving, as an individual differences variable, is an antecedent of different types of emotional labor.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 721-733
Author(s):  
Sonia Pervaiz ◽  
Amjad Ali ◽  
Muhammad Asif

Purpose Emotional intelligence (EI) is crucial to determine the emotional labor (EL) strategies and satisfaction of teachers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships of EI with EL strategies, emotional exhaustion and teaching satisfaction (TS) of secondary teachers in private schools. Design/methodology/approach A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data conveniently from 322 secondary teachers working in 22 private schools. Findings Results indicate that teachers’ EI positively affect surface acting, expression of naturally felt emotions (ENFE) and TS. Surface acting and ENFE are positively related with TS. Deep acting and ENFE exhibit positive relations with emotional exhaustion of teachers. The study also confirms direct as well as indirect effects of EI on TS through surface acting and ENFE. Practical implications This study recommends teachers to make a higher use of surface acting and ENFE because they produce the most TS and the least emotional exhaustion. Originality/value This is the first study that examines the mediating role of EL strategies for EI and TS.


2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 1046-1064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zizhen Geng ◽  
Chao Liu ◽  
Xinmei Liu ◽  
Jie Feng

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to empirically test and extend knowledge of the effects of emotional labor of frontline service employee. Design/methodology/approach – The authors examined the effects of emotional labor (surface acting and deep acting) on frontline employee creativity, as well as the mediating effects of different kinds of job stress (hindrance stress and challenge stress) on the relationship between emotional labor and creativity. The research hypotheses were tested using data collected from 416 service employee–supervisor dyads in 82 Chinese local restaurants. Findings – Results show that surface acting is negatively related to and deep acting is positively related to frontline employee creativity; surface acting is positively related to hindrance stress, while deep acting is positively related to challenge stress; and hindrance stress mediates the relationship between surface acting and creativity. Originality/value – This study extends the consequences of emotional labor to frontline employee creativity from a cognitive perspective. It also advances knowledge about the effects of emotional labor on stress by classifying different kinds of job stress caused by different cognitive appraisals of surfacing acting and deep acting, and revealing the role of hindrance stress as psychological mechanism through which surface acting affects creativity.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Smarty P. Mukundan ◽  
Dhanya M.

Purpose Psychological constructs like emotional labor, emotional intelligence etc. are gaining importance now to understand employee outcomes such as job satisfaction in a health care setting. The study aims to investigate the relationship between Surface Acting (SA) an emotional labor strategy, and Job satisfaction, and the moderating effect of Emotional intelligence (EI) among practicing nurses. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected data through self-reporting questionnaires administered to a sample of 141 nurses working in multi-specialty hospitals in a prominent city in India and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings A negative relationship was found between surface acting and job satisfaction but was found positive when EI was introduced as a moderator. Research limitations/implications The respondent population was females only and diversity in terms of gender was not obtained. Practical implications The study finds significant practical and theoretical contributions to the primary caregivers in a health care setting. It helps to understand the interplay of emotions in this job and use EI as an internal resource to mitigate the harmful effects of continued SA emotional labor strategy to job satisfaction. Social implications It gains a better understanding of the emotion-related parameters in the nursing profession and gives inputs to the community. It throws light on how internal resources can be used for better job satisfaction which in turn leads to better quality care in the health care industry. Originality/value Extant literature has been discussing SA as a negative strategy for positive employee outcomes, but the present study gives insights on how this can be mitigated by using EI as a resource.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg J. Sears ◽  
Yu Han

PurposeThis study explored whether two Big Five traits – conscientiousness and emotional stability – jointly moderate the positive effects of perceived organizational support (POS) on employee commitment and job performance. Drawing on organizational support theory and a self-regulation perspective, we proposed that employees high on both traits will more effectively leverage POS to enhance both their commitment and their performance.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 141 employees in a multinational transportation security firm. Employees completed measures assessing their POS, personality and affective commitment. Supervisors provided ratings of employees' job performance.FindingsResults indicated that POS exerts a stronger influence on both employee commitment and performance when workers are high on conscientiousness and emotional stability. Moreover, POS was only found to be significantly associated with job performance when employees were high on both traits.Research limitations/implicationsThese results suggest that personality traits play an integral role in influencing workers' perceptions of, and responses to, POS. Specifically, employees who demonstrate a stronger task focus and self-regulation capabilities appear to respond more favorably to POS.Practical implicationsThese findings reinforce the value of implementing HR practices that convey support for employees but also highlight the importance of attracting and retaining employees who are conscientious and emotional stable in order to fully realize the benefits of these practices.Originality/valueRecent evidence indicates that the relationship between POS and employee performance is tenuous. Our results are consistent with a contingency perspective on POS and signal that this may be partly owing to the `influence of individual differences, such as personality traits, in moderating the effects of POS.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document