Differential effects of rude coworkers and patients on nurses' safety performance: an emotional labor perspective

2022 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie A. Andel ◽  
Christopher O.L.H. Porter ◽  
Brittney Amber ◽  
Kristyn P.X. Lukjan

PurposeThis paper examines how nurses differentially respond, both emotionally and behaviorally, to incivility from coworkers (i.e. other healthcare staff) and from their patients. Specifically, the authors explore how coworker and patient incivility distinctly influence the extent to which nurses engage in emotional labor, which in turn, may impact nurses' safety performance. The authors further examine how nurses' hostile attribution biases exacerbate and mitigate these effects.Design/methodology/approachA three-week longitudinal study was conducted with 187 nurses in which they reported their experiences with incivility, surface and deep acting, hostile attribution biases and safety performance (i.e. safety compliance and participation).FindingsPatient incivility led to more surface acting across all nurses. Further, the effects of coworker incivility on emotional labor strategies were conditional on nurses' hostile attribution biases (HAB). Specifically, coworker incivility led to more surface acting among nurses higher on HAB, and coworker incivility led to less deep acting among those lower on HAB. Finally, surface acting was associated with reduced safety participation, and deep acting was associated with greater safety compliance and safety participation.Originality/valueThe nursing context allowed the current research to extend understanding about how incivility affects an unexplored outcome—safety performance. The current research also offers a rare examination of the effects of incivility from multiple sources (i.e. coworkers and patients) and demonstrates the different processes through which incivility from these different sources impacts nurses' ability to perform safely.

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 1009-1024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaewon Yoo

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how service employee’s perceived customer participation influences beneficial deep acting behaviors among service personnel while dampening the development of the less-beneficial surface acting, which subsequently affects service employees’ work engagement. Specifically, the current research explores how the personal factors of customer orientation (CO) and employee-customer fit interact with the customer participation to ultimately develop either surface – or deep-acting behaviors. Design/methodology/approach Data for the study were collected from a cross-sectional sample of retail bank and insurance companies in South Korea. Questionnaires were distributed to 750 frontline employees of several banks and insurance companies. Of these, 518 questionnaires were used for further analysis. Findings The results indicate that perceived customer participation exhibits the predicted negative influence on surface acting as well as the positive effect on deep acting. Using the hierarchical moderated regression approach, the interaction effect of customer participation and CO on the service employees’ surface acting was found. Finally, the positive moderating effect of employee’s perceived fit with customers in the relationship between perceived customer participation and employees’ deep acting was supported. Research limitations/implications First, the specific service sectors chosen for this study are retail banking and insurance. Furthermore, the study was conducted among the frontline employees of banks and insurance companies in South Korea. Second, the study used single-source data, which are prone to common method variance. While the survey instrument was structured carefully with this in mind and the results suggested that method bias may not have been an issue in this study, this problem can best be avoided by collecting data from multiple sources. Third, this study is limited by its cross-sectional approach. The cross-sectional nature of the present study does not allow causal inferences. Practical implications This study provides a practical implication for managers to understand the importance of customer participation for relieving the negative effects of employee emotional labor. From a practitioner standpoint, examining the relationship between customer participation and emotional labor is of great importance given the benefits and costs associated with managing customer participation. Thus, managers should magnify the positive effect of perceived customer participation on emotional labor by increasing frontline employees’ understanding of customer participation. Second, the finding that CO plays a more critical role in the reduction of surface acting has important managerial implications. The recruitment and selection of frontline employees should incorporate an assessment of the level of CO. The results of this study strongly suggest that service organizations can greatly benefit from hiring individuals with a higher CO for frontline positions because CO signals a better job-person fit. Originality/value The present study is the first to link employees’ perceived customer participation with their attempts at emotional labor at work and to study how those attempts lead to work engagement. This research also shows that understanding how service employees’ CO moderates the effects of customer participation on beneficial deep acting and on destructive surface acting is important in that emotional labor is a potential driver of customers’ emotional states and subsequent assessments of service interaction. A third contribution of this study is the use of a new concept, which will be called person-customer fit (PCF), to reflect employees’ perceived fit with customers. Although many researchers have investigated the relationship between customers and frontline employees, the research has primarily focussed on the employees’ perceived fit with their organization and members of the organization and overlooked the importance of PCF.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (9) ◽  
pp. 3742-3760
Author(s):  
Chung-Jen Wang

Purpose The purpose of this study was based on the job demands -resources model (Bakker et al., 2004) and conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989) by using three levels of variables, namely, company (i.e., perceived organizational support), department (i.e., abusive supervision), and employee (i.e., deep acting, surface acting, and self-efficacy) levels, to investigate its interactions with contextual influences on service quality and its linkage with customer loyalty. Design/methodology/approach A three-level hierarchical linear model was examined in research settings by using a dyadic data set of 1,082 service employees and customers in international tourist hotels. Findings Findings revealed that deep acting relates positively to service quality, surface acting relates negatively to service quality, and service quality relates positively to customer loyalty. For the three-level interactions, the positive relationship between deep acting and service quality was strengthened by perceived organizational support (POS) and self-efficacy but weakened by abusive supervision. By contrast, the negative relationship between surface acting and service quality was mitigated by POS and self-efficacy but exacerbated by abusive supervision. Originality/value Given the importance of emotional labor research in the hospitality industry, the current study contributes to the areas of service quality and customer loyalty and suggests future directions for hospitality research.


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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 585-607
Author(s):  
Laee Choi ◽  
Charles A. Lawry

PurposeVery few studies have considered how customer participation (CP) influences service employees' well-being. CP may lead employees to engage in emotional labor strategies (surface/deep acting), which can elevate their job stress. Whereas surface acting involves falsifying emotions, deep acting involves empathizing with others. Therefore, the current article examines how these emotional labor strategies arise from CP and create job stress.Design/methodology/approachStudy 1 is an online survey of service employees' wellbeing during CP (n = 509). Study 2 compares service employees' responses within hedonic and utilitarian service settings through a scenario-based experiment (n = 440). PROCESS was used to analyze the data in both studies.FindingsFirst, study 1 supports that perceived CP increases job stress. Secondly, surface acting mediates the link between CP and job stress, but deep acting does not. Thereafter, Study 2 shows that the link between CP and job stress decreases as employee-customer identification (ECI) increases only during surface acting. Additionally, the impact of surface acting on job stress during CP is greater for hedonic services than utilitarian services, but there is no significant difference for deep acting.Originality/valueThis article contributes an original perspective by comparing models of service employees' responses to CP and job stress in hedonic versus utilitarian settings. Moreover, the intervening effects of ECI and emotional labor strategies on job stress, as demonstrated through these employee-facing models, offer added value to the CRM and co-creation literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan-Ling Chen ◽  
Ting Yi Chu

PurposeDrawing on the perspectives of emotional labor, self-concept and impression management, this study presents two major findings: (1) employees' excessive reliance on impression management can bother supervisors, and (2) the effectiveness of impression management depends on how the management affects targets' attribution of characteristics to actors.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a cross-sectional design and a sample of 259 employees to investigate the antecedents of abusive supervision and, in this regard, the potential mediating effects of impression management. Through Mplus analysis, the authors specifically show that deep acting and surface acting affect impression management and that impression management activates abusive supervision.FindingsEmotional labor is critical in triggering abusive supervision through impression management. The study specifically shows that impression management mediates two types of relationships: (1) the relationship between deep acting and abusive supervision, and (2) the relationship between surface acting and abusive supervision. The findings contribute to the abusive supervision literature by clarifying how impression management functions.Originality/valueThis study, by addressing how emotional labor is a potential antecedent of abusive supervision, reveals that impression management can be a mixed blessing, insofar as emotional labor can contribute to abusive supervision.


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 (4) ◽  
pp. 1744-1762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey Lee ◽  
Juan M. Madera

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how emotional labor strategies (deep and surface acting) impact engagement through stress via two different emotional displays (suppressing negative emotions and expressing positive emotions) in coworker-to-coworker relationships.Design/methodology/approachThis study used psychological and temporal separation techniques to survey hotel managers (Study 1) and hospitality students with frontline service jobs (Study 2).FindingsAcross both samples, the results showed that surface acting was related to suppressing negative emotions, which was positively related to stress, deep acting was related to expressing positive emotions, which was negatively related to stress, and stress was negatively related to engagement, suggesting that emotional labor affects engagement through either deep acting or surface acting and their related emotional displays.Practical implicationsThe results show that hospitality employees either genuinely express positive emotions as a strategy to deep act or suppress negative emotions as a strategy to surface act with coworkers. Both emotional displays were related to engagement, suggesting that employers should alter expectations for emotional displays among coworkers and train employees how to manage their emotions to have a positive impact on engagement.Originality/valueThe unique contribution of the current paper is showing how emotional labor is related to engagement in the context of coworker-to-coworker emotional labor, which is rarely found in customer-based emotional labor. The results also provide a better understanding of how surface and deep acting are used in a hospitality context, because the measures of surface and deep acting usually focus on broad emotions rather than discrete emotions.


2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 614-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li-Wei Wu

Purpose Much research has emphasized the importance of service employees as boundary spanners that interact with customers by co-production. Service employees frequently engage in emotional labor in response to co-production requirements. The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that explores the links between co-production, emotional labor, employee satisfaction, value co-creation, co-production intensity, and their effects on customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach This study involved collecting and analyzing 322 questionnaires from the dyads of service employees and customers of the financial service industry in Taiwan. The hypothesized relationships in the model were tested by using a structural equation model. Findings The results of this study indicate that co-production influences deep acting, surface acting, value co-creation, and co-production intensity. Deep acting and surface acting have different effects on employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Meanwhile, employee satisfaction and value co-creation increase customer satisfaction, whereas co-production intensity decreases customer satisfaction. Originality/value The findings provide interesting theoretical insights and valuable managerial implications regarding the positive and negative aspects of co-production and encourage service employees to perform deep acting while minimizing surface acting.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
I-An Wang ◽  
Szu-Yin Lin ◽  
Yeong-Shyang Chen ◽  
Shou-Tsung Wu

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to empirically test and explore the influences of abusive supervision on subordinates' job satisfaction and mental health. Specifically, the authors focus on the mediation effects of emotional labor and compare the discrepancies between surface acting and deep acting.Design/methodology/approachTime-lagged data were obtained from 239 employees in the hospitality industry in Taiwan. The hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling with Mplus 7.4.FindingsResults showed that abusive supervision is not only negatively related to employees' job satisfaction and mental health but also positively associated with employee surface acting and negatively associated with deep acting. For mediating effects, surface acting mediates the relationships between abusive supervision and employee job satisfaction, while deep acting mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and mental health.Practical implicationsAbusive supervision is detrimental; it should be reduced in the workplace. Also, frontline employees can be provided with training programs to improve their deep acting strategies, which lead to better job satisfaction and mental health.Originality/valueThis research is among the first to examine the link between abusive supervision and both employee job satisfaction and mental health in the hospitality industry and extends the authors’ knowledge by demonstrating the mediating effects of surface acting and deep acting.


2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Won-Moo Hur ◽  
Tae-Won Moon ◽  
Yeon Sung Jung

Purpose – This study aims to extend emotional labor theories to the customer outcomes by examining a theoretical model of how emotional labor performed by the service worker affects customer satisfaction in a mediated way. Design/methodology/approach – Structural equation modeling analyses partially support for our hypotheses from 282 dyadic survey data [i.e. service interactions customers (seniors) and service employees (caregivers)] from a home caregiver firm in South Korea. Findings – The results of our study found that employee’s emotional regulation strategies of deep acting and surface acting differentially affect customer satisfaction, and that employee’s job satisfaction mediates the relationship between employee’s emotional regulation strategies and customer satisfaction. More specifically, the relationship between surface acting and customer satisfaction is fully mediated by employee’s job satisfaction, whereas the relationship between deep acting and customer satisfaction is partially mediated by employee’s job satisfaction. Originality/value – Our study is the first to provide an empirical test of how employee job satisfaction mediates the relationship between employee emotional labor and customer satisfaction in service interactions. This research sheds light on the crucial role of employee job satisfaction that can be an important consideration to boost service quality and customer satisfaction by facilitating employee emotional labor.


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