Service Priority Climate and Service Performance Among Hospitality Employees: The Role of Emotional Labor and Workload Pressure

2021 ◽  
pp. 193896552110299
Author(s):  
Dana R. Vashdi ◽  
Tal Katz–Navon ◽  
Marianna Delegach

Frontline hotel employees face a complex organizational environment that constantly makes multiple demands, creating a persistent trade-off between service as a key element of the organization’s strategy and other competing or even conflicting goals. This study proposes an integrated and unique way of discerning the relationship between service climate and service performance through the prism of surface and deep acting emotional labor and suggests a new dimension of the service climate—the service priority climate. Specifically, we examined employees’ use of emotional labor strategies as a mechanism that explains the relationship between service priority climate and service performance. We also investigated whether workload pressure influences this relationship. Using a multilevel, multisource study, we surveyed a sample of 245 hotel employees working in 39 departments and their direct managers. The results demonstrated that when employees regarded service as a priority compared with other competing goals, they used more deep acting emotional labor strategies, resulting in better service performance. However, this was apparent only when workload pressure was low. Implications for hospitality organizations are discussed.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaojun Zhan ◽  
Wenhao Luo ◽  
Hanyu Ding ◽  
Yanghao Zhu ◽  
Yirong Guo

PurposePrior studies have mainly attributed customer incivility to dispositional characteristics, whereas little attention has been paid to exploring service employees' role in triggering or reducing customer incivility. The purpose of the present study is to propose and test a model in which service employees' emotional labor strategies affect customer incivility via influencing customers' self-esteem threat, as well as examine the moderating role of customer's perception of service climate.Design/methodology/approachBased on a matched sample consisting of 317 employee-customer dyads in China, multiple regression analysis and indirect effect tests were employed to test our model.FindingsThe study shows that employee surface acting is positively related to customer incivility, whereas deep acting is negatively associated with customer incivility. Moreover, customer self-esteem threat mediates the relationship between both types of emotional labor and customer incivility. Customer perception of service climate moderates the relationship between deep acting and customer self-esteem threat.Originality/valueThe current research broadens the antecedents of customer incivility from the employee perspective and sheds more light on the role of customer self-esteem in the interactions between employees and customers. It also demonstrates a complementary relationship between service climate and individual employees' emotional labor strategies, thereby expanding the existing understanding of the management of employees' emotional labor.


2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (8) ◽  
pp. 1233-1244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiu-Li Tang ◽  
Ying-Kang Gu ◽  
Lijuan Cui

Given the importance of emotional labor for service-oriented enterprises, it is highly valuable to explore how leader emotional labor affects the emotional labor strategy used by employees. This study was based on affective events theory and we used hierarchical linear modeling to explore cross-hierarchical relationships among leader emotional labor, employee emotional labor, and employee service performance. We tested the model with data from 534 employees and their immediate leaders working in 23 service-oriented enterprises in China. Results showed that leaders' surface acting positively influenced employees' surface acting, and leaders' deep acting positively influenced employees' deep acting and service performance. Employees' deep acting mediated the relationship between leaders' deep acting and employee service performance. Our findings enhance understanding of leader emotional labor and help to advance emotional labor theory in the leadership context.


2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 1583 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Liu ◽  
Xinmei Liu ◽  
Zizhen Geng

This paper theoretically and empirically investigates the effects of different emotional labor strategies on frontline employee creativity in the context of service industry, and it also studies the mediating role of frontline employee creativity in the relationships between frontline employees emotional labor strategies and the two aspects of customer service performance. Based on the data of 424 employeesupervisor dyads in China, the empirical results indicate that surface acting decreases employee creativity and extra role performance, while deep acting increases employee creativity, role-prescribed performance and extra role performance; employee creativity mediates both the negative influence of surface acting on extra role performance and the positive influences of deep acting on role-prescribed and extra role performances. The results have some theoretical and practical implications on service creativity and emotion management in service industry.


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.


2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 649-655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian An Zhong ◽  
Zhong-Liang Cao ◽  
Yuanyuan Huo ◽  
Ziguang Chen ◽  
Wing Lam

The associations between neuroticism, employees' preference of emotional labor strategies, and job feedback were investigated using a cross-sectional self-report questionnaire survey. The mediating effect of job feedback was tested using regression analysis with a sample of 168 nurses. Results showed that neuroticism was associated more with surface acting, and less with both deep acting and job feedback; job feedback fully mediated the relationship between neuroticism and deep acting. Implications and directions for future research and practices are suggested.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 256-269
Author(s):  
Ying Hong ◽  
Hui Liao ◽  
Aichia Chuang ◽  
Yuann-Jun Liaw

Prior research on emotional labor has primarily been conducted at the individual level. In this paper, we examine a model of unit employee emotional labor and its relationships with unit LMX and LMX differentiation as well as with unit employee outcomes. Results from 701 employees and 117 managers from 117 branches of a real-estate company in Taiwan showed that deep acting exhibited a higher consistency and agreement at the unit level than surface acting. Further, we found that unit LMX was positively related to unit employee deep acting, and that LMX differentiation moderated the effect of unit LMX on surface acting in such a way that the relationship was more negative when LMX differentiation was high. In addition, unit surface acting was negatively related to supervisor-rated employee customer-oriented behavior and positively related to employee somatic symptoms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-31
Author(s):  
Mikyoung Lee ◽  
Keum-Seong Jang

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between emotional labor, emotions, and job satisfaction among nurses, and explore the mediating role of emotions in the relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional study was designed with 168 nurses in Korea. Structural equation modeling and path analysis were performed to analyze data. Findings Surface acting correlated positively with anxiety and frustration. Deep acting correlated positively with enjoyment and pride but correlated negatively with anxiety, anger and frustration. Enjoyment and pride correlated positively with job satisfaction; anger correlated negatively with job satisfaction. Deep acting correlated positively with job satisfaction, while surface acting did not show a significant relationship. Enjoyment, pride and anger mediated the relationship between deep acting and job satisfaction. Research limitations/implications This research expands empirical findings on nurses’ emotional experiences, by considering their discrete emotions rather than general affect. It is the first study to empirically examine the relationships between emotional labor, discrete emotions and job satisfaction, as well as the mediating role of emotions in the relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction in the nursing field. The mediating role of emotions suggests that not only nurses and nurse managers but also hospital administrators should take nurses’ emotions into account to increase nurses’ well-being and their job satisfaction. Finally, differential influences of surface acting and deep acting on nurses’ emotional experiences and job satisfaction highlight the need for practical interventions to promote the use of deep acting among nurses. Originality/value This study confirms the mediating role of emotions in the relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction in the nursing field. It encourages future research to pay greater attention to nurses’ emotions themselves along with emotional labor. Findings add an interdisciplinary aspect to research on nursing by assimilating psychological perspectives of emotion and emotion management research to this field.


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