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Service employees’ naturally felt emotions: Do they matter?

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  • Walsh, Gianfranco

Abstract

Frontline service employees often engage in emotional labour as part of their job requirements. Previous studies focus on surface acting and deep acting and their outcomes for employees and customers but largely ignore the expression of naturally felt emotions (NFE). This study focuses on NFE and investigates two potential employee outcomes—commitment to organizational display rules and burnout. Using two-wave data from U.S. service employees and employee burnout as a lagged dependent variable, the author investigates relationships between NFE and two employee outcomes. He also considers which of the three emotional labour dimensions best predicts these outcomes. Unlike surface and deep acting, NFE is negatively associated with display rule commitment and burnout; these associations are stable over time. The results also confirm the mediating role of display rule commitment. Theoretically, the present study shows that emotional labour–burnout relationships differ across the three emotional labour strategies of surface acting, deep acting and NFE, and thus complements previous emotion regulation research in a service organization context. Managerially, the findings improve understanding of the role of NFE, in terms of driving key employee outcomes. Knowledge of the mechanism by which NFE influences employee outcomes can help service and human resource managers design more effective display rules.

Suggested Citation

  • Walsh, Gianfranco, 2019. "Service employees’ naturally felt emotions: Do they matter?," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 78-85.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eurman:v:37:y:2019:i:1:p:78-85
    DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2018.06.008
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Angelis, Jannis & Parry, Glenn & Macintyre, Mairi, 2012. "Discretion and complexity in customer focused environments," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 466-472.
    2. Cheshin, Arik & Amit, Adi & van Kleef, Gerben A., 2018. "The interpersonal effects of emotion intensity in customer service: Perceived appropriateness and authenticity of attendants' emotional displays shape customer trust and satisfaction," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 97-111.
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    5. Koskina, Aikaterini & Keithley, Don, 2010. "Emotion in a call centre SME: A case study of positive emotion management," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 208-219, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Geddes, Deanna & Lindebaum, Dirk, 2020. "Unpacking the ‘why’ behind strategic emotion expression at work: A narrative review and proposed taxonomy," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 708-722.
    2. Fernández-Mesa, Anabel & Llopis, Oscar & García-Granero, Ana & Olmos-Peñuela, Julia, 2020. "Enhancing organisational commitment through task significance: the moderating role of openness to experience," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 602-612.
    3. Chen, Hong & Liu, Bei & Li, Yi & Cai, Yujie, 2022. "The relationship between negative life events and resilience among Chinese service employees: Nonlinearly moderated by lifestyle habits," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    4. Tung-Ju Wu & Lian-Yi Wang & Jia-Ying Gao & An-Pin Wei, 2020. "Social Support and Well-Being of Chinese Special Education Teachers—An Emotional Labor Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-16, September.
    5. Anabel Fernández-Mesa & Oscar Llopis & Ana García-Granero & Julia Olmos-Peñuela, 2020. "Enhancing organisational commitment through task significance: the moderating role of openness to experience," Post-Print hal-03004571, HAL.

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