Emotion regulation in customer service roles: testing a model of emotional labor.

The study used a time-sampling method to test aspects of A. Grandey's (2000) emotion regulation model of emotional labor. Eighteen customer service employees from a call center recorded data on pocket computers every 2 hr at work for 2 weeks. Participants completed ratings of emotion regulation, events, expressed and felt emotions, well-being, and performance on 537 occasions and completed questionnaires containing individual and organizational measures. Multilevel analyses supported many aspects of the model but indicated that it has to be implemented precisely in terms of regulating emotion for organizational goals. Results also showed that deep and surface acting had different consequences for employees. Overall, the study found that emotion regulation is a viable platform for understanding emotional labor.

[1]  David Holman,et al.  Employee Well-being in Call Centres , 2004 .

[2]  Kara A. Arnold,et al.  Prostitution: An Illustration of Occupational Stress in ‘Dirty Work’ , 2003 .

[3]  Helen R. Winefield,et al.  Occupational Stress in the Service Professions , 2003 .

[4]  Alicia A. Grandey,et al.  WHEN 'THE SHOW MUST GO ON': SURFACE ACTING AND DEEP ACTING AS DETERMINANTS OF EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION AND PEER-RATED SERVICE DELIVERY , 2003 .

[5]  D. Holman.  Employee wellbeing in call centres , 2002 .

[6]  Roderick D. Iverson,et al.  Work Relationships in Telephone Call Centres: Understanding Emotional Exhaustion and Employee Withdrawal , 2002 .

[7]  Alicia A. Grandey,et al.  Affective States and Traits in the Workplace: Diary and Survey Data from Young Workers , 2002 .

[8]  Alicia A. Grandey,et al.  Emotional labor and burnout: Comparing two perspectives of "people work" , 2002 .

[9]  Raymond T. Lee,et al.  Testing a conservation of resources model of the dynamics of emotional labor. , 2002, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[10]  Sharon K. Parker,et al.  SEEING ANOTHER VIEWPOINT: ANTECEDENTS AND OUTCOMES OF EMPLOYEE PERSPECTIVE TAKING , 2001 .

[11]  S. Pugh,et al.  Service with a smile: Emotional contagion in the service encounter. , 2001 .

[12]  Wei-Chi Tsai,et al.  Determinants and consequences of employee displayed positive emotions , 2001 .

[13]  J. Gross,et al.  PERSONALITY PROCESSES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Emotion Regulation and Memory: The Cognitive Costs of Keeping One's Cool , 2004 .

[14]  L. Fabrigar,et al.  Reexamining the Circumplex Model of Affect , 2000 .

[15]  Charmine E. J. Härtel,et al.  Book Review , 2002 .

[16]  John Schaubroeck,et al.  Antecedents of workplace emotional labor dimensions and moderators of their effects on physical symptoms , 2000 .

[17]  R. Baumeister,et al.  Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources: does self-control resemble a muscle? , 2000, Psychological bulletin.

[18]  Nancy Eisenberg,et al.  The relations of emotionality and regulation to dispositional empathy-related responding among volunteers-in-training , 2000 .

[19]  Alicia A. Grandey,et al.  Emotion regulation in the workplace: a new way to conceptualize emotional labor. , 2000, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[20]  Dieter Zapf,et al.  Emotion Work as a Source of Stress: The Concept and Development of an Instrument , 1999 .

[21]  S. Mann,et al.  Emotion at Work: To What Extent are We Expressing, Suppressing, or Faking It? , 1999 .

[22]  P. Totterdell.  Mood scores: Mood and performance in professional cricketers , 1999 .

[23]  P. Totterdell,et al.  Use and effectiveness of self-regulation strategies for improving mood in a group of trainee teachers. , 1999, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[24]  K. Pugliesi.  The Consequences of Emotional Labor: Effects on Work Stress, Job Satisfaction, and Well-Being , 1999 .

[25]  S. Parker,et al.  Rushed, unhappy, and drained: an experience sampling study of relations between time pressure, perceived control, mood, and emotional exhaustion in a group of accountants. , 1999, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[26]  Cynthia D. Fisher,et al.  Mood and emotions while working: missing pieces of job satisfaction? , 2000 .

[27]  J. Malouff,et al.  Development and validation of a measure of emotional intelligence. , 1998 .

[28]  P. Totterdell,et al.  Evidence of mood linkage in work groups. , 1998 .

[29]  R Abraham.  Emotional dissonance in organizations: antecedents, consequences, and moderators. , 1998, Genetic, social, and general psychology monographs.

[30]  Sue Fernie,et al.  (Not) Hanging on the Telephone: Payment Systems in the New Sweatshops , 1998 .

[31]  Susan S. White,et al.  Linking service climate and customer perceptions of service quality: test of a causal model. , 1998, The Journal of applied psychology.

[32]  Jan de Leeuw,et al.  Introducing Multilevel Modeling , 1998 .

[33]  Cynthia D. Fisher,et al.  Affective events - emotions matrix: a classification of work events and associated emotions , 1998 .

[34]  J. Gross.  Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. , 1998, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[35]  D. Hofmann.  An Overview of the Logic and Rationale of Hierarchical Linear Models , 1997 .

[36]  Daniel C. Feldman,et al.  Managing emotions in the workplace. , 1997 .

[37]  O. John,et al.  Revealing feelings: facets of emotional expressivity in self-reports, peer ratings, and behavior. , 1997, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[38]  Daniel C. Feldman,et al.  The Dimensions, Antecedents, and Consequences of Emotional Labor , 1996 .

[39]  Peter Salovey,et al.  Mood Regulation and Memory: Repairing Sad Moods with Happy Memories , 1996 .

[40]  H. Weiss,et al.  Affective Events Theory: A theoretical discussion of the structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work. , 1996 .

[41]  Rob B. Briner,et al.  Changing Moods: The Psychology of Mood and Mood Regulation , 1996 .

[42]  Paul R. Jackson,et al.  New measures of job control, cognitive demand, and production responsibility. , 1993 .

[43]  P. Salovey,et al.  The intelligence of emotional intelligence , 1993 .

[44]  A. Wharton,et al.  The Affective Consequences of Service Work , 1993 .

[45]  Blake E. Ashforth,et al.  Emotional Labor in Service Roles: The Influence of Identity , 1993 .

[46]  W. Gerrod Parrott,et al.  Beyond hedonism: Motives for inhibiting good moods and for maintaining bad moods. , 1993 .

[47]  T. K. Srull,et al.  Handbook of Social Cognition , 1993 .

[48]  James W. Pennebaker,et al.  The Handbook of Mental Control , 1992 .

[49]  Simon Folkard,et al.  In situ repeated measures of affect and cognitive performance facilitated by use of a hand-held computer , 1992 .

[50]  B. Parkinson.  Emotional stylists: Strategies of expressive management among trainee hairdressers , 1991 .

[51]  L. Wheeler,et al.  Self‐Recording of Everyday Life Events: Origins, Types, and Uses , 1991 .

[52]  Robert I. Sutton,et al.  Maintaining Norms about Expressed Emotions: The Case of Bill Collectors , 1991 .

[53]  Anat Rafaeli,et al.  Busy stores and demanding customers: How do they affect the display of positive emotion? , 1990 .

[54]  T. Kochan,et al.  COMPUTER-AIDED MONITORING: ITS INFLUENCE ON EMPLOYEE JOB SATISFACTION AND TURNOVER , 1989 .

[55]  R. Zajonc,et al.  Feeling and facial efference: implications of the vascular theory of emotion. , 1989, Psychological review.

[56]  Anat Rafaeli,et al.  Expression of Emotion as Part of the Work Role , 1987 .

[57]  A. Hochschild,et al.  The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. , 1985 .

[58]  Seymour Adler,et al.  Personality and organizational behavior. , 1984 .

[59]  A. Isen,et al.  Toward understanding the role of affect in cognition. , 1984 .

[60]  S. Jackson,et al.  The Measurement of experienced burnout , 1981 .

[61]  Leonard Berkowitz,et al.  Some social class differences in helping behavior. , 1967 .