The impact of emotional labour strategies on organisational outcomes

Abstract

In this thesis, I present three studies that test a widely held—yet rarely tested—assumption; that emotional labour strategies are related to organisationally relevant outcomes. Specifically, in the first study I test whether surface acting and deep acting are related to employees’ overall performance and turnover in a call centre environment. In the second and third studies, I conduct an experiment and a survey to test in more detail how the perceived authenticity of employees’ emotional expressions is related to two service outcomes: employee service performance and customer satisfaction. Results suggest that surface acting is directly related to employee turnover, and that the inauthentic positive emotional displays typically produced by engaging in surface acting negatively relate to service outcomes. Further, I introduce the concept of display rule salience—the extent to which an organisation’s display rules are explicitly prescribed, enforced, and made known to those internal and external to the organisation—and investigate its moderating effect on the relationship between perceived emotional authenticity and service outcomes. Results support the presence of relationships between both surface acting and turnover, as well as between perceived emotional authenticity and service outcomes. Display rule salience appears to moderate the latter relationship, however the results are inconsistent. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.