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Dispositional Antecedents and Consequences of Emotional Labor at Work

September 29, 2005 

"Emotional labor has been conceptualized from either a job-focused or employee-focused approach (Brotheride & Grandey, 2002).  The job-focused approach is primarily interested in the level of emotional demands inherent in an occupation.  Research taking a job-focused approach has yield mixed results as to the consequences of emotional labor (Grandey & Brauburger, 2002).  In the light of emotional dissonance suggested by the employee-focused approach (Abraham, 1998), emotional labor could appropriately be conceptualized as the perceived effort individuals exert when facing or attempting to reduce the discrepancy (an the discomfort associated with it) between felt and displayed emotions.  With few exceptions (e.g., Abraham, 1999; Diefendorff & Richard, 2003; Grandey, 2000; Schaubroeck & Jones, 2000), research has failed to examine the role of individual differences in emotional labor.

We examine two dispositional characteristics we believe are related to emotional labor, specifically, negative affectivity (NA) and political skills.  NA is the tendency to experience negative emotions across time and situations (Watson & Clark, 1984).  NA represents an individual's predisposition to experience aversive emotional states, and those high on NA tend to focus on the negative side of others and are less satisfied with themselves, others, and their lives in general (Perrewe Y Spector, 2002; Watson & Pennebaker, 1989).  High Nas may also perceive more emotional labor because of retrospective sense making processes.  Hypothesis 1:  Negative affectivity is positively related to employee perceived emotional labor.

Political skills is an interpersonal style construct that combines social astuteness with the ability to demonstrate situationally-appropriate behavior (Ferris et al., 2000).  Individuals with high levels of political skill not only know what to do in different social situations at work, but how to do it in a way that disguises any potentially manipulative motives.  The relationship between political skill and emotional labor has not been directly examined in past research.  However, we believe that the two should be related since both involve attempts to exert influence on others.  Hypothesis 2:  Political skill is negatively related to employee perceived emotional labor.

Grandey (2000) proposed that the manner in which employees manage their emotions at work is a critical factor in predicting personal and work outcomes, and prior research suggests significant influences of emotional labor on individual and organizational outcomes (e.g., Pugh, 2001; Rafaeli & Sutton, 1987).  To extend prior research, we examine tow work outcomes of emotional labor.  We include in our examination job-induced tension, in an effort to provide further empirical support for emotional labor's influence on individual well-being.  Experienced job tension is the feelings of strain and nervousness associated with work.  Hypothesis 3:  Emotional labor is positively related to job induced tension.

Students taking a management course at a large university located in the Southeastern United States were each given three surveys to be completed by full-time employees.  Two separate surveys were administered roughly 2 months apart.  A total of 243 surveys were initially distributed to students and 229 were returned.  The second wave of data collection netted 210 useable surveys for an 86% overall response rate.  A total of 119 females (57%) and 91 males (43%) completed surveys while the average age was approximately 44 years (M = 43.81, SD = 9).  Respondents reported an average of roughly 8 years of tenure in one's current position (M = 8.45, SD = 7.90) and 9 years with one's current organization.  Professional staff (n = 72, 35%), non-management (n =j 35, 16%), upper-level management (n = 25, 12%) and other/self-employed (n = 12, 5%).  Respondents were called and asked non-invasive questions pertaining to the completion of the survey.  Results of these phone calls supported the notion that the actual respondents completed the surveys and not the student or the student's friends.

Negative affectivity (NA) was measured using the 10-item scale developed by Watson, Clark, and Tellegen (1988).  Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they generally experience a variety of feelings, which included distressed, jittery, and nervous.  Political skill was measured using an 18-item scale developed by Ferris, Kolodinsky, Hochwarter, and Frink (2001).  Schaubroeck and Jones' (2000) 10-item scale was used to measure emotional labor.  Tension was measured using House and Rizzo's (1972) six-item subscale.  Given the absence of adequate scales assessing political behavior in the literature, a measure was developed specifically for this study.  The three items were: 'I spend a lot of time at work politicking,' 'I use my interpersonal skills to influence people at work,' and 'I let others at work know of my accomplishments.'

Consistent with prior findings (e.g., Schaubroeck & Jones, 2000), NA was positively related to perceived emotional labor.  This suggests that individual emotionality may intensify one's experiences of emotional labor.  Contrary to our hypothesis, political skill was related to emotional labor (path coefficient = .41,p

 < .05).  This finding implies that rather than overlooking their emotional tension in performing emotional labor, high political skill individuals may perceive such tension and experience it as taxing.  We offer two possibilities for this surprising result.  First, this result may have to do with the distinction between 'surface acting' and 'deep acting' (Hochschild, 1983).  Although both surface acting and deep acting have bee found to have a harmful influence on individuals' psychological well-being, surface acting is more likely than deep acting to lead to emotional dissonance and emotional exhaustion (Hochschild, 1983; Grandey, 2000), due to higher level of emotional labor involved.

As to psychological and behavioral consequences of emotional labor, emotional labor was positively related to job-induced tension, which confirms that emotional labor has negative influences on individual well-being.  We also found that emotional labor was positively related to job-induced tension, which confirms that emotional labor has negative influences on individual well-being.  We also found that emotional labor was positively related to political behavior - relationship that has not received theoretical and empirical attention to date but nonetheless has important implications.  Finally, we also found significant relationships between NA and job-induced tension, giving further support of the role of individual affective traits in predicting stress-related consequences.

The current study possesses a number of strengths in the research design that warrant mention.  First, a wide array of occupations and organizational environments were assessed.  Occupations in the study included CEOs, human resource directors, staff accountants, and maintenance workers, as well as other positions.  This has not only allowed the study to provide evidence, pending future research, of external generalizability, but also contributed to the literature by examining emotional labor in a broader context that goes beyond the much focused service sector.  Despite the strengths, results of the current study have to be interpreted with caution due to its limitations.  Foremost is our reliance on a single-source strategy for data collection that immediately raises concerns pertaining to common method bias.

The current study sheds light on several future research opportunities regarding the influence of emotional labor in organizations.  First, the notion of individual emotionality and perceived effort, as important aspects to consider in emotional labor research, leads to the need to highlight two equally important, but unequally researched aspects of emotional labor; the self- and other-focused regulation of emotion (cf., James, 1989, Pugh, 2001; Thoits, 1996).  Second, the unexpected results regarding political skill and emotional labor suggest another important area of future research.  As in other social interactions, emotional labor involves an emotional giving and taking process (e.g., through emotional contagion) (Sutton & Rafaeli, 1988).  Third, it may be interesting to further examine the relationships between emotional labor and social influences.  The current study shows a close relationship between emotional labor and political skill as well as political behaviors (Liu, Perrewe, Hochwarter, & Kacmar, 2004, p. 12-25)."

Reference: Liu, Y.; Perrewe, P.L.; Hochwarter, W.A.; & Kacmar, C.J. (2004).  Dispositional antecedents and consequences of emotional labor at work.  The Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 2004, vol. 10, no. 4.

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Created: 2007-08-28, Updated: 2009-02-17