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Purpose – Employees working in the leisure service industry are required to show positive emotions when dealing with customers. However, empirical evidence confirms that faking emotions can lead to burnout. In contrast, employees that try to experience the emotions required by the role (i.e. deep acting (DA)) can lead to healthier outcomes. However, little is known about the process that underpins the link between DA and positive outcomes. Building on Côte’s social interaction model of emotion regulation and evidence linking customer satisfaction and DA, it was hypothesized that DA would be associated with employees’ self-actualization through customer interactions. This, in turn, was expected to explain the influence that DA has on relevant job attitudes (i.e. commitment, efficacy, turnover intentions). The model was tested in two countries with different emotional culture: Spain (i.e. impulsive) and the UK (i.e. institutional). Although UK was expected to report higher levels of effortful DA, the hypothesized process was expected to be the same. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – A cross-national design with theme park employees from Spain (n=208) and UK (n=204) was used. Hypotheses were tested with multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. Findings – The relationship between job commitment and DA was mediated by self-actualization, and commitment partially explained the association between DA and professional efficacy in both countries. The impulsive-oriented country showed lower levels of DA and more positive job attitudes. Originality/value – It is concluded that training employees to re-interpret costumer demands in less harming ways is required. The need to attend to cultural values is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how customer orientation affects frontline service workers’ deep acting and to what extent the effect is moderated by the severity of dysfunctional customer behavior (DCB). Service organizations usually want their employees to demonstrate sincere emotions during customer encounters.Design/methodology/approach The study employed a mixed method design using measured variables (e.g. customer orientation) and a scenario-based manipulated variable (i.e. DCB severity). Data from 237 service workers were used to investigate the theoretical model.Findings Results showed that perspective taking and emotional sensitivity mediate the positive effect of customer orientation on deep acting. Furthermore, the influence of emotional sensitivity on deep acting is positive when DCB is less severe, but becomes non-significant when DCB becomes severe.Research limitations/implications Because the DCB severity is manipulated as a single event, future research can examine its influence based on employees’ experiences. Also, future studies may investigate other mechanisms to explain customer orientation’s effects on deep acting.Practical implications This paper provides service organizations an understanding of the key roles of emotional sensitivity and perspective taking in driving deep acting as well as the importance of monitoring DCB severity.Originality/value The study is one of the first in marketing to examine the different influences of DCB severity on important employee outcomes. This study also identifies two important mediators to explain how customer orientation drives deep acting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this study is to empirically test and extend knowledge of the effects of emotional labor of frontline service employee. Design/methodology/approach -- The authors examined the effects of emotional labor (surface acting and deep acting) on frontline employee creativity, as well as the mediating effects of different kinds of job stress (hindrance stress and challenge stress) on the relationship between emotional labor and creativity. The research hypotheses were tested using data collected from 416 service employee- supervisor dyads in 82 Chinese local restaurants. Findings -- Results show that surface acting is negatively related to and deep acting is positively related to frontline employee creativity; surface acting is positively related to hindrance stress, while deep acting is positively related to challenge stress; and hindrance stress mediates the relationship between surface acting and creativity. Originality/value -- This study extends the consequences of emotional labor to frontline employee creativity from a cognitive perspective. It also advances knowledge about the effects of emotional labor on stress by classifying different kinds of job stress caused by different cognitive appraisals of surfacing acting and deep acting, and revealing the role of hindrance stress as psychological mechanism through which surface acting affects creativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]