Buffering the Negative Effects of Surface Acting: The Moderating Role of Supervisor Support in Librarianship

The career of a librarian involves lots of emotional labor. Emotional labor strategies influence individual and organizational outcomes in different ways. Previous studies have highlighted several detrimental organizational outcomes of surface acting such as reduced job satisfaction and job performance. To minimize the detrimental effects of surface acting, it has been suggested that there may be some moderators of negative relationships between surface acting and some outcomes. The study uses structural equation modeling to examine how supervisor support moderates the impact of surface acting on facets of job satisfaction and job performance of university librarians. Results indicate that supervisor support was a significant moderator of the relationships between surface acting and the outcomes of extrinsic satisfaction, task performance, and contextual performance. Contrary to one preliminary hypothesis, supervisor support did not moderate the relationship between surface acting and intrinsic satisfaction. The findings can be useful for providing a comprehensive understanding of the relationships between surface acting, supervisor support, facets of job satisfaction, and facets of job performance in the university library context. The study concludes by offering some managerial advice for librarians.