Emotional labor and employee well-being.

Abstract

For many American workers, emotional labor (manifestation or suppression of emotional expression or feeling) is as much a requirement of the job as physical or mental labor. Yet little evidence exists on the consequences that emotional labor has for employee well-being. One perspective contends that emotional labor leads to estrangement from feelings and thus is a source of distress. Research on the facial feedback hypothesis suggests that at least when manifestation of positive affect is required by the job, positive outcomes might be expected. In this dissertation these possibilities are explored through examinations of two survey datasets. In the first study, the relation between emotional labor and psychological outcomes was examined in a national sample of workers (N = 1352). The second study explored how type and amount of emotional labor is related to psychological outcomes in table servers (N = 90). In Study 1, workers in jobs requiring high amounts of emotional labor differed from those in low emotional labor jobs on seven of twelve outcomes; they reported lower job satisfaction, job performance, self-esteem and happiness, more depressive symptoms, poorer health, and greater anomie. After adjusting for the effects of job complexity, control, and income, differences remained significant except for job satisfaction. Gender did not interact with emotional labor in relation to outcomes. Analysis of Study 2 data revealed little relation between amount of emotional labor and psychological outcomes; negative associations between emotional labor and job commitment and health disappeared after accounting for other job characteristics. Match between expression and feeling on the job showed a weak link to psychological outcomes; workers with emotional harmony tended to have higher well-being than those with emotional dissonance or deviance. Table servers who used primarily felt smiles were happier, healthier, less anxious, and reported better job performance than those using phony smiles, but experienced more anomie. The results of this dissertation do suggest that emotional labor is related to employee well-being. Overall, emotional labor is linked to distress but match between feeling and expression is an important qualifier of this relation.