Surface acting and deep acting with customers are strategies for service performance, but evidence for their effectiveness is limited and mixed. We propose that deep acting is an effective strategy for most employees, whereas surface acting's effect on performance effectiveness depends on employee extraversion. In Study 1, restaurant servers who tended to use deep acting exceeded their customers' expectations and had greater financial gains (i.e., tips) regardless of extraversion, whereas surface acting improved tips only for extraverts, not for introverts. In Study 2, a call center simulation, deep acting improved emotional performance and increased the likelihood of extrarole service behavior beyond the direct and interactive effects of extraversion and other Big Five traits. In contrast, surface acting reduced emotional performance for introverts and not extraverts, but only during the extrarole interaction. We discuss implications for incorporating traits into emotional labor research and practice.

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Does satisfaction from performing emotional labor (EL)-maintaining positive emotions with customers as part of the job-depend on the financial rewards available for good service? According to a "controlling perspective" of rewards, satisfaction from performing EL may be undermined by financial incentives, but based on a "valuing perspective" of rewards, the relationship should be enhanced. We contribute to the literatures on EL and performance-contingent rewards with a "full-cycle" inquiry of this question conducted with (a) a field survey of diverse occupations in the United States, (b) an experimental call center simulation with U.S. college students, and (c) a multilevel study of Taiwanese sales firms. Overall, financial rewards for service performance enhanced, rather than undermined, satisfaction from EL requirements and effort (i.e., surface acting) with customers. Performing EL by modifying feelings (i.e., deep acting) was positively related to job satisfaction regardless of rewards, beyond personality traits. Results have implications for reward structures and enhancing job satisfaction with this increasingly common form of labor.

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