The relationship between customer orientation, emotional labour and job burnout

Abstract

Purpose Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, this study aims to apply the emotional labour concept to illustrate about the relationship between customer orientation (CO) and job burnout, further demonstrating how the relationship is established in the hospitality industry. This study intends to find that emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between CO and emotional labour. Design/methodology/approach The study uses descriptive statistical analysis and reliability analysis. Then, the study uses confirmatory factor analyses to ensure the model fit and discriminant validity of the measures. Finally, the hypothesised relationship model is tested and analysed via regression analysis. Findings The study finds three dimensions of emotional labour all partially mediated the relationship between CO and job burnout. Meanwhile, the study finds that emotional intelligence would moderate the relationship between CO and three dimensions of emotional labour. Research limitations/implications First, the respondents in this study come from five-star hotels in Beijing, China. As the results of this study are based on a sample of Chinese five-star hotel employees, the selection of a single service setting and a single country may raise concerns for the issue of generalisability. Thus, the findings of this study may not generalise to other hospitality contexts, other cultures or other times; research in other settings, geographical areas or times might yield different results. Practical implications High employee job burnout is a thorny problem in the hospitality industry, so it is a great challenge for hospitality management to solve high employee job burnout. As a personality resource, CO will decrease job burnout. Emotional labour is a common issue in hospitality. The study intends to explore the lived experiences of the frontline employees in hospitality industry to explain the role of CO directives on employee job burnout in an emotional labour perspective. The results give suggestions for the hospitality management. Social implications After reviewing of relevant literature, two research gaps are found. First, despite the amount of research showing a negative relationship between CO and job burnout, remarkably little is known about how these relationships are established. Second, a more important gap lies in overlooking the emotional nature of hospitality service work. The results of the study can fill the theoretical gap. Originality/value First, the recruitment and selection of frontline employees should incorporate an assessment of the level of CO. Second, hospitality management should teach and train the employees about the proper control of emotional labour. Third, the recruitment and selection of frontline employees should incorporate an assessment of the level of emotional intelligence; meanwhile, it is necessary to strengthen the emotional intelligence training.

Role of Leaders’ Emotional Labor toward Leader’s Job Satisfaction and Emotional Exhaustion: Moderating Role of Psychological Capital

“…There are three emotional labor strategies used by recent research studies namely: surface acting, deep acting, and displays of genuine emotions (Diefendorff et al, 2005;Judge et al, 2009;Wu and Shie, 2017;Yoo, 2016). Surface acting refers to fake acting and an attempt to display professionally desired emotions without any change to the inner emotion, and is sometimes defined as "faking in bad faith."…”

“…Similarly, a recent study (Ahmad et al, 2019) has reported that surface acting, deep acting, and displays of genuine emotions are positively related to a leader's attitude. Wu and Shie (2017), contended that the Conservation of Resources (COR ) theory dealt with resource gains and losses, and following the arguments of the conservation of resources theory, if an individual is emotionally intelligent he/she can avoid negative emotions, as frontline employees may use their own abilities as resources. Furthermore, Cheung, Tang, and Tang (2011) pointed out that psychological capital moderates the relationship among emotional labor and burnout, as well as job satisfaction.…”

“…Some studies use surface acting and deep acting as underlying dimensions for emotional labor (Nisar et al, 2018a;Nisar, Othman, and Kamil, 2018b), and the frequency of interaction, attentiveness, the variety of emotions required, and emotional dissonance (Hayyat, Nisar, Imran, and Ikram, 2017). Whereas others have used the three-dimensional construct of emotional labor (Wu and Shie, 2017). The current study has adopted the recent three-dimensional approach to emotional labor.…”

“…The present study has, however, adopted a novel approach by studying the emotional labor strategies of leaders and how they impact on the leaders' job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Wu and Shie (2017) argued that emotional labor's outcomes must be studied further. So this is one of the few studies to explore the leaders' emotional labor strategies from a leader's perspective in Pakistan.…”

The Effects of Emotional Labour, Job Characteristics and Job Demands on Job Burnout with Counterproductive Behaviour in Hermina Hospital Depok, West Java, Indonesia

“…Thus, employees who control their emotions through surface acting may experience more serious psychological conflict and higher levels of internal tension. Furthermore, Wu & Shie (2017) indicated that deep acting plays a positive role in mitigating employees' job stress, while surface acting increases job stress by exhausting employees' emotional resources during service (Lee et al, 2015). Employees who are motivated to comply with organizational display rules and can understand and regulate emotions have a resulting reduction in job burnout.…”