Abstract:

Emotional labor refers to the process that employees’ follow specific organizational rules and regulate their emotions when interacting with customers in the work place. It has been suggested that emotional labor has significant impact, both positive and negative, on a series of outcome variables in organizational settings, targeting employees, customers and organizations. Some variables concerning the characteristics of employees, customers and jobs moderate the relationship between emotional labor and the outcomes. Conversation of Resources theory provides a powerful theoretical explanation for the mechanism of emotional labor. The integration of immediate, short-term and long-term effects, emotional labor targeting internal customers and the impact of organizational climate are the three topics that deserve special attention in future research.

Key words: emotional labor, deep acting, surface acting, display rules, conservation of resources