Enhancing emotional performance and customer service through human resources practices: A systems perspective

Empowering leadership and frontline employees' emotional labor: the mediation effects of job passion

Instruction

In order to deliver superior service experience to customers, frontline employees must regulate their emotional expressions during service encounters. This study examines how empowering leadership influences emotional labor (deep acting and surface acting) through the mediating role of job passion.

Methods

Using data of 1,040 frontline employees across three service industries, the proposed mediating model was tested.

Results

The findings revealed that: empowering leadership predicted deep acting and reduced surface acting. Job passion mediated the relationship between empowering leadership and emotional labor. Specifically, empowering leadership influenced surface acting only through obsessive passion. Empowering leadership had a "double-edged" effect on deep acting, operating through both harmonious and obsessive passion simultaneously.

Discussion

This study highlights the mediating role of job passion in translating empowering leadership into emotional labor strategies. The findings help service organizations refine leadership strategies to enhance emotional regulation in frontline service roles.

Secondary emotional labor: How female nurses respond to the contradictions of caring

Prior research suggests that caring is in tension with a financially incentivized, technologically-driven healthcare system. Nevertheless, employers, the public, and nurses expect nurses to be caring when providing care to patients and families. This article focuses on nurses' emotional labor strategies when managing emotions related to organizationally imposed interference with caring. We analyzed 27 semi-structured interviews with nurses and found that the unsuccessful performance of emotional labor spills over into the women's relationships at and outside of work. We apply Di-Cicco-Bloom and DiCicco-Bloom's concept of secondary emotional labor to examine our findings and how secondary emotional labor further develops the alienation and exploitation concepts of Hochschild's emotional labor theory. We suggest a structural change in nurses' job design that remedies contradictory caring expectations and supports their emotional labor to prioritize a climate of caring for patients.

Are you really smiling? Display rules for emojis and the relationship between emotion management and psychological well-being

Display rules specify socially appropriate facial expressions in a given situation. However, managing emotions for such a social adaption sometimes leads to deleterious psychological outcomes. Given that people nowadays rely on emojis to express emotions online, the present study investigated (1) whether display rules exist in emoji communications and (2) how emotion management using emojis is associated with psychological well-being. Prior studies have demonstrated the effects of context on the frequency of emoji use. However, the intensity and type of expression may differ, even if emojis are used at the same frequency. The current study thus investigated whether emotional expressions and the types of emojis used are adjusted to contexts similar to facial displays. As many as 1,289 Japanese participants typed emojis in response to Internet chats and reported the intensity of their emotional expressions. The contexts of the chats varied depending on the target of use, the emotional value of contexts, and private or public settings. The results showed that, similar to facial displays, individuals expressed emotions through emojis more with those closely related, more in positive contexts than in negative contexts, and more in private than in public contexts. When the expressions were intense, individuals used emojis consistent with the emotional value of the context. Upon attenuating the expressions, this study found that individuals tended to use euphemistic emojis and sent smiling emojis in negative contexts to manage the expressions. Moreover, expressing emotions with emojis was associated with subjective well-being, whereas managing emotions with emojis was weakly associated with depressive symptoms. Together, this study indicates the existence of display rules for emojis, calling for future research on the psychological impact of online emotion norms.

The Influence of Emotional Labor of Service Employees on Customer Service Misbehavior and Repurchase Intention: The Role of Face

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the emotional labor of service employees affects customer service misbehavior and repurchase intention and to explore the mechanism and boundary conditions.

Methods

We collected a total of 252 pairs of employee-customer valid matching data and used SPSS 24.0 and Mplus7.0 statistical analysis tools to perform statistical analysis and hypothesis testing.

Results

The results showed that employees' surface acting has a significant positive impact on customer misbehavior and negative impact on repurchase intention via perceived face threat, while deep acting has a significant negative impact on customer misbehavior and positive impact on repurchase intention via perceived face threat. And customer face threat sensitivity not only moderates the relationship between service employee emotional labor and customer perceived face threat but also moderates the indirect effect of surface acting on customer misbehavior and repurchase intention via customer perceived face threat.

Conclusion

Based on face theory, this study explained how and when emotional labor of service employees may affect customer service misbehavior and repurchase intention. These results contribute to the emotional labor and customer service misbehavior literature by introducing perceived face threat as an underlying mechanism and face threat sensitivity as a boundary condition. In addition, this study suggests that service-oriented enterprises should pay attention to the management and guidance of employees' emotional labor and try their best to let employees show deep acting rather than surface acting.

Intrinsic Rewards and Employee's Performance With the Mediating Mechanism of Employee's Motivation

The prime goal of this study is to analyze the impact of intrinsic rewards on the performance of an employee. It also focuses on the role of motivation of the employee as an intervening factor. To achieve this objective, data have been collected through the questionnaire method from small and medium enterprises of Pakistan. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed to the target population, and 300 were received. To test the hypotheses, the confirmatory factor analysis and the structural equation modeling have been used. The main results of the study have shown a positive and significant impact of intrinsic rewards on the performance of the employee. Specifically, the study reveals that the motivation of an employee significantly mediates the association between intrinsic rewards and the performance of the employee. In the light of the findings, implications are outlined.

Emotional Labour and Work-Family Conflict in Voice-to-Voice and Face-to-Face Customer Relations: A Multi-Group Study in Service Workers

Professions that involve interaction with customers entail great emotional effort: workers are required to show emotions different from their true feeling and they experienced emotional dissonance and verbal aggression from customers. These job demands can generate discomfort and the effects of emotional labour can "expand" in other life domains. The study investigated the relationship among emotional dissonance, customer verbal aggression, affective discomfort at work and work-family conflict, considering differences between two groups of service workers: call centre agents (CA; N = 507, voice-to-voice relation with customers) and supermarket cashiers (SC; N = 444, face-to-face relation with customers). Results showed that emotional dissonance and customer verbal aggression had a positive relationship with work-family conflict, the mediational role of affective discomfort emerged in both groups; different effects of job demands in subsamples appeared. Suggestions for organisations and work processes emerged in order to identify practical implications useful to support employees in coping with emotional labour and to promote well-being and work-family balance.

The interplay effects of skill-enhancing human resources practices, customer orientation and tourism SMEs performance

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay of skill-enhancing human resources practices, customer orientation (CO) and tourism small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) performance indicators.

Design/methodology/approach

Data for 194 valid cases are gathered through face-to-face techniques in Albanian tourism SMEs. Structural equation modeling is implemented to analyze data and test the hypothesis proposed.

Findings

Overall, both skill-enhancing human resources (HR) practices (i.e. recruitment/selection and training) are not associated with SMEs performance. Results suggest that using HR selection/recruitment practices are not associated to SME’s CO. Contrary, implementing skill-enhancing HR training practices is significant for SMEs strategy to focus and address customers’ wants and needs. Finally, it was found that the CO mediates the relationship between skill-enhancing HR training practices and performance, but this was not true on the skill-enhancing HR recruitment/selection practices-performance relationship.

Originality/value

This study makes contributions by further informing the debate about the direct and indirect link between skill-enhancing HR practices and performance. Additionally, it examines the precise role of the skill-enhancing HR practice on SMEs’ culture and or strategy to create value for customers.

Linking supervisor developmental feedback to in-role performance: The role of job control and perceived rapport with supervisors

This paper investigates the underlying mechanism and boundary condition of the relationship between day-level supervisor developmental feedback (SDF) and day-level in-role performance (IRP) based on the framework of social exchange theory. The current study collects 290 matched surveys nested in 58 Chinese employees for five consecutive days, employing experience sampling method. Using hierarchical linear regression analysis, this paper examines the mediating role of perceived rapport with supervisors (PRS) and the moderating role of job control. Results show SDF has a positive effect on PRS and consequently enhances employee IRP. This indirect effect is moderated by employee job control. When job control is high, SDF helps supervisors develop a high-quality rapport with employees and is conducive to employees improving their IRP. However, when job control is low, the positive effect of SDF on IRP through PRS is not significant.

The Impact of Non-normative Displays of Emotion in the Workplace: How Inappropriateness Shapes the Interpersonal Outcomes of Emotional Displays

When it comes to evaluating emotions as either “good” or “bad,” everyday beliefs regarding emotions rely mostly on their hedonic features—does the emotion feel good to the person experiencing the emotion? However, emotions are not only felt inwardly; they are also displayed outwardly, and others’ responses to an emotional display can produce asymmetric outcomes (i.e., even emotions that feel good to the displayer can lead to negative outcomes for the displayer and others). Focusing on organizational settings, this manuscript reviews the literature on the outcomes of emotional expressions and argues that the evidence points to perceived (in)appropriateness of emotional displays as key to their consequences: emotional displays that are deemed inappropriate generate disadvantageous outcomes for the displayer, and at times also the organization. Drawing on relevant theoretical models [Emotions as Social Information (EASI) theory, the Dual Threshold Model of Anger, and Asymmetrical Outcomes of Emotions], the paper highlights three broad and interrelated reasons why emotion displays could be deemed unfitting and inappropriate: (1) characteristics of the displayer (e.g., status, gender); (2) characteristics of the display (e.g., intensity, mode); and (3) characteristics of the context (e.g., national or organizational culture, topic of interaction). The review focuses on three different emotions—anger, sadness, and happiness—which differ in their valence based on how they feel to the displayer, but can yield different interpersonal outcomes. In conclusion, the paper argues that inappropriateness must be judged separately from whether an emotional display is civil (i.e., polite and courteous) or uncivil (i.e., rude, discourteous, and offensive). Testable propositions are presented, as well as suggested future research directions.

Employer Branding Practices Amongst the Most Attractive Employers of IT and Engineering Sector

Employer branding is a marketing strategy that helps employers stay competitive in their markets. Although it is a concept used for over 20 years, its process and consequences have not yet been fully scrutinized. This study characterizes the employer branding implementation and the employers' perspective on it. By conducting ten semi-structured, in-depth interviews, the authors examine not only how employer branding practices have been applied, but also the role of human resources management in the process and used employee attraction and retention practices. The results suggest that although the employer branding process is not clearly structured, some stages can be identified as common. For that reason, the authors outline a stage divided framework and analyse each one of the identified stages. Furthermore, practical insights are provided about the company's departments roles and link them to the current state of the art. Finally, the authors suggest future investigation in particular stages of employer branding.

The impact of biased technology on employment distribution and labor status in income distribution

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of biased technology on employment distribution and labor status in income distribution of China. It also testifies a threshold effect of the capital per labor and employment distribution on labor status from biased technology.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a normalized supply-side system of three equations to measure the bias of technology in China. Linear and threshold regressions approaches are applied over cross-province panel data to investigate the influence which biased technology has on labor status under different capital per labor and employment distribution regimes.

Findings

This paper empirically shows that technology has been mostly capital-biased in China. The regression results indicate that capital-biased technology impairs labor income status and tend to modify employment distribution and labor income between industries. Furthermore, it reveals the threshold effect of capital per labor and employment distribution on the relationship between biased technology and labor status.

Originality/value

This paper extends the literature by explaining labor status from the perspective of biased technology and the effect of inter-industry employment distribution in China. It further explores the asymmetric effect of biased technology on labor productivity and income, which promotes inter-industry labor mobility and modifies employment distribution. This paper highlights the implications of this explanation for labor relations and human resource management.

The Moment of Truth: A Review, Synthesis, and Research Agenda for the Customer Service Experience

Customer service is a central feature of the service context. As service research has evolved into a burgeoning multidisciplinary field, management scholars have developed an impressive body of research regarding the antecedents, processes, and outcomes of customer service. We provide an integrative review and synthesis of the literature with a focus on three important and interrelated aspects of customer service that specifically focus on the interpersonal service interaction between employees and customers: ( a) affect in customer service, including emotional labor and emotional contagion processes; ( b) customer mistreatment, the low-quality interpersonal treatment of customers toward service employees; and ( c) customer service behaviors, including customer orientation and service-oriented citizenship behaviors. We review theoretical perspectives for each of these streams of research and summarize the current knowledge regarding empirical findings. We provide a critical assessment of the literature and conclude with a discussion of future research agendas and practical implications for service managers.

Relative Importance of Human Resource Practices on Affective Commitment and Turnover Intention in South Korea and United States

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of perceived HR practices on affective commitment and turnover intention. This study explored which HR practices were relatively more important in predicting affective commitment and turnover intention. A total of 302 employees from the United States and 317 from South Korea completed the same questionnaires for assessing the aforementioned relationships. The results illustrated that among perceived HR practices, internal mobility had the most significant association with turnover intention in both the United States and South Korea. While internal mobility was a stronger predictor of affective commitment for the United States sample, training was the most important variable for predicting affective commitment in South Korea. The second purpose of the study was to examine whether individuals' positive affect influences the relationship between perceived HR practices and affective commitment and turnover intention. In the United States, positive affect moderated the relationship between perceived HR practices and affective commitment and turnover intention such that the relationships were stronger for individuals reporting high positive affect relative to those reporting low positive affect. However, these relationships were not significant in South Korea. We discuss the implications of these results, study limitations, and practical suggestions for future research.

Accelerating employee-related scholarship in service management

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to accelerate research related to the employee-facets of service management by summarizing current developments in multiple research streams, providing propositions, and articulating new directions for theory and empirical inquiry.

Design/methodology/approach

Seven scholars provide short reviews of the core topics and findings from four employee-related research streams – collective turnover, service climate, emotional labor, and occupational stress; and generate propositions to guide future theoretical and empirical work. Four distinguished service scholars – David Bowen, Ray Fisk, Christian Grönroos, and Jochen Wirtz comment upon these research streams and provide future directions for accelerating employee-related research in service management.

Findings

All four research-streams yield insights that have the potential to advance service management research. Commentaries from the distinguished scholars further integrate this work with key concerns within service management including technology-enablement, transformative services, and service strategy.

Originality/value

This paper is unique in its scope of coverage of management topics related to service and its aim to promote interdisciplinary dialog between service management scholars and researchers conducting employee-related research relevant to services.

Inbound Call Centers and Emotional Dissonance in the Job Demands - Resources Model

Background: Emotional labor, defined as the process of regulating feelings and expressions as part of the work role, is a major characteristic in call centers. In particular, interacting with customers, agents are required to show certain emotions that are considered acceptable by the organization, even though these emotions may be different from their true feelings. This kind of experience is defined as emotional dissonance and represents a feature of the job especially for call center inbound activities.

Aim: The present study was aimed at investigating whether emotional dissonance mediates the relationship between job demands (workload and customer verbal aggression) and job resources (supervisor support, colleague support, and job autonomy) on the one hand, and, on the other, affective discomfort, using the job demands-resources model as a framework. The study also observed differences between two different types of inbound activities: customer assistance service (CA) and information service.

Method: The study involved agents of an Italian Telecommunication Company, 352 of whom worked in the CA and 179 in the information service. The hypothesized model was tested across the two groups through multi-group structural equation modeling.

Results: Analyses showed that CA agents experience greater customer verbal aggression and emotional dissonance than information service agents. Results also showed, only for the CA group, a full mediation of emotional dissonance between workload and affective discomfort, and a partial mediation of customer verbal aggression and job autonomy, and affective discomfort.

Conclusion: This study’s findings contributed both to the emotional labor literature, investigating the mediational role of emotional dissonance in the job demands-resources model, and to call center literature, considering differences between two specific kinds of inbound activities. Suggestions for organizations and practitioners emerged in order to identify practical implications useful both to support employees in coping with emotional labor and to promote well-being in inbound call centers. In detail, results showed the need to improve training programs in order to enhance employees’ emotion regulation skills, and to introduce human resource practices aimed at clarifying emotional requirements of the job.