As we know, emotional labor is an important social issue as a key factor in the relationship between employees and organization. Since the publication of Hochschild''s seminal work over two and a half decades ago, scholars have taken an active interest in investigating emotional labor. Researchers have examined the consequences of emotional labor in two particular forms: deep acting, defined as the modification of actual feelings to match required emotional display, and surface acting, the display of requisite emotions without a corresponding inner emotional adjustment. However, evidence further suggests that when employees successfully deep act and sincerely express the feelings normatively endorsed by display rules, the important individual and organizational outcomes can be enhanced. On the contrary, service employees who don''t do deep acting will cause more job stress and less job satisfaction. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to explore the formation processes of deep acting and the outcomes of deep acting through longitudinal study.
Data for the study were collected in bank, hospital and telecommunications company of SiChuan province with service employee training company. In October 2015, 400 survey questionnaires initiatively were distributed by real name survey. 382 returned usable survey for response rete of 95.5%. In March 2016, the effective 233 service employees received questionnaires. Thus, finally, the effective response rate was 60.1%. To test the proposed model and enable the modeling of both formative and reflective constructs, the data was analyzed by Stuctural Equation Modeling with IBM SPSS Amos 18.0., and Bootstraping test was conducted to identify the mediating effects.
On the basis of the results of deep acting formation processes analyzes, there is no support for the relationship between subjective norm and deep acting intention, the relationship between perceived deep acting control, as well as the moderating effect of instability between deep acting intention and deep acting. On the basis of the results of deep acting consequence analyzes, there is no support for the relationship between deep acting and job satisfaction. Finally, results revealed that the direct effect of subject norm on deep acting is significant, deep acting intention fully mediated the relationship between deep acting attitude and deep acting, as well as between perceived deep acting control and deep acting. Furthermore, the results showed that job stress fully mediated the relationship between deep acting and job satisfaction.
Overall, the results of this research provided a number of important theoretical implications and directions for future research. Through the longitudinal study, the positive relationships of deep acting and it''s result factors were definitely identified , thus, emphasizing deep acting will become a new problem in emotional labor research. The managerial implications have two aspects. Fist, in macroscopic(organization), (1) deep acting display rules must be made instead emotional display rules, (2) customer committee is also must be set up, (3) and the deep acting climate and encouraging each other are very important. Second, in microcosmic(human resources department), (1) appraisal system is made for those who works in front-lines, (2) deep acting and self-confidence training programs must be prepared, (3) male employees who are friendly, have strong self-confidence need to be hired, and (4) it is necessary to prepare job stress manual in human resources department.