Emotional Dissonance Among Frontline Hospitality Employees: An Exploratory Study Examining Habituation Theory Using fMRI

Abstract

The purpose of this exploratory study is to analyze the emotional dissonance among frontline hospitality employees, based on the habituation theory, by examining the responses of brain regions of interest to customers’ incivility. A survey and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)—measuring brain responsiveness—data were collected to compare the life/occupational stress between the frontline hospitality (i.e., customer interacting jobs) and nonhospitality (i.e., minimal or no customer interaction) employees and analyze the responses of brain regions of interest. Although the data from the survey suggested no significant difference between the two groups of employees, the fMRI analysis found significant habituation of the brain regions of interest among the frontline hospitality employees. The analysis outcomes confirm habituation theory and suggest managerial implications such as managing stress or burnout from emotional dissonance and improving employee welfare/fitness to relieve stress from emotional dissonance. The findings suggest the call for more in-depth analysis regarding emotional dissonance.

Fear of Covid-19 and Hotel Frontline Employees’ Sense of Work Alienation: Intervening and Interactional Analysis

“…FLEs’ feedback helps managers to develop appropriate interventions to deal with the customers’ challenging demands and enhance customer satisfaction (Usman et al, 2021a). FLEs’ proactive engagement with customers enables them to identify customers’ tacit needs (Chen et al, 2019), ultimately helping the organization win customers’ hearts and earn their loyalty (Choi et al, 2022; Usman et al, 2021a).…”

Neurophysiological Measures in Hospitality and Tourism: Review, Critique, and Research Agenda

“…More recently, Choi et al (2021) recruited frontline hospitality workers (i.e., in customer-facing positions) and non-hospitality employees (i.e., with minimal or no customer interaction). Behavioral survey data suggested no significant differences between the groups in terms of life/occupational stress.…”

“…Emotions are crucial to decision making (Li et al, 2015), and neurophysiological instruments can directly discern subjects’ emotional responses (Li et al, 2021). Hospitality and tourism scholars continue to examine emotions closely, such as in terms of tourists’ emotional responses to marketing agents (i.e., via EEG; Bastiaansen et al, 2018, 2020), individuals’ emotional experiences during travel (i.e., via SC; Kim et al, 2014), and hotel employees’ emotional dissonance (i.e., via fMRI; Choi et al, 2021). Yet, most studies have tended to focus on tourists’ positive rather than negative emotions.…”

“…In an fMRI study, Choi et al (2021) recruited frontline hospitality workers (i.e., those in customer-facing positions) and non-hospitality workers (i.e., those with minimal or no customer interaction) and found that seeing angry faces was more closely associated with the deactivation (habituation) of brain regions in the hospitality group compared to the non-hospitality group. Meanwhile, survey data suggested no significant difference in life/occupational stress between the two groups.…”

“…Meanwhile, survey data suggested no significant difference in life/occupational stress between the two groups. The authors argued that neurophysiological measures of burnout severity among hospitality employees could refine emotional dissonance theory (Choi et al, 2021). Put simply, neurophysiological tools can enrich tourism and hospitality research by providing complementary neural evidence to further validate theories.…”