Emotional labor: A two-wave longitudinal person-centered approach.

Abstract

To date, scholars advocate adopting a person-centered approach in the study of emotional labor since it gives a more realistic representation of the use of emotional regulation strategies. More importantly, a crucial yet under-explored issue is the understanding of the stability of latent profiles of emotional labor over time. Accordingly, this research aimed to investigate the stability of these profiles, based on workers' use of surface acting and deep acting, over 3 months. We also analyzed the role of organizational dehumanization, positive affectivity, and negative affectivity in the prediction of profile membership as well as the relationships between these profiles and several job-related outcomes (i.e., job satisfaction, affective commitment, emotional exhaustion, and turnover intentions). Latent profile analyses conducted on a sample of 425 employees revealed five latent profiles of emotional labor that were stable over time. Latent profile transition analyses indicated that most of the employees remained in their initial profile. Organizational dehumanization and negative affectivity, but not positive affectivity, predicted profile membership. Finally, we corroborated that surface actors were related to the worst outcomes, while deep actors were associated with the most adaptive outcomes. As such, these findings provide further evidence to adopt a person-centered approach to the study of emotional labor.

Organizational metadehumanization and mechanistic self-dehumanization: The role of surface acting

“…Specifically, by using an experimental vignette procedure, we demonstrated that when employees perceive to be dehumanized by their organization, they engage in more surface acting when interacting with others. This finding is consistent with prior studies that have shown a positive correlation between organizational metadehumanization and surface acting (e.g., Nguyen, Cheung, & Stinglhamber, 2021; Nguyen & Stinglhamber, 2021). More importantly, the direction of this causal link is in line with COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989), which suggests that when employees perceive that their resources are threatened by negative events, they strive to preserve and maintain the resources they value, such as social or personal ones (e.g., Hobfoll, 2002).…”

“…Most models of emotional labor have suggested that mistreatment in the workplace is an important determinant in the development of surface acting. In particular, recent research has consistently shown that the perception of being dehumanized by the organization (i.e., organizational metadehumanization) engenders the use of surface acting (e.g., Nguyen, Cheung, & Stinglhamber, 2021; Nguyen, Dao, et al, 2021; Nguyen & Stinglhamber, 2020).…”

For whom and why organizational dehumanization is linked to deviant behaviours

“…Finally, our field studies reported levels of ODH (Ms = 4.08/3.85/3.91, in Studies 2a/2b/3, respectively), which are comparable to those reported earlier (Ms from 3.07 to 4.14 on a 7-point Likert-type scale with employees originating from a variety of jobs and organizations; Caesens et al, , 2017Demoulin et al, 2021;Nguyen, Besson, & Stinglhamber, 2021;Nguyen, Cheung, & Stinglhamber, 2021;Nguyen, Dao, et al, 2021;Nguyen & Stinglhamber, 2020Stinglhamber et al, 2021;Taskin et al, 2019;Tseng, 2020; and Ms of 3.10 and 3.72 on a 5-point Likert-type scale with employees working in hotels and nurses, respectively; . Those mean scores suggest that dehumanizing experiences are a common phenomenon in organizations.…”

“…Recently, research has examined behavioural consequences of ODH. For instance, ODH engenders maladaptive behaviours and reduces adaptive ones (Demoulin et al, 2021; Muhammad & Sarwar, 2021; Nguyen, Cheung, & Stinglhamber, 2021; Nguyen, Dao, et al, 2021; Sarwar et al, 2021; Sarwar & Muhammad, 2021; Stinglhamber et al, 2021; Taskin et al, 2019). Given that the literature on the employee–organization relationship is dominated by social exchange theory (SET; Gibney et al, 2009), this theoretical framework has been used to theoretically explain the link between ODH and work‐related behaviours (Ahmed & Khan, 2016; Muhammad & Sarwar, 2021; Sarwar & Muhammad, 2021; Stinglhamber et al, 2021).…”

Understanding Emotional Labor Dynamics in Participant Sport Service: A Conceptual Framework

“…For example, employee–customer dyadic surveys [ 42 ] can be used to collect data from both employees and customers immediately after their interactions. Latent profile analysis, as used by Nguyen, Cheung, and Stinglhamber [ 86 ], allows researchers to identify distinct emotional labor actor profiles and examine the antecedents and consequences of these profiles. Experience sampling methodology, as used by Scott and Barnes [ 87 ], involves collecting data on emotional labor strategies and their consequences at multiple points throughout the workday.…”