Faking Versus Feeling Emotions: Does Personality–Job Fit Make a Difference

Abstract

Emotional labor (EL) involves regulating, managing, and sensing others’ emotions to achieve organizational goals. However, it is often considered a unitary variable, without examining the specific types of emotional labor (i.e., deep acting and surface acting). Thus, the purpose of this research is to extend the under-researched work on surface-acting and deep-acting strategies of EL on job involvement in the public sector by examining the mediating effects of personality–job fit. This research employs the 2016 Merit System Principles survey data to explore the relationship between the variables. Results show that personality–job fit has a positive mediating effect on deep-acting EL and job involvement and a negative mediating effect on surface acting and job involvement. Findings may help administrators understand and prevent the potential results of employees’ EL behavior and the importance of personality–job fit in organizational outcomes.

Public Service Motivation, Performance-Contingent Pay, and Job Satisfaction of Street-Level Bureaucrats

“…The experience of close contact with clients is often fraught with conflicts and tensions arising from unpleasant communication, contradictory expectations, or limited resources (Grandey & Diamond, 2010). Under such a demanding environment, it becomes challenging to induce JS among street-level bureaucrats if their motivation for serving the public is not sufficiently steadfast to overcome the predicaments at work (Wen et al, 2020; Zvobgo et al, 2022). Imaginably, highly motivated public servants are more likely to deal with their job demands with ease and prevent exhaustion (Bakker, 2015; Mussagulova, 2021).…”

The Influence of Political Skill on Emotional Labor and Turnover Intention. (c2022)

“…Thus, they are better able to utilize commonly known "display rules" that are associated with emotional labor, than employees with lesser political skills. However, research on emotional dissonance has shown that such experiences are very uncomfortable for employees, and employees might become ultimately motivated to quit the emotional dissonance that occurs (Zvobgo, Abraham, & Sabharwal, 2021). Also, there exists significant evidence between emotional labor strategies and turnover intention; especially surface acting (Kang & Jang, 2022).…”