Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Surface-acting outcomes among service employees with two jobs: investigating moderation and mediation effects

Surface-acting outcomes among service employees with two jobs: investigating moderation and... PurposeService firms increasingly hire employees that work two or more jobs. Drawing on conservation of resources theory and the notion that employees have finite emotional resources, this study aims to examine the consequences of emotional labour among employees who simultaneously work in two service jobs. The authors posit that emotional labour requirements from the primary job and secondary job interact to emotionally exhaust employees through a process of resource depletion. Specifically, building on extant work, this research tests a theoretical mediation model of surface acting predicting organizational commitment through emotional exhaustion.Design/methodology/approachEmploying a predictive survey approach, 171 frontline-service employees with two jobs from a variety of service industries are surveyed in two waves. The hypothesized model is tested using a bootstrap procedure for testing indirect effects. In addition, the authors investigate first- and second-stage moderation.FindingsResults confirm full mediation of the relationship between surface acting and organizational commitment by emotional exhaustion, confirming that the effect of surface acting on organizational commitment is indirect through emotional exhaustion. In addition, results reveal that surface acting in the secondary job moderates the link between surface acting in the primary job and emotional exhaustion, and that employees low on organizational identification congruence display lower levels of organizational commitment with the primary job. Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to the literature that relates emotional labour to organizational commitment by investigating contingent factors. The key contribution thus pertains to identifying contingent factors based in COR theory and social identity theory that influence the triadic relation between surface acting, emotional exhaustion and organizational commitment. Practical implicationsResults reveal that surface acting in a second job not just simply adds to the level of employee emotional exhaustion. Instead levels of surface acting in a first and second job interact with each other to affect emotional exhaustion. This finding suggests service managers must take into account if and how employees are enforced to perform surface acting in the other job to prevent high exhaustion.Originality/valueThis study is the first to investigate emotional labour among dual job holders, a growing segment of the service workforce that poses unique challenges to organizations. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Service Management Emerald Publishing

Surface-acting outcomes among service employees with two jobs: investigating moderation and mediation effects

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/surface-acting-outcomes-among-service-employees-with-two-jobs-iCnYLhwE4I

References (125)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
1757-5818
DOI
10.1108/JOSM-05-2015-0169
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

PurposeService firms increasingly hire employees that work two or more jobs. Drawing on conservation of resources theory and the notion that employees have finite emotional resources, this study aims to examine the consequences of emotional labour among employees who simultaneously work in two service jobs. The authors posit that emotional labour requirements from the primary job and secondary job interact to emotionally exhaust employees through a process of resource depletion. Specifically, building on extant work, this research tests a theoretical mediation model of surface acting predicting organizational commitment through emotional exhaustion.Design/methodology/approachEmploying a predictive survey approach, 171 frontline-service employees with two jobs from a variety of service industries are surveyed in two waves. The hypothesized model is tested using a bootstrap procedure for testing indirect effects. In addition, the authors investigate first- and second-stage moderation.FindingsResults confirm full mediation of the relationship between surface acting and organizational commitment by emotional exhaustion, confirming that the effect of surface acting on organizational commitment is indirect through emotional exhaustion. In addition, results reveal that surface acting in the secondary job moderates the link between surface acting in the primary job and emotional exhaustion, and that employees low on organizational identification congruence display lower levels of organizational commitment with the primary job. Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to the literature that relates emotional labour to organizational commitment by investigating contingent factors. The key contribution thus pertains to identifying contingent factors based in COR theory and social identity theory that influence the triadic relation between surface acting, emotional exhaustion and organizational commitment. Practical implicationsResults reveal that surface acting in a second job not just simply adds to the level of employee emotional exhaustion. Instead levels of surface acting in a first and second job interact with each other to affect emotional exhaustion. This finding suggests service managers must take into account if and how employees are enforced to perform surface acting in the other job to prevent high exhaustion.Originality/valueThis study is the first to investigate emotional labour among dual job holders, a growing segment of the service workforce that poses unique challenges to organizations.

Journal

Journal of Service ManagementEmerald Publishing

Published: Aug 15, 2016

There are no references for this article.