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Previous research has focused mainly on the antecedents and consequences of service employees’ emotional labor during the enactment of service roles, with little attention having been paid to how perceptions of leaders’ emotional labor are related to followers’ job outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to propose a model in which followers’ perceptions of the uses of emotional labor by leaders toward customers influence followers’ job performance in their service encounters.

Working with a sample of 268 medical service employees in South Korea, structural equation modeling was employed to test the research hypotheses.

The results indicate that perceptions of leaders’ deep acting toward customers are positively related to followers’ perceptions of authentic leadership. Second, followers’ perceptions of authentic leadership are positively associated with their identification with and trust in their leaders. Finally, followers’ identification with and trust in their leaders is positively related to their job performance.

The research shows that leaders’ use of deep acting toward customers has a positive effect on followers’ job outcomes. Thus, service firms should consider training programs, mindfulness and policy changes regarding display rules at the organizational level so that service employees are encouraged to use deep acting with customers by empathizing with the customers’ needs, while regulating their inner feelings.

The current study broadens the conceptual work and empirical studies in the emotional labor literature related to the service sector by presenting a fundamental mechanism for the effect of perceptions of leaders’ use of emotional labor toward customers on service employees’ job performance. This study is the first to provide an empirical test of how leaders’ emotional labor is related to followers’ job performance.

This study aims to test the mediating effect of cross-selling behavior (CSB) on the relationship between sales manager feedback (i.e. output and behavioral) and sales performance, and the moderating effect of emotional labor (i.e. deep and surface acting) on this relationship.

The authors used two-wave multisource data: survey and objective sales performance (sales revenue) data collected from 300 door-to-door salespeople working at a South Korean cosmetics company.

The relationship between output feedback and sales performance was mediated by CSB. In addition, the positive relationship between output feedback and CSB was weakened by deep and surface acting, whereas that between behavioral feedback and CSB was strengthened by deep acting. Specifically, behavioral feedback had a positive relationship with CSB when salespeople engaged in a high level of deep acting. This relationship was not significant for low and medium levels of deep acting. The authors’ supplementary analyses indicated no significant three-way interaction effect between output feedback, behavioral feedback and emotional labor on CSB.

Data collection from door-to-door salespeople in a single cosmetics company undermines the generalizability of the present findings.

By exploring the boundary conditions that strengthen or weaken the effectiveness of manager feedback, this study provides insights into how the two types of manager feedback can be effectively used to promote CSB and sales performance.

This study offers a nuanced understanding of the relative roles of output and behavioral feedback in CSB and the differential moderating effects of emotional labor on the two types of manager feedback.

This study aimed to examine the effect of self-efficacy on job performance through creativity. We predicted that exposure to customer incivility and rigid service scripts will moderate the mediating effect of creativity on the relationship between self-efficacy and job performance.

Survey data were collected from 397 salespersons who were working in a department store in South Korea. The PROCESS macro was used to test the study hypotheses.

The results revealed that the positive relationship between self-efficacy and job performance was partially mediated by creativity. Furthermore, exposure to customer incivility and rigid service scripts weakened the positive effects of self-efficacy on creativity. Finally, customer incivility and rigid service scripts also dampened the positive effects of self-efficacy on job performance through creativity.

Sales organizations should understand that the extent to which self-efficacy improves job performance by enhancing creativity is contingent on the extent to which salespersons are exposed to customer incivility and are required to adhere to rigid service scripts in the workplace.

Our findings paint a more complete portrait of the beneficial effects of self-efficacy. Specifically, they suggest that the development of creativity is an important mechanism that underlies the process by which internal resources enhance job performance and that customer incivility and service scripts weaken this relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the spillover effects of coworker incivility on customer-directed counterproductive work behavior (CWB) and how emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between them. The authors predicted that job calling and perceived organizational support (POS) would moderate the relationship between experienced coworker incivility and service employees’ emotional exhaustion, respectively.

Survey data from 252 frontline employees working at six full-service luxury hotels in South Korea were examined.

The results indicated that experienced coworker incivility was positively related to customer-directed CWB. In addition, the relationship between experienced coworker incivility and customer-directed CWB was mediated by emotional exhaustion. Finally, employees’ job calling attenuated the positive effects of experienced coworker incivility on customer-directed CWB. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed, together with its limitations and future research directions.

The main contribution of the study is to provide an empirical framework for how instances of coworker incivility spillover, which lead to the target employee’s customer-directed CWB through emotional exhaustion, and how personal (e.g. job calling) may buffer against negative effects.

This study aims to examine how employees' perceptions of organizational actions, such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), affect their compassionate acts in organizations through employee perceptions of organizational justice and affective organizational commitment.

The employees from 87 firms in South Korea were surveyed using a self-administered instrument for data collection. Out of 400 questionnaires, a total of 253 usable questionnaires were obtained after list-wise deletion, for a 63.3 percent response rate. The firms belong to a variety of industries (banking and financial services, manufacturing, hospitals, education, etc.).

The results indicate that employees' perceptions of CSR positively relate to compassion at work through organizational justice perceptions (i.e. perceptions of distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice), and affective organizational commitment, in a sequential manner, in addition to their direct effects on compassion at work.

This study sheds new light on both the compassion and the CSR literature due to its attempt to bridge the macro concept of CSR with micro research in compassion. This is, apparently, one of the first pieces of research in the management literature to specifically address compassion as a consequence of employees' CSR perception.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how customer incivility affects service employees’ emotional labor (i.e. surface acting) and the way surface acting augments their emotional exhaustion at work, and in turn, damages customer orientations of service employees.

Using a sample of 309 department store sales employees in South Korea, a two-stage mediation model is used in terms of structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that customer incivility is positively related to service employees’ use of surface acting; this, in turn, results in feelings of emotional exhaustion, which are negatively related to their customer orientation. That is, the findings of this study shows that the negative relationship between customer incivility and service employees’ customer orientation was fully and sequentially mediated by service employees’ surface acting and emotional exhaustion.

The main limitation is the nature of the cross-sectional data the authors used in the analysis. It gives us reason to be very cautious in reaching conclusions concerning causal relationships among variables, since the authors did not capture longitudinal variation.

The research shows that customer incivility has a negative effect on service employees’ customer-oriented behaviors since experiences of customer incivility among emotionally exhausted employees via surface acting generates inadequate and unfair sense-making related to the treatment offered by customers, which increases the tendency of decreasing their effort and loyalty for customers to prevent further loss of emotional resources. Therefore, service organizations should devise appropriate strategies and implement systematic programs for reducing employee exposure to customer incivility, or preventing it altogether.

The current study broadens the conceptual work and empirical studies in customer incivility literature by representing a fundamental mechanism of why customer incivility negatively affects service employees’ customer orientation. The primary contribution of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of how customer incivility leads to lower employee customer-oriented behaviors through double mediating effects of surface acting and emotional exhaustion.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how chronological age and work experience affect emotional labor strategies (i.e. deep acting and surface acting) through emotional intelligence (EI).

Structural equation modeling analysis provided support for the hypotheses based on a sample of 256 flight attendants working for four South Korean airlines.

The results showed that chronological age has a positive effect on both surface and deep acting. The study also found that work experience has a negative influence on surface acting, whereas it has a non-significant effect on deep acting. In addition, the investigation suggests that EI mediates the relationship between work experience and deep acting.

The current study will add to the growing body of research on emotional labor by examining the effect of chronological age and work experience on emotional labor strategies through EI.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to investigate how emotional labor strategies (i.e. surface acting and deep acting) affect job performance through job satisfaction. Another important objective of this study was to see whether perceived organizational support (POS) moderates the relationship between emotional labor strategies and job-related outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction and job performance).

Structural equation modeling analysis provided support for the hypotheses from a sample of 309 South Korean department store sales employees.

The results revealed that surface acting had a negative effect, whereas deep acting had a positive effect on job satisfaction. In addition, the relationship between emotional labor strategies (i.e. surface acting and deep acting) and job performance was significantly mediated by job satisfaction. Finally, POS significantly moderated the relationship between surface acting and job satisfaction, as well as the relationship between deep acting and job performance.

The findings of this study contributed to the literature by identifying the relationship between surface and deep acting on organizational outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction and job performance), especially in a collectivist society (i.e. South Korea). In addition, this study also confirmed the important role of POS based on the norm of reciprocity between an organization and its members.

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the moderating role of organizational justice in the emotional exhaustion–organizational loyalty link. Emotional exhaustion resulting from an employee’s emotional labor usually leads to negative outcome such as organizational loyalty. Following conservation of resources theory and social exchange theory, the authors argue that the relationship between flight attendants’ emotional exhaustion and organizational loyalty is moderated by distributive, procedural and interpersonal justice.

Data were gathered from a sample of 247 flight attendants in South Korea. Hierarchical moderated regression analysis was conducted to test the hypothesized relationship.

The study results provide support for the moderating role of organizational justice such as distributive, procedural and interpersonal justice in the emotional exhaustion–organizational loyalty link.

This study contributes to the extant literature by empirically validating the moderating effect and clarifying the role of three types of organizational justice simultaneously, which has not been addressed in previous research.

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether and how the perceived organizational support (POS) influences emotional labor and the relationship between emotional labor and flight attendants' outcomes.

Structural equation modeling analysis provided support for the hypotheses from a sample of 256 flight attendants in South Korea.

The results showed that POS has a positive effect on deep acting. Furthermore, it was found that surface acting has a positive influence on emotional exhaustion, whereas deep acting has a negative influence on emotional exhaustion. In addition, emotional exhaustion has a negative influence on organizational commitment, while organizational commitment has a negative influence on turnover intention. Furthermore, POS moderated the relationship between deep acting or surface acting and emotional exhaustion.

The current study broadened the conceptual work and laboratory studies in emotional labor by examining the role of POS on emotional regulation strategies related to emotional exhaustion. In addition, this study sheds new light on customer service management within the airline industry by examining flight attendants' emotional labor, particularly interactions with POS.