Emotional Labor/Strategy Scale – Chinese Version

Description

In high customer contact service industries such as restaurants, airlines, and hospitality, employees frequently engage in interpersonal interactions that require both mental and physical labor. They must also adjust, control, and manage their emotional expressions in a timely and appropriate manner. The entire service process is filled with emotional labor, where smiling becomes a job requirement. Hochschild first introduced the concept of “emotional labor,” and later Grandey integrated emotional regulation theory to explain emotional labor, further specifying it as emotional regulation—where employees adjust their emotional experiences and expressions to meet organizational demands. This process includes two emotional regulation strategies: surface acting and deep acting. Surface acting refers to adjusting visible emotional expressions to align with organizational expectations while inner feelings remain unchanged, whereas deep acting involves altering internal cognitive processes to adjust one’s emotional experiences, thereby appropriately displaying emotions that align with organizational expectations, achieving a unity between internal feelings and external emotional expressions. Deep acting tends to result in more authentic and credible emotional displays.

For frontline employees in service-oriented companies, smiling is part of the job; however, research has confirmed that merely showing an external smile is insufficient. Genuine emotional expressions from frontline employees significantly predict customer satisfaction and affect employees’ mental and physical health. Surface acting leads to a conflict between external expressions and internal feelings, causing stress, tension, emotional exhaustion, and lower job satisfaction. In contrast, deep acting mobilizes more cognitive and physiological resources, thus enhancing work efficiency and increasing a sense of authenticity. Although surface acting is easier to perform immediately, it requires more effort and psychological resources to avoid losing control over emotional expressions, which can lead to negative impacts on customers’ perceptions of products and services, as well as long-term damage to employees’ health and increased energy depletion.

Organizational identification and organization-based self-esteem have significant effects on emotional labor. Higher levels of organizational identification lead employees to prefer deep acting strategies, whereas higher levels of organization-based self-esteem also incline employees toward deep acting strategies. Organization-based self-esteem fully mediates the relationship between organizational identification and surface acting while partially mediating the relationship between organizational identification and deep acting. Therefore, companies should cultivate employees’ sense of organizational identification through various participatory strategies and promote deep acting behaviors that align with organizational goals as a voluntary choice for employees when serving customers. This approach could also reduce instances of emotional exhaustion among employees. Additionally, organizations should establish a value system and management principles that prioritize employee needs, fostering a harmonious and fair organizational atmosphere. Employees who genuinely serve customers with deep acting strategies and achieve positive results should be appropriately incentivized and recognized, enhancing their levels of organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), leading to more positive work performance and heightened working enthusiasm among other employees.

Authors and Contact Email

Tang Xiuli, Gu Yingkang

Purpose

To explore the impact of emotional labor, organizational identification, and organization-based self-esteem on service employees.

Test Year

2017

Administration Method and Scoring

The emotional labor scale is based on the Chinese version of Grandey’s emotional labor strategy scale with 11 items, including 5 items for surface acting (表面表演) and 6 items for deep acting (深层表演). The emotional labor/strategy scale employs a Likert 7-point scale, where 1 indicates “strongly disagree” (完全不符合) and 7 indicates “strongly agree” (完全符合).

Reliability and Validity

The reliability of emotional labor in Tang Xiuli’s study was 0.806, with surface acting reliability at 0.907 and deep acting reliability at 0.911.

Factors and Subscales

– Emotional Labor (情绪劳动)
– Surface Acting (表面表演)
– Deep Acting (深层表演)

Keywords

Emotional Labor, Surface Acting, Deep Acting, Organizational Identification, Organization-Based Self-Esteem

Items in Chinese

1. 面对顾客，我会假装心情好的样子，即使内心并不是如此
2. 工作时表现出合适的表情和态度，对我而言如同在演戏一样
3. 对于工作中需要表现的情绪（如亲切、温和等），我只要假装一下就可以了
4. 我宁愿去假装那些工作时应有的情绪表现，也不愿意改变自己当前内心的真实感受
5. 为表现出特定的表情与态度，我会像戴面具一样，掩饰内心真实的感受
6. 当我面对顾客时，不只外表上看来愉快，内心也会感受愉快
7. 我在工作时会尽力克服自己不好的情绪，由衷地以亲切与和善的态度为顾客服务
8. 即使明知顾客无理，我仍能站在顾客的立场，诚心地为其解决问题
9. 我会尝试去感受在工作中必须要表现的情绪（如亲切、温和）而不只是假装而已
10. 如果必须在别人面前表现出某种情绪（如亲切、温和），我会尽可能使自己“发自内心”而非假装
11. 当心情不好时，为了工作需要，我会暂时忘了不愉快，使自己能有面对顾客的好心情

Items in English

1. When facing customers, I pretend to be in a good mood, even if I am not.
2. Showing appropriate expressions and attitudes at work feels like acting to me.
3. For the emotions I need to express at work (such as friendliness, warmth), I can just pretend.
4. I prefer to pretend the emotional expressions required at work rather than change my current true feelings.
5. To display specific expressions and attitudes, I will disguise my true feelings like wearing a mask.
6. When I face customers, I not only appear happy on the outside but also feel happy inside.
7. I try my best to overcome my negative emotions at work and genuinely provide friendly and kind service to customers.
8. Even if I know the customer is being unreasonable, I still sincerely want to help them solve their problems.
9. I try to feel the emotions (such as friendliness, warmth) that I have to express at work rather than just pretending.
10. If I have to display a certain emotion (such as friendliness, warmth) in front of others, I will try to be as genuine as possible rather than pretending.
11. When I am feeling down, I temporarily forget my unhappiness to face customers with a good mood as required by my job.

References

唐秀丽,辜应康.强颜欢笑还是真情实意:组织认同、基于组织的自尊对服务人员情绪劳动的影响[J].旅游学刊, 2016, 31(1):13. DOI:CNKI:SUN:LYXK.0.2016-01-014.
田雅琳,仇勇,张杉杉.情绪劳动对导游职业满意度和离职倾向的影响 ——一个被调节的中介效应模型[J].商业研究, 2019(1):8. DOI:CNKI:SUN:BUSI.0.2019-01-016.