Emotion Expression Rules Scale and Emotional Labor Scale – Chinese Version

Description

Emotional labor refers to the process wherein employees continuously adjust their emotional expressions while interacting with customers to ensure that their exhibited emotions align with the emotional display rules of the organization. Emotional labor has several characteristics: (1) it occurs during interactions between employees and others; (2) employees need to continually adjust their emotional expressions, which requires effort; and (3) emotional expressions must conform to the organization’s emotional display rules. Factors such as personality traits, emotional intelligence, emotional display rules, job autonomy, and task nature can all affect emotional labor. In turn, emotional labor can influence job burnout, job satisfaction, and job performance. The rise of the service industry has created numerous jobs that require higher levels of emotional labor, including consulting, healthcare, and customer service. For workers in these roles, physical and intellectual labor is not the only requirement; they must also continuously regulate their emotions and expressions to perform their jobs effectively. The management of emotional labor has wide-ranging applications and pertains to nearly all occupations involving interpersonal interactions. However, its impact is particularly pronounced in the service sector and certain administrative roles within organizations. When employees manage their emotions and expressions in accordance with organizational expectations, they are engaging in emotional labor. For individual employees, on one hand, higher emotional labor demands in monotonous or less challenging jobs can help cultivate positive work characteristics, thereby serving as a motivational factor since it allows individuals to express themselves fully and maintain a positive mental state. On the other hand, high emotional labor demands can be detrimental for employees in intellectually demanding positions, as they must exert greater effort to exhibit surface acting and deep acting, thereby consuming their limited energy and focus. The longer emotional labor extends, the higher the demand for role internalization. Additionally, the discrepancies between the emotions that individuals need to express and their genuine feelings can lead to emotional dissonance, resulting in increased stress, work pressure, and burnout. This may decrease subjective well-being and job satisfaction, create a disconnection between the self and true emotions, and lead to negative behaviors characterized by a lack of self-control and patience, culminating in potential turnover of qualified employees. Emphasizing emotional labor can significantly support the mental and physical health of service industry employees, improve service quality, inform job design, and aid in organizational behavior management. As a means to enhance organizational performance and service quality, emotional labor is gaining attention. Some companies routinely offer emotional management courses to help employees better handle stress and alleviate negative emotions. Emotional display rules delineate a set of guidelines regarding what emotions individuals should express in different situations; they can manage and regulate individual emotional expressions, thereby enhancing interpersonal communication capabilities to achieve desired interaction outcomes. Emotional expressions are learned in childhood and are influenced by social rules and culture. Within organizations, employees are expected to follow emotional display rules to meet organizational objectives. Although emotional display rules are considered part of job requirements, many organizations lack explicit regulations on emotional display norms. Various implicit or explicit constraints on emotional expressions in the workplace may stem from job descriptions, leader behaviors, perceptions of display rules, organizational norms, and training materials. However, due to differences in job types, the content of display rules may vary. Most job norms apply comprehensive emotional display rules, which promote positive interpersonal interactions by encouraging the expression of positive emotions and the suppression of negative emotions. While some roles may necessitate differentiating emotional expressions (expressing negative emotions) or suppressing emotions (suppressing either positive or negative emotions), most job requirements mandate employees express positive emotions while suppressing negative ones.

Authors and Contact Email

Information not available.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between emotional display rules and emotional labor and their impact on employees’ behaviors in the workplace.

Test Year

Information not available.

Administration Method and Scoring

Surveys were distributed to participants, and scoring is based on a Likert scale format, which assesses employees’ feelings and experiences related to emotional labor in their work.

Reliability and Validity

The methodology involved validity checks based on response completeness, regulatory patterns in the answers, and logical consistency, with invalid responses removed through T-tests, resulting in a total of 390 valid questionnaires.

Factors and Subscales

– 情绪表现规则 (Emotional Display Rules)
– 情绪劳动 (Emotional Labor)

Keywords

Emotional Labor, Emotional Display Rules, Job Satisfaction, Burnout, Service Industry

Items in Chinese

以下问题有关您对工作的感受和体会，请您仔细阅读以下问题，请您根据实际情况作出判断，在对应选项下打“√”。 非常不符合比较不符合不确定比较符合非常符合
1.让顾客感觉良好是我工作的一部分
2.在工作场所，我不需要把向顾客表达正面情绪作为工作的一个部分
3.银行认为友好的，令人愉快的服务是我提供给顾客的产品的一部分
4.银行希望我能够热情投入到与顾客的交谈中
5.银行希望我在工作时掩藏自己的不好的情绪
6.银行希望我在与顾客交往时掩藏自己的生气和不满
7.银行希望我在工作时掩藏自己的不开心

表达积极的情绪表现规则题项：1、2、3、4
抑制消极的情绪表现规则题项：5、6、7

情绪劳动量表 以下问题的目的是了解您对自己工作的看法和感受，请您根据自己在工作中的实际感受的做法，在相应的答案上打“√”。
极不符合不符合说不清楚非常符合符合
1.面对顾客时，为了工作需要，我仅仅假装顾客要求的情绪（即便内心并非如此）
2.我会展现出那些工作时需要的情绪，但是不会改变自己目前内心的感受
3.我认为每次与顾客打交道时就像在演戏
4.我尝试去体验在工作中必须表现的情绪，而不仅是在外在表现出来
5.我努力去感受在工作中我应该向顾客表达的情绪
6.我努力使自己展示给顾客的感情是发自内心的感情

浅层行为题项：1、2、3
深层行为题项：4、5、6

Items in English

The following questions relate to your feelings and experiences regarding work; please read the questions carefully and answer accordingly by marking “√” in the appropriate option.
1. Making customers feel good is part of my job.
2. In the workplace, I do not need to express positive emotions towards customers as part of my job.
3. The bank considers friendly and pleasant service to be part of the product I offer to customers.
4. The bank hopes I can enthusiastically engage in conversations with customers.
5. The bank expects me to hide my negative emotions while working.
6. The bank expects me to conceal my anger and dissatisfaction when interacting with customers.
7. The bank hopes I will hide my unhappiness while working.

Items related to expressing positive emotional display rules: 1, 2, 3, 4
Items related to suppressing negative emotional display rules: 5, 6, 7

Emotional Labor Scale: The purpose of the following questions is to understand your views and feelings about your job. Please mark “√” on the corresponding answer based on your actual feelings in your work.
1. When facing customers, I merely pretend to express the emotions required by the work (even if I don’t feel that way inside).
2. I will display the emotions needed at work but will not change how I currently feel internally.
3. I feel like I am acting every time I interact with customers.
4. I try to genuinely experience the emotions I need to express at work, not just show them outwardly.
5. I strive to feel the emotions I should express to customers in my work.
6. I work hard to ensure the emotions I display to customers come from a genuine place.

Items for shallow acting: 1, 2, 3
Items for deep acting: 4, 5, 6

References

刘朝. 情绪表现规则和情绪劳动对消极工作行为影响跨层次研究[D].湖南大学,2013.