The impact of emotional labor in a retail environment

Journal of Business Research 66 (2013) 670–677

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Journal of Business Research

The impact of emotional labor in a retail environment Yoon-Na Cho a,⁎, Brian N. Rutherford b, 1, JungKun Park c, 2 a b c

Department of Marketing, Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas, Business Building 302, Fayetteville, AR 72701, United States Department of Marketing and Professional Sales, Coles College of Business, Kennesaw State University, 1000 Chastain Road, BB 255, Kennesaw, GA 30144, United States Department of Retailing and Consumer Sciences, University of Houston, 110 Cameron Building Room 219, Houston, TX 77004, United States

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 1 December 2010 Accepted 1 March 2012 Available online 15 May 2012 Keywords: Emotional exhaustion Emotional labor Job satisfaction Organizational commitment

a b s t r a c t It is essential for organizations to understand and manage salespeople's emotions. By monitoring the effects of emotions on the job, management can promote and enhance its sales force. However, the literature on salespersons' emotions has been largely overlooked. This paper establishes an integrative emotional labor process model to better understand the emotional component of the sales force in a retail context. Specifically, the paper examines the impact of emotional labor and emotional exhaustion in relation to job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Findings suggest that emotional labor predicts both job satisfaction and organizational commitment, while emotional exhaustion only predicts job satisfaction. Published by Elsevier Inc.

1. Introduction Keeping employees satisfied and committed to the organization is a major challenge for retailers. Literature shows that both employee satisfaction and commitment increase performance (e.g., Dabholkar & Abston, 2008; Paulin, Ferguson, & Bergeron, 2006) and decrease employee turnover intentions (e.g., Pettijohn, Pettijohn, & Taylor, 2007). However, the retail industry is faced with above average turnover rates (U.S. Department of Labor, 2010) and increasing training and administrative costs, which hinder firms from achieving optimal employee performance (Trevor & Nyberg, 2008). While research examines methods to increase employee satisfaction and commitment (Vandenberghe et al., 2007), a stream of research examining the impact of emotion is developing (Ashkanasy, Hartel, & Daus, 2002). The role of emotions in service encounters, however, is still underdeveloped despite the emerging literature (Hennig-Thurau, Groth, Paul, & Gremler, 2006). Given the limited research in the area, organizational behavior scholars call for a broader integrative view of emotions in the workplace (Bono, Foldes, Vinson, & Muros, 2007). The research stream that addresses the role of emotions in service encounters involves emotional labor (e.g., Hennig-Thurau et al., 2006) and emotional exhaustion (e.g., Boles, Johnston, & Hair, 1997; Hamwi, Rutherford, & Boles, 2011; Jaramillo, Mulki, & Solomon,

⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Marketing, Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, United States. Tel.: + 1 479 575 6837. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (Y.-N. Cho), [email protected] (B.N. Rutherford), [email protected] (J. Park). 1 Tel.: + 1 770 794 7708. 2 Tel.: + 1 713 743 5313. 0148-2963/$ – see front matter. Published by Elsevier Inc. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2012.04.001

2006). Emotional labor is the act of expressing organizationally desired emotions during service transactions (Morris & Feldman, 1996) and appears in studies of salespeople in a range of different workplace settings (e.g., Varca, 2009). Emotional labor is important in services because front-line employees engage in emotional work as part of their jobs, including greeting customers with a positive attitude. If employees express positive emotions when interacting with customers, the customers are likely to perceive these emotions. Hence, for the benefits of both employees and customers, employees should be able to successfully manage emotions, not inhibiting their emotions nor expressing insincere emotions. However, consensus among researchers has not been reached on either the theoretical or methodological grounds of emotional labor in regard to its construct definition (Glomb & Tews, 2004). To further compound the issue, the amount of empirical research on emotional labor in the workplace remains limited (Schaubroeck & Jones, 2000). As a state of depletion and fatigue, emotional exhaustion is the primary component of burnout (e.g., Halbesleben & Bowler, 2007). The outcomes of emotional exhaustion can be particularly detrimental in the service industry because employees engage in a high level of interaction with customers, making them more prone to emotional exhaustion (Cordes & Dougherty, 1993). Presently, little consensus on the findings related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment exists (Babakus, Cravens, & Johnston, 1999; Rutherford, Boles, Hamwi, Madupalli, & Rutherford, 2009). The purpose of this study is to develop a better understanding of the impact of emotions (emotional labor and emotional exhaustion) on employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment within an Eastern culture. To accomplish the purpose of this study, affective events theory and emotion regulation theory are used as the theoretical foundation. This study also takes place in South Korea, using a

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sample of retail sales employees to further develop the understanding of the emotional labor process model within the Eastern culture. Fig. 1 provides a graphical view of the examined model. 2. Model overview The model examines how the emotional process influences employees' job related outcomes (job satisfaction and organizational commitment). The bulk of research on emotional labor examines its negative outcomes in relation to employee well-being (e. g. Morris & Feldman, 1996). This paper, however, argues that processing and regulating of emotions may produce psychological empowerment and improve morale among employees from which the additional job related outcomes stem. Unlike previous studies that examine emotional labor and emotional exhaustion in a separate, independent model, this paper examines the constructs within the same model. 3. Theoretical overview 3.1. Affective events theory From a macro-level perspective that incorporates an emotional labor process of both individuals and firms, affective events theory captures the overall flow of the proposed model. Affective events theory is relevant in studies which examine emotions in organizations (e.g., Cole, Walter, & Bruch, 2008; Walter & Bruch, 2009). According to the theory, the nature of the job and the requirements for emotional labor affect behavior and work attitudes (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). As a combination of daily hassles and uplifts that employees experience on the job, work events lead to positive and negative emotions that may lead to work attitudes, such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment (Ashkanasy et al., 2002). 3.2. Emotion regulation theory Emotion regulation theory (Gross, 1998) is a micro-level theory in that individuals, rather than the firms engage in two different types of strategy to regulate emotions. Antecedent-focused emotion

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regulation is manipulating the input whereas response-focused emotion regulation manipulates output. For example, antecedent-focused strategies may be avoiding, altering, or reevaluating “certain people or situations on the basis of their likely emotional impact” (Gross, 1998: p. 225). Emotional labor seems to fit this description well. Response-focused strategies also deal with ongoing emotional experience, but emphasize more on the physiological responses. Hence, emotional exhaustion may be an appropriate construct for the response-focused strategy. In the proposed model, emotional labor and emotional exhaustion are antecedents, capturing both types of emotional regulation strategies.

4. Construct overview 4.1. Emotional labor Emotional labor refers to situations wherein employees, especially those in client contact service occupations, are required to display emotions that may differ from the emotions they actually feel (Hochschild, 1979). Emotional labor is the “effort, planning, and control needed to express organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions” (Morris & Feldman, 1996: p. 987). The concept of emotional labor has particular relevance to service encounters because the behavior of employees strongly affects customers' perceptions of product quality (Bowen, Siehl, & Schneider, 1989). Emotional labor involves both surface and deep acting (Hochschild, 1983). Surface acting occurs when employees display an emotion that could involve both “suppression of felt emotions and faking of unfelt emotions” (Morris & Feldman, 1996: p. 987). Employees may pretend to be friendly and helpful to angry or upset customers. In contrast, employees create expected or required emotions within themselves in deep acting (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2006). For example, flight attendants may approach and deal with angry passengers in a sympathetic and understanding way (e.g., Hochschild, 1983). While deep acting attempts to modify internal feelings to be consistent with display rules, surface acting modifies outward displays to be consistent with display rules (Glomb & Tews, 2004).

Emotional labor

H3 H1

Affective organizational commitment

Job satisfaction

Age

H2 H4 Emotional Exhaustion

Fig. 1. Conceptual model: integrative model of emotional labor process.Notes: dashed lines indicate controlled linkages.

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4.2. Emotional exhaustion Emotional exhaustion is a “state caused by psychological and emotional demands made on people” (Bacharach, Bamberger, & Conley, 1991). Emotional exhaustion is also known as the core component of job burnout (Boles et al., 1997) and is conceptualized as a type of strain that results from workplace stressors (Cropanzano, Rupp, & Byrne, 2003). Emotional exhaustion often occurs in the service industries because employees face ongoing hassles and excessive customer demands, leading to both physical and emotional depletion (Wright & Cropanzano, 1998). Understanding how emotional exhaustion affects emotional display is important because expression of emotions can influence customers' perceptions of service quality, satisfaction, and loyalty (Tsai & Huang, 2002). 4.3. Job satisfaction Job satisfaction is a set of evaluative feelings that employees have toward their work situation (Skinner, Dubinsky, & Donnelly, 1984). Churchill, Ford, and Walker (1974: p. 255) defines job satisfaction as “all characteristics of the job itself and the work environment which salesmen find rewarding, fulfilling, and satisfying, or frustrating and unsatisfying.” As the well-established operationalization of workplace happiness (Wright, 2005), job satisfaction can result from meeting employees' needs, such as emotional fulfillment. 4.4. Affective organizational commitment According to Gruen, Summers, and Acito (2000), affective organizational commitment is the degree to which the membership is psychologically bonded to the organization on the basis of how favorable a person feels about the organization. Porter, Steers, Mowday, and Boulian (1974: p. 604) defines organizational commitment as “the relative strength of an individual's identification with and involvement in a particular organization.” In essence, organizational commitment reflects a sense of shared values, identity, and pride in an organization (Sverke & Sjöberg, 1994). 5. Hypothesis development 5.1. Hypothesized linkages Although researchers are examining consequences of emotional labor (e.g., Glomb & Tews, 2004; Varca, 2009), findings are inconsistent, particularly between emotional labor and job satisfaction. Adelmann (1989) finds conflicting results in two studies. The results of the first study indicate that employees who engage in high amounts of emotional labor report lower levels of job satisfaction. A similar pattern of results in which emotional labor undermines job satisfaction appears within the literature (e.g., Glomb & Tews, 2004; Zapf & Holz, 2006). In the second study, however, Adelmann (1989) shows that emotional labor is not significantly related to job satisfaction. The mixed findings between the first and second study may be partly due to the nature of jobs. The first study includes a job requiring high amounts of emotional labor, whereas the second study examines a job calling for low amounts of emotional labor. However, according to emotion regulation theory, emotional labor is a strategy to manage emotions at the job to successfully complete a transaction. Accordingly, positive consequences of emotional labor are found in studies that examine front-line, interactive service employees or jobs that involve a high level of interaction with customers (e.g., Pugliesi, 1999). Further, Wharton (1993) reveals that performance of emotional labor is positively related to job satisfaction in a study of banking and hospital industries. When emotional labor involves management of others' emotions, the results from qualitative studies suggest that a positive relationship results (e.g., Pugliesi,

1999). This is because the experience is considered self-enhancing and empowering (Leidner, 1993). Given that the focus of the current study is front-line service employees and considering that emotional labor is an emotion regulation strategy, the prediction of hypothesis H1 is a positive relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction. H1. As the level of emotional labor increases, the level of job satisfaction will increase. In a similar vein with emotional labor, emotional exhaustion is a physiological response in regulating emotions at work. Babakus et al. (1999) and Jaramillo et al. (2006) find a significant negative relationship between emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction in both an international service organization and in financial institutions. In both studies, emotional exhaustion is a predictor of job satisfaction. H2. As the level of emotional exhaustion increases, the level of job satisfaction will decrease. To date, no study examines the direct linkage between emotional labor and affective organizational commitment. Bolton and Boyd's (2003) study, however, provides the basis for testing the linkage by considering the relationship that may exist between emotional labor and commitment. In their study, airline cabin crews' commitment to their colleagues is found when crews do not “call in sick” for a flight even when they are ill because they do not want their colleagues to be called for standby duty (Bolton & Boyd, 2003). Here, the emotional labor component is tapped as crews are debating whether to make a call to colleagues. A linkage between emotional labor and an employee's commitment to the organizational seems logical given that affective events theory provides a foundation for emotional labor affecting behavior and work attitudes (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). Based on this theoretical rationale, the next hypothesis is: H3. As the level of emotional labor increases, the level of affective organizational commitment will increase. A linkage between emotional exhaustion and affective organizational commitment is established within the literature (e.g. Lee & Ashforth, 1996; Rutherford et al., 2009). Lee and Ashforth (1996) report a correlation of −.43 between emotional exhaustion and commitment in their meta-analysis. The samples in all of these studies are from the Western culture, hence the linkage between emotional exhaustion and commitment in the Eastern culture remains unclear. For example, Tan and Akhtar (1998) finds that emotional exhaustion has a non-significant negative correlation with affective commitment using employees in Hong Kong. In the study, the applicability of affective commitment measures (e.g., Allen & Meyer, 1990) across cultures is questioned. Given that the emotional exhaustioncommitment linkage is mostly conducted in a Western context, the linkage in an Eastern context requires further investigation. In line with affective events theory, emotional exhaustion can be a response-focused strategy used to respond to various work events. The following hypothesis is generated for exploratory purposes and parallels the findings from Western cultures. H4. As the level of emotional exhaustion increases, the level of affective organizational commitment will decrease. 5.2. Controlled linkages Given that the relationship between job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment is well established in the literature, this study does not form a hypothesis to test it. Instead, this study assumes that the relationship exists and controls for the linkage. According to Brown and Peterson (1993), satisfaction towards the

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job is directly related to organizational commitment. The positive relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment is supported in the literature (e.g., Singh, Verbeke, & Rhoads, 1996). Kirkman and Shapiro (2001) suggest that a tendency in which higher levels of collectivism are associated with greater job satisfaction and organizational commitment exists. A second control variable examined is age. In support of Carstensen's socioemotional selectivity theory (1995), older individuals, through years of work experience, learn what kinds of work events influence their positive and negative emotions. In addition, older individuals have a better understanding of their emotions and become more capable of controlling their emotions. Hence, the effect of age on key antecedents, emotional labor and emotional exhaustion, is controlled for within the model. 6. Methodology 6.1. The sample The sample consists of retail sales employees in South Korea. Sales employees from the five highest sales volume department stores in a major metropolitan area were invited to participate in the study. One hundred questionnaires were distributed in each of the five stores. The questionnaires were given to frontline retail sales employees who had direct contact with customers on a daily basis. A total of 221 questionnaires were returned by mail. Of the returned questionnaires, 213 usable questionnaires were obtained after listwise deletion for a usable response rate of 42.6%. The respondents' average age is 29.5 years old, with a range between 17 and 52. About 80% of the respondents are females. Approximately 49% of respondents have a high school education and the rest of the respondents have at least some level of higher education. 6.2. Scale development The English-based scales were translated into Korean to develop the questionnaire. The questionnaire was translated into Korean by two multilingual interpreters, followed by validation from two faculty members. The translated version of the survey was back-translated into English, again by two multilingual interpreters, improving the consistency between the two languages and the quality of the final version. Scale items in this study are measured on seven-point Likert-type scales. The emotional labor scale comes from Kruml and Geddes (2000) in which service employees from both public and private as well as profit and nonprofit organizations are surveyed (α = .66 and .68). Additionally, the emotional exhaustion scale is based on Maslach and Jackson (1981, α = .89 and .86) in which the sample consisted of individuals from a variety of health and service occupations. Brown and Peterson (1994, α = .86), and Brashear, Boles, Bellenger, and Brooks (2003, α = .90) are used for the job satisfaction scale. Brown and Peterson (1994) use direct salespeople working for a company that sells durable goods whereas Brashear et al. (2003) uses business-to-business salespeople. Finally, Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979, α = .88) surveys employees from a wide variety of jobs in nine different organizations (i.e., hospital, bank, telephone company, etc.) to measure affective organizational commitment. The age variable is respondents' current age. This variable is mean centered.

Following the CFA, this paper examines convergent validity, discriminate validity, and average variance extracted. The final analysis is the assessment of structural model. 7. The results 7.1. Data assessment Prior to conducting the CFA, underlying assumptions of structural equation modeling (SEM) are examined. The skewness and kurtosis values for the observed data do not exceed 0.78 and 0.74, respectively. The values for summated scales also meet normality assumptions with the skewness and kurtosis values not exceeding 0.52 and 1.14, respectively. Hence, meeting the guidelines set by West, Finch, and Curran (1995). For multicollinearity, the values for the summated scales do not exceed 0.63, meeting the threshold of 0.80 (LewisBeck, 1980). Lastly, the data is examined for outliers and missing values. The data does not contain any extreme outliers and listwise deletion is used to treat missing values. The statistics of data and scales are found in Table 1.

7.2. The measurement model results The initial model contained a total of four latent variables with 30 predictor variables. The process of model respecification deleted items with values lower than 0.4 in squared multiple correlations. Further, the model was refined using factor loadings and modification indices to derive at the final model. The final model yields factor loadings ranging from 0.57 to 0.88, meeting the threshold value of 0.50 (Hair, Black, Babin, & Anderson, 2010). The results of the CFA are in Table 2. A series of reliability and validity analyses confirms the adequacy of the measurement model. The Cronbach's alphas range from 0.76 to 0.93, suggesting strong internal consistency reliability of items. The composite reliability range from 0.77 to 0.94, meeting the 0.70 threshold recommended by Hair et al. (2010). The fit indices indicate adequate model fit (χ 2 = 194.99, df = 129, SRMR = 0.05, CFI = 0.97, and RMSEA = 0.05).

7.3. The structural model results Prior to evaluating the path coefficient of the structural model, a set of fit indices are examined. The fit indices are similar to those of CFA, suggesting good model fit (χ 2 = 241.64, df = 159, SRMR = 0.05, CFI = 0.96, and RMSEA = 0.05). H1, H2, and H3 are all supported. Emotional labor is positively associated with job satisfaction

Table 1 Statistics for the summated scales. (X1) Emotional labor (X1) Job satisfaction (X2) Emotional exhaustion (X3) Affective organizational commitment (X4) Age (X5)c a

6.3. Analytic approach The analysis is conducted following the two-step SEM procedure, using maximum likelihood estimation in AMOS 16 (Arbuckle and Wothke, 1999). First, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is performed to evaluate if items loaded onto their respective constructs.

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(X2)

(X3)

0.82a .26⁎⁎ .11

0.89 −.33⁎⁎

.44⁎⁎

.63⁎⁎

−.26⁎⁎

.21⁎⁎

.21⁎⁎

.01

(X4)

(X5)

0.76 0.93 .22⁎⁎

–

Mean

SD

5.0b 4.9 4.0

1.0 1.3 1.3

4.7

1.2

29.5

6.2

Reliabilities for each measure are on the diagonal. The intercorrelations among the measures are below the diagonal. b The value of the means are summated and then divided by the number of items used. This provides a value range between 1 and 7. c Age is mean centered within the correlation table. However, a non-mean centered value is provided within the construct means column. ⁎⁎ p b 0.01. ⁎ p b 0.05.

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Table 2 Measurement model. Item description

Factor loadings

Unstandardized coefficients

Beta

S.E.

Composite reliability

AVE

0.83

0.62

0.89

0.67

0.77

0.46

0.94

0.65

Emotional labor 1. I work at conjuring up the feelings I need to show to customers. 2. I try to change my actual feelings to match those that I must express to customers. 3. When working with customers, I attempt to create certain emotions in myself that present the image my company desires. Job satisfaction 1. My job is very pleasant. 2. My job is very worthwhile. 3. My job is better than most. 4. I am very content with my job. Emotional exhaustiona 1. Item 2 2. Item 3 3. Item 5 4. Item 9 Affective organizational commitment 1. In my job, I am willing to put a great deal of effort beyond that expected in order to help this organization to be successful. 2. I talk up my organization to my friends as a great organization to work for. 3. I would accept almost any type of job assignment in order to keep working for this organization. 4. I find my values and the organization's values are very similar. 5. I am proud to tell others that I am part of this organization. 6. I feel this organization really inspires the very best in me in the way of job performance. 7. I am extremely glad that I chose this organization to work for over others I was considering at the time I joined.

0.80 0.80 0.75

0.97 0.98 –

0.09 0.09 –

0.85 0.80 0.75 0.88

0.96 0.85 0.85 –

0.61 0.06 0.07 –

0.73 0.64 0.75 0.57

– 0.86 0.90 0.81

– 0.11 0.10 0.12

0.75 0.84 0.85 0.74 0.87 0.81 0.77

0.83 0.99 0.91 0.84 – 0.89 0.88

0.06 0.06 0.06 0.07 – 0.06 0.06

Note: – indicate fixed values. a These items are copyrighted. Please see Maslach and Jackson (1981: p. 102) for items.

(β std = 0.37, β = 0.46, p b .001) and affective organizational commitment (β std = 0.35, β = 0.42, p b .001). Emotional exhaustion is negatively related to job satisfaction (β std = − 0.43, β = −0.47, p b .001), but not affective organizational commitment (β std = −0.13, β = −0.13, p = .064). Hence, H4 is not supported. Job satisfaction positively predicts affective organizational commitment (β std = 0.56, β = 0.54, p b .001). The effect of age is significant for emotional labor (β std = 0.25, β = 1.59, p b .001), but not emotional exhaustion (β std = − 0.05, β = −0.26, p = .55). The results of hypothesized paths are found in Fig. 2. 7.4. Discussion of the results In total, three of the four hypotheses are supported. Given that job satisfaction is predicted by both emotional labor and emotional exhaustion, the ability to explain variance in job satisfaction is high. The adjusted R 2 is .28. The adjusted R 2 for organizational commitment is also high at .61 considering that both emotional labor and job satisfaction are significant predictors. Additionally, given that age is a significant predictor of emotional labor, the adjusted R 2 for emotional labor is .04. In essence, the findings of this study highlight the importance of understanding emotional labor's impact on organizational employees. Further, this study highlights that while emotional exhaustion is important to understand, the direct impact of emotional exhaustion may be more limited than previous research has suggested. 7.5. Managerial implications Given that emotional labor is found to have a positive influence on both job satisfaction and organizational commitment, this finding suggests that sales employees generally perceive the interaction with customers as empowering and perhaps rewarding. As suggested in the literature (Pugliesi, 1999), employees' ability to evoke and regulate customers' emotions may operate as a core competence of employees. For firms looking to increase employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment, firms may decide to monitor the level of emotional labor on a regular basis to ensure that employees are

not over-burdened by demanding customers. This information can be useful for the employer to assign the most appropriate type of employees (junior vs. senior employees) to the job. The findings regarding age influencing emotional labor support the theory proposed by Carstensen (1995) in which individuals gain greater regulation over their emotions with age. The combination of age and experience may act as a catalyst by which individuals learn how to cope with negative emotions. Hence, management should strive to achieve an “affect balance” by allocating individuals to the most suitable work in hopes to minimize negative and maximize positive emotion (Mroczek & Kolarz, 1998). Given that emotional exhaustion is found to reduce employee's levels of job satisfaction, it is important for firms to put mechanisms in place to reduce emotional exhaustion. Firms can reduce emotional exhaustion by conducting a regular employee survey to track not only individual progress based on sales revenue, but also subjective and psychological well-being. Subjective well-being has focused on the affective (i.e., balance between positive and negative emotions) component in which employees are more likely to be content with their job if they do not feel emotionally drained from work, ultimately leading to lower turnover rates. The role of emotions at the workplace is particularly important in South Korea due to the country's above average suicide rates among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries (OECD, 2009). According to Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI), the suicide rate is closely linked with Korea having the highest stress levels and the lowest job satisfaction among developed countries (Baek, 2010). Baek also reports that employees try to suppress their emotions and problems rather than seek treatment. As the findings regarding emotional labor suggest, hiding emotions does not resolve emotional conflicts, but only worsen them. If management implements programs to tackle employees' stress and emotions, the employees can better understand and regulate their emotions. Based on the current research findings and current trend in rising concerns regarding employees' psychological well-being, management should strongly consider instituting policies and infrastructure. Some companies have already participated in such efforts. Google, for instance, provides a game room, a library, and an

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Emotional labor

675

H3 0.35 (5.47)

H1 0.37 (5.06)

0.25 (3.30)

0.56 (8.28)

Job satisfaction

Age

Affective organizational commitment

H2 -0.05 (-0.59)

-0.43 (-5.65)

H4 Emotional Exhaustion

-0.13 (-1.85)

Fig. 2. The results. Note: straight lines indicate statistically significant paths. Dashed line indicates non-significant paths. Standardized coefficients are shown. T-values are in parentheses.

aquarium where employees can rest and recharge. The eBay campus located in San Jose has relaxation areas for employees in need of serenity and meditation. The rooms are decorated with comfortable pillows and tatami floor mats (CNN Money, 2008). 7.6. Research implications This paper provides several important implications for researchers. First, this study finds that emotional labor and emotional exhaustion influence job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment differently. Looking at the linkages between emotional labor and emotional exhaustion in relation to job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion produces a stronger standardized coefficient than emotional labor. For researchers, this means work events will strongly influence and harm emotionally drained employees. The findings that age influences emotional labor, but not necessarily emotional exhaustion, suggest that the latter may be more difficult to regulate. Employees need to put effort into reducing work-related stress and improving overall quality of the work environment. When looking at organizational commitment, job satisfaction produces the highest standardized coefficient. Emotional labor also produces a significant linkage, but emotional exhaustion is not significantly related to organizational commitment. Given that the linkage between emotional labor and organizational commitment is a new inquiry, this study provides researchers with a strong foundation to continue research to better understand the impact of emotional labor on organizational commitment. The marginal non-significant relationship between emotional exhaustion and commitment needs to be interpreted with some caution. Perhaps the effect of emotional exhaustion varies considerably among individuals when their emotional regulation coping strategies (Zapf & Holz, 2006) or workplace distress differ significantly. Perhaps potential moderators, such as work experience, gender (e.g., Russ & McNeilly, 1995), and goal compatibility between employees and organization (e.g., Vandenberghe et al., 2007) need to be accounted for in the model. Another possible reasoning may be that in comparison to emotional labor, emotional exhaustion is more severe making it more difficult to tolerate for purely organizational reasons.

8. Limitations and directions for future research To the author's knowledge, this paper is the first to examine emotional labor and emotional exhaustion simultaneously in a model. Using additional samples to reassess the model and generalize findings may provide further validation for this model that is in a nascent stage of development. Specifically, examining samples from different countries and various occupations could enhance the findings more broadly. Specifically, the linkage between emotional exhaustion and affective organizational commitment is interesting in that the current findings are consistent with related literature examining collectivist cultures (e.g., Tan & Akhtar, 1998). Given that the relationship between emotional exhaustion and affective organizational commitment did not reach significance, perhaps individual differences (i.e., tenure) can better detect and explain the relationship between emotional exhaustion and affective organizational commitment. Further, additional testing of burnout in its entirety would be beneficial in that emotional exhaustion is one of the three dimensions of burnout (Maslach & Jackson, 1981). Future research could incorporate the sequencing of burnout (Lewin & Sager, 2007), in addition to emotional labor, in a model predicting job satisfaction and organizational commitment. By conducting this type of study, it would give a clear picture of the full impact of burnout on both job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Many avenues for future research emerge for the examination of emotional labor. In terms of various occupations, the extent to which employees feel overwhelmed emotionally may vary across types of jobs. A curvilinear effect in which the level of emotional labor becomes no longer significant or even stronger at a certain point of time may exist. Consequently, this could affect job-related outcomes (i.e., satisfaction). In addition, researchers may examine emotional labor as an antecedent-focused strategy to build on different aspects of emotional labor. Because previous studies define the construct with several underlying dimensions, future research could explore this issue further. Moreover, not only affective organizational commitment, but also commitment to coworkers seems to be important to examine in

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