Managing Emotional Labour in Hospitality: Examining the Moderating Role of Supervisor Support on Employee Performance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70670/sra.v4i1.2479Keywords:
Emotional Labour, Supervisor Support, Employee Performance, Conservation of Resources TheoryAbstract
Emotional labour has become a strategic human resource management (HRM) issue in the hospitality industry because frontline employees' ability to regulate emotions directly influences service quality and organizational performance. Despite extensive research, limited evidence exists regarding how different emotional labour strategies affect employee performance in emerging hospitality markets and whether supervisor support serves as a boundary condition. This study examines the effects of surface acting, deep acting, and genuine emotional expression on employee performance and investigates the moderating role of supervisor support among frontline employees in Pakistan's hospitality industry. Guided by Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory, a quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted among 250 frontline employees working in five-star hotels across major cities in Pakistan. Data were collected using validated measurement scales and analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics 22 and Hayes' PROCESS Macro (Model 1) to examine both direct and moderating effects. The results indicate that deep acting and genuine emotional expression positively influence employee performance. Contrary to the proposed hypothesis, surface acting also demonstrated a significant positive relationship with employee performance, suggesting that employees operating in highly standardized service environments may achieve favourable short-term performance despite the psychological costs associated with emotional suppression. Supervisor support significantly moderated the relationships between surface acting, deep acting, and employee performance but did not moderate the relationship between genuine emotional expression and employee performance. These findings suggest that supervisor support functions as a valuable organizational resource primarily when employees experience emotional resource depletion. This study extends Conservation of Resources Theory by demonstrating that emotional labour strategies differ in their resource implications and that the effectiveness of supervisor support depends on employees' emotional regulation strategy. By providing empirical evidence from Pakistan's hospitality industry, the study contributes to the limited literature on emotional labour in emerging economies and offers practical implications for developing supportive supervisory practices that enhance employee performance and promote sustainable HRM.
References
Abid Khan, Q. E. C., Sheraz, F., Khan, I. A., & Gogosh, M. M. (2021). The Impact of Personality Dimensions of Employees on the Job Performance. Ilkogretim Online, 20(5), 6086-6094.
Ashforth, B. E., & Humphrey, R. H. (1993). Emotional labor in service roles: The influence of identity. Academy of Management Review, 18(1), 88–115.
Behson, S. J. (2005). The relative contribution of work–family conflict and work–family culture to employee outcomes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 66(3), 487–500.
Brotheridge, C. M., & Grandey, A. A. (2002). Emotional labor and burnout: Comparing two perspectives of "people work." Journal of Vocational Behavior, 60(1), 17–39.
Brotheridge, C. M., & Lee, R. T. (2003). Development and validation of the Emotional Labour Scale. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 76(3), 365–379.
Chan, E. K., Li, S., Way, S. A., & Donohue, R. (2024). The intuitive and counterintuitive effects of supportive and abusive supervision on hotel employees. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 65(3), 304–320. https://doi.org/10.1177/19389655231209912
Chen, H., Green, Y., & Williams, K. (2023). Does perceived manager support reduce hotel supervisors' emotional exhaustion? The mediating role of control over time and negative emotions. International Hospitality Review, 37(1), 110–124.
Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98(2), 310–357.
Correia Leal, C., Ferreira, A. I., & Carvalho, H. (2023). Hide your sickness and put on a happy face: The effects of supervision distrust, surface acting, and sickness surface acting on hotel employees' emotional exhaustion. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 44(6), 871–887. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2676
Diefendorff, J. M., Croyle, M. H., & Gosserand, R. H. (2005). The dimensionality and antecedents of emotional labor strategies. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 66(2), 339–357.
Diefendorff, J. M., Erickson, R. J., Grandey, A. A., & Dahling, J. J. (2011). Emotional display rules as work unit norms: A multilevel analysis of emotional labor among nurses. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 16(2), 170–186.
Gabriel, A. S., Diefendorff, J. M., & Grandey, A. A. (2023). The acceleration of emotional labor research: Navigating the past and steering toward the future. Personnel Psychology, 76(2), 511–545. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12576
Gabriel, A. S., Diefendorff, J. M., & Grandey, A. A. (2023). The acceleration of emotional labor research: Navigating the past and steering toward the future. Personnel Psychology, 76(2), 511–545. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12576
Grandey, A. A. (2000). Emotion regulation in the workplace: A new way to conceptualize emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(1), 95–110. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.5.1.95
Grandey, A. A. (2003). When "the show must go on": Surface acting and deep acting as determinants of emotional exhaustion and peer-rated service delivery. Academy of Management Journal, 46(1), 86–96.
Grandey, A. A., & Gabriel, A. S. (2015). Emotional labor at a crossroads: Where do we go from here? Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 2, 323–349. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032414-111400
Grandey, A. A., & Melloy, R. C. (2017). The state of the heart: Emotional labor as emotion regulation reviewed and revised. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 407–422. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000067
Grandey, A. A., Diefendorff, J. M., & Rupp, D. E. (2013). Bringing emotional labor into focus: A review and integration of three research lenses. In A. A. Grandey, J. M. Diefendorff, & D. E. Rupp (Eds.), Emotional labor in the 21st century: Diverse perspectives on emotion regulation at work (pp. 3–27). Routledge.
Grandey, A. A., England, K. E., & Boemerman, L. (2020). Emotional labor: Display rules and emotion regulation at work. In The Cambridge handbook of workplace affect (pp. 146–159). Cambridge University Press.
Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44(3), 513–524.
Hobfoll, S. E. (2001). The influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress process: Advancing Conservation of Resources Theory. Applied Psychology, 50(3), 337–421.
Hobfoll, S. E., Halbesleben, J. R. B., Neveu, J.-P., & Westman, M. (2018). Conservation of resources in the organizational context: The reality of resources and their consequences. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 5, 103–128.
Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press.
Humphrey, R. H., Ashforth, B. E., & Diefendorff, J. M. (2015). The bright side of emotional labor. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(6), 749–769.
Kottke, J. L., & Sharafinski, C. E. (1988). Measuring perceived supervisory support. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 48(4), 1075–1079.
Lam, K. Y. W., & Chen, Z. (2012). When I put on my service mask: Determinants and outcomes of emotional labor among hotel service providers according to affective events theory. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31(1), 3–11.
Lam, R., & Cheung, C. (2024). Synthesizing cultural intelligence, emotional labor, and job satisfaction in the concept of a social cognitive model. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 60, 280–290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2024.08.001
Morris, J. A., & Feldman, D. C. (1996). The dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of emotional labor. Academy of Management Review, 21(4), 986–1010.
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J.-Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903.
Rhoades, L., & Eisenberger, R. (2002). Perceived organizational support: A review of the literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 698–714.
Schaufeli, W. B., Bakker, A. B., & Salanova, M. (2006). The measurement of work engagement with a short questionnaire: A cross-national study. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 66(4), 701–716.
Tsaur, S.-H., & Tang, W.-H. (2012). Job stress and well-being of female employees: The impact of emotional labor in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31(4), 1088–1094.
Ullah, R., Cavaliere, P. L., Hussain, B., Khan, A., & Gogosh, M. (2021). Does Human Resource Management Practices Increased Employees Performance?(An Analytical Study of Pakistan Telecom Corporation). Elementary Education Online, 20(3), 2259-2259.
Ullah, R., Khan, A., & Riaz, T. (2024). Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace: Strategies For Enhancing Employee Performance And Satisfaction. Social Science Review Archives, 2(2), 259-271.
Wong, J.-Y., & Wang, C.-H. (2009). Emotional labor of the tour leaders: An exploratory study. Tourism Management, 30(2), 249–259.
Wright, T. A., & Cropanzano, R. (2004). The role of psychological well-being in job performance: A fresh look at an age-old quest. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(2), 338–351.
Xiong, W., Wang, T., Okumus, B., & Cai, X. (2025). The effect of emotional labor strategies on hotel employees' mental health: A person-centered longitudinal study. International Journal of Tourism Research, 27(4), e70092. https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.70092
Xu, S. T., Yu, Y., & Li, G. (2023). Abusive supervision and emotional labor on a daily basis: The role of employee mindfulness. Tourism Management, 96, 104719.
