THE ROLE OF CALLING IN EMOTIONAL LABOR Jennifer Ellen Yugo A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2009 Committee: Jennifer Z. Gillespie, Advisor Jeanne A. Novak Graduate Faculty Representative Milton D. Hakel Mary L. Hare Scott E. Highhouse ii ABSTRACT Jennifer Z. Gillespie, Advisor With the increasing emphasis on customer service in business and industry, understanding how employees respond to emotional demands and manage emotions during interactions with customers is critical for organizational performance. Managing emotions for a wage can encompass several strategies, including: surface acting, deep acting and the expression of genuine felt emotions. Research on the meaning of work has also received increased attention recently. In complying with emotional demands inherent in an occupation, the degree a person perceives the job as meaningful, and has a calling orientation, may increase emotional labor, particularly deep acting and genuine felt emotions. The present study examined if having a calling orientation for work, or perceiving work as significant and rewarding, strengthened the relationship between customer emotional demands and emotional labor. Using two measures of customer emotional demands (O*NET database index and self-report), the present study found that emotional demands were positively related to self-reported emotional labor strategies. In addition, the calling orientation significantly moderated the relationship between non-self report and self-report emotional demands, and emotional labor strategies. People high in calling engaged in more deep acting and genuine felt emotion across emotional demands relative to people low in calling. Finally, the interaction between calling and emotional demands significantly predicted global job satisfaction, and in separate regression equations, was mediated by surface acting, deep acting and genuine felt emotions. iii This dissertation is dedicated with greatest gratitude to Joanne and Mike Yugo for their constant caring, support and encouragement and parenting for the past 28 years. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful to my advisor, Dr. Jennifer Gillespie, for her tireless support and guidance throughout this project and my graduate career. I would also like to thank my committee members, Drs. Milt Hakel, Scott Highhouse, Mary Hare and Jeanne Novak. Their insightful suggestions and ideas were critical in the design, execution and communication of this project. Most importantly, I am grateful to my mother, Joanne and my father, Mike for always believing in me. Lastly, graduate school was often a lonely and friendless journey, and I am grateful to Leisha Colyn for friendship and fun. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION…………… ............................................................................................... 1 Emotional Labor ........................................................................................................ 4 Meaning ........................................................................................................... 9 The Current Study ...................................................................................................... 13 METHOD………………………………………………………………………………………….. 18 Participants ............................................................................................................ 18 Procedure ............................................................................................................ 19 Measures .......................................................................................................... 19 Analytic Strategy ........................................................................................................ 22 RESULTS………………………………………………………………………………………….. 24 Descriptive Statistics and Inter-correlations .............................................................. 24 Moderation……………............................................................................................... 25 Hypotheses 5a-5d: Moderated Mediation .................................................................. 27 Post-hoc analysis of occupations ............................................................................... 29 DISCUSSION …………… ..................................................................................................... 30 Findings…………… ................................................................................................... 30 Implications…………… ............................................................................................. 33 Limitations…………… ............................................................................................... 35 vi Directions for Future Research…………… ................................................................ 36 Conclusions…………… ............................................................................................. 38 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 40 vii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 Items in Glomb et al. (2004), equation of emotional demands and indices for example occupations ................................................................................................................ 50 2 Original and revised work orientation measure with new pilot items ....................... 51 3 Measures of emotional labor strategies...................................................................... 52 4 Variable means, standard deviations and alpha internal consistency reliability ........ 53 5 Variable inter-correlations ......................................................................................... 54 6 Hierarchical moderated regression testing calling as a moderator between O*NET emotional demands and surface acting, deep acting and genuine felt emotions ................ 55 7 Hierarchical moderated regression testing calling as a moderator between self-report emotional demands and surface acting, deep acting and genuine felt emotions ................ 56 8 Moderated mediation analysis for surface acting partially mediating the interaction of calling orientation and O*NET emotional demands on job satisfaction ............................ 57 9 Moderated mediation analysis for deep acting partially mediating the interaction of calling orientation and O*NET emotional demands on job satisfaction ............................ 58 10 Moderated mediation analysis for genuine felt emotion partially mediating the interaction of calling orientation and O*NET emotional demands on job satisfaction ........................ 59 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1 Model of hypothesized relationships ......................................................................... 60 2 Calling as a moderator between O*NET emotional demands and surface acting ..... 61 3 Calling as a moderator between self-report emotional demands and surface acting . 62 4 Calling as a moderator between O*NET emotional demands and deep acting ......... 63 5 Calling as a moderator between self-report emotional demands and deep acting ..... 64 6 Calling as a moderator between O*NET emotional demands and genuine felt emotions ………………………………………………………………………………………. 65 7 Calling as a moderator between self-report emotional demands and genuine felt emotions ………………………………………………………………………………………….66 Calling Orientation 1 INTRODUCTION One of the most noticeable trends in the workplace over the last few decades has been the increased emphasis on service. Many organizations’ recruitment, training and policies reflect a strong customer service emphasis. One of the main reasons behind this trend is that “when competition in price is out, competition in service is in” (Hochschild, 1983; p. 92). In order to thrive in an increasingly competitive world, organizations in all industries (e.g., government, education) are striving to improve service interactions with customers. The customer role has also taken on a broader scope to include any person who benefits from a worker’s job tasks. These beneficiaries range from traditional customers buying a product or service, the public in the case of government and public safety workers, and students for educators (Grant, Campbell, Chen, Cottone, Lapedis & Lee, 2007). The increased emphasis on customer interactions has contributed to the exploration of emotional labor; a construct first defined by Hochschild (1983, 1990) as the management of emotion for a wage. Workers in a variety of professions encounter emotional demands that require the expression of specific emotions (Glomb, Kammeyer-Mueller & Rotundo 2004). For example, police officers have to express stern, negative emotions when enforcing the law, and customer service providers need to express compassion when interacting with disgruntled customers. The emotional demands present in a job can vary, affecting the nature and strength of emotional labor. Grandey (2000) constructed a framework suggesting the situational cues that require emotional labor. Although this framework does not refer specifically to occupational characteristics, interaction expectations, and emotional events may be similar within an occupation. Occupational characteristics such as the frequency of positive and negative Calling Orientation 2 emotional events and the expectations for interactions with customers, determine what is emotionally demanding about an occupation and the