Emotional Labor

Emotional labor is the process by which individuals regulate their own emotions to display organizationally expected emotions through observable facial expressions and bodily behaviors, as required by their job. This concept indicates that workers are not only expected to use their physical or mental abilities but also to deploy their emotions as part of their work.

The concept was first introduced by sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild in her 1983 book The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. According to Hochschild, emotional labor involves the management of emotions in exchange for wages and within rules established by the organization. This phenomenon has become a significant component of work life, particularly with the growth of the service sector and the increasing importance of customer orientation.

Core Dimensions and Forms

In the literature, emotional labor is primarily explained through three behavioral forms.

Surface Acting

This refers to employees displaying behaviors such as facial expressions, gestures, or tone of voice without altering their actual feelings. In this form, an emotion that is not felt may be displayed, or a felt emotion may be concealed. Employees engaging in surface acting behave in accordance with organizational expectations without reflecting their true feelings. This can lead to a discrepancy between their genuine emotions and their displayed behaviors, known as emotional dissonance.

Deep Acting

This involves employees making active efforts to genuinely feel the emotions expected by the organization. In this process, employees, much like actors adopting a role, use their thoughts and memories to internally generate the desired emotion. Deep acting focuses on internal emotional states rather than outward behaviors and requires greater effort.

Genuine Emotion

This dimension, added by Ashforth and Humphrey to Hochschild’s framework, describes the situation in which employees naturally and authentically feel the emotions expected of them, without any deliberate effort. In this case, the employee’s true feelings align with organizational expectations.

Conceptual Approaches and Related Phenomena

The concept of emotional labor has been developed by various researchers. Hochschild (1983) defines the process as a “performance,” where the workplace is the stage, employees are the actors, and customers are the audience. Ashforth and Humphrey (1993), focusing on the behavior itself, describe emotional labor as “the display of appropriate emotions” and emphasize that employees serve as the organization’s public face. Morris and Feldman (1996) define it as “the effort, planning, and control needed to express organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal interactions.”

Emotional labor is often discussed alongside related concepts:

• Affective Labor: A concept introduced by autonomist Marxists Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri within the context of “immaterial labor.” While emotional labor is typically defined within the boundaries of a specific job and working hours, affective labor extends the commodification of emotions beyond the workplace, framing it as a process that encompasses all aspects of life.

• Aesthetic Labor: The shaping of employees’ bodies and appearances according to aesthetic norms established by the organization for its benefit. This concept includes not only physical appearance but also the expectation that employees display emotions such as friendliness, and it often overlaps with emotional labor.

• Display Rules: Standards and norms set by organizations regarding which emotions employees should express, when, and how. These rules may require the expression of positive emotions or the suppression of negative ones.

Influencing Factors and Outcomes

The process of emotional labor is influenced by both individual and organizational factors. Individual characteristics such as gender, age, work experience, and emotional intelligence, as well as organizational factors such as job autonomy and support from supervisors and coworkers, play a role in shaping emotional labor behaviors. Research indicates that women are disproportionately represented in jobs in the service sector that require emotional labor.

Emotional labor has various outcomes at both individual and organizational levels:

• Individual Outcomes: Inconsistency between employees’ true feelings and their displayed emotions—known as emotional dissonance—can lead to negative outcomes such as stress, emotional exhaustion, job dissatisfaction, and alienation. Surface acting is particularly associated with these adverse effects. On the other hand, some research suggests that deep acting may lead to positive outcomes such as increased feelings of personal accomplishment and job satisfaction.

• Organizational Outcomes: Successfully performed emotional labor can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, thereby positively contributing to organizational efficiency and image. However, if the emotions displayed by employees are perceived by customers as insincere, or if the negative individual outcomes of emotional labor impair job performance, this can also result in adverse consequences for the organization.