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Emotion work in service occupations

Employees in the service industry are confronted with particular job requirements, as they have to deal with customers, clients or patients when performing their tasks. Companies want this interaction to meet certain requirements, making it a "purchased" part of the service. Usually, employees need to express positive emotions to their customers, regardless of how they really feel.

TThe requirement to regulate one's emotions in order to express certain, organizationally desired emotions in gestures, facial expressions, and voice, regardless of one's true inner feelings, is referred to in the literature as emotion work, or emotional labour. In our works, we strive to find out in which circumstances emotion work is detrimental, causing employee ill-health. But at the same time, we want to find out in which cases emotion work corresponds to optimal service quality, so that emotion regulation is well worth the effort.

Current study:

Addressing customer discontent - Regulating emotions and mastering tasks: In this experiment, we delve into the effects of customer interactions on performance, as well as psychological and physiological health indicators. We invite you to register for participation in our study via the SONA Portal.

Related publications:

  • Kern, M., Trumpold, K., & Zapf, D. (2021). Emotion work as a source of employee well- and ill-being: The moderating role of service interaction type. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 30(6), 850-871. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2021.1873771
  • Johnson, S. J., Machowski, S., Holdsworth, L., Kern, M., & Zapf, D. (2017). Age, emotion regulation strategies, burnout, and engagement in the service sector: Advantages of older workers. Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 33(3), 205–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rpto.2017.09.001
  • Trumpold, K., Kern, M., & Zapf, D. (2021). Emotion regulation and service-related attitudes: Connecting customer orientation and service organization identification with customer interactions. Journal of Service Management Research, 5(4), 270–284. https://doi.org/10.15358/2511-8676-2021-4-270
  • Winkler, A. D., Zapf, D., & Kern, M. (2023). Effects of emotion-rule dissonance on emotional exhaustion and physiological health: A two-wave study. Applied Psychology: An International Review. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12489
  • Zapf, D., Kern, M., Tschan, F., Holman, D., & Semmer, N. K. (2021). Emotion work: A work psychology perspective. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 8, 139–172. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-012420-062451
  • Zapf, D., Kern, M., Tschan, F., Holman, D., & Semmer, N. K. (2024). Emotion work in organizations. In M. C. W. Peeters, J. De Jonge, T. W. Taris (Eds.). An introduction to contemporary work psychology (2nd ed., S. 170–189). Wiley.