On the costs and benefits of emotional labor: A meta-analysis of three decades of research.
verifiedrich profile · Journal of Occupational Health Psychology · 2011
Hülsheger, Ute R.; Schewe, Anna F.
How this was studied
A meta-analytic synthesis — it pools many primary studies rather than running a single design, so there is no single-study diagram.
What this article reports
The findings we extracted from this work, normalized into Principia’s relationship form (X → Y). Each feeds the synthesized models below.
emotional labor → job satisfaction
emotional labor → burnout
emotional labor → job satisfaction
Models this article informs
The meta-analytic priors this article contributes evidence to — its place in the broader synthesis.
In the authors’ words
The article’s own abstract.
This article provides a quantitative review of the link of emotional labor (emotion-rule dissonance, surface acting, and deep acting) with well-being and performance outcomes. The meta-analysis is based on 494 individual correlations drawn from a final sample of 95 independent studies. Results revealed substantial relationships of emotion-rule dissonance and surface acting with indicators of impaired well-being (ρs between .39 and .48) and job attitudes (ρs between -.24 and -.40) and a small negative relationship with performance outcomes (ρs between -.20 and -.05). Overall, deep acting displayed weak relationships with indicators of impaired well-being and job attitudes but positive relationships with emotional performance and customer satisfaction (ρs .18 and .37). A meta-analytic regression analysis provides information on the unique contribution of emotion-rule dissonance, surface acting, and deep acting in statistically predicting well-being and performance outcomes. Furthermore, a mediation analysis confirms theoretical models of emotional labor which suggest that surface acting partially mediates the relationship of emotion-rule dissonance with well-being. Implications for future research as well as pragmatic ramifications for organizational practices are discussed in conclusion.
What the literature says about it
Attributed, open-access quotes from other works that cite this article, plus the citation-graph verdict tally. Corroborations and disputes, in one place — the honest-broker view.
supports “Meta-analysis shows that surface acting impairs well-being, job satisfaction and performance, but deep acting enhances emotional performance and customer satisfaction (Hülsheger & Schewe, 2011).”
supports “…research examining the outcomes of emotional labor strategies indicates that relative to deep acting, surface acting is associated with more negative physical symptoms, job burnout, job dissatisfaction, poor emotional performance, and customer dissatisfaction (Hülsheger & Schewe, 2011).”
supports “These workers may be at greater risk of emotional exhaustion and burnout, since the need to regulate emotions may even amplify the negative emotions that they experience at work.(10,19) In fact,”
supports “Both forms have been positively related to depersonalization or emotional exhaustion [3], and have negatively influenced job satisfaction [4].”
supports “…research examining the outcomes of emotional labor strategies indicates that relative to deep acting, surface acting is associated with more negative physical symptoms, job burnout, job dissatisfaction, poor emotional performance, and customer dissatisfaction (Hülsheger & Schewe, 2011).”
supports “…effective ER strategies can help individuals experience positive emotions and well-being (Côté et al., 2008), whereas ineffective ER strategies can lead to emotional exhaustion (Brotheridge & Grandey, 2002), reduced job satisfaction and decreased service performance (Hülsheger & Schewe, 2011).”
supports “For example, measuring surface acting, which is a reliable predictor of burnout (Hülsheger & Schewe, 2011), may assist organizations to identify the need to implement empirically-supported buffers for the emotional labor-burnout relationship.”
Ancillary research
Neighbouring works in the citation graph around this article.
- 10.1080/09585192.2023.2211710
- 10.1080/00223980.2024.2383937
- 10.1111/nuf.12787
- 10.1177/03080226241233185
- 10.1186/s40359-024-01545-8
Assembled from Principia’s registry — bibliographic record, extracted effect sizes, the models they inform, and open-access citing literature.