Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-2014
Publication Title
Journal of Business and Psychology
Volume
29
Issue
1
First Page
21
Last Page
35
Abstract
Purpose In the global economy, the need for understanding cross-cultural differences and the customer service-related processes involved in emotional labor is evident. The current study attempts to examine this issue by developing and testing hypotheses pertaining to cross-cultural differences between U.S. and Chinese service workers on the levels of display rule perceptions, emotion regulation, and burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment, and depersonalization) as well as the relationships among these variables.
Design/Methodology/Approach Data was collected from service workers in the U.S. (n=280) and China (n=231). We tested for measurement differences, mean differences, and differences in the relationships among emotional labor variables between the two samples using a variety of analyses.
Findings It was found that the relatively robust sequence of display rules to surface acting to burnout was observed in a U.S. sample but was not observed in a Chinese sample, with some relationships being significantly weaker in the Chinese sample (e.g., surface acting to burnout dimensions) and others exhibiting relationships with the opposite sign (e.g., display rules were negatively related to surface acting in the Chinese sample).
Implications The results of this study suggest that many of the relationships among emotional labor variables vary as a function of the cultural context under consideration.
Originality/Value This is the first study to directly compare emotional labor across samples from Eastern and Western cultures. Additionally, this study begins to answer questions concerning why models of emotional labor generated in a Western culture may not apply in other cultures.
Recommended Citation
Allen, Joseph A.; Diefendorff, James M.; and Ma, Yufeng, "Differences in Emotional Labor Across Cultures: A Comparison of Chinese and U.S. Service Workers" (2014). Psychology Faculty Publications. 109.
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/psychfacpub/109
Comments
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-013-9288-7.