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Emotional labour, emotional Emotional

labour in the
exhaustion and job satisfaction in hospitality
industry
the hospitality industry
Eunice Fay Amissah
Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Cape Coast,
Cape Coast, Ghana Received 17 October 2020
Revised 3 January 2021
Sarah Blankson-Stiles-Ocran 26 March 2021
10 June 2021
Hospitality and Tourism Management, Ho Technical University, Ho, Ghana, and 9 July 2021
14 July 2021
Ishmael Mensah Accepted 15 July 2021
Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Cape Coast,
Cape Coast, Ghana and
Hunan City University, Yiyang, China

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of emotional labour on frontline employees’
emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction within the hotel industry.
Design/methodology/approach – The quantitative research approach was employed by administering
questionnaires to 205 frontline employees from 16 luxury hotels in the Accra Metropolis, out of which 194
questionnaires were retrieved and analysed.
Findings – The results showed that surface acting was positively associated with emotional exhaustion, while
deep and genuine acting were negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. In addition, both deep and
genuine acting related positively with job satisfaction, while surface acting was negatively associated with job
satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications – A lackadaisical attitude from hotel management and employees
towards data collection was encountered. Also, the study area had very few upscale hotels, making the sample
for the study relatively small. Further, since this study was taken from the African perspective, readers should
be mindful of generalisation of the results.
Originality/value – This paper is one of the pioneers to have assessed the relationships between emotional
labour, job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion in the African hospitality context. The study contributes to
hospitality management literature by explaining how the acting strategies of emotional labour affect frontline
employees in the hotel industry. A better understanding of emotional labour will help both management and
frontline employees to employ the appropriate acting strategy in any given situation they encounter in the
course of their service delivery, to reduce the emotional drain they face in handling especially difficult
customers and to increase frontline employees’ job satisfaction.
Keywords Emotional exhaustion, Emotional labour, Hospitality, Hotels, Job satisfaction
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Emotion is an important part of human life, as it contributes to the changes in the lifestyle of
people. Emotions help people to express their feelings and understand each other (Cezar and
Guareschi, 2016; Matheson, 2017; Nummenmaa and Tuominen, 2017). The service industry is
people-oriented, involving constant contact between employees and customers. Service
employees must control their emotions in adherence to regulations customer engagement. As
a result, customer service personnel are not only needed to display technical skills, but also
emotional labour. The regulation of emotions to suit display rules is termed emotional labour
(Grandey, 2000). Journal of Hospitality and Tourism
Insights
The emotions shown by employees are not always what organisations require of them. © Emerald Publishing Limited
2514-9792
However, it is important that employees display emotions that are demanded by DOI 10.1108/JHTI-10-2020-0196
JHTI organisations. This implies that the emotions employees display at their “private emotional
space” need to be tailored in line with the expectations of organisations (Ooi and Ek, 2010). In
effect, employees try to customise their emotions to suit the requirements of their
organisations, and this has adverse effects on them, including burnout, exhaustion and other
psychological problems, which ultimately affect service quality (Hochschild, 1983; Hu et al.,
2017; Li et al., 2017; Tepeci and Pala, 2016).
While evidence abounds on the significance of emotional labour (Blankson-Stiles-Ocran
et al., 2019; C^ote and Miners, 2006; Fellner et al., 2012; Lartey, 2018), there exists little research
on the effects of deep, surface and genuine acting on job satisfaction (Brotheridge and
Grandey, 2002; Grandey, 2000), especially among hotel frontline workers in an emerging
economy setting (Tagoe and Quarshie, 2017). Even so, the findings of such studies have been
inconclusive (Lartey, 2018). Findings from existing studies suggest that surface acting elicits
negative job attitudes while deep acting results in positive job attitudes (Cossette and Hess,
2015; Yang and Chang, 2008). In contrast, some studies have revealed no association between
some specific job attitudes and aspects of emotional labour (Yang et al., 2018). Additionally,
studies on genuine acting and job attitudes, including job satisfaction, are rare. Studies
conducted within the hotel industry have focused on determinants/antecedents of emotional
labour, looking at the individual, organisational and situational factors that influence
employee emotional labour (Blankson-Stiles-Ocran et al., 2019; Choi et al., 2019; Khetjenkarn
and Agmapisarn, 2020). It is argued that the higher the class of the hotel, the higher and more
effective the organisational display rules (Igbojekwe, 2017). As a result, frontline employees
of luxury hotels manage emotions in the workplace more than the lower grade hotels.
The researcher, therefore, carried out the study in the Accra Metropolis, which has luxury
hotels, focusing on how frontline employee’s emotional labour affects their emotional
exhaustion and job satisfaction. Specifically, this study focuses on the effect of surface acting
on emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction; the effect of deep acting on emotional
exhaustion and job satisfaction; and the effect of genuine acting on emotional exhaustion and
job satisfaction. Essentially, this study not only contributes to the limited literature on
emotional labour from an emerging economy but also bridges the gap in literature by
combining all the forms of emotional labour and their effects on employee emotional
exhaustion and job satisfaction. This study also offers useful cues for managers and
employees in terms of how to deal with emotions at the workplace, especially during service–
provider–guest interactions. In addition, the present study helps hospitality facilities,
corporate bodies, academic institutions and the government to make changes in their
structures, policies, processes and practices that affect employee work attitudes. In line with
the purpose of this research, literature was reviewed on emotional labour, linking it to job
satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Hypotheses statements were proposed based the
literature reviewed and findings were duly discussed.

Literature review and hypotheses development

Theoretical framework
The present study is grounded in the broad-and-build theory (Frederickson, 1998, 2001). The
broad-and-build theory holds that when people experience some positive emotions, their
consciousness gets expanded, triggering the subsequent development of “personal resources
that contribute to their overall emotional and physical well-being” (Fredrickson and Joiner,
2018, p. 194). The theory, thus, considers positive emotions as capable of offsetting the
adverse effects of negative emotions (Fredrickson, 2000). In effect, positive emotions have
long-term effects on people, serving “as a means to attaining psychological growth and
improved psychological and physical well-being over time” (Fredrickson, 2004, p. 1367).
Linking this aspect of the theory to emotional labour, it explains why employees are likely to
be satisfied with their jobs when they act deeply or genuinely towards guest. This is because Emotional
such positive emotions are naturally or consciously expressed from within. As such, there is labour in the
no conflict between felt and expressed emotions.
With regard to negative emotions, the theory upholds that they are associated with
hospitality
particular predispositions, as in fear leading to the tendency of avoiding the immediate industry
environment (Lazarus, 1991). This aspect of the theory explains why employees who exhibit
surface acting on the job are dissatisfied with their jobs. Although they are smiling on the job,
their inner feelings and emotions are negative, such that there is a conflict between felt and
expressed emotions, which causes emotional exhaustion and dissatisfaction with the job.
Emotional labour. The concept of emotional labour was popularised by the influential
work of Hochschild (1983) which argued that it is organisational regulations or emotion
display rules that prescribe the appropriate emotions expected from workers or employees.
Such rules determine how employees are to behave in employee-customer encounters. After
countless criticism and countercriticism (Bolton, 2009), testing and development (Gabriel
et al., 2015), emotional labour continues to remain an essential concept in organisational
studies (Dashper, 2020). Hochschild’s (2003) conceptualised emotional labour to involve
impression management of service employees. While emotional labour has been
conceptualised differently by different authors, the common thread that runs through the
various conceptualisations is it essentially involves the conscious attempts of employees to
minimise the gap between the emotions felt and those displayed in conformity to
organisational display rules (Glomb and Tews, 2004; Liu et al., 2004).
The literature reveals three types of emotional labour: (1) surface acting (faking in bad
faith), (2) deep acting (faking in good faith) and (3) genuine acting. Employees who resort to
surface acting show the desirable emotions of employees just to meet the expectations of the
employer. In so doing, they ensure that the “acting” does not affect or change their actual
feelings (Hochschild, 1983; Johnson and Spector, 2007; Mesmer-Magnus et al., 2012).
According to Spencer and Rupp (2009), unlike surface acting, with deep acting, employees
adjust their inner feelings in line with what they display. Genuine acting involves automatic
adjustment of inner emotions. It is a type of innate expression that conforms to
organisationally required emotions (Diefendorff et al., 2005; Grandey, 2000).
Surface acting, therefore, implies faking required emotional expressions towards guests.
For example, smiling or showing empathy towards a guest which is not felt within. With deep
acting, employees try to remember pleasant occurrences in their lives and try to feel good
within to enable them express positive emotions towards guests which are actually felt
within. For example, if a guest is irritating an employee or proving difficult, the employee will,
at that instance, forget about what the guest is doing and rather focus on something personal
and exciting that has happened to him/her either at work or at home to help modify the innate
feelings. Genuine acting, on the other hand, requires no faking at all. Such employees express
exact felt emotions, which conform to hotels’ organisational display rules, towards guests.
Emotional labour has been found to adversely affect employee’s personal accomplishment,
sense of efficacy (Brotheridge and Lee, 2003), job satisfaction (Rutner et al., 2008), turnover
intentions (Rutner et al., 2008) and productivity (Bakker and Heuven, 2006). However, the
focus of this paper is centred on emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction.
Emotional labour and emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion is conceptualised as
the psychological discomfort associated with one’s involvement in circumstances that ascribe
to the feeling of emotional suppression (Kirk-Brown and Van Dijk, 2016). According to
Maslach (1993, pp. 20–21), emotional exhaustion involves the rundown or depletion of an
individual’s affective abilities. Halbesleben and Bowler (2005) contend that this reflects the
individual strain dimension of burnout. Emotional exhaustion is visible in the hotel industry
because the industry provides mainly services as its product. Frontline employees who
interact with guests on a daily basis manage their emotions and express appropriate
JHTI emotions towards guests. The process involved in emotion management can be strenuous,
such that if not well managed, can lead to emotional exhaustion.
It has been revealed that emotional exhaustion arises from emotional labour (Kim et al.,
2012; Martınez-I~ nigo et al., 2007). This is especially the case with surface acting, as opposed to
deep acting reduces which is believed to mitigate emotional exhaustion (Hur et al., 2013; Hwa,
2012; Kim et al., 2012; Lee, 2016; Martınez-I~ nigo et al., 2007; Saini and Singh, 2020; Simillidou
et al., 2020). The rationale behind this is that surface acting requires more effort and sustained
process while it also generates emotional dissonance (Ashforth and Humphrey, 1993;
Diefendorff and Gosserand, 2003). Thus, surface acting is seen to be very disadvantageous to
employees’ psychological wellbeing (Goussinsky, 2011; Hwa, 2012; Lee, 2016; Saini and
Singh, 2020; Wang and Groth, 2014).
H1a. Surface acting has a significant positive effect on emotional exhaustion.
Nisar et al. (2017) has discovered a significant negative association between deep acting and
emotional exhaustion. This contradicts the findings of studies which reported that deep
acting reduces emotional exhaustion (Johnson and Spector, 2007; Lee and Chelladurai, 2016;
Philipp and Sch€ upbach, 2010; Sohn et al., 2016). Based on the literature, the present study,
therefore, formulated the following hypotheses:
H1b. Deep acting has a significant positive effect on emotional exhaustion.
H1c. Genuine acting has a significant positive effect on emotional exhaustion.
Emotional labour and job satisfaction. Ensuring that the benefits derived from work
balances with the requirements and work outputs leads to job satisfaction (Mason and
Griffin, 2002; Wright, 2006). In simpler terms, Akgunduz and Eser (2020) and Heimerl et al.
(2020) consider job satisfaction to be people’s level of happiness with their job. Mora and
Ferrer-i-Carbonell (2009) hold that job satisfaction depends on a combination of people’s
actual working conditions and their subjective views of work.
Previous empirical studies suggested that emotional labour is negatively correlated with
job satisfaction (Kaur and Malodia, 2017; Kinman et al., 2011). However, findings from studies
that focused on dimensions of emotional labour have been inconclusive, revealing positive
(Pandey and Singh, 2016), negative (Chou et al., 2012; Fouquereau et al., 2019; Saini and Singh,
2020; Wu et al., 2018) and no association at all (Gulsen and Ozmen, 2020). For example, while
Gulsen and Ozmen (2020) found no relationship between surface acting and job satisfaction,
Wu et al. (2018) reported a negative association. On the other hand, Lee (2019) concluded that
neither of the acting strategies has a significant relationship with job satisfaction. The
following hypotheses, thus, emerge from the empirical literature:
H2a. Surface acting has a significant negative effect on job satisfaction.
H2b. Deep acting has a significant positive effect on emotional job satisfaction.
H2c. Genuine acting has a significant positive effect on job satisfaction.

Conceptual framework
The conceptual framework guiding this research was adapted from Grandey (2000) and
based on the literature discussed earlier. As previously indicated, this study explored the
effects of the three acting strategies of emotional labour on hotel frontline employees’
emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. In the framework, as made clear in the proposed
hypotheses, it is expected that employing either of the acting strategies will lead to emotional
exhaustion or invigoration, which will further lead to job satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Given
the inconsistency in previous conclusions on the effects of emotional labour, the framework
captures emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction as outcomes or psychological effects of Emotional
emotional labour. It is expected that the emotional labour strategies will significantly predict labour in the
these outcomes and differentially influence employee wellbeing. The conceptual framework
is presented in Figure 1.
hospitality
industry

Methodology
Sample and procedure
Data were collected in Accra, the capital city of Ghana, because it has a greater chunk (80%)
of luxury hotels in the country (GTA-Ghana, 2018). A multi-stage sampling technique was
used to select 310 employees from all 16 luxury (3-5-star) hotels in the study area. The data
collection team visited each hotel and sought permission from managers prior to the actual
exercise. The convenience sampling technique was used in selecting 205 individual
respondents (frontline employees) who were on duty and willing to participate in the study to
form the sample. The selected employees were indulged to fill out the instruments in their free
time and return the completed questionnaires in sealed return envelopes to the human
resource manager to ensure confidentiality.

Research instrument
Emotional labour was measured using nine items from Ashforth and Humphrey (1993),
Diefendorff et al. (2005) and Zapf (2002). Sample items include (1) “I make an effort to actually
feel the emotions that I need to display to others”, (2) “I try to actually experience the emotions
that I must show”, (3) “I pretend to have emotions that I do not really have”, (4) “I hide my true
feelings about a situation” among others. Emotional exhaustion was measured using a nine-
item validated instrument adapted from Maslach et al. (1986). Sample items include (1) “I feel
emotionally drained at work”, (2) “I feel fatigued when I wake up in the morning and have to
face another day on the job”, (3) “I feel frustrated on my job”, (4) “working directly with people
puts too much stress on me”. Two items from Michigan Organizational Assessment

FORMS OF EMOTIONAL
LABOUR

EFFECTS ON EMPLOYEE
Surface acting:
WELL-BEING
Modify facial
expressions
Emotional
exhaustion

Deep acting: modify

feelings

Job satisfaction

Genuine acting:
displaying genuine
feelings and
expressions Figure 1.
Proposed conceptual
framework
Source(s): Adapted from Grandey (2000)
JHTI Questionnaire (Cammann et al., 1979) and one item from Spector’s (1985) job satisfaction
survey were used to measure job satisfaction. The items include (1) “I am satisfied with my
job”, (2) “I like my job” and (3) “I like working here”. All items under emotional labour,
emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction of employees were measured on a five-point Likert
scale ranging from “never to always” for emotional labour and “strongly disagree to strongly
agree” for emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction.

Reliability and validity of instruments

Following Chen and Huang (2017), face validity and content validity were conducted on the
instrument by using two academics and two industry experts on emotional labour and
employee wellbeing to review the validity of the measurement items. Their reviews led to the
rewording of some of the questions for clarity and coherence. The decision to reword any of
the measures was based on agreement among majority of the reviewers, which in the current
study is at least three of the reviewers (Dayour et al., 2020). In furtherance to this, a pre-test
was conducted with 30 hotel staff in Cape Coast before the main data collection to re-affirm
the clarity and coherence of the questions.
The internal consistency of the scales used to measure emotional labour, emotional
exhaustion and job satisfaction was assessed using the Cronbach’s alpha and composite
reliability (CR). For a composite reliability or alpha value to be considered reliable, it must not
be below 0.70. Thus, the higher the value, the higher the level of internal consistency (Burns
and Burns, 2008). The composite reliability and Cronbach’s alpha values of the measures
ranged from 0.808 to 0.925 and 0.700 to 0.906 respectively, thereby demonstrating acceptable
levels of internal consistency (Table 1).
Average variance explained (AVE) scores more than 0.50 were used to compute the
convergent validity of measures, suggesting that more than 50 percent of the variance were
explained by all the latent factors. This shows that the errors in the scale used were
insignificant (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). In establishing whether or not the constructs
adequately measured what they were to measure, the Fornell and Larcker (1981) criterion was
used. This criterion is predicated on the assumption that once the square root of the AVE of a
construct is greater than its interrelation with another construct, then there is discriminant
validity. This is shown in Table 3.

Data collection and analysis

The Accra Metropolis had 16 upscale hotels (3–5 star) with a total frontline employee population
of 360. Using Krejcie and Morgan’s (1970) formula for calculating the sample of a known
population, the sample size determined was 205. A total of 205 responses were, therefore,
collected. However, 194 were found useful for analysis after excluding some questionnaires due
to missing values. Descriptive statistics were performed to provide an overview of the sample
characteristics and distribution of data. Standard multiple linear regression was conducted to
examine the effect of the three forms of emotional labour on employee emotional exhaustion and
job satisfaction. Preliminary analysis such as correlation was also conducted to assess
multicollinearity of the independent variables used. Prior to the testing of hypothesis, Cooks and
Mahalanobis distances as well as variance inflation factors and tolerance values were checked to
ensure there was no violation of the assumptions of normality and linearity. None of the
tolerance values was less than the recommended 0.10. Likewise, none of the VIF values was
greater than 10, which implied that multicollinearity was not a problem (Pallant, 2011).

Results
Socio-demographic and job characteristics of respondents
Respondents were made up of 56.7% females, with 61.9% below the age of 30 years. More
than half (55.2%) of the respondents had tertiary education. Seventy-two percent of the
 Factor Cronbach’s
Emotional
Construct Items loadings alpha CR AVE labour in the
hospitality
Deep acting Try to actually experience the emotions 0.889 0.843 0.899 0.749
that I must show industry
Make an effort to actually feel the emotions 0.858
that I need to display to others
Try to feel the emotions I have to show as 0.850
part of my job
Surface acting Hide my true feelings about a situation 0.838 0.700 0.808 0.587
Resist expressing my true feelings 0.766
Pretend to have emotions that I do not 0.686
really have
Genuine acting Emotions expressed to customers are true 0.858 0.763 0.859 0.669
feelings
Emotions shown to customers come 0.813
naturally
Spontaneously feel the emotions I show to 0.782
customers
Emotional I feel emotionally drained at work 0.705 0.906 0.925 0.579
exhaustion I feel used up at the end of the day 0.725
I feel fatigued when I get up in the morning 0.762
and I have to face another day on the job
Working with people is really a strain on 0.801
me
I feel burdened out from my work 0.749
I feel frustrated on my job 0.827
I feel I’m working too hard on my job 0.760
Working directly with people puts too 0.811 Table 1.
much stress on me Cronbach’s alpha,
I feel like I am at the end of my rope 0.701 composite reliability
Job satisfaction I am satisfied with my job 0.871 0.704 0.841 0.646 (CR) and average
I like working here 0.908 variances
I like my job 0.594 explained (AVE)

frontline employees had training in the field of hospitality from either the Hotel (68.9%),
School (26.9%), Hotel, Catering and Tourism Training (HOTCATT) (3.4%) or Ghana Tourism
Authority (0.8%). The sample was also made up of 48.5% front office employees, including
Receptionists, Guest Relations Executives, Front Office Executives, Front Desk Supervisors
and Front Office Managers. Additionally, 34.5% were employees of the food and beverage
department, including waiting staff, Buffet Assistants, Restaurant Supervisors and
Restaurant Managers. Other categories of employees were housekeeping staff including
Room Attendants and Rooms Supervisors (6.7%) as well as Front Office Cashiers,
salespersons and Giftshop Attendants (10.3%). Majority (83%) of the employees had worked
in their current hotels for 5 years or less. Likewise, 69.1% had worked in the hospitality
industry, in general, for five years or less. The motivation for working in the hotel industry
included career advancement (41.8%) and the urge to meet new people (37.1%).

Forms of emotional labour

Table 2 shows the overall mean scores for forms of emotional labour. It shows that hotel
frontline employees sometimes exhibit surface acting (mean 5 2.86) but often exhibit deep
acting (mean 5 3.55) and genuine acting (mean 5 3.58) during their daily interactions with
guests. The results demonstrate that genuine acting recorded a higher mean value than the
others.
JHTI Responses % (never–always)
Forms of emotional labour N R S O A M SD Alpha

Deep acting 3.7 7.2 41.8 25.8 21.6 3.55 1.023 (0.843)
Make an effort to actually feel the emotions that I 6.7 6.7 32 32 22.7 3.57 1.114
need to display to others
Try to actually experience the emotions that I 6.2 6.7 43.3 24.7 19.1 3.44 1.067
must show
Try to feel the emotions I have to show as part of 3.6 6.7 39.7 25.3 24.7 3.61 1.044
my job
Surface acting 19.6 14.9 35.6 19.6 10.3 2.86 1.237 (0.700)
Resist expressing my true feelings 14.9 8.2 35.6 24.2 17 3.20 1.253
Pretend to have emotions that I do not really 27.8 15.5 25.8 19.6 11.3 2.92 3.260
have
Hide my true feelings about a situation 19.6 12.9 34.5 19.6 13.4 2.94 1.284
Genuine acting 5.2 4.6 41.8 23.7 24.7 3.58 1.071 (0.763)
Spontaneously feel the emotions I show to 8.2 6.7 47.9 23.2 13.9 3.28 1.055
customers
Emotions shown to customers come naturally 3.6 4.6 37.1 25.3 29.4 3.72 1.05
Table 2. Emotions expressed to customers are true 7.7 4.1 39.2 21.1 27.8 3.57 1.164
Forms of emotional feelings
labour (N 5 194) Note(s): Scale: 1.0 5 never, 2.0 5 rarely, 3.0 5 sometimes, 4.0 5 often, 5.0 5 Always

AVE 1 2 3 4 5

Deep acting 0.794 0.860

Surface acting 0.587 0.052 0.766
Table 3.
Genuine acting 0.669 0.342** 0.118 0.818
Correlations between
forms of emotional Emotional exhaustion 0.579 0.004 0.257** 0.143* 0.761
labour, emotional Job satisfaction 0.646 0.143* 0.036 0.168* 0.383** 0.803
exhaustion and job Note(s): Square roots of AVEs are shown diagonally in italic
satisfaction *Significant at the 0.05, **Significant at 0.01

A review of the responses from the individual items under deep acting indicates that “trying
to feel the emotions employees have to show as part of their jobs” (mean 5 3.61) was the most
frequently undertaken emotion management practice under the domain of deep acting. This
was closely followed by “making an effort to actually feel the emotions needed to be displayed to
others” (mean 5 3.57) and finally “trying to actually experience the emotions needed to be shown
to guests” (mean 5 3.44). In relation to surface acting, frontline hotel employees “resisted their
true feelings” (mean 5 3.20) more often than “hiding their true feelings about a situation”
(mean 5 2.94) and “pretending to have emotions that they do not have” (mean 5 2.92). This
notwithstanding, the mean values for all the three items suggest that they sometimes show
emotions that are characterised by faking inner feelings. Under the genuine acting paradigm,
the results suggest that frontline hotel employees often show “naturally felt emotions towards
customers” (mean 5 3.72). The results further suggest that the “emotions expressed to
customers are often true feelings” (mean 5 3.57). However, they stated that they sometimes
“spontaneously feel the emotions they have to show to customers” (mean 5 3.28).

Effects of emotional labour on employees’ emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction

Table 3 shows the results of a bivariate Spearman correlation used to evaluate the level of
correlation between the constructs, forms of emotional labour, emotional exhaustion and job
satisfaction, which was used as a preliminary test to ensure the absence of multicollinearity of Emotional
the independent variables used. As shown in the table, there was a significant positive labour in the
relationship between deep acting and job satisfaction (rs 5 0.143, p < 0.005). Surface acting
was significantly associated with emotional exhaustion (rs 5 0.257, p < 0.005). The
hospitality
association between genuine acting and emotional exhaustion (rs 5 0.143, p < 0.005) was industry
significant and negative but significant and positive for job satisfaction (rs 5 0.168,
p < 0.005). Cooks and Mahalanobis distances as well as variance inflation factor and tolerance
levels were also checked to ensure there was no violation of the assumptions of normality and
linearity. The results of the analysis are presented in Table 4.

Emotional labour and emotional exhaustion

The results of the analysis are presented in Table 4. The results suggest that emotional labour
explains 7.1% of the total variance in emotional exhaustion. The variance explained was
significant as indicated by the ANOVA results F (3, 190) 5 4.875, p < 0.05). The specific
results, however, suggest that surface acting alone made a statistically significant
contribution towards the variance explained in emotional exhaustion (β 5 0.239, t 5 3.382,
p 5 0.001). This result indicates a direct effect of surface acting on emotional exhaustion. The
results further suggest that there is no statistically significant relationship between deep
(beta 5 0.021, t 5 0.279, p > 0.780), genuine acting (beta 5 0.089, t 5 1.187, p > 0.237)
and emotional exhaustion.

Emotional labour and job satisfaction

The results as presented in Table 4 on job satisfaction revealed that emotional labour
explained 3.7% of the total variance in job satisfaction. The ANOVA results, however,
suggest that the variance explained makes no statistically significant contribution towards
job satisfaction F (3, 190) 5 2.436, p > 0.05, r 5 0.192, r2 5 0.037). Although not statistically
significant, the beta and t-values suggest a positive link between deep acting (β 5 0.099,
t 5 1.303, p > 0.05), genuine acting (β 5 0.131, t 5 1.710, p > 0.05) and job satisfaction. Surface
acting, on the other hand, recorded a negative beta and t-value (β 5 0.025, t 5 0.353,
p > 0.05), suggesting an inverse relation between surface acting and job satisfaction.

Discussion and conclusions

Conclusions
The findings presented previously support hypothesis H1a. This is because the regression
model shows that surface acting was positively correlated with emotional exhaustion, such

Variable Beta t Sig Part correlation Tolerance VIF

DV 5 emotional exhaustion F (3, 190) 5 4.875, p < 0.05, r 5 0.267, r 5 0.071)

2

Deep acting 0.021 0.279 0.780 0.020 0.874 1.144

Surface acting 0.239 3.382 0.001 0.236 0.976 1.024
Genuine acting 0.089 1.187 0.237 0.083 0.865 1.157
DV 5 job satisfaction F (3, 190) 5 2.436, p > 0.05, r 5 0.192, r2 5 0.037
Deep acting 0.099 1.303 0.194 0.094 0.874 1.144
Surface acting 0.025 0.353 0.724 0.026 0.976 1.024
Table 4.
Genuine acting 0.131 1.710 0.089 0.123 0.865 1.157 Standard multiple
Note(s): *Cooks distances for emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction (minimum 5 0.000, regression of the effects
maximum 5 0.060). Mahalanobis distance for emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction (minimum 5 0.227, of emotional labour on
maximum 5 15.731). Cooks distance for turnover intentions (minimum 5 0.000, maximum 5 0.123). emotional exhaustion
Mahalanobis distance for turnover intentions (minimum 5 0.772, maximum 5 16.121) and job satisfaction
JHTI that employees who use surface acting in dealing with customers are more likely to be
exhausted emotionally. All other hypotheses stated (H1b, H1c, H2a, H2b, H2c) were not
supported because there was no statistically significant evidence of any relationship between
the variables tested. This notwithstanding, the directions of the beta and t-value are in sync
with the hypotheses, given in that when surface acting is used consistently, it results in
emotional exhaustion which extends to job dissatisfaction. Conversely, prolonged use of deep
and genuine acting relieves employees of stress which leads to emotional exhaustion, thereby
contributing to their satisfaction with the hotel job. Table 5 presents the conclusions on the
hypotheses tested in this study.
Hospitality employees are paid to be nice to guests, and this often requires a lot of effort on
their part. Frontline hotel employees require such efforts to engage in the three forms of
emotional labour. Unlike deep acting, which is likely to have negative psychological effects on
frontline workers, deep acting and genuine acting are desired. Further, although not all items
were statistically significant, it is concluded based on the directions of the “beta” and “t”
values that emotional exhaustion may arise from prolonged use of surface acting, affecting
the psychological health of frontline workers. On the other hand, making a conscious effort to
modify feelings and emotions and acting genuinely to suit the organisational display rules
(i.e. a continuous use of deep and genuine acting) positively correlates with job satisfaction
and negatively associates with emotional exhaustion. This suggests that acting deeply and
genuinely reduces the emotional exhaustion of hotel frontline employees and increases their
satisfaction with the hotel job.
Employees who are exhausted emotionally subsequently harbour feelings of job
dissatisfaction and inclinations to turnover. However, the lower the exhaustion, the higher
the satisfaction of employees with their jobs. Finally, drawing from the insignificant nature of
the findings, it can be deduced that there are some other factors that determine employees’
emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction in the hotel industry. It is recommended that since
deep and genuine acting have been found to reduce the stress levels of employees and help
promote their satisfaction with hotel job, frontline employees should be encouraged by
management to use these forms more than surface acting to reduce their exhaustion and
improve upon their wellbeing.

Theoretical implications
The aim of the present study was to examine how the three forms of emotional labour (i.e.
surface acting, deep acting and genuine acting) affect frontline employees’ emotional
exhaustion and job satisfaction. The study contributes to the extant literature by
investigating the effects of the forms of emotional labour on employees’ job satisfaction
and emotional exhaustion, especially among hotel frontline workers in an emerging economy
setting. Also, the study builds on the broaden-and-build theory of how employees who exhibit
surface acting on the job may be smiling on the job, but their inner feelings and emotions are
negative. Thus, there arises a conflict between the emotions they feel and those they display,

Hypotheses statements Decision

Surface acting has a significant positive effect on emotional exhaustion Supported

Deep acting has a significant positive effect on emotional exhaustion Not supported
Genuine acting has a significant positive effect on emotional exhaustion Not supported
Table 5. Surface acting has a significant negative effect on job satisfaction Not supported
Conclusions on Deep acting has a significant positive effect on emotional job satisfaction Not supported
hypotheses statements Genuine acting has a significant positive effect on job satisfaction Not supported
and this results in emotional depletion and job dissatisfaction. In addition, this finding is Emotional
supported by some previous studies (Hulsheger and Schewe, 2011; Hwa, 2012; Lee, 2016; labour in the
Philipp and Schupbach, 2010; Saini and Singh, 2020; Wang and Groth, 2014). There are also
key findings from this work that are of theoretical importance. First, the results showed that
hospitality
surface acting is positively associated with emotional exhaustion, in that the more a frontline industry
employee exhibits surface acting, the more the employee gets emotionally exhausted.
Likewise, the least a frontline hotel employee exhibits surface acting, the lesser he/she gets
emotionally exhausted. The rationale is that surface acting requires more effort and a
sustained process while it also generates emotional gap, that is, a discrepancy between
emotions felt and those shown.
More so, we have demonstrated that deep and genuine acting had no bearing on emotional
exhaustion. The finding of this study is also consistent with research and theory on emotions
at the workplace (e.g. Brotheridge and Grandey, 2002; Brotheridge and Lee, 2003; Totterdell
and Holman, 2003) which emphasise how positive emotions enhance employees’
psychological wellbeing and physical growth as time goes on. This finding may be
attributed to the fact that deep acting and genuine acting do not generate emotional
dissonance and are mostly in consonance with employees’ felt emotions. As such, they reduce
the stress one has to go through faking emotions and expressions, thereby eliminating any
stress factor and other counter-productive work behaviours. Furthermore, our study found
that the forms of emotional labour have no significant effect on job satisfaction, which is in
tandem with the findings of Gulsen and Ozmen (2020) and Simillidou et al. (2020). However,
the directions of the “beta” and “t” values suggest that deep and genuine acting are positively
associated with job satisfaction, as in the case of Brotheridge and Grandey (2002), Kruml and
Geddes (2000) and Martinez-Inigo et al. (2007), whereas surface acting and job satisfaction
share a negative correlation (Bono and Vey, 2005; Hur et al., 2015). This result can be
attributed to the hospitable nature of Ghanaians and the fact that most hotel frontline
employees look beyond the negative events they encounter at work and embrace the positive
ones, which in most cases outweigh the negatives. Most employees also consider financial
gains such as income and tips as important in their job satisfaction. As such, they are able to
cope well with the negative events they encounter whilst at work.

Practical implications
The findings of the present study show that frontline hotel workers exhibit surface acting, as
well as higher degrees of deep and genuine acting in their interactions with customers. What
this means is that hotel frontline employees in the Accra Metropolitan Area are highly
probable to demonstrate deep and genuine acting. This finding, therefore, represents a rich
source of information for frontline workers and hotel managers in Ghana. Those who are
interested in knowing the effects of emotions on job satisfaction and exhaustion will also find
this finding very important. For hospitality enterprises, it is beneficial for them to effectively
highlight these specific elements in their human resource processes.
First, this will help managers to recruit suitable personnel for customer-contact service
work, so as to lessen the emotional impact and exhaustion of employees in their engagement
with hotel guests, especially difficult clients. Second, it is critical to organise seminars and
workshops for frontline staff. This will enable them to establish emotional bonds with guests.
The training should also be geared towards equipping frontline workers with the required
approaches for exhibiting expected emotions at any given time. The training could also be
used to encourage employees to continue adopting forms of emotional labour that are
rewarding rather than tiring (Tolich, 1993).
In furtherance, the work environment and conditions should be conducive to elucidate
positive emotions in staff. In particular, management can use interpersonal communication
and informal gatherings to interact with employees. This will create in the employees a sense
JHTI of belongingness. It is also critical for management to focus on workplace issues that are
likely to make workers evince negative emotions and exhaustion. In line with this, employers
need to create a conducive working environment for workers, by, for example, giving them
more break time to relieve them of stress and allow them to self-reflect (Wan and Chan, 2013;
Chan et al., 2015). This will go a long way to increase job satisfaction among employees (Chan
et al., 2015).

Limitations and future research direction

The study, like other studies, is not without limitations and acknowledging them could
furnish directions for future research. First, the empirical investigation was conducted in a
limited number of hotels within one spatial zone. Therefore, the findings cannot be
generalised to all hotels. Second, the positivists research approach of the study does not allow
further inquiry into contextual reasons for the effects of emotional labour on emotional
exhaustion and job satisfaction in the hotel industry. Third, the hotel industry in Ghana is still
in its growth stage. Thus, there are very few upscale hotels in the country. This contributed to
the sample for the study being relatively small. Further, the study was taken from the African
perspective. Readers should, therefore, be mindful of generalisation of the results.
Future studies can determine the effects that emotional labour and emotional exhaustion
have on employee turnover intentions, as this study did not take into consideration such
effects. It is also recommended to researchers to adopt mixed method approach to investigate
emotional labour in the hotel industry and explore hotel guests’ perceptions of emotional
labour and tease out their reactions on how their actions and relations with frontline
employees make them feel. Further studies should consider the use of a multivariate
technique such as structural equation modelling (SEM) in analysing data to enhance the
regression weights of this study. Also, further studies should utilise samples from other parts
of the country to get a wider perspective and understanding of emotional labour in Ghana’s
hotel industry.

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Appendix
The Appendix is available online for this article.

About the authors

Eunice Fay Amissah holds a PhD in Hospitality Management with specialisation in Service Quality from
University of Cape Coast. She is a Senior Lecturer and currently the head of the Department of
Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Cape Coast. She has over the years taught courses
such as Service Management, Introduction of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Hotel
Management, Destination Management, Entrepreneurship, Human Resource Management among
others at the undergraduate and graduate level. Her areas of research interest include workplace
diversity; work-family conflict; employees work attitudes; organisational behaviour; service quality as
well as career and gender studies. She has presented numerous academic papers in conferences in the
United States, South Africa, Germany and Kenya and within Ghana.
Sarah Blankson-Stiles-Ocran holds an MPhil degree in Hospitality Management from the University
of Cape Coast, Ghana, and is currently Assistant Lecturer of Hospitality at the Ho Technical University,
Ghana. Her research interest includes employees’ well-being issues, employees work attitudes,
intentions and behaviour, gender studies, food handling, recipe development, food tourism, service
quality and psychological issues. Sarah Blankson-Stiles-Ocran is the corresponding author and can be
contacted at: sblankson-stiles-ocran@htu.edu.gh
Ishmael Mensah is Associate Professor of tourism and hospitality management at the University of
Cape Coast and Ghana Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Cape Coast. He holds a
PhD Tourism degree from the same university and is a Certified Hospitality Educator (CHE) by the
American Hotel and Lodging Association as well as a Member of the Institute of Hospitality (MIH). His
research interests include environmental management in tourism and hospitality, service quality,
destination marketing, community participation in tourism development, career development in tourism
and events management.

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