ARTICLE
Production Management Vol.15, No.3-March, 2009The 'Positive'
Mediation
Effect
of Personal
Accomplishment
in the Relationship
of Emotional
Labor
and Other
Two Dimensions
of Burnout
Dongmyong Lee
Korea Aerospace University, Korea
Sangheon Han
Nagoya University of Commerce&Business, Japan
Abstract: This study examines the positive effect of surface acting, compared with traditional viewpoint, negative effect. Data were collected from 334 cabin attendants of two airlines in Korea and analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis and the Sobel test.
This research allows us to draw several specific conclusions. First, surface acting has a positive effect on personal accomplishment. Second personal accomplishment functions as a mediator in the effect of surface acting on depersonalization. Third, personal accomplishment does not function as a mediator in the effect of surface acting on emotional exhaustion. In closing, this research suggests that there are also positive aspects of emotional labor, especially surface acting on employee's well-being.
Key Words:emotional labor, surface acting, personal accomplishment, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, mediation effect.
1. Introduction
Emotional labor is defined as employee's management of emotion to present the desired emotion that is demanded by the organization (Hochschild, 1983). In other words, emotional labor contains effort, planning, and control to reveal the organizationally desired emotion in face-to-face transaction. In organizations, there are display rules to direct when and how employees show emotion (Hochschild, 1983). According to display rules, employees should exhibit emotions that fit in the contingency of their jobs.
There are two types of emotional labor in presenting emotions that are considered as desired by organizations: deep acting and surface acting (Hochschild, 1983). In both cases, an individual presents the organizationally desired emotions. But they are different from each other in that
the former means displaying the organizationally desired emotion with feeling, but the latter without it. They are different in the internal psychological process, so they have the different effects on employee's well-being. Deep acting has a positive effect on the psychological well-being of employees, but surface acting has a negative impact (Brotheridge & Grandey, 2002). This paper focuses on surface acting.
If employees engage in surface acting, which means they suppress the felt emotion or display emotion without feeling it, they feel estrangement from their real feelings. This results in the state of negative psychological well-being (Hochschild, 1983). Most of researches on surface acting supports Hochschild's (1983) "alienation hypothesis". But some researchers have the possibility of positive effects of surface acting. For example, if employees engage in surface acting with a positive attitude, the results may be positive in terms of employees' well-being (Morris&Felman, 1996). This paper focuses on the positive aspect of surface acting
In fact, the researches on emotional labor have shown mixed results in terms of its effect on employee's well-being. So we propose that there are complex processes in the relationship between emotional labor and its effects on employee's well-being. In exploring these processes, we will examine the effects of mediators between emotional labor and employee's well-being. In this paper, we will look at the positive mediating effect of personal accomplishment, as one dimension of burnout, between surface acting and other two dimensions of burnout, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization.
2. Surface acting and personal accomplishment Burnout is composed of three dimensions:emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment (Maslach&Jackson, 1986). They mean
respectively basic stress, indifference to recipient, and low feelings of personal productivity and ability.
Previous research has supported the proposition that surface acting has a negative effect on personal accomplishment (Brotheridge&Grandey, 2002). However. we believe that surface acting may have a positive effect on personal accomplishment if the organization supports the emotion management through training, policies, and supervision, and employees make a few efforts to follow the display rules of organization with a suitable personality and ability (Kruml&Geddes, 2000).
Emotional labor refers to efforts made by employee during the transactions with recipient. It influences recipients and contributes to the attainment of organizational goals. Therefore, employee needs various skills and must make sufficient efforts in order to display the organizationally desired emotions.
Display of emotion in organization is different from that in general interactions (Hochschild, 1983). Organizations attempt to influence emotion management of employees with training, policies. and supervision (Kruml&Geddes, 2000). Organizations also try to select employees who have abilities and personalities consistent with organizational characteristics. In the case of flight attendants in Korea, there is a formal undergraduate institution for individuals who seek to enter the profession. Other applicants who don't graduate from the formal institution typically must take special programs on developing the basic skills and manners in a private academy. Upon employment with the airlines, new hired employees receive formal education and training by the organization. Through these procedures they are taught to consider organizational goals as more important than personal ones and to modify their emotional state to one suitable for attaining organizational goals (Kruml& Geddes, 2000).
Basically, emotional labor contributes to attaining organizational goals by promoting task performance (Ashforth&Humphrey, 1993). By expressing emotional labor employees can help organizations attain their goals and may feel a sense of personal accomplishment (Ashforth&Humphrey, 1993). Employees who have been trained to have a concern on but keep an emotional distance from recipients have what it is called detached concern. They know how to display emotions while maintaining objectivity towards customers, thus keeping an emotional balance. Therefore, those who follow
display rules can feel personal achievement and reduce burnout. In other words, emotional labor can contribute to increase the satisfaction, security, and self-esteem of employees.
Several previous studies have supported the above point For example, Zapf and Holz (2006) found that the display
of positive emotion was associated with higher levels of
personal achievement compared with those displaying negative emotion.
Based on these researches, we assume that there are some possibilities of the positive effect of emotional labor, especially surface acting, on personal achievement. In the next section, we will discuss the relationship between
personal accomplishment and the other two dimensions of
burnout: emotional exhaustion and depersonalization.
3. Personal accomplishment and two dimensions of burnout
There are two models of the process between personal
accomplishment and the other two dimensions of burnout
(Cordes, Dougherty,&Blum, 1997). Leiter and Maslach assert the process of emotional exhaustion leading to
depersonalization which in turn leads to reduced personal
accomplishment. However, Golembiewski, Munzenrider,
and Stevenson assert that depersonalization leads to reduced personal accomplishment which leads to emotional exhaustion. Cordes, Dougherty, and Blum (1997) concluded that the model of Leiter and Maslach better reflected the data. Irrespective of which model is superior, the existence of the two models means that these models are concerned with the negative effect of emotional labor. In this study, we examine the positive
effect of emotional labor through personal
accomplishment on the other two dimensions of burnout.
First, in the existential perspective, meaningfulness through job contributes to decrease burnout (Pines& Aronson, 1988). Human beings have needs to find out meaningfulness in life. They try to pursue something worth while to live. Ideal persons may be devoted to work,
because the work makes their life meaningfulness. If the
work doesn't satisfy employee's expectation, burnout occurs. On the contrary, if the work satisfies a person's need and intention, employee feels a success. This
psychological feeling of a success, another expression of
personal accomplishment, functions in increasing employee's energy and concern on recipients.
Second, if a person feels a more competence or
1980). The concept of self-efficacy has developed different from burnout or psychological success. Self-efficacy is defined as "belief in self-control of event occurred in one's life"(Bandura, 1997). Cherniss (1980) posited that a loss in self-efficacy is a important cause on burnout. If employees can help other people through their work and believe in their ability to do work, their burnout will be decrease. In other words, another expression of personal accomplishment is self-efficacy.
Third, in the perspective of COR (conservation of resources)(Hobfoll, 1989), emotional exhaustion are connected with job demands, but personal accomplishment is connected with resources. This means that emotional exhaustion is directly connected with one's job, but personal accomplishment may not. Personal accomplishment is an indicator of self-evaluation after engaging in emotional labor. Though emotional labor, especially surface acting in this research, requires employees to consume emotional energy, if they fmd out meaningfulness and feel self efficacy in their work they can have the feeling of personal accomplishment. The negative results of surface acting are emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. But the positive aspect of surface acting may be personal accomplishment. Compared with emotional exhaustion and depersonalization as a negative mediator, personal accomplishment may be a 'positive' mediator in the relationship between surface acting and the two dimensions of burnout.
Based on above discussion, we formulate and test the following hypotheses.
Hypothesis 1:Personal accomplishment is a mediator in the relationship between surface acting and emotional exhaustion.
Hypothesis 2:Personal accomplishment is a mediator in the relationship between surface acting and depersonalization.
4. Method
4.1 Participants and procedure
The questionnaires in this study were completed by flight attendants of two airlines in Korea. Flight attendant is a profession where employee has a very high demand for emotional labor (flochschild. 1983).
The data were collected during the period from December of 2006 to May of 2007. A total of 334 flight attendants returned the questionnaire (response rate of 52.7%). Of
these, 142 (41.3%) belonged to one airlines we label "alpha" and 202 (58.7%) belonged to the other labeled "beta." Of the sample 298 (86.7%) were females, 198 single persons (57.6%), and 180 (52.3%) in middle and over position. Their mean tenure was 7.4 years and average aviation hours per month was 87.6 (see Table 1).
4.2 Measure
The measurement of surface acting in this study was designed with references to Kruml and Geddes (2000). This scale consisted of six items:For examples, "I hide my true feelings for good performance". These items were measured by a 5-point Likert scale with the following anchors: never (1), rarely (2), sometimes (3), often (4), and always (5). The internal reliability for surface acting in this study was 0.733.
Personal accomplishment scale in this study was used from Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach&Jackson, 1986). We selected 8 items based on the reliability and factor analysis, such as "I have accomplished many worthwhile things in my job". These eight items were measured by a 5-point Likert scale, and the internal reliability of them was 0.799.
Emotional exhaustion and depersonalization scales were also used from Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach& Jackson, 1986). We selected 6 items for an emotional
exhaustion scale based on the reliability and factor analysis, such as "I feel emotionally drained from my work". These six items were measured by a 5-point Likert scale, and their internal reliability was 0.847. As a depersonalization scale we selected 5 items, such as "I've become more callous toward people since I took this
job". These items were measured also by a 5-point Likert scale, and the internal reliability of them was 0.723. Control variables in this study were airlines, gender, age, marriage, position, negative affectivity, and average aviation hours per month. Airlines, gender, marriage, and position were operationalized as dummy variables such as follows:"Alpha" Airlines is 0, and "Beta" is 1; Women 0, Men 1; single 0, married 1; low position 0, middle and above 1. Tenure and average aviation hours per month were considered as continuous variables. Negative affectivity was measured by three items based on Watson and Clark (1984), and their internal reliability was 0.793.
4.3 Result
We have shown correlations among all variables in Table 1. Surface acting was not associated with personal
Table 1. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and internal reliability
accomplishment. And surface acting was positively correlated with emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Personal accomplishment was negatively correlated with emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. To test the hypotheses, we analyzed three steps such as follows: the effect of surface acting on personal accomplishment, the effect of personal accomplishment on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and we performed the Sobel test.
4.3.1 The effect of surface acting on personal accomplishment
The first requisite is that surface acting should have a significant effect on personal accomplishment in order that personal accomplishment may function as mediator.
For this, we conducted two stepped hierarchical regressions where personal and organizational characteristics entered in the first step and surface acting entered in the second step. As shown in Table 2, surface acting additionally explained significant variance in personal accomplishment (• R2=0.016,ƒÀ=0.136;
p<0.05).
Table 2 shows that surface acting increases personal accomplishment. It means that surface acting has a positive effect on well-being. This also means that the first prerequisite in our study is satisfied. Therefore we can progress to the next stage of the analysis.
Table 2. Regressions of surface acting predicting mediators
4.3.2. The effect of personal accomplishment on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization
The second prerequisite is that the effect of personal accomplishment on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization should be significant. We conducted hierarchical regressions that were divided into two
dependent variables, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. These regression analyses were connected with the next Sobel test where we would calculate the significance of mediation effect separated by dependent variables.
First we looked at whether personal accomplishment has a significantly direct effect on emotional exhaustion, while
controlling the effects of surface acting. As shown in Table 3, personal accomplishment and depersonalization additionally explained significant variance in emotional exhaustion (• R2=0.075; p<0.01) beyond those explained by surface acting (see Model 1 and Model 2). It was certain that personal accomplishment had a significant effect on emotional exhaustion because the results (ƒÀ= -0 .100) satisfied the generally accepted significance level (p<0.05).
Table 3. Regressions of personal accomplishment predicting emotional exhaustion
Table 4. Regressions of personal accomplishment Predicting depersonalization
This analysis means that there is a possibility that due to personal accomplishment surface acting has a positive effect on employees' well-being. In other words, surface
acting might decrease emotional exhaustion, mediated by personal accomplishment.
The result of the second analysis presenting the effect of personal accomplishment on depersonalization is shown in Table 4. As shown in Model 2 of Table 4, personal accomplishment and emotional exhaustion explained an additional 11.6% of the variance in depersonalization
(•¢R2=0.116; p<0.01). Personal accomplishment (ƒÀ=
-0.190, p<0.01) had a significant effect on depersonalization.
This analysis shows that through personal accomplishment surface acting may have a positive effect on depersonalization. In other words, surface acting might decrease depersonalization, mediated by personal accomplishment.
4.3.3. Sobel test and mediation result
To determine the significance of personal accomplishment as a mediator in the relationship between surface acting and burnout, we conducted the Sobel. The Sobel test presents the level of significance of the indirect effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable through a mediator. For the Sobel test, we examined the two separate mediation models, because it was not possible to simultaneously test the individual mediation effect connected with two dependent variables. The mediation Model 1 is composed of surface acting as an independent variable, depersonalization and personal accomplishment as mediators, and emotional exhaustion as a dependent variable. The mediation Model 2 is composed of same as those in the Model 1 except substituting depersonalization for emotional exhaustion in the dependent variable.
Table 5 presents the summary of the mediation results in this study. Hypothesis 1 of Model 1 was not supported because personal accomplishment didn't have a significant degree of indirect effect (p-A.093). Hypothesis 2 of Model 2 was supported as personal accomplishment incompletely mediated the effect of surface acting on depersonalization.
5. Discussion
The results of this research are as follows; First, this research suggests that surface acting may have a positive effect on personal accomplishment. Second, this research shows that personal accomplishment functions as mediator in the effect of surface acting on depersonalization. Third, this research doesn't show that personal accomplishment functions as mediator in the effect of surface acting on emotional exhaustion. These results means that it is possible for flight attendants to engage in surface acting and through personal accomplishment decrease depersonalization. Flight attendants can perform the emotional labor with detached concern. This means that they display the organizationally desired emotion externally without feeling the emotion internally. Zapf (2002) named that emotional labor "deliberative dissonance acting". This study suggests that surface acting in the flight attendant profession may be identical to "deliberative dissonance acting". We hope that the finding in this research serves as a momentum for future research on developing the concept of "deliberative dissonance acting" further.
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Biography
Dongmyong Lee: (Ph.d. of Management from Seoul
National University, Korea)
Department of Business Administration
Korea Aerospace University, Korea
Email:[email protected]
Sangheon Han: (Ph.d. of Economics from Osaka University, Japan)
Department of Management Information Science
Nagoya University of Commerce&Business, Japan
