Research on Emotional Labor: Review and Prospect

Abstract

As the coming of the service oriented society, employees should exert themselves to manage their emotions in the workplace to conform to the expectations of customers and organizations, which is called emotional labor. Emotional work focuses on the internal regulatory processes in order to express the appropriate feelings consisting with the job requirements. Emotional work is an important factor that influences the job performance and organizational goals. It may be a powerful predictor of job performance, job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion et al. The article reviews some important studies in this research field. It elaborates the concept, the definition, the structure, the emotion work strategies, the measurement, the antecedents, the consequences and the possible mediator of emotional labor. On the basis of a comprehensive review, the article points out the limitations of existing research and the future research directions.