The service industry has played a vital role in the recent economic advancement. According to the World Fact Book website, approximately 62.2% of the gross domestic product is derived from the service industry in Belize. For improved economic growth through competitive advantage, the service industries’ customer retention strategy should focus on providing excellent customer service to existing customers and maintaining those long term relationships (Bharadwaj, Varadarajan, & Fahy, 1993). A customer’s impression of the organization and service received is often dependent on the initial interaction they experienced with the frontline employees (Tsaur &
Tang, 2013). The frontline employees are seen as the face of the company because they are the first people the customers interact directly with. Therefore, these employees are expected to display appropriate emotional expressions during this interaction to ensure that the customer leaves satisfied with the services offered.
The service industry usually has its own set of rules or norms for what is considered appropriate emotional displays in the workplace. There is usually a standard of behavior that states what emotions can be expressed or what emotions should be suppressed when interacting with customers (Groth, Hennig-Thurau, & Walsh, 2009). Employees that have to adhere to these display rules are often said to be experiencing ‘emotional labor’. Even when the employee is experiencing negative emotions within the workplace, they are still expected to appear pleasant and smile with the customers. This research focuses on frontline employees and their experiences of emotional labor as the focal point because frontline workers are the determinant factor used to represent an organization.
Emotional labor is referred to as the act of managing feelings or expressions during working hours for the purpose of improving the organization by satisfying the customers’ needs (Hochschild, 1983). An organization can be upheld to the highest standard of cleanliness, have good quality products, and the timing could be satisfactory but if the attitude that the employee displayed was unsatisfactory it could ruin the customers’ perception of the company (Solomon, Surprenant, Czepiel, & Gutman, 1985). Employees that are asked to perform emotional labor, may act by changing the way they feel internally to match the desired emotional expectations of the
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organization (deep acting) or pretend and fake the way they display their feelings on the outside, regardless of how they genuinely feel on the inside (surface acting) (Geng, Liu, Liu, & Feng, 2014).
When an employee if being asked to portray emotions that are not necessarily their own by suppressing actual feelings, this suppression of feelings can be linked to acting out through defiant behavior. These emotions usually lead to what is known as ‘counterproductive work behavior’
(Wang & Lian, 2015).
Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) is an intentional act of defiance against the organization or the members associated with the organization (Spector & Fox, 2002). Researchers have identified counterproductive work behavior as a way of expressing or escaping emotional dissonance (Bechtoldt, Welk, Hartig, & Zapf, 2007). In other words, when the employees feel inauthentic, they are likely to experience mental fatigue, exhaustion and other negative psychological effects (Wang & Lian, 2015). In addition to an organizational level, the first moderating variable, perceived organizational support is one of the antecedents to influence how the employees behave during working hours. When the employees believe that the organization values the extra effort that it takes to perform emotional labor and also express their concerns in regard to their well-being while providing an environment that caters to their socioemotional needs, this seems to decrease or even eliminate the urge to act counterproductively towards the organization or its members.
The second moderating variable in this study, mindfulness, is described as a state of being consciously aware of the present moment and their surroundings in a judgement and non-reactive way (Hülsheger, Alberts, Feinholdt, & Lang, 2012). A mindful employee is able to take control of their negative emotions associated with the expressions of emotional labor through various self-awareness techniques that decreases the need or urge to react counterproductively.
Therefore, prioritizing the human capital within the organization through proper training and support will in return provide beneficial results for the organizations in the service industry.
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Statement of the Problem
The expectations associated with meeting the organization’s display rules in the service industry can be perceived as stressful and often leave workers at risk of experiencing emotion-related stress (Wharton, 1993). It was important to examine if the stress caused by emotional labor has an influence on the employees’ decision to partake in counterproductive work behavior. Thus it was vital to explore if emotional labor can be minimized by being mindful and through perceived organizational support. The human resource departments and work organizations can benefit by identifying intervention techniques to tackle the counterproductive behavior portrayed by frontline service employees before it decreases the GDP in the service industry, inevitably ruining the country’s customer service reputation.
Based on the theoretical perspective of the Conservation of resources (COR) theory, this research focuses on the resource loss of employees during expression of emotional labor. In the absence of resource replenishment strategies, employees tend to engage in withdrawal behavior in order to preserve their available resources. Withdrawal behavior is a form of counter productivity.
Considering that perceived organizational support (POS) and mindfulness are two types of resources, this research examines both resources as possible moderating variables.
This study proposed a conceptual Model that fills the significant gaps in the literature.
Firstly, identifying the relationship between emotional labor and counterproductive work behavior.
Secondly, identifying ways to improve employees’ well-being through replenishment of personal resources has not been researched systematically as resultant outcome of employees’ emotional labor. This issue could be linked to the fact that: a) employees were not properly equipped with the necessary skills to cope with or overcome this issue b) employees not believing that the organization supports them during the difficult encounters with customers. Therefore, raising awareness of the effects of emotional labor as a contributing factor of counterproductive work behavior is the first step towards reducing its occurrence within the profession. Specifically, to address the lack of developed intervention strategies, and to improve the economic advancement of the service industry within Belize and other developing countries.
Past articles have utilized the conservation of resources theory to explain the relationship between variables (Zhang et al., 2018), the research identified how surface acting depletes
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resources through excessive customer demands and the feeling of being inauthentic. Since there is a small body of literature that examined the direct effect of emotional labor on counterproductive work behavior among frontline employees, especially in Central America, this study focuses on the relationship between EL and CWB in the service industry in Belize. This research will expand this study by identifying how these resources can be replenished through mindfulness and perceived organizational support.
Purposes of the Study
The purpose of this study was primarily to examine the relationships among emotional labor, mindfulness, perceived organizational support, and counterproductive work behavior.
Specifically, this research had two main objectives. First, was to examine the impact of emotional labor on counterproductive work behavior. Second, to explore the moderating roles of mindfulness and POS in the relationship between emotional labor and counterproductive work behavior. The aim of the study is to find a solution to decrease the level of distress employees experience during emotional labor and create an increased level of positive outcomes such as employee commitment and organizational citizenship behavior. Organizations need to recognize that emotions and the perception of how an organization supports and values its employees should become an important element of the organizational work culture (Sharma & Sharma, 2014).
Research Questions
This study was mainly to understand the relationships among emotional labor, mindfulness, perceived organizational support and counterproductive work behavior. Four research questions were formulated as follows
1. Will emotional labor surface acting be related to counterproductive work behavior?
2. Will emotional labor deep acting be related to counterproductive work behavior?
3. Will perceived organizational support moderate the relationship between emotional labor surface acting and counterproductive work behavior?
4. Will perceived organizational support moderate the relationship between emotional labor deep acting and counterproductive work behavior?
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5. Will employees’ mindfulness moderate the relationship between emotional labor surface acting and counterproductive work behavior?
6. Will employees’ mindfulness moderate the relationship between emotional labor surface acting and counterproductive work behavior?
Significance of the Study
The objective of this study was to combine two areas of study, management and psychology, and explore the application of the conservation of resources theory through implementing mindfulness and perceived organizational support as the moderating variables between emotional labor and counterproductive work behavior. Through the investigation of this interaction, a clearer picture of the current situation in Belize and performance of the service industry frontline workers on the topic should be revealed. The overall result of this study will assist with broadening the perspectives of researchers in the field of emotional labor, counterproductive work behavior, perceived organizational support and mindfulness. As the GDP in Belize increases through the service industry, it is critical that organizations recognize the importance of mental health among its human resource. The findings from this research will also be beneficial towards the development of the organization through the recruiting and selecting phase. For example, if mindfulness is found to be able to alleviate the positive relationship between emotional labor and counterproductive work behavior, employees that possess the ability to be mindful would be a better selection choice in the service industry, so preselection questions can be based around mindfulness skills and abilities. Mindfulness training can also be self-taught through online instructional videos, so it saves the organization finances on different varieties of training methods. An employee that has developed these skills is also able to share the experience related to this proactive coping technique to the new employees.
In addition, by filling this gap in the literature, it provides a greater understanding of how these organizational factors affect the employees’ well-being. If the organization provides this type of support for socioemotional management methods, then they are likely to retain the existing employees. When the employee is in full control of their emotions and reactions in the moment towards customers, this in turn can also lead to an improved work experience and an increase in sales and productivity for the organization.
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Definition of Terms Emotional Labor
The organization usually has a specific set of display rules as to determine the different forms of appropriate emotional expressions. Emotional labor is the requirement to follow these rules regardless of authentic personal feelings. The two forms of emotional labor include faking unfelt emotions or suppressing actual felt emotions (surface acting) and/or altering internal emotions to match external displays (deep acting) in the interest of achieving the organization’s goals (Diefendorff, Croyle, & Gosserand, 2005).
Mindfulness
The concept of mindfulness involves being aware of what is happening in the present moment both internally and externally, through stimuli and being able to observe those stimuli without reacting or exhibiting any form of judgment and without assigning any meaning to them (Feldman, Hayes, Kumar, Greeson, & Laurenceau, 2007).
Perceived Organizational Support
Perceived organizational support is known as the employees’ perception that the organization values and appreciates their contributions, encourages their inputs and acknowledges their outputs while also caring about their well-being (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, &
Sowa, 1986).
Counterproductive Work Behavior
Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB) is defined as when an employee voluntarily commits destructive or detrimental acts that knowingly affect or hurt the organization or members of that organization (Spector, Bauer, & Fox, 2010).
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