Emotional labor, employee engagement and quality of life: a research on service employees

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of emotional labor including deep acting and surface acting on employee engagement. It also examines the effect of employee engagement to quality of life of service employees in Vietnam. Moreover, the moderator role of customer orientation and work life balance perception on the relationship between deep acting, surface acting and employee engagement is also tested in this study. A structural equation model is applied and tested using data survey from a sample of 278 service employees in Ho Chi Minh City. The results reveal that surface acting positively impacts on employee engagement whereas deep acting negatively impacts on employee engagement. In addition, employee engagement positively effects on quality of life. Furthermore, the moderating role of customer orientation to the relationship between surface acting and employee engagement is supported whereas deep acting is not significant. Nevertheless, the moderating role of work life balance perception is not supported in this study. Based on these findings, this study proposes some realistic tactics for management to have suitable strategy to improve employee engagement and employee quality of life through emotional labor and customer orientation.