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European Journal of Work and

Organizational PsychologyPublication details, including instructions for authors

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On the positive and negative

effects of emotion work inorganizationsDieter Zapf

a & Melanie Holz

a

a Department of Psychology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-

University, Frankfurt, Germany

Version of record first published: 17 Feb 2007.

To cite this article: Dieter Zapf & Melanie Holz (2006): On the positive and negative

effects of emotion work in organizations, European Journal of Work and Organizational

Psychology, 15:1, 1-28

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On the positive and negative effects of emotion workin organizations

Dieter Zapf and Melanie HolzDepartment of Psychology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University,

Frankfurt, Germany

Emotion work (emotional labour) is defined as emotional regulation requiredto display organizationally desired emotions by the employees. It has receivedincreased attention because it is relevant in the service industry where socialinteractions with customers, clients, or patients are a significant part of the job.Empirical studies found equivocal effects on psychological well-being whichindicates that emotion work is a multidimensional construct with dimensionshaving positive and negative health effects. In the present studies, the followingaspects of emotion work were differentiated: emotional regulation requirements:(1) the requirement to display positive emotions; (2) the requirement to displaynegative emotions, (3) the requirement to be sensitive to clients’ emotions; (4)emotional dissonance: the expression of emotions that are not felt. Analyses

were based on a representative sample (N ¼ 184) of service workers andanother sample of service workers (N ¼ 1158) consisting of call centre agents,hotel and bank employees, and kindergarten teachers. The data showed thatemotional dissonance was the stressful aspect of emotion work, whereas thedisplay of positive emotions and sensitivity requirements also had positiveeffects on personal accomplishment. The requirement to express negativeemotions had little effect on burnout. Neuroticism had little impact on therelations between emotion work and burnout.

In most economic societies service work plays an important role now. In the

European countries, for example, more than 50% of the workforce comprisesservice workers (Paoli, 1997). Consequently, the psychological analysis of

service work has received increased attention in recent years (e.g., Nerdinger,

Correspondence should be addressed to Dieter Zapf, Department of Psychology, Johann

Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt, Mertonstr. 17, D-60054 Frankfurt, Germany.

Email: [email protected]

An earlier version of this article was presented as a poster at the 25th international congress

of Applied Psychology, July 7 – 12, 2002, Singapore. Parts of the present study were supported

by the German Federal Ministry of Work and Social Affairs and the Hessen Ministry of Social

Affairs.

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF WORK AND

ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

2006, 15 (1), 1 – 28

2006 Psychology Press Ltd

http://www.psypress.com/ejwop DOI: 10.1080/13594320500412199

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1994; Zeithaml & Bitner, 2000). One of the core aspects of service work is the

social interaction with customers or clients. Here, as in any social interaction,

the requirement to regulate one’s emotions plays a central role. Hochschild

(1983) coined the term ‘‘emotional labour’’ for this requirement. She

investigated the work of flight attendants and showed that a substantial part

of the job was dealing with the passengers and their emotions.

Based on qualitative findings, Hochschild (1983) argued that high

emotional demands had negative effects on psychological and physical

health. Whereas most but not all empirical studies so far were able to

demonstrate such negative effects of emotional labour, the empirical

findings with regard to positive effects were much more inconsistent. In

some studies, the frequency of emotion display was positively related to

well-being; in others it was not. In particular, it has been argued that thedisplay of positive emotions has positive consequences. However, only a few

studies have explicitly measured the requirement to display positive

emotions. But again, empirical results were inconsistent. The present paper

intends to contribute to this still open question. We will present the test of

an overall model using structural equation modelling. In particular, we will

focus on the relationship between emotional job requirements and

psychological strain rather than on behavioural or emotion regulation

strategies and its consequences. We will distinguish between the requirement

to display positive and the requirement to display negative emotions and wewill also investigate the requirement to sense emotions of the interaction

partner. This has only occasionally been done in the literature so far.

Finally, we will systematically consider negative affectivity (NA) in these

analyses, thus responding to an important methodological discussion in

psychological stress research. We are not aware of any study that took all

these aspects into account. In the following we will first describe a

multidimensional framework of emotion work. Based on the existing

literature we will then develop hypotheses regarding the positive and

negative effects of emotion work on burnout.Emotional labour or emotion work (Zapf, 2002) is an important aspect of

employee – client interactions. ‘‘Client’’ is used here to refer to any person

who interacts with an employee, for example, patients, children, customers,

passengers, or guests. Expressing appropriate emotions during face-to-face

or voice-to-voice interactions is a job demand for many employees in the

service industry. Service workers are required to manage their emotions as a

part of their job. Certainly, service workers cannot be assumed to be always

in a good mood. Rather, they may sometimes be bored and they may all

more or less frequently encounter situations eliciting negative emotions such

as anger, fear, or disappointment. Emotion work as part of the job,

however, implies the display of organizationally desired emotions even in

these unpleasant situations. Accordingly, emotion work has been defined as

2 ZAPF AND HOLZ

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the psychological processes necessary to regulate organizationally desired

emotions as part of one’s job (e.g., Grandey, 2000; Hochschild, 1983;

Rafaeli & Sutton, 1987; Zapf, 2002).

Hochschild (1983) argued that carrying out emotion work for long hours

wouldovertax the service providers’ abilities to show the desired emotions. They

would go on smiling, but they would not feel the expected emotions. This

discrepancy between displayed and felt emotions she called ‘‘emotional

dissonance’’. Hochschild maintained that showing emotions not felt at that

moment would—in the long run—lead to the alienation of one’s feelings, which

would cause psychological ill health. In her qualitative interviews with flight

attendants, she found a variety of negative health consequences of emotion

work such as psychosomatic symptoms, and alcohol and sex problems.

Other studies, however, did not uniformly find these negative effects, andsome even found positive effects of emotion work. Therefore, researchers

started to develop models differentiating various dimensions of emotion work.

Most of these models comprised dimensions referring to the frequency of

emotion display and/or emotional dissonance (e.g., Brotheridge & Grandey,

2002; Grandey, 2000; Morris & Feldman, 1996, 1997; Schaubroeck & Jones,

2000). This also applies to the concept used in the present study. Moreover,

applying Hackman’s (1969) distinction of job analysis approaches we followed

the behaviour requirement approach, thus focusing on the situational job

requirements (see also Diefendorff & Richard, 2003; Schaubroeck & Jones,2000) rather than on the individual work behaviours or emotion regulation

strategies (e.g., Brotheridge & Lee, 2002; Cote ´ & Morgan, 2002; Glomb &

Tews, 2004). We differentiated between various dimensions of emotion work

requirements (Zapf, Vogt, Seifert, Mertini, & Isic, 1999): (1) the requirement

to display positive emotions (abbreviated as ‘‘positive emotions’’), (2) the re-

quirement to display and handle negative emotions (‘‘negative emotions’’),

(3) the requirement to sense the emotion of the interaction partner (‘‘sensitivity

requirements’’), and (4) the dissonance between felt and displayed emotions

(‘‘emotional dissonance’’).In line with most empirical studies (e.g., Adelmann, 1995; Brotheridge &

Lee, 2003; Morris & Feldman, 1997) the frequency of emotional display was

considered to be an important aspect of emotion work. Factor analyses

(Zapf, Vogt et al., 1999) demonstrated the necessity of distinguishing

between being required to show positive and negative emotions. This is so

because the necessity to display positive and negative emotions is not

uniformly high or low across occupations. Rather, it depends on specific job

requirements. For a call centre agent, the requirement to show negative

emotions will be relatively infrequent (e.g., Zapf, Isic, Bechtoldt, & Blau,

2003). In contrast, a frequently cited example for a job comprising a

frequent requirement to show negative emotions is the case of a bill collector

(Sutton, 1991). Another example may be an undertaker, who has to express

EMOTION WORK IN ORGANIZATIONS 3

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seriousness and grief during a funeral. The requirement to display negative

emotions should not be mistaken for letting out one’s negative emotions in

an uncontrolled manner. Rather, the controlled expression of anger may be

used to make clear that one is seriously affected by something or that one is

taking something very seriously. For example, a nurse may use controlled

anger to make clear that she does not want to be touched by a patient. A

kindergarten teacher may use anger to stop children fighting, etc. Whereas

there are some studies which also included the requirement of positive

emotions display (e.g., Diefendorff & Richard, 2003; Schaubroeck & Jones,

2000), the requirement to express negative emotions has been considered in

qualitative studies (Stenross & Kleinman, 1989; Sutton, 1991) but only

rarely in quantitative studies.

The expression of organizationally desired emotions is not an end initself. Emotions are shown to have an influence on clients (Cote ´ , 2005;

Kruml & Geddes, 2000; Pugliesi, 1999). Expressing emotions is one possible

way to influence the clients’ feelings. To be able to influence the clients’

emotions, their accurate perception is an important prerequisite. In social

interactions, information provided by the emotion display of the interaction

partner is used to guide one’s own response (Elfenbein, Marsh, & Ambady,

2002). Therefore, sensitivity requirements as the necessity to be sensitive and

to consider the emotions of clients is another aspect of the emotion work

concept (Zapf, Vogt et al., 1999). Sensitivity requirements are low if thereare no or only few interactions with clients or if an employee can display

organizationally desired emotions independent from the clients’ feelings, for

example, in the case of highly scripted interactions. Sensitivity requirements

are high, if knowledge of the clients’ emotions is a prerequisite for one’s own

emotional reaction.

Finally, as in some of the other studies on emotion work, we included the

concept of emotional dissonance (e.g., Abraham, 1998; Kruml & Geddes,

2000; Morris & Feldman, 1996, 1997; Nerdinger & Ro ¨ per, 1999; Zapf, Vogt

et al., 1999; Zerbe, 2000). Emotional dissonance occurs when an employee isrequired to express emotions which are not genuinely felt in the particular

situation. A person may feel nothing when a certain emotion display is

required, or the display rule may require the suppression of undesired

emotions and the expression of neutrality or a positive emotion instead of a

negative one. Emotional dissonance was found to be resulting from external

demands rather than being a reaction to emotion display or a behavioural

strategy (Zapf, Vogt et al., 1999). We assume that surface acting which is

a response focused strategy to express an emotion which is not felt

(cf. Grandey, 2000; Hochschild, 1983) is an adequate and probably the

most frequently used emotion regulation strategy to respond to emotional

dissonance as a situational demand, e.g., if the situational demand is to be

friendly to an arrogant customer. However, the service provider may also not

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be willing to put on the expected friendly face. Rather he or she may look

neutral or even angry, thus showing emotional deviance (Rafaeli & Sutton,

1987) as another possible response. In cases, the service provider may even

try to overcome his or her negative inner feelings, which corresponds to the

concept of deep acting (Hochschild, 1983). In the work of Hochschild, it was

emotional dissonance that was hypothesized to lead to the alienation of one’s

feelings which in turn caused various psychological strains.

The positive and negative effects of emotion work will be investigated

with regard to burnout (e.g., Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998). This concept was

introduced as an individual reaction to high emotional demands in human

service work. It can be understood as an indication that employees are no

longer able to manage their emotions adequately when interacting with

clients. Burnout is a syndrome consisting of three aspects: emotionalexhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment

(Maslach & Jackson, 1986). Emotional exhaustion measures one’s feeling

of being burnt out, frustrated, and perceiving working with people to be

demanding. Depersonalization comprises the tendency to treat clients like

objects and to become indifferent and apathetic with regard to clients.

Personal accomplishment includes the feeling of having the competence to

do things and of being able to meet one’s aspirations in one’s job.

Explanations for the positive and negative effects of emotion work on

burnout can be given at two different levels (cf. Cote ´ , 2005). First, at theinteraction level, the emotion work aspects can be seen as indicators of

positive or negative social interactions with clients. Second, explanations at

the conceptual level of emotion regulation relate to processes and

mechanisms inherent in the emotion work concept (Grandey, 2000; Zapf,

2002; see below). In the following we will discuss the potential positive and

negative effects of the emotion work aspects on burnout both at the level of

social interactions and the level of emotion regulation.

Starting with the negative effects, studies consistently found correlations

between emotional dissonance (or variables which share some features withemotional dissonance such as suppressing negative emotions or surface

acting) and psychological strain (e.g., Abraham, 1998; Brotheridge &

Grandey, 2002; Grebner et al., 2003; Heuven & Bakker, 2003; Lewig &

Dollard, 2003; Morris & Feldman, 1997; Nerdinger & Ro ¨ per, 1999;

Schaubroeck & Jones, 2000; Zapf, Vogt et al., 1999; Zerbe, 2000). In

particular, relations between emotional dissonance and emotional exhaus-

tion were found in the studies of Heuven and Bakker (2003), Lewig and

Dollard (2003), Morris and Feldman (1997), Nerdinger and Ro ¨ per (1999),

Zapf, Vogt et al. (1999), and Zerbe (2000). Similar results were found for

emotional dissonance and depersonalization (Dormann & Zapf, 2004;

Dormann, Zapf, & Isic, 2002; Zapf, Vogt et al., 1999). A variety of

explanations exists for this result. An explanation at the interaction level is


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that emotional dissonance is related to emotional exhaustion because it is a

sensitive qualitative indicator of unpleasant and stressful interactions with

clients. Clients may be aggressive, they may confront the service provider

with disproportionate expectations, or they may behave in an uncivil

manner. These behaviours have been related to psychological strain (e.g.,

Ben-Zur & Yagil, 2005; Dormann & Zapf, 2004; Duffy, Ganster, & Pagon,

2002; Spector, 1997) and emotional dissonance may be a good indicator to

cover these different kinds of negative social interactions with clients or

customers.

Moreover, at the level of emotion regulation, Gross and colleagues

(Gross, 1998; Gross & John, 1997; Gross & Levenson, 1997) argued that

emotion regulation—as any process of self-regulation (see Muraven, Tice, &

Baumeister, 1998)—has its psychological costs. Emotional dissonance oftenmeans the suppression of negative emotion and there is evidence that

emotion suppression is related to the sympathetic activation of the

cardiovascular system (Gross & Levenson, 1997) which has been shown to

be associated with poor health, adjustment, and coping responses

(Pennebaker, 1990). Finally, Brotheridge and Lee (2002) suggested that

surface acting which is one way to react if the required emotions do not

conform to the emotions actually felt, may threaten one’s authenticity (see

also Erickson & Wharton, 1997). This comes close to Hochschild’s (1983)

notion that emotional dissonance generates feelings of estrangement fromthe self, which is supposed to be related to psychological strain.

Emotional dissonance may also lead to the (chronic) detachment of other

people’s feelings which may be related to depersonalization. Thus, based on

these explanations both at the interactional and the conceptual level and in

line with previous research, we hypothesized that emotional dissonance is

positively related to emotional exhaustion (Hypothesis 1a) and depersona-

lization (Hypothesis 1b).

With regard to the frequency of being required to display emotions,

contradictory hypotheses exist. Some authors proposed that these require-ments have negative health effects (Hochschild, 1983; Morris & Feldman,

1996); others (Schaubroeck & Jones, 2000) proposed a positive effect for the

requirement to display positive emotions.

Overall, we assume that emotional job requirements, i.e., the requirement

of the job to display positive or negative emotions and to sense the emo-

tion of the client, depend on the existence of display rules (rules for the

expression of emotions), the frequency and the duration of service interactions

as well as on the quality of these interactions, i.e., whether the clients are

behaving positively or negatively (Grandey, 2000; Morris & Feldman, 1996;

Zapf, 2002). We further assume that there is a positive relation between

emotional requirements and health outcomes as long as these requirements are

matched by the personal prerequisites of the service provider. However, if

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emotional requirements exceed certain limits, then the likelihood increases that

the emotions which have to be expressed do not match the emotions felt at that

moment corresponding to the definition of emotional dissonance. It follows

that any negative effect of the requirement to display positive or negative

emotions on burnout should be mediated by emotional dissonance (Hypoth-

esis 2). That is, a full mediation effect is hypothesized, which implies that there

should be no direct negative effects of the requirement to display positive

emotions (Hypothesis 2a) or negative emotions (Hypothesis 2b) on emotional

exhaustion or depersonalization if emotional dissonance is included as a

mediator. This mediator effect of emotional dissonance has not yet been

systematically investigated in the literature.

There is a variety of reasons why emotion work should also have positive

effects on psychological well-being. At the level of social interactions it canbe argued that if service providers successfully meet the requirement to

display and sense emotions, this will have positive effects. In particular, it

will contribute to the feeling of self-efficacy or personal accomplishment.

Based on the literature on the affiliation motive it can be assumed that

dealing with other people and expressing emotions when interacting with

these people satisfies needs for affiliation, status, and recognition, for

example, by showing altruistic behaviour (e.g., Bierhoff, 1990; Hill, 1987).

Stenross and Kleinman (1989) reported that detectives positively assessed

interrogations with criminal suspects because this played a central role forgoal achievement, namely, solving a case. This also included the display of

negative emotions, e.g., when using the ‘‘good cop – bad cop’’ technique.

Pugh (2001) and Tsai (2001) found that the display of positive emotions was

related to customer satisfaction and customers’ positive affect which may be

indicators of successful service interactions. These processes may contribute

to feelings of personal accomplishment.

At the conceptual level of emotion regulation, the expression of emotion

can either be thought of as a spontaneous or automatic process experienced

not to be effortful at all (cf. Scherer & Wallbott, 1990; Zapf, 2002; emotionalharmony according to Ashforth & Humphrey, 1993; passive deep acting

according to Hochschild, 1983), but contributing to a social situation with

positive consequences for the employee concerned. Moreover, the inten-

tional expression of positive emotions usually increases the probability of

the interaction partner to show reciprocal positive emotions in return (Cote ´ ,

2005; Wiemann & Giles, 1997). This can be perceived as positive feedback

contributing to the employee’s satisfaction and self-esteem. Emotional

contagion (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1994) has also been discussed as

a mechanism how the display of positive interactions in service encounters

can influence the clients’ emotions and thus contribute to a positive

rewarding interaction (Pugh, 2001). Adelmann (1995) referred to the

facial feedback hypothesis to argue for positive effects of emotion work


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(cf. Strack, Stepper, & Martin, 1988). On a qualitative level, Tolich (1993)

described supermarket clerks who enjoyed showing prescribed emotions in

the form of jokes or entertainment of customers who chose their checkout

lines.

Empirically, findings with regard to positive effects are inconsistent.

Wharton (1993) found a positive relation between emotional labour and job

satisfaction. Cote ´ and Morgan (2002) were able to demonstrate a causal

effect of expressing positive emotions on job satisfaction in a longitudinal

study. Morris and Feldman (1997) found positive effects of duration on

emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction, but similar negative effects of the

frequency of interaction. However, these effects all disappeared in multiple

regressions where emotional dissonance was included. Lewig and Dollard

(2003) did not find any positive effect. Brotheridge and Grandey (2002) andDiefendorff and Richard (2003) found a positive effect of the requirement to

express positive emotions on job satisfaction. Schaubroeck and Jones (2000)

found a respective negative effect instead of the hypothesized positive effect

on physical symptoms. Based on the theoretical considerations and the

existing empirical findings we hypothesized that the requirement to display

positive (Hypothesis 3a) and negative emotions (Hypothesis 3b) and to sense

the emotions of the interaction partner (Hypothesis 3c) are positively related

to personal accomplishment.

So far we described interactions in which service providers automaticallyshow the required emotions. If, however, the required emotions are not

automatically shown, then the person may respond with deep acting to bring

the felt emotions in line with the required emotions. When using deep acting

as an emotion regulation strategy, an individual actively tries to experience

the required emotion (Grandey, 2000; Hochschild, 1983). This may have

similar effects as if the emotions were displayed automatically (in line with

Hypotheses 3a – b). Accordingly, Brotheridge and Grandey (2002) reported

positive relations between deep acting and personal accomplishment in their

studies. Alternatively, the required emotion may not be spontaneously felt,but will be displayed. This corresponds to the definition of emotional

dissonance. Thus, we hypothesize that the emotional job requirements to

display positive (Hypothesis 4a) or negative emotions (Hypothesis 4b) are

related to emotional dissonance. Hypothesis 4 follows from Hypothesis 2,

which assumes that there is no direct effect of the emotion work requirement

variables on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, but that these

effects are mediated by emotional dissonance.

Moreover, if sensitivity requirements are too high they may overtax the

employees’ abilities to be sensitive because of the continuous necessity to

concentrate and process information while communicating with the client.

Therefore, we hypothesize that there are also direct effects on emotional

exhaustion (Hypothesis 5a) and depersonalization (Hypothesis 5b).

8 ZAPF AND HOLZ

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In recent years, stress researchers started to control stressor – strain

relationships for negative affectivity (NA). NA has often been equated with

neuroticism (Burke, Brief, & George, 1993; Watson & Clark, 1984), and it

has been interpreted as a general dimension that lowers the threshold to

experience negative emotions. Some authors have argued that NA

represents a nuisance variable that directly affects stressor – strain relations

(e.g., Burke et al., 1993). According to this view, individuals high in NA tend

to view both their working conditions and their health conditions more

negatively than individuals low in NA, thus producing an artificial

correlation between the variables.

At the theoretical level, it can be argued that individuals high in NA tend

to experience negative emotions more frequently. They will be more often

exposed to emotional dissonance because the display of positive emotions istypically required in most service interactions. Moreover, applying the

‘‘stressor creation mechanism’’ (Spector, Zapf, Chen, & Frese, 2000) to the

present context implies that individuals high in NA tend to create or

contribute to social conflicts with clients thus creating or contributing to a

negative quality of this interaction in which negative emotions are

experienced instead of the positive ones frequently required by the

organizational display rules.

Studies show that the burnout dimensions are associated with NA or

neuroticism (Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998). Moreover, although individualswith a tendency to experience negative emotions should report more

occasions where positive emotions are required but negative emotions are

felt (emotional dissonance), we hypothesize that these mechanisms do not

substantially decrease the relation between emotional dissonance and

emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. This results from the fact of

the emotional dissonance measure in the present study is intended to describe

aspects of the work situation rather than subjective reactions. Usually, such

measures are only little affected by NA as a nuisance factor (Spector et al.,

2000). We did not expect NA to affect the emotional requirements becausethese are mainly determined by the display rules and the frequency and

duration of service interactions. Moreover, the instrument used in this study

aimed at measuring the work environment thereby trying to minimize the

influence of individual cognitive and emotional processing in the measure-

ment process (Frese & Zapf, 1988). There is evidence that under these

circumstances, the effects of NA on stressor – strain relations are only small

in terms of Cohen’s (1992) effect size criteria (Spector et al., 2000). So far,

several studies on emotion work included neuroticism or NA. Brotheridge

and Grandey (2002) and Diefendorff and Richard (2003) found an effect

on demands to suppress negative emotions. In contrast, Schaubroeck and

Jones (2000) found a relatively strong effect of trait negative affect on

demands to suppress negative emotions (r¼ .48). Thus, we hypothesized that


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NA or neuroticism should have a positive effect on emotional dissonance and

burnout (Hypothesis 6). However, NA should not affect the relation between

emotional dissonance and burnout in a significant way. In summary, we will

test the following hypotheses, which are also shown in Figure 1:

Hypothesis 1: Emotional dissonance will be positively related to

emotional exhaustion (H1a) and depersonalization (H1b).

Hypothesis 2: There are no direct effects of the requirement to display

emotions on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Rather, the

effects are mediated by emotional dissonance.

Hypothesis 3: The requirement to display positive (H3a) and negative

emotions (H3b) and the requirements to sense the emotion of the client

(H3c) are positively related to the feeling of personal accomplishment.Hypothesis 4: The requirements to display positive (H4a) or negative

emotions (H4b) will also be related to emotional dissonance.

Hypothesis 5: There will be a direct effect of sensitivity requirements on

emotional exhaustion (H5a) and depersonalization (H5b).

Hypothesis 6: NA has a small effect (according to Cohen’s, 1992, effect

size criteria) on emotional dissonance, but will not change the relation

between emotional dissonance and burnout (H6).

Figure 1. Hypothesized relations between emotion work and burnout.

10 ZAPF AND HOLZ

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METHOD

Samples

In this study we will report analyses based on two samples. The first sample

consisted of employees working in different service sectors (‘‘service

sample’’) and the second was based on a randomly drawn sample

(‘‘representative sample’’).

The service sample consisted of four subsamples. The first subsample was

collected in the hotel business. With the help of the ‘‘Berufsgenossenschaft

Nahrung’’ (professional food association), 20 hotels in an area in South

West Germany were included in the study. Of the participants, 15% had a

‘‘Hauptschulabschluss’’ (lower stream school leaving certificate), 29% had

‘‘mittlere Reife’’ (middle stream school-leaving certificate), 44% had‘‘Abitur’’ (high school diploma qualifying for university entrance), and

11% some type of university degree. Only a minority of 18% did not have a

specific vocational education related to the hotel business. The second

subsample consisted of participants who were employed in 14 call centres of

various firms. This subsample consisted of employees who all had voice-to-

voice contacts with clients. Of the participants, 74% had a high school

diploma qualifying for university entrance (Abitur) or some kind of

university degree, 76% received calls but did not call clients themselves

(inbound); the remainder were preoccupied with both calling and receivingcalls (inbound and outbound). The third subsample was collected in seven

banks. Of the participants, 43% had a specific banking vocational education

and another 32% a university degree. The majority of the subsample (97%)

had more than 2 years of job experience. The final subsample consisted of

employees collected in 70 of the 140 public kindergartens in one of

Germany’s large cities. The kindergartens were systematically selected to

obtain the full variety of kindergartens for the subsample. The subsample

consisted of almost 50% of the total workforce of the city’s public

kindergartens. Of the participants, 22% possessed some kind of universitydegree, 35% had visited vocational schools for kindergarten teachers, and

74% had received some kind of high school degree. In all, 87% had some

kind of specific education for their job and 94% of the subsample had more

than 2 years of job experience. Due to missing values, the data of N ¼ 1024

participants could be used for structural equation modelling (SEM).

Characteristics of the subsamples are summarized in Table 1.

The second sample (representative sample) consisted of participants from

two large German cities who worked at least 30 hours a week, who were not

self-employed, and whose German was reasonably good so that they were

able to fill in the questionnaire. Participants were randomly chosen from a

citizen database. They received a letter asking for participation. After some

days the potential participants were contacted by telephone. Many people


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were excluded because they did not fulfil the criteria mentioned above. We

contacted 767 persons who fulfilled the criteria for participation; 405

persons sent back the questionnaire anonymously, which corresponded to a

response rate of 52.8%. This estimation was the lower bound of the response

rate, because among the 767 persons contacted some refused to take part in

the study and finished the telephone call before the researchers received all

the information required to decide whether the person fulfilled all criteria for

participation. Two raters rated the jobs of these participants whether theywere service jobs. There were three participants where the raters disagreed;

these were excluded from the sample. They identified 184 service jobs, which

is 45.4% of the total sample. Of these 184 participants full data were

available from 175 participants because of missing data.

Mean age of the representative sample was 40.9, ranging from 19 to 70

years; 37.8% were women. Moreover, 55.9% were in possession of some kind

of high school degree, and 23% attended modern secondary school, 19.8%

had a lower stream school leaving certificate, 1.8% who had no certificate at

all, and 35.6% had some kind of university degree; 79% reported to have

finished a professional training relevant for their current job. On average

(median category), they had worked for 15 – 20 years; they had worked in

their current job for approximately 2 – 5 years of this period of time.

TABLE 1

Description of the service sample

Subsample n

Response

rate in % Mean age

Percentage

women Occupations

Hotels 175 29 80% between

18 and 32b71 Frontline officers,

waiters or

waitresses,

administrative

staff

Call centre 250 50 31 75 Call centre agents

in banking,

insurance,

airline industry

Bank 122 – a

37 50 Bankingemployees

Kindergartens 611 67 39 94 Kindergarten

teachers, social

workers,

technical staff

Total sample 1158 – 36c 88

aDistribution of questionnaires was organized by the institutions. They were not able to report

the response rate.bTo ensure anonymity, we were only able to use age categories (18 – 22, 23 – 28; . . . .63 – 67).c

Category mean was used for the hotel subsample to compute overall mean age.

12 ZAPF AND HOLZ

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Instruments

Emotion work/emotional labour was measured using the Frankfurt

Emotion Work Scales1 (FEWS 3.0; Zapf, Mertini, Seifert, Vogt, & Isic,

1999; Zapf, Vogt et al., 1999).

. Positive emotions refer to the requirement to show pleasant emotions

(example item: ‘‘In your job how often does it occur that you have to

display pleasant emotions towards your clients?’’).

. Negative emotions ask for the necessity of displaying and dealing with

unpleasant emotions (example item: ‘‘How often does it occur in your

job that you have to display unpleasant emotions towards your

clients?’’).. Sensitivity requirements examine whether empathy or knowledge about

clients’ current feelings are required by the job (example item: ‘‘Does

your job require paying attention to the feelings of your clients?’’).

. Emotional dissonance refers to the display of unfelt emotions and to

the suppression of felt but organizationally undesired emotions

(example item: ‘‘How often does it occur in your job that one has

to display positive emotions that do not correspond to what is felt in

this situation?’’).

For most of the FEWS scales there was a five-point response scale for most

items ranging from ‘‘very rarely/never’’ (1), ‘‘rarely (once a week)’’ (2),

‘‘sometimes (once a day)’’ (3), ‘‘often (several times a day)’’ (4), to ‘‘very

often (several times an hour)’’ (5).

Burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accom-

plishment) was measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory – German

version of Bu ¨ ssing and Perrar (1992). Emotional exhaustion measures one’s

feeling of being burnt out, frustrated, and perceiving working with people to

be very demanding. Depersonalization comprises the tendency to treatclients like objects and to become indifferent and apathetic with regard to

clients. Personal accomplishment includes the feeling of having the

competence to do things and of being able to meet one’s personal

aspirations. The burnout items were answered on a seven-point scale.

Neuroticism was taken from a bipolar adjective-rating list to measure the

five-factor model of personality (Costa & McCrae, 1985). The measure was

based on the 45-item bipolar adjective-rating list developed by Ostendorf

and colleagues (Ostendorf & Angleitner, 1992) in the version of Schallberger

and Venetz (1999). The authors demonstrated that this reduced version was

1A German, English, French, or Spanish version of the instrument can be obtained from the

first author on request.


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satisfactory in terms of factorial structure and internal consistencies of

scales. The scale for neuroticism used in this study consisted of six bipolar

items on a 6-point scale, with each pole ranging from 1 and 6 ¼ ‘‘very’’, 2

and 5¼ ‘‘quite’’, and 3 and 4¼ ‘‘rather’’.

Reliabilities of the scales were sufficient or good in most cases. They were

relatively low for the requirement to display positive and negative emotions.

Note, however, that these scales are both relatively short and that they show

high correlations to some other scales. Depersonalization also showed low

reliabilities in other studies (Bu ¨ ssing & Perrar, 1992). Means and standard

deviations of the above mentioned variables are presented in Table 2, and

the intercorrelations are presented in Table 3.

Statistical analyses

First we tested the model presented in Figure 1 using structural equation

modelling (SEM). In this model, causal coefficients will be estimated for

parameters referring to hypotheses 1 – 6. We were not interested in causal

models regarding the burnout components (see Golembiewski, Munzenrider,

& Stevenson, 1986; Leiter & Maslach, 1988; van Dierendonck, Schaufeli,

& Buunk, 2001). Therefore, latent correlations among the residuals of these

variables were estimated. We also estimated latent correlations among the

residuals of the emotional requirement variables. The analyses were carriedout with LISREL 8.3 (Jo ¨ reskog & So ¨ rbom, 1996) using the maximum

TABLE 2

Psychometric data of study variables

No. of

items

Service sample Representative sample

Range Mean SD Coeff.a Mean SD Coeff.a

Requirement to

display positive

emotions

3 1 – 5 3.44 0.82 .52 3.09 1.03 .72

Requirement to

display negative

emotions

4 1 – 5 2.96 0.93 .68 2.65 0.93 .76

Sensitivity

requirements

3 1 – 5 3.44 1.03 .85 3.26 1.26 .91

Emotional

dissonance

5 1 – 5 3.12 0.79 .80 3.15 0.79 .75

Neuroticism 6 1 – 6 2.83 0.66 .85 2.83 0.83 .82

Emotional

exhaustion

9 0 – 6 1.54 1.04 .88 1.32 0.87 .82

Depersonalization 5 0 – 6 1.02 0.99 .65 1.07 0.98 .81

Personal

accomplishment

8 0 – 6 3.61 0.89 .79 3.59 1.34 .73

14 ZAPF AND HOLZ

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T A B

L E

3

I n t e r c o r r e l a t i o n o

f s t u d y v a r i a b l e s

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1 0

1 .

A g e

. 0 9

. 1 3

. 0 6

. 0 6

7 . 0

3

. 2 9

. 1 4

. 0 1

7 . 0

3

2 .

G e n

d e r

7 . 0

8

7 . 0

8

. 0 9

7 . 0

6

7 . 0

4

7 . 2

3

7 . 0

4

. 0 8

. 0 7

3 .

R e q u

i r e

m e n t t o d i s p l a y

p o s i t i v e

e m o t i o n s

7 . 2

0

7 . 0

8

. 4 6

. 6 1

. 4 1

. 0 4

. 1 4

. 1 5

. 2 2

4 .

R e q u

i r e

m e n t t o d i s p l a y

n e g a t i v e e m o t i o n s

7 . 0

0

7 . 1

3

. 3 7

. 4 8

. 2 1

7 . 0

3

. 0 4

. 1 5

. 1 8

5 .

S e n s i t i v

i t y r e q u

i r e m e n t s

7 . 0

5

7 . 0

9

. 5 1

. 4 8

. 3 0

. 0 4

. 1 4

. 1 3

. 2 5

6 .

E m o t i o n a

l d i s s o n a n c e

7 . 3

0

. 0 2

. 4 1

. 1 5

. 2 9

. 0 6

. 2 2

. 3 6

. 0 9

7 .

N e u r o t

i c i s m

. 0 3

7 . 0

9

7 . 0

8

7 . 0 5

7 . 0

2

. 0 9

. 3 8

. 1 5

7 . 3

5

8 .

E m o t i o n a

l e x

h a u s t i o n

7 . 0

1

7 . 1

0

. 1 1

. 2 0

. 1 9

. 2 7

. 3 1

. 5 4

7 . 2

7

9 .

D e p e r s o

n a

l i z a t i o n

7 . 1

9

. 1 0

. 1 2

. 1 0

. 1 1

. 3 6

. 1 5

. 5 2

7 . 2

1

1 0

. P e r s o n

a l a c c o m p

l i s h m e n t

. 0 1

. 0 0

. 3 4

. 1 6

. 3 0

. 0 6

7 . 2

8

7 . 1

6

7 . 1

0

S e r v

i c e s a m p

l e ( N ¼

1 1 5 2 ) ¼

l o w e r t r i a n g

l e ; r 4

. 0 7 a r e s i g n

i fi c a n t a t p 5

. 0 1

.

R e p r e s e

n t a t i v e s a m p

l e ( N ¼

1 8 4 ) ¼

u p p e r t r i a n g

l e ; r 4

. 1 4 a r e s i g n

i fi c a n t a t p 5

. 0 5 ; r 4

. 1 8 a r e s i g n

i fi c

a n t a t p 5

. 0 1

.

G e n

d e r :

f e m a

l e ¼

1 ; m a

l e ¼

2 i n b o t h s a m p

l e s .

15

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likelihood method to examine the covariance matrix of the variables.

Chi square statistics, goodness of fit (GFI), adjusted goodness of fit (AGFI),

root means square error of approximation (RMSEA), the Akaike informa-

tion criterion (AIC), and the normed fit index (NFI) were used to assess the

model fit (Bentler, 1980; Jo ¨ reskog & So ¨ rbom, 1996; Schermelleh-Engel,

Moosbrugger, & Mu ¨ ller, 2003). Experts (e.g., Schermelleh-Engel et al., 2003)

suggest the following criteria to indicate a good model fit: w2/df 2; GFI

.95; AGFI .90; RMSEA .05; and NFI .95. AIC should be smaller than

the AIC for the comparison model.

RESULTS

We started testing models with effects of the requirement to express positiveand negative emotions on exhaustion and depersonalization (direct effects

model), but without effects on emotional dissonance. We then tested the full

mediation model with effects of the requirement to express positive and

negative emotions on emotional dissonance. Third, we tested a model with

both direct and mediator effects. The model with the direct effects showed a

poor fit in both samples, w2¼ 172.37, df ¼ 7, p¼ .0; AIC¼ 230.37 in the

service sample; w2¼ 33.39, df ¼ 7, p¼ .0 AIC¼ 91.39 in the representative

sample. In contrast the postulated full mediation model corresponding to the

hypotheses and the theoretical model as presented in Figure 1 showed areasonable fit for the service sample, w2¼ 47.70, df ¼ 9, p¼ .0; GFI¼ .99;

AGFI¼ .95; RMSEA¼ .065; AIC¼ 101.70; NFI¼ .98, and a very good

fit for the representative sample, w2¼ 6.03, df ¼ 9, p¼ .74; GFI¼ .99;

AGFI¼ .97; RMSEA¼ .0; AIC¼ 59.98; NFI¼ .98. The direct effects model

and the full mediation model are not nested. Therefore, only the AIC could

be used to compare the models. The AIC was clearly lower for the full

mediation model thus rejecting the direct effects model. In a next step we

compared the full mediation model with a model with both direct and

mediator effects. This model is nested with the full mediation model. Notsurprisingly, these models showed a very good fit (for the service sample,

w2¼ 24.55, df ¼ 5, p5 .01; GFI¼ .99; AGFI¼ .96; RMSEA¼ .062; AIC¼

86.55; NFI¼ .99; for the representative sample, w2¼ 2.36, df ¼ 5, p¼ .80;

GFI¼ 1.00; AGFI¼ .98; RMSEA¼ .0; AIC¼ 64.36; NFI¼ .99. The model

comparison was not significant for the representative sample, Dw2¼ 3.62,

df ¼ 4; p4 .05, and it was just significant for the service sample, Dw2¼ 23.15,

df ¼ 4; p5 .05. For the service sample more detailed analyses revealed a

significant effect of the requirement to express negative emotions on

emotional exhaustion, but no effects of this variable on emotional

dissonance. We then computed an optimized model where all parameters

not significant in both samples, were fixed to zero. The effects concerned

comprised the effect of negative emotions on personal accomplishment and

16 ZAPF AND HOLZ

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emotional dissonance as well as the effect of sensitivity requirements on

depersonalization. Moreover, we used the maximum modification index of

the LISREL program to improve the model for the service sample. For this

sample, the modification index suggested a relation between positive

emotions and neuroticism. Because cause – effect structures were unclear,

we modelled a correlation between the residuals of these variables. Moreover,

we added a causal effect of sensitivity requirements on emotional dissonance

and a causal effect of emotional dissonance on personal accomplishment.

Both optimized models were very good and met all criteria for a good model

fit: for the service sample, w2¼ 12.19, df ¼ 8, p¼ .14; GFI¼ 1.00; AGFI¼ .99;

RMSEA¼ .023; AIC¼ 68.19; NFI¼ .99; for the representative sample,

w2¼ 5.12, df ¼ 11, p¼ .93; GFI¼ .99; AGFI¼ .98; RMSEA¼ .0;

AIC¼ 55.12; NFI¼ .99. The results are shown in Figure 2.Figure 2 shows the expected correlations among the emotional

requirement variables and among the burnout variables, which were similar

in both samples. Moreover, it shows that most, though not all hypotheses

were supported by the empirical data.

Figure 2. Relations between emotion work and burnout: Empirical results (optimized model).

Results for the representative sample in parentheses.


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Emotional dissonance had the expected effects on emotional exhaustion

(H1a) and depersonalization (H1b). In the service sample, there was an addi-

tional small negative path on personal accomplishment that was unexpected,

but which also indicated the negative nature of emotional dissonance.

In the service sample, the requirement to display positive emotions showed

both a direct effect on personal accomplishment indicating its positive effects

on health (H3a), and an indirect effect on depersonalization and emotional

exhaustion mediated by emotional dissonance (H2), indicating its negative

effects. Similar results were found for the representative sample. However,

here the effect on personal accomplishment was in the expected direction, but

not statistically significant.

The requirement to display negative emotions had only an unexpected direct

effect on emotional exhaustion in the service sample. In the representativesample the effect was in the opposite direction, but not statistically significant.

Moreover, there was neither an effect on emotional dissonance nor on personal

accomplishment. Thus, with regard to negative emotions display, Hypotheses 2

(mediator effect), 3b, and 4b were not supported by the data.

Sensitivity requirements showed the hypothesized positive effect on

personal accomplishment (H3c) in both samples. Moreover, it had a direct

effect on exhaustion in both samples; however, there was no direct effect on

depersonalization. Thus, there was support for Hypothesis 5a for emotional

exhaustion, but not for depersonalization (Hypothesis 5b). In addition, apositive effect of sensitivity requirements on emotional dissonance was

found in the service sample which was not expected.

With regard to neuroticism, the effects on burnout followed assumptions.

The effect on emotional dissonance (H6) was small in the service sample as

expected; and it was nonsignificant in the representative sample. Compared

with a model without neuroticism, the maximum reduction of coefficients

occurred for the effect of emotional dissonance on emotional exhaustion,

which was .03 in both samples. In addition, there was a small correlation

between positive emotions and neuroticism which was not expected.The explained variance of the dependent variables in the service

sample (representative sample in parentheses) was .16 (.18) for emotional

dissonance, .19 (.18) for emotional exhaustion, .14 (.13) for depersonaliza-

tion, and .20 (.18) for personal accomplishment.

Finally, for the service sample, the question arose whether it was

justifiable at all to collapse the four subsamples into one large sample or

whether different models would show up if the subsamples were treated

separately. Because we had no hypotheses of what kind of differences

between the subsamples one could expect, we carried out overall tests and

tested a so-called invariant model, which assumed that in all subsamples the

same patterns and parameter estimates would occur. This model was

compared with a model assuming the same pattern but allowing different

18 ZAPF AND HOLZ

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parameter estimates. We tested the theoretical model corresponding to the

hypotheses displayed in Figure 1 but added the direct effect of the

requirement to display negative emotions on emotional exhaustion, which

turned out to be significant in the optimized model. For the invariant model

w2 was 525.51, df ¼ 116, p¼ .0; for the same pattern model it was 86.02,

df ¼ 32; RMSEA¼ .08, NFI¼ .97, GFI¼ .98. The difference, Dw2¼ 439.43,

df ¼ 84, p 5 .01, clearly rejected the invariant model. Parameter estimates of

the subsample analysis are summarized in Table 4. The data show that

similar patterns occurred at the subsample level. Due to the smaller sample

sizes some of the coefficients were in the expected direction, but not

significant or only marginally significant at the 10% level. Interestingly, the

positive effect of negative emotions on emotional dissonance, which was not

significant at the total sample level, was now significant and in the directionas expected. For the direct effect of the requirement to display negative

emotions on emotional exhaustion, both positive and negative effects

occurred at the subsample level. The weak respectively nonsignificant effects

TABLE 4

Parameter estimations in subsamples

Independent variables

Dependent

variables

Positive

emotions

Negative

emotions

Sensitivity

requirements

Emotional

dissonance Neuroticism

Emotional dissonance

Call centre .29** .09þ .21**

Bank .13þ .33** 7.02

Hotel .48** .20** .00

Kindergarten .22** .33** .12**

Emotional exhaustion

Call centre .06 .11* .42** .38**

Bank 7.11

þ

.09

þ

.12* .39**Hotel 7.10* .12* .22** .22**

Kindergarten .12** 7.06 .27** .21**

Depersonalization

Call centre .07 .38** .12*

Bank .16* .16* .24**

Hotel 7.01 .28** .11

Kindergarten .01 .26** .10**

Personal accomplishment

Call centre .20** .02 .06 7.41**

Bank .13 .10 .20* 7.26**

Hotel .37** 7.07 .18* 7.22**

Kindergarten .17** 7.02 .21** 7.21**

** p5 .01, * p5 .05, þ p5 .10, one-sided.


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of the requirement to sense emotions on emotional exhaustion and

depersonalization showed inconsistent findings at the subsample level. This

was also so for the effect of neuroticism on emotional dissonance. In sum, all

effects that were significant at the total sample level for the service sample

and the representative sample, were also significant or in the expected

direction at the subsample level. Effects that could not consistently been

found in the service sample and the representative sample were also

inconsistent at the subsample level.

DISCUSSION

In this article we investigated the positive and negative effects of emotion

work on burnout. We applied a multidimensional concept of emotion workconsisting of emotional work requirements comprising the requirement to

display positive and negative emotions and the requirement to sense the

emotions of the interaction partner. Moreover, emotional dissonance was

defined as the misfit between felt and expressed emotions in a service

interaction (Zapf, Vogt et al., 1999). Empirical studies did not always find

the negative effects of emotion work originally hypothesized by Hochschild

(1983). Rather, both positive and negative, however inconsistent, effects

were found in the literature (e.g., Adelmann, 1995; Brotheridge & Grandey,

2002; Morris & Feldman, 1997; Schaubroeck & Jones, 2000). In this articlewe hypothesized that the emotion work requirements have positive effects if

the requirements to cope with the service interactions can be met by the

employees. However, they are expected to show negative effects if personal

prerequisites are overtaxed. Emotional dissonance was hypothesized to have

the properties of a job stressor, i.e., a negative effect on emotional

exhaustion and depersonalization. Finally, it was hypothesized that the

relations between emotion work and burnout hold when the relations are

controlled for neuroticism.

These hypotheses were investigated in a sample of service workersconsisting of four subsamples and in a representative sample of service

workers taken from a randomly drawn sample of employees. The

hypotheses were mainly supported by the empirical data. The requirement

to display positive emotions had the expected positive effect on personal

accomplishment in the service sample, in the representative sample the effect

was positive and almost reached Cohen’s (1992) criterion for small effect

sizes, but was not significant. In both samples, there were strong effects of

the requirement to display positive emotions on emotional dissonance.

The hypotheses regarding negative emotions were only partly confirmed.

First, there were no effects on emotional dissonance in the overall samples.

However, the expected effects occurred in the subsample analysis. Second,

there was no effect on personal accomplishment. Instead, a small direct,

20 ZAPF AND HOLZ

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however inconsistent, effect on emotional exhaustion was found. The

hypotheses regarding sensitivity requirements were mostly supported by the

data. They showed a positive relation with personal accomplishment and

they showed a direct effect on emotional exhaustion, but no direct effect on

depersonalization. Moreover, there was a small effect on emotional

dissonance that was not expected. Neuroticism did not affect the

hypothesized relations between emotion work and burnout in a significant

way. Almost the same relations could be found if the analyses were done

without neuroticism. In particular, the effect of neuroticism on emotional

dissonance was only small and close to zero in the representative sample.

Moreover, all effects that were significant at the total sample level for the

service sample and the representative sample, were also significant or in the

expected direction at the subsample level.These results support previous findings on positive and negative effects of

emotion work (e.g., Brotheridge & Grandey, 2002; Dieffendorff & Richard,

2003; Zapf, Vogt et al., 1999). The advantage of the present analyses is the

simultaneous analysis of effects. They are in line with various studies that found

negative effects of emotional dissonance or related concepts (Abraham, 1998;

Grebner et al., 2003; Kruml & Geddes, 2000; Lewig & Dollard, 2003; Morris &

Feldman, 1997; Nerdinger & Ro ¨ per, 1999; Schaubroeck & Jones, 2000; Zapf,

Vogt et al., 1999). The findings also support the models of Brotheridge and Lee

(2002) and Grandey (2003) who demonstrated the central role of surface actingfor the negative effects of emotion work. In the present article, we focused on

emotional demands rather than emotion regulation strategies. However, we

found a similar mediating role for emotional dissonance as the authors found

for surface acting.

Moreover, the present analyses provide an explanation why empirical

findings were sometimes contradictory with regard to the effects of the

frequency of emotion display. First, we differentiated between the

requirement to express positive and negative emotions. The few studies we

are aware of that used positive emotions display found positive effects, withthe exception of Schaubroeck and Jones (2000). The requirement to display

negative emotions is job specific, whereas the requirement to display positive

emotions is required in almost every service job. Therefore, if the

requirements to express positive and negative emotions are not differen-

tiated, results may differ depending on the importance of expressing negative

emotions in a particular job. Moreover, the data show that there are both

direct and indirect effects of positive emotions mediated by emotional

dissonance. Our explanation for this finding is that the direct effect of

positive emotions on personal accomplishment represents those interactions

where the required positive emotions have been automatically felt or where

the strategy of deep acting has been applied successfully, both resulting in

successful authentic emotions display, whereas the indirect effect mediated


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by emotional dissonance represents those interactions where the positive

emotions are not felt and are either not shown at all or are displayed using

surface acting. Surface acting as a strategy, however, was related to

emotional exhaustion both in questionnaire studies (Brotheridge &

Grandey, 2002; Grandey, 2003; Kruml & Geddes, 2000) as well as in diary

studies (Totterdell & Holman, 2003; Tschan, Rochat, & Zapf, 2005). The

results of the present study may also provide an explanation for the

unexpected negative effects of the demands to express positive emotions in

the Schaubroeck and Jones study. In this study, the demand to suppress

negative emotions instead of emotional dissonance was used, which is a

more specific concept. There are cases where positive emotions should be

shown but nothing is felt. In the diary study of Tschan et al. (2005) in which

data were analysed at the interaction level, negative emotions were felt in42.2% when a positive emotion display was required, and nothing was felt in

47% when a positive emotion display was required. These 47% would be

controlled if emotional dissonance were used, but not when the demand to

suppress negative emotions were used. In addition, in the study of Glomb

and Tews (2004) faking positive emotions had a similar negative effect on

exhaustion as had suppressing negative emotions. Thus, the negative effects

of cases where a positive emotion display is required but nothing is felt, may

be responsible for the negative results of the demands to express positive

emotions in the Schaubroeck and Jones study.The results with regard to the requirement to display negative emotions

did only partly support the hypotheses. There were no effects on emotional

dissonance and personal accomplishment. There are several explanations.

First, the requirement to display negative emotions is much lower than the

requirement to display positive emotions (cf. Table 2). Thus, given that

positive emotions have to be displayed anyway, the requirement to display

negative emotions may be too infrequent to have an effect. Moreover, the

display of negative emotions as a strategy in a service interaction is certainly

not the first thing to do. Rather, it is a requirement in a difficult situationwhere negative emotions are likely to prevail on both sides. Therefore, there

is little need to fake the negative emotions on the side of the service provider.

Rather, one can assume that they are probably authentic in such situations.

Thus, in the occupations analysed in this study, emotional dissonance based

on the requirement to display negative emotions which are not felt, should

occur too seldom to have a significant effect.

A possible interpretation of the positive effect on emotional exhaustion in

the service sample is that situations requiring the display of negative

emotions are stressful per se, for example, because one has to deal with

aggressive clients. Such effects may only appear in occupations where the

requirement to display negative emotions is of importance. Probably this

applies more frequently to human service jobs. The fact that the majority of

22 ZAPF AND HOLZ

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the service sample belongs to the human services whereas this is not the case

in the representative sample, may explain why the positive effect occurred

only in the service sample. More detailed analyses are required here.

Sensitivity requirements had the positive effects as expected. Moreover,

there was a small effect on emotional dissonance in the service sample, which

was not hypothesized. Since this effect could not be replicated in the

representative sample, we will not discuss this effect. Moreover, there is a

direct effect of sensitivity requirements on emotional exhaustion indicating

that the more complex interactions tend to overtax the employees’ abilities

to cope with these interactions.

Finally, controlling for neuroticism hardly changed the other relations.

Therefore, common method variance explanations based on NA and related

variables are not a likely explanation for the relations found in the presentstudy. In terms of content explanations, neuroticism as a personality

variable obviously has only little impact on emotion work – burnout

relationships. Whereas the effect of neuroticism on emotional exhaustion

is comparable to some other studies, the effect on emotional dissonance is

lower than in most other studies. The fact that neuroticism had so little

impact on the analyses conveys the impression of emotional dissonance to

be a description of job conditions rather than a subjective reaction primarily

determined by personal characteristics. Based on emotion theories such as

the affective events theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) or the concept of emotion regulation (Gross, 1998; Gross & Levenson, 1997), we propose that

in service encounters (as in other situations) the elicitation of emotions

whether positive or negative or whether an emotion is elicited at all, is

primarily determined by the situation: the frequency, duration, and quality

of the service interaction and the presence of display rules. Note that the

measure of emotional dissonance in this study is oriented to describe the

situation. It is asked, for example, whether positive emotions have to be

shown in situations where nothing or even negative emotions are felt. This

concept of emotional dissonance rests upon the assumptions that positive ornegative emotions are relatively uniformly elicited in positive or negative

situations.

However, it does not assume that individuals respond in the same way.

The concept of emotional dissonance would allow that a person responds

with surface acting that would sustain the discrepancy between felt and

displayed emotions, it would allow deep acting to overcome the discrepancy,

and it would permit emotion deviation as well, that is, not showing the

required emotion at all.

There are some limitations in the study. First, the studies are cross-

sectional, which allows the analysis of relations but not cause and effect. We

tried to consider this by modelling latent correlations among the residuals of

the emotional requirements and among the burnout variables. In this article,


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it cannot be analysed whether emotion work affects burnout or the other

way around. A review of the literature shows that effects of psychological

strain on psychological stressors are not infrequent (Zapf, Dormann, &

Frese, 1996). For the present study, it makes sense to assume that

emotionally exhausted service employees are less able to display positive

emotions making effects of emotional exhaustion on emotional dissonance

more likely. Longitudinal studies are necessary, to shed more light on these

causal structures. We already mentioned that NA as a nuisance factor is not

a likely explanation for the data of this study. The relations between

sensitivity requirements, personal accomplishment, and emotional exhaus-

tion, where sensitivity requirements have both positive and negative effects

on psychological health in a hypothesized way, speak against simple

response bias explanations such as social desirability.The strengths of the present study is that the service sample is relatively

large compared to other studies on emotion work. Moreover, the second

sample was randomly drawn, which is also not very frequent in this research

field. Most of the hypothesized effects could be replicated in a second sample.

One of the main goals of the present studies is to disentangle the effects of

emotional requirements on burnout, thereby analysing the mediating effects

of emotional dissonance and separating positive and negative effects by

simultaneous computations using SEM. The analyses show, for example,

that the significant zero-order correlations between the requirement todisplay positive emotions on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization are

fully mediated by emotional dissonance. They also show that the effects of

negative emotions display on accomplishment can fully be explained by the

correlation among the emotional requirements variables.

This study has shown that emotion work is related to burnout, and that

the instrument used in this study has been useful to differentiate positive and

negative effects of emotion work. Longitudinal studies are now required to

further analyse the causal structure among these variables.

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Manuscript received September 2005

Revised manuscript received September 2005

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