Research on Emotional Labor and Influencing Factors based on

Visual Analysis

Jun Liu

, Lijuan Gao

and Xianxin Tan

School of Business Administration, Guangdong University of Finance & Economics, Guangzhou, China

Keywords: Emotional Labor, Citespace, Visual Analysis, Conservation of Resources Theory, Emotional Contagion

Theory, Social Exchange Theory, Different Perspectives, Theoretical Review.

Abstract: Information visualization is one of the data mining methods that have emerged in recent years. It can use the

ability of humans to obtain models and structures in the form of visualization to solve the problem of excessive

literature and cannot be processed quickly. It can filter and process data, and find information hidden behind

the data. Therefore, this article uses the citespace software developed by Jie Li and Chaomei Chen, With the

theme of “emotional labor”, all the documents from 2000 to 2021 were downloaded from the web of science

database, and the keywords of this topic were visually analyzed to obtain a keyword co-occurrence map. The

result shows that the analysis of antecedent variables is the focus of the research on this topic. At the same

time, this article reviews the influencing factors and formation mechanism of emotional labor from the

perspectives of conservation of resources theory, emotional contagion theory, and social exchange theory, and

sorts out representative empirical research to provide new directions and ideas for future related researches.

1 INTRODUCTION

Emotional labor refers to that employees adjust their

emotional feelings and expressions in accordance

with the requirements of the organization at work

(Fang, Wei, Luo, Liu, Shi & Zhan, 2019). In 1983,

Hochschild first proposed the concept of emotional

labor, but it did not attract too much attention from

service managers at that time. It was not until 1993

that Ashforth systematically expounded the impact of

emotional labor on service organizations and

individual employees that researchers invested a lot

of research interest in emotional labor phenomena.

Since the development of emotional labor,

relevant research results have been quite rich. The

influencing factors of emotional labor are very

complex. Due to the differences in research

paradigms, different theories often focus on specific

influencing factors for research, and they rarely study

from the perspective of comprehensive theory.

Therefore, this article sorts out a large number of

representative empirical studies on emotional labor at

home and abroad, and analyzes the influencing

factors and generation mechanism of emotional labor

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0384-1599

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1770-3031

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6905-9172

from the multi-dimensional perspectives of resource

preservation theory, emotional infection theory,

and

social exchange theory, and then gives emotional

labor The influencing factor model and the future

research framework are expected to provide

suggestions for future research on emotional labor.

2 CO-OCCURRENCE ANALYSIS

OF KEYWORDS IN

EMOTIONAL LABOR

RESEARCH

In order to understand the hot topics of emotional

labor research, download all the documents from

2000 to 2021 in the web of science data. After data

cleaning, duplicate and invalid data were deleted, and

finally 3913 documents were obtained. Based on the

bibliometric method, the keywords of emotional

labor research are visualized and analyzed through

the citespace software, and the keyword map is

finally derived. In the keyword graph, the size of

nodes and fonts reflects the frequency of keywords.

314

Liu, J., Gao, L. and Tan, X.

Research on Emotional Labor and Inﬂuencing Factors based on Visual Analysis.

DOI: 10.5220/0011343800003437

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Public Management and Big Data Analysis (PMBDA 2021), pages 314-320

ISBN: 978-989-758-589-0

Figure 1: Keyword co-occurrence map.

Table 1: Keyword frequency statistics.

Key Words

Relevant information

Number Frequency

emotional labor 1 986

work 2 737

labor 3 694

burnout 4 514

consequence 5 444

emotional labour 6 383

gender 7 380

performance 8 363

antecedent 9 341

stress 10 337

The larger the node, the more the keywords have been

studied. The number of connections indicates the

closeness of the relationship with other keywords.

Combining Figure 1 and Table 1, it can be seen that

the node corresponding to the term "emotional labor"

is the largest, with 986 occurrences, and the densest

connection with other nodes, which is the core

research theme of the field; Secondly, the nodes and

labels of words such as work (737 times), labor (694

times), burnout (514 times), and consequence (444)

are also relatively large, indicating that the research

in the past 20 years has mainly focused on these

fields. Among the top 10 keywords in the frequency

ranking, keywords related to the pre-dependent

variable of emotional labor accounted for 41.55%,

keywords related to the outcome variable accounted

for 32.01%, and focused on the topic of "emotional

labor" itself accounted for 26.05%. The analysis of

dependent variables is the focus of this topic research.

3 EMOTIONAL LABOR FROM

THE PERSPECTIVE OF

CONSERVATION OF

RESOURCRS THEORY

In 1989, Hobfoll first systematically proposed the

conservation of resources theory (COR). The theory

believes that individuals have the tendency to

preserve, protect, and obtain resources. Therefore,

whether it is a potential threat of resource loss or

actual resource loss, it will cause individual tension

and pressure (Hobfoll, 1989. Hobfoll, Halbesleben,

Neveu & Westman, 2018). Therefore, employees

always try to maintain the existing resources and

reduce the loss caused by resource consumption in

order to achieve a balance between resource

acquisition and consumption. The efforts of

employees at work will result in resource loss, and

getting paid can supplement resources.

In 2003, Brotheridge and others introduced the

conservation of resources theory into the field of

emotional labor, and believed that the conservation of

resources theory could better explain why emotional

labor produces different results. The theory believes

that when interpersonal employees perform

emotional labor, they need to consume a certain

amount of resources, which results in resource loss.

If the employee's resource loss is not compensated for

in time, it will lead to resource imbalance, and the

employee will take to reduce the effort at work

measures to maintain the balance of their own

resources.

Many domestic and foreign scholars have

conducted a large number of empirical studies in the

field of emotional labor based on this theory. This

research is classified and sorted according to the

existing literature, and the results are shown in Table

1. The empirical studies of scholars such as Liu Zhe

and scholars such as Wang Zhen have proved that

work input positively affects deep acting and true

expression (Liu, Yang, Tang, Ma & Li, 2018. Wang &

Li, 2013). The empirical studies of Tsung-Yu Wu,

Changya Hu, Dawn Carlson and others have shown

that abusive management is positively correlated with

surface acting (Wu & Hu, 2013. Carlson, Ferguson,

Hunter & Whitten, 2012). The research of Tsung-Yu

Wu and Changya Hu further proves that plays a

negative correlation (Wu & Hu, 2013). It is worth

noting that variables such as job input, job

satisfaction, and organizational commitment are not

only the antecedent variables of emotional labor, but

also the result variables of emotional labor.

It can also be seen from the table 1 that the

outcome variables of emotional labor are mostly

negative variables, which further confirms the

connotation of resource conservation theory, that is,

emotional labor consumes employees' resources. If

the consumed resources are not replenished,

employees will reduce their efforts at work, which

will have a negative impact on customers and the

organization, and employees themselves will also be

Research on Emotional Labor and Inﬂuencing Factors based on Visual Analysis

315

caused by resource imbalances. Reactions to

emotional exhaustion and stress.

The application of resource preservation theory in

the field of emotional labor can also give some

suggestions to managers in organizations. First,

managers can organize, encourage and support the

skills training required for employees to participate in

work, and reserve available resources in advance;

The second is to create a comfortable working

environment and reduce the occurrence of damage to

employee resources; The third is that when

employees' resources are lost, they should provide

effective resource support in a timely manner to avoid

further damage to their resources.

4 EMOTIONAL LABOR FROM

THE PERSPECTIVE OF

EMOTIONAL CONTAGION

THEORY

In 1994, Hatfield systematically expounded the

emotional contagion theory in his book "Emotional

Contagion". The theory believes that emotional

infection is a tendency to automatically imitate and

synchronize with others' expressions, voices,

postures, and actions. As a result, the emotions of the

two interacting parties are often aggregated and

unified (Hatfield, Cacioppo & Rapson, 1992. Barger

& Grandey, 2006). Emotional infection theory

provides a good explanation for understanding the

emotional interaction process of people in

organizational contexts. Emotional infection plays an

important role in organizational behavior, leadership,

marketing and other fields. Pugh first used the theory

of emotional infection to explain the phenomenon of

service interaction. Based on the theory of emotional

labor, he proposed that when employees interact with

customers, customers will subconsciously imitate the

emotional expression of employees, and then the

customer's own emotions will change (Pugh, 2001).

By combing the existing empirical research using

the emotional contagion theory, it can be seen that a

large number of existing researches basically discuss

the employee-customer relationship individually.

However, in fact, the emotions of customers will also

affect the emotions of employees, and similarly, the

emotions of employees and leaders will also infect

each other. However, in fact, the emotions of

customers will also affect the emotions of employees,

and similarly, the emotions of employees and leaders

will also infect each other.

It can be seen that there are still research gaps in

the existing empirical research in the field of

emotional labor based on the theory of emotional

contagion, future research can continue to explore

whether the emotions of customers will affect the

emotions of employees and the path of influence.

Similarly, the emotional contagion between leaders

and employees can also be studied.

The enlightenment that this brings to managers is:

For the selection of positions that need to deal with

customers frequently, managers should select

employees with positive emotional expression and

high emotional intelligence, so as to bring positive

emotional experience to customers and improve

customer satisfaction degree.

5 EMOTIONAL LABOR FROM

THE PERSPECTIVE OF

SOCIAL EXCHANGE THEORY

Social exchange theory was jointly proposed by

George Casper Homans, Peter Blau and Richard

Emerson. The theory believes that all parties will

have valuable things that others want, and the

exchanged objects and their quantity are jointly

decided by both parties. In the research of social

exchange theory in the field of organization, there are

mainly two kinds of exchange relationships, namely,

the exchange relationship between employees and the

organization and the exchange relationship between

superiors and subordinates.

According to the review of existing empirical

research (it can be seen from the table 2), social

exchange theory is mainly applied to the exchange

relationship between employees and the organization

in the field of emotional labor, and there are few

researches on the relationship exchange between

superiors and subordinates in the organization. When

an organization provides employees with more

economic and social emotional resources, employees

will feel that they have more obligations to repay the

organization, and thus devote more energy to work,

in return for the organization's feedback to

employees.

Based on this, the managers in the organization

should cultivate a view of the mutually beneficial

relationship between employees and the organization,

so that employees believe that when they devote

themselves to the construction of the organization,

the organization will also give them back.

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6 EMOTIONAL LABOR FROM

OTHER THEORETICAL

This part combs the empirical research of emotional

labor and its influencing factors from other

theoretical perspectives, such as Self-depletion

Theory, Relationship Marketing Theory, Optimal

Differentiation Theory, Job Demands-resources

Model, Emotions as Social Information Theory. The

specific results are shown in Table 3.

7 CONCLUSIONS AND

RECOMMENDATIONS

In summary, different theoretical perspectives have

enriched the research content in the field of emotional

labor, and brought many lessons for companies in the

service industry. Conservation of resources theory

tells leaders to pay attention to protecting employees'

resources, and to compensate employees in time

when their resources are damaged. The emotional

infection theory tells leaders to select employees who

express positive emotions and high emotional

intelligence when recruiting, and managers

themselves must strengthen the expression of positive

emotions. Social exchange theory emphasizes the

establishment of long-term and rewarding exchange

relationships between organizations and employees,

as well as between superiors and subordinates. Other

theoretical perspectives have also brought us many

useful suggestions.

The research on emotional labor has the following

suggestions, we must realize that the breadth and

depth of empirical research in the field of emotional

labor needs to be improved. The first is that empirical

research uses less research on theories, and most

empirical research involves multiple theories

throughout and cannot integrate a certain theory with

empirical research. Secondly, empirical research is

mostly concentrated in the service and nursing

industries. Others, such as the judge industry that

needs to maintain objectivity and fairness at work,

and the police industry that maintains serious or even

negative sentiments, have less empirical research in

such industries. Future research can go to these

industries to development correlative research. Third,

most of the current empirical researches study the

impact of employees' emotional labor on employees,

organizations, and customers. Few studies involve

the emotional labor of leaders in organizations that

affect employees. Every researcher still has a long

way to go, and more in-depth work needs to be

continued.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the teachers of the PMBDA

meeting group for their valuable comments and

suggestions on my thesis.

Table 2: List of relevant variables of empirical research on conservation of resources theory.

Distal anterior dependent

variables of emotional

labor

Individual variables Autonomous motivation,

ob satisfaction

Organizational variables

Service-oriented leadership, transformational

leadershi

Situational variables Dis

rules, customer irrational behavio

The proximal antecedent

variables of emotional

labor

Individual variables

Emotional intelligence, work insecurity, work

engagement, role characteristics, negative emotions,

psychological capital, job satisfaction, workplace

mental

owe

anizational variables Abusive mana

ement, or

anizational commitment

Situational variables Emotional dis

rules, customer im

olite behavio

The output of emotional

labor

Impacts on individuals

Emotional exhaustion, decreased sense of

accomplishment, job satisfaction, absenteeism, work-

family conflict, work engagement, salary rate,

emotional disorders, psychological disengagement,

job performance, stress, employee creativity,

employee perception of internal identity, active

sabotage behavior, organization Citizenship,

turnover intention

acts on customers Customer service

ualit

, customer satisfaction

Impacts on the organization Employee turnover rate, organizational commitment

Research on Emotional Labor and Inﬂuencing Factors based on Visual Analysis

317

Table 3: List of relevant variables of empirical research on social exchange theory.

Distal anterior

dependent variables

of emotional labor

Individual

variables

Autonomous motivation, job satisfaction

Organizational

variables

Service-oriented leadership, perceived organizational support,

anizational identit

The proximal

antecedent variables

of emotional labor

Individual

variables

Work engagement, psychological empowerment, job satisfaction

Organizational

variables

Leadership style (laissez-faire, transactional, transformational),

organizational identity, perceived organizational support,

anizational commitment

The output of

emotional labor

Impacts on

individuals

Organizational citizenship behavior, emotional exhaustion,

turnover tendency

Impacts on

customers

Customer orientation, customer satisfaction

Impacts on the

anization

Organizational commitment, employee innovation behavior,

anizational reco

nition

Table 4: Representative empirical studies from different theoretical perspectives.

Theory Author, year Object of study

Sample

size

Independent

variable

Mediating

variable

Dependent

variable

Self-depletion

theory

Liping Yin &

Xiangqian

Zhang,2019

Service

personnel

990

Surface acting,

deep acting

Self-depletion,

moral license

Pro-

organizational

unethical

ehavio

Relationship

Marketing

Theory

Yong Yang,

Qinhai Ma,

Guowei Tan, &

Chunjiang Yang,

2015

Customers of

enterprises

321

Deep acting, true

expression

Customer

identification,

emotional value

Customer

loyalty

Optimal

differentiation

theory

Fei Zhou, Qinlan

Chen & Meixian

He, 2018

Colleagemate 150

Inclusive

leadership

Deep acting

Employee

innovation

ehavio

Job demands-

resources

model

Xiaoyan Li &

ErHua Zhou, 2012

Call center

customer

representative of

mobile company

800

Psychological

capital

Surface acting,

active/passive

deep acting

Job burnout

Michal Biron &

Marc van

Veldhoven, 2012

Family and

friends of

research

assistants

254 Mental flexibility Surface acting

Emotional

exhaustion

Brenda, L S &

Elizabeth, A C,

2009

Nurse aides and

childcare

workers

363

Surface acting,

emotional

enhancement

Job

satisfaction,

emotional

commitment,

emotional

exhaustion,

turnover

intention

Seery, B L,

Corrigall, E A &

Harpel T, 2008

Nurse aides,

childcare

workers

347

Surface acting,

emotional

enhancement

Work-family

conflict,

work-family

promotion

Emotions as

social

information

theory

Chen Yang &

Jianbiao Li, 2017

College

undergraduate

144

Emotional

harmony,

emotional

disorders

Emotional

response,

performance

inference

Work

performance

Tae Won Moon,

Won-Moo Hur &

Yong Jun Choi,

2018

Hospital staff 268

Perceived leader’s

true behavior

Subordinates'

perception of

true leadership,

subordinates'

recognition and

trust in the leade

Work

performance

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Table 4: Representative empirical studies from different theoretical perspectives (cont.).

Theory Author, year Object of study

Sample

size

Independent

variable

Mediating

variable

Dependent

variable

Customer

identity

theory

Yong Yang,

Qinhai Ma, Chen

Pan Chen & Man

Li, 2017

Employees and

customers of

companies in the

beauty,

insurance,

catering and

other industries

352

Deep acting, true

expression

Emotional value

Customer

value co-

creation

behavior

(customer

participation

behavior,

customer

citizenship

ehavior)

Self-control

theory

Brent, A S, et al.

2012

The employees

of bus company

522 Surface acting /

Job

satisfaction,

turnover rate,

self-

monitoring

Social

support

theory

Duke, A B, et al.

2009

Retail company 338 Emotional labor /

Job

satisfaction,

job

performance

Social

identity

theory

Qin Zhang &

Weihong Zhu,

2008

College English

Teacher

164

Surface acting,

deep acting, true

expression

Job

satisfaction,

job burnou

Affective

event theory

Deborah, E R &

Sharmin Spencer,

2006

College Students 123

Customer

experience

(fair/unfair),

customer

interaction is

fair/unfai

Emotions: anger,

happiness

Emotional

labor

Wing Lam &

Ziguang Chen,

2012

Hotel staff and

supervisors

424

Supervisor

support,

organizational

fairness, negative

emotions

Surface acting,

deep acting

Job

satisfaction,

service

quality,

turnover rate

Cognitive

dissonance

theory

Ziguang Chen, et

al. 2012

Hotel staff 317

Surface acting,

deep acting

Job satisfaction,

job burnout

work

performance

Person-work

fit theory

JungHoon (Jay)

Lee, et al. 2016

Hotel staff 309

Customer

orientation

Surface acting,

deep acting

Job

satisfaction

Contingency

leadership

theory

Jun Liu, et al.

2013

8 organizations

in China

450

Transactional

leadership

Team

effectiveness

Team

innovation

Social

emotional

choice theory

Francis Yue-lok

Cheung &

Catherine So-kum

Tang, 2010

Hong Kong

Organization

386 Age

Surface acting,

deep acting, true

expression

Job

satisfaction,

psychological

distress

Michael Sliter, et

al. 2013

The employees

of service

industry

519

Age, emotional

intelligence,

positive emotional

expression

Surface acting,

deep acting

Employee

happiness

Jason, J D & Luis,

A P, 2010

The employees

of service

industry

186 Age

Positive

emotions

Surface

acting, deep

acting, true

expression

Regulatory

matching

theory

Nai-Wen Chi, et

al. 2016

Bank teller 397

Surface acting,

deep acting

Emotional

delivery,

service

destruction

Note: The table only lists representative empirical studies.

Data source: sorted according to existing literature

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319

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