Exploring the Mediating Role of Emotional Labour between Nature of Interaction and Intention to Quit

Shameem Shagirbasha and Ganesh Mangadu Paramasivam

Emotions play a crucial role in service provider (employees) and customer interactions. Understanding of emotional labour will help the organizations to manage employee-customer relationship better. First objective is to find whether the knowledge of emotional labour in service sectors particularly in hotels and call centers, will help the organizations to manage their employees effectively and thus nurture positive employee-customer interactions. Second is to examine whether the nature of interaction influences emotional labour of service employees and have an impact on intention to quit. The moderating role of emotional display rules was also discussed. The study was conducted in two phases. Correlational analysis and hierarchical step-wise regression were used for analysis of data. The sample of the study comprises of the service employees from hotels and call centers interacting with their customers either by means of face to face or voice to voice. The results showed that emotional labour was significantly related to intention to quit. The paper suggests important recommendations to the service organizations like hotels and call centers to manage their employees and their customers in the decisive moment.

Field of Research: Organizational behaviour/Human resource management

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.21102/jbpr.2014.07.91.10