• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.251-264
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• 2022

Previous researches related to emotional labor have been cross-sectional studies focusing on static differences in emotional exhaustion. Previous studies on these relationships have not highlighted the dynamic properties of these relationships. This purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of emotional labor strategy on perceived emotional exhaustion and depression. This study was conducted by paying attention to the fact that service industry workers who have to respond kindly to customers often have to show emotions which is necessary for their business to the outside world rather than showing their true emotions. The results of this study are summarized as follows. First, it was confirmed that surface acting had a positive influence on emotional exhaustion, but deep acting had a negative influence to emotional exhaustion. Second, it was found that surface acting had a positive influence on depression, but deep acting had a negative influence on depression. Third, it was confirmed that the effect of deep acting on emotional exhaustion decreased when emotional labor was performed through deep acting on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, while emotional exhaustion was not significant on Thursdays and Fridays. Fourth, it was confirmed that the difference in the effect of emotional labor strategy on depression was greater in the case of performing emotional labor through surface acting than in the case of performing emotional labor through deep acting.