Emotional labour and negative job outcomes: An evaluation of the mediating role of emotional dissonance

Abstract

ABSTRACT Conflicting empirical findings in studies assessing the relationship between emotional labour and negative job outcomes are partly due to the lack of clarity regarding the conceptualisation and measurement of emotional dissonance. Emotional dissonance has been variously described and measured as an antecedent or as a consequence of the performance of emotional labour, as well as an inherent component of emotional labour. Recent conceptualisations of dissonance have proposed a mediator role for emotional dissonance between emotional labour and the outcome of emotional exhaustion. Concepts from cognitive dissonance theory support this conceptualisation and were used to empirically test this proposed relationship with a sample of 181 staff from two tourism based organisations providing a range of visitor/customer services. The results demonstrated a significant partial mediation role for emotional dissonance in the relationship between emotional labour and emotional exhaustion, supporting the use of a more theoretically and methodologically consistent measure of emotional dissonance.

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