The acceleration of emotional labor research: Navigating the past and steering toward the future

Allison S. Gabriel; James M. Diefendorff; Alicia A. Grandey

doi:10.1111/peps.12576

journal article Jan 26, 2023

The acceleration of emotional labor research: Navigating the past and steering toward the future

Allison S. Gabriel

James M. Diefendorff Alicia A. Grandey

Personnel Psychology Vol. 76 No. 2 pp. 511-545 · Wiley

View at Publisher Save 10.1111/peps.12576

Abstract

AbstractThe past four decades of scholarship on emotional labor—the regulation of feelings and expressions performed to fulfill interpersonal work role expectations—has transformed our understanding of the purpose and outcomes of managing emotions at work. In last decade's comprehensive review by Grandey and Gabriel (2015), emotional labor research was described as stalled, with a need for detours around roadblocks related to three areas: (1) conceptualization and measurement of emotional labor; (2) more attention to the why and when emotional labor occurs; and (3) a wider set of performance and well‐being criteria. In our focused review of the most recent decade, we highlight how scholars navigated around the roadblocks, pointing out the remaining speedbumps and calling attention to the ways that research in Personnel Psychology contributed to these new directions. We conclude with a map pointing scholars toward the intersection of emotional labor with three grand challenges for the future of work: employee mental health, diversity and inclusion, and remote/virtual work and novel work arrangements—three topics that are needed extensions of where emotional labor scholarship has previously been. As such, our review builds an open road for the acceleration of emotional labor scholarship.

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Details

Published: Jan 26, 2023
Vol/Issue: 76(2)
Pages: 511-545
License: View

Authors

A

Allison S. Gabriel

Eller College of Management University of Arizona Tucson Arizona USA

J

James M. Diefendorff

Department of Psychology University of Akron Akron Ohio USA

A

Alicia A. Grandey

Department of Psychology Penn State University University Park Pennsylvania USA

Cite This Article

Allison S. Gabriel, James M. Diefendorff, Alicia A. Grandey (2023). The acceleration of emotional labor research: Navigating the past and steering toward the future. Personnel Psychology, 76(2), 511-545. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12576

The acceleration of emotional labor research: Navigating the past and steering toward the future

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