Please smile! The correct approach to clients

Economists Jena University analyze emotion work in the service sector

Whether in the chic boutique, at the cheese counter in the supermarket or at the counter of the local transport: the customer can expect to be served by friendly staff. Although permanent smile and exaggerated enthusiastic standard phrases are also not always well received. What is certain: The often expressed in the past accused the service sector in Germany is not sufficiently customer-oriented, so is no longer correct. "Today service companies expect their employees to treat customers courteous and friendly - no matter in what state of mind they are themselves straight," says Prof. Gianfranco Walsh of the University of Jena. This "emotion work" put considerable demands on the staff, finally ", the emotion shown outwardly so much at odds with one's own feelings are," said the Chair of General Business Administration and Marketing.

And this comes at a price: There is hardly a sector employee turnover is as high as in the services sector. The constant contact with customers is a mental challenge that can lead to stress and fatigue, and in extreme cases to sickness absence or even termination. As Prof. Walsh and his colleague Prof. Boris Bartikowski could now prove by the Euromed Business School in Marseille in a study that emotion work for the overall satisfaction of the service staff plays a decisive role. The report economists in the current "European Journal of Marketing".

In their work, Walsh and Bartikowski distinguish between two strategies for dealing with emotional work: so-called "surface acting" and "deep acting". In "surface acting" employees strive for conscious and appropriate control of their facial expressions and gestures, while their feelings remain unaffected. "That's why this type of emotional use is also called faking," says Walsh. In contrast, "deep acting" is not about faking feelings, but about actual feelings. "The service employees try to actually empathize with the necessary feelings and to show them authentically in their work." For example, the stewardess can simply imagine a rowdy drunk passenger as someone who panics on their first flight and is therefore causing trouble.

Which strategy employees choose for emotional work largely determines how satisfied or dissatisfied they are with their job. As the economic researchers show in their study with more than 230 service employees in Germany, as expected, "deep acting" increases job satisfaction compared to "surface acting", "but only among male and younger employees, but not among female and older employees", as explained by Prof. Walsh. At the same time, "surface acting" has a negative impact on job satisfaction among female employees. "This suggests that men find the use of inauthentic emotions less distressing than women," Walsh said. For all study participants, the researchers were also able to demonstrate a negative correlation between job satisfaction and the intention to quit. "In this respect, it can be said that the strategies of emotional work can indirectly influence the intention to quit."

The researchers recommend that these results should be used by service companies when recruiting and training employees. "Specifically, it can be worthwhile to strengthen the deep acting skills of male and younger employees, as this has a positive effect on job satisfaction," summarizes Prof. Walsh.

Original publication:

Walsh G, Bartikowski B. Employee emotional labor and quitting intentions: Investigating the moderating effects of employee gender and age. European Journal of Marketing (2013), 47 (8)

Source: Jena [ Friedrich Schiller University ]