Front-line employees' perceived COVID-19 event strength and emotional labor in the service industry: A moderated mediation model

• Published in: The Journal of general psychology Vol. 151; no. 1; pp. 34 - 53
• Main Authors: Du, Jianghong, Wang, Zhenyuan, Xie, Yunhui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Psychology Press 01.01.2024; Taylor & Francis Inc
• Subjects: Anxiety; COVID-19; deep acting; Emotions; Employees; Humans; job insecurity; Pandemics; perceived COVID-19 event strength; Service industries; surface acting; System theory; anxiety; surface acting; deep acting; job insecurity; perceived COVID-19 event strength
• ISSN: 0022-1309; 1940-0888
• DOI: 10.1080/00221309.2023.2171359

COVID-19 pandemic has brought enormous challenges to employees worldwide, and thus, it is important to understand whether, how, and when perceived COVID-19 event strength can influence employees' work-related outcomes. Drawing on event system theory and affective events theory, this study examined the effect of perceived COVID-19 event strength on front-line service employees' emotional labor, namely, surface acting and deep acting, through the mediating role of anxiety. In addition, it explored job insecurity as a moderator in the relationship between perceived COVID-19 event strength and anxiety. This study analyzed two-wave data (N = 191) collected from front-line employees in the service industry and found that anxiety mediated the relationship between perceived COVID-19 event strength and surface acting but not deep acting, and that job insecurity moderated the relationship between perceived COVID-19 event strength and anxiety and the indirect effect of perceived COVID-19 event strength on surface acting but not on deep acting via anxiety. Implications and directions for future research are also discussed.