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Raechel Martin

November 10, 2011

Psych 083T

Reaction Paper 4: Is EL easier for some employees than others?

Many studies point to the aspects of a job that put stress on the employee. However, all

of these studies look at employees as a whole, and do not necessarily account for individual

differences. Do all of these employees have the same culture, the same rules regarding job

autonomy, and the same personality traits? Most likely this answer is no, and therefore it

important to recognize the individual differences between employees and use them to discover

what aspects of a person make emotional labor harder or easier. In the following paragraphs, I

will attempt to highlight a few of the main differences between employees that seem to elicit a

difference in response to emotional labor, including both personal aspects and job aspects.

Personality varies greatly from people; it is almost impossible to find two people who

are exactly alike. As far as emotional labor is concerned, several personality traits have been

evaluated in regards to effectiveness in the workplace. Extraversion, neuroticism and the ability

to up-regulate emotions were found to have significant correlations with stress in emotional

labor jobs and socioeconomic status. According to a study by Cote (2010), individuals who had a

strong ability to up-regulated their emotions on demand, had the highest amount of disposable

income and the highest socioeconomic status compared to those who were not as efficient at

up-regulating their emotions. This could mean that those who successfully implement the

wishes on the company, and fulfilled their emotional display requirements, were more likely to

move up in the company or simply retain their job for a longer period of time. Whether or not

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someone was more extraverted or introverted, and neurotic or emotionally stable had an effect

on the degree to which the employee experienced stress in the workplace due to emotional

labor. Those who were classified as neurotic showed the same amount of stress when showing

enthusiasm as when they showed anger, but those who were classified as extraverted showed

less stress when expressing enthusiasm than when expressing anger (Bono and Vey, 2007).

Given that most emotional labor jobscashiers, flight attendants, waitressesare told to show

enthusiasm, having an extroverted personality could lead to less stress in the workplace

regardless of whether or not the individual surface acts or deep acts. Also according to the

study conducted by Bono and Vey (2010), extraverts showed a decrease in heart rate when

showing enthusiasm and an increase in heart rate for anger; neurotics showed an increase in

both the display of enthusiasm and the display of anger. From this we can conclude that

extraversion may actually help the employee to relax while showing enthusiasm through

surface acting and deep acting alike, whereas neuroticism may have negative effects while the

employee is trying to enact these display rules regardless of what methods they are using.

At the start of the emotional labor debate, Hochschild (1983) presented the idea that

women are better at emotional regulation, and thus better at emotional labor jobs. Today, we

have solid evidence of this claim. In a study by Hopp et al. (2010), when the men and women

were both told to act naturally the systolic blood pressure of the two did not vary much; that is

both men and women had approximately the same level of internal stress when told to treat

customers as they would anyone else, regardless of the situation. However, when both genders

were told to act friendly, the systolic blood pressure of the women was much lower than that of

the men (Hopp et al., 2010); in other words, when they were told to exhibit certain display rules

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of friendliness toward the customers, the women were faced with less internal stress. From

this, it can be concluded that in a setting where an employee must act friendly, women tend to

have less internal stress than do men which could mean that women are a better fit for

emotional labor jobs.

Aside from personal aspects of the employee, there are other factors that contribute to

an easier work environment. As with almost every psychological disorder or issue, it is not just

the biological parts of the individual that make up the problem, but it is the combination of the

biological aspects and traits of the individual and his or her social environment. The same

principle can be applied to the workplace. Certain personality traits have shown that they can

aid an individual in the workplace and thus make it easier for them, but there are also job

characteristics that may help the employee as well. Grandey and Diamond (2011), found that

those who had jobs with more autonomy were faced with less stress. This could be due to a

number of reasons; the employee could feel that because they have more control over their job

that they have more control over their emotions, and thus they are not as pressured to exhibit

service with a smile when it would obviously cause stress, as with an unhappy customer. Or,

possibly, the employee is permitted to take breaks when needed; so when they are face with an

unhappy customer, they can take the time necessary to replenish their resources and

recharge in a sense. This idea is congruent with the ideas of Baumeister et al. (2007).

Cultural differences between emotional labor jobs present an interesting case: is

emotional labor universal? Do different countries and cultures present display rules through the

same methods? Are these methods more or less effective in one country compared to another?

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In a study by Grandey, Fisk, and Steiner (2005), the cultural differences of emotional labor jobs

between the United States and France was examined; they found that jobs in France tended to

grant their employees with more job autonomy than jobs in the United States, and so the

employees in France were less emotionally exhausted and stressed. This is further evidence to

support the idea that job autonomy helps to promote a less stressful and easier work

environment for the employee.

In conclusion, it is obvious that several aspects influence whether or not an employee is

stressed in the workplace regardless of whether they deep act or surface act. The personality

traits of the individual along with the external aspects of the job, make emotional labor easier

for some and harder for others.