From Effortful to Effortless: Conceptualizing Emotional Labor Automaticity

Emotional labor involves managing emotions as part of the work role and is often accomplished by using surface acting (i.e., faking, suppressing) and deep acting (i.e., changing felt emotions) emotion regulation strategies. Extant theorizing and established measures characterize the use of these two types of regulation strategies as requiring high effort, which consumes resources and contributes to worse employee well-being and performance outcomes. The purposes of this paper are to make the theoretical case that these emotion regulation strategies can vary in the extent to which they are automatic and effortless as opposed to controlled and effortful, and to consider how automaticity in emotional labor might develop in individuals and be exhibited on the job. In pursuing these ideas, we also develop propositions regarding the conceptualization, antecedents, and consequences of emotional labor automaticity and make the case that a new measurement approach is needed to capture the emotion regulation strategy automaticity continuum. Finally, we discuss the practical implications of these ideas and future research directions.