The Impact of Surface Acting on Psychological Well-being: Based on Mediating Role of Organization-Based Self-Esteem and Moderation of Team-Member Exchange

The recent proliferation of non-face-to-face services and the rise of platform labor have led to a growing social interest in emotional labor. Emotional labor is a core characteristic of the work process, requiring interaction with customers. Workers performing emotional labor are forced to conceal their inner feelings and externally express the emotions required by the organization, placing them in a state of emotional dissonance. Therefore this study investigates how emotional labor's surface acting impacts service workers' psychological well-being, mediated by organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), and moderated by team-member exchange (TMX). Analyzing 336 service workers, findings confirm surface acting negatively affects psychological well-being and OBSE. Higher OBSE, in turn, positively influences psychological well-being. A pivotal discovery is TMX's paradoxical moderating role: high TMX intensifies surface acting's negative effect on OBSE. This suggests strong team cohesion can amplify the perceived cost of emotional dissonance, hurting organizational pride and subsequently psychological well-being. The study underscores surface acting's complex psychological toll beyond individual well-being to organizational identification, advocating for nuanced emotional labor management and a careful approach to team support systems.