Transformational Leadership and Emotional Labor: The Mediation Effects of Psychological Empowerment

Pengfei Cheng (), Zhuangzi Liu and Linfei Zhou
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Pengfei Cheng: School of Economics and Management, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an 710054, China
Zhuangzi Liu: School of Economics and Management, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an 710054, China
Linfei Zhou: School of Economics and Management, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an 710054, China

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 2, 1-15

Abstract: In order to survive the fiercer competition, more and more service firms emphasize front-line employees’ role of creating excellent customer experience by displaying positive emotions during the service interactions. However, the underlying mechanisms for the relationship between transformational leadership and front-line employees’ emotional labor remain unclear. Drawing upon the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study develops a conceptual model in which transformational leadership influences front-line employees’ emotional labor through the mediator of psychological empowerment. By collecting data from 436 employees in five call centers, we tested our model and hypotheses through PROCESS 3.3 macro for SPSS developed by Hayes. The results show that transformational leadership shows positive and negative effects on deep acting and surface acting, respectively. The positive effect on deep acting is partially mediated by psychological empowerment, while the negative effect on surface acting is fully mediated by psychological empowerment. Specifically, two dimensions of psychological empowerment (impact, self-efficacy) play negative mediating roles between transformational leadership and surface acting, while impact, self-determination, and self-efficacy play positive mediating roles of transformational leadership and deep acting. The findings advance our understanding about how transformational leadership influences front-line employees’ emotional labor by introducing psychological empowerment as a mediator.

Keywords: emotional labor; transformational leadership; psychological empowerment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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