This paper examines emotional labor as a critical yet underrecognized skill in the hospitality industry. Drawing on psychological frameworks including Gardner's theory of interpersonal intelligence and Bass's transformational leadership model, the paper argues that both employees and managers must acknowledge emotional labor's role in delivering quality guest service. It explores how management integrity, leadership style, employee commitment, and targeted training programs collectively determine service quality, profitability, and staff retention. The paper concludes that when emotional labor is mutually valued by employees and management, hospitality organizations benefit from reduced turnover, improved guest satisfaction, and stronger organizational performance.
Customer service, regardless of venue — whether clinical, retail, collections, telemarketing, or hospitality — is one of the most difficult employment areas in which to work. Servicing people requires the service agent to be respectful, courteous, ethical, and capable of resolving problems, inquiries, and complaints as quickly and efficiently as possible at all times. Customer service representatives in all fields must be extremely cooperative in the face of adversity, competition, resistance, and sometimes degradation. Those who choose to work in a customer service-related field are confronted on a daily basis with a wide variety of diverse personalities, customs, ethnic profiles, and cultural differences. Service personnel are, therefore, the vanguards and frontline workers of the service world.
Because of the continuous and mounting pressure placed on service personnel, it is no wonder that employment turnover and burnout remain consistently high, with employee attitudes frequently suffering as a result. The required skill of emotional labor is generally not recognized by either customers or employers, as both entities have removed themselves from the frontlines of customer service. The remainder of this paper focuses on a critical analysis of emotional labor as a forgotten yet essential skill.
The emotional labor phenomenon in psychology is a complex process to understand, particularly because it has yet to be formally recognized by occupational therapists, psychologists, social workers, or business professionals. Emotional labor, as a skill, can best be defined as the ability to emotionally engage with or detach from a situation in pursuit of excellent customer service (Ohlson, 2004). Furthermore, the concept of emotional labor cannot be defined without incorporating the construct of emotional work. Both emotional labor and emotional work are intricately combined to form what is generally termed value-related job requirements. Knowing that all labor carries an emotional dimension, what separates the novice from the expert is the depth of emotion tied to the work. Individuals who are not emotionally connected to their jobs therefore leave their most valuable attribute outside the service situation (Hei-Lin Chu, 2002).
Connectivity is a behavioral construct often referred to as emotional intelligence, or as defined by Gardner (1983) as interpersonal intelligence. According to Gardner, emotional intelligence describes the relationship between one's inner feelings and the outward display of appropriate or inappropriate emotion. This is particularly important for hospitality workers, who must always be alert to what they feel and what constitutes an appropriate emotional display when dealing with a guest. The level of an employee's emotional maturity, social skill development, interpersonal competence, and self-awareness is vital to the delivery of excellent guest service. Without these competencies, the guest receives service that is substandard and ultimately costly to the employer.
In order to maximize the quality of guest services, both employers and employees need to recognize the value of emotional labor. One without the other is akin to the blind leading the blind. To this end, both parties must be acutely aware of the key ingredients of emotional labor — namely, worker respect, responsibility, understanding, fear, satisfaction, empathy, resentment, depression, guilt, and even anger. All too often in the hospitality industry, employees are given little respect for the work they perform. Managers frequently view those who wait tables, check coats, set up banquet halls, and serve drinks as transient, uneducated, and unmotivated. The practice of acknowledging employees who must interact with strangers on a daily basis is rarely given a second thought (Gutek, 1999).
Those managers who are respected by employees in terms of emotional labor are managers who demonstrate integrity — keeping promises and upholding supportive values. It is through a manager's behavioral integrity that employees rally to a common cause and bottom-line profits grow. Where this integrity is absent, an employee's commitment to the guest service mission will almost certainly suffer. Contained within the emotional labor factor and the behavioral integrity of the manager is the concept of employee commitment. When integrity and recognition of employee emotional labor are present, the result is employee commitment, which in turn produces guest satisfaction, profitability, and reduced employee turnover. Once emotional labor factors and management integrity have been established, there can exist a clear realization and acceptance of the roles to be assumed by all participants in the industry.
Well-defined employee and management roles are a key ingredient to the successful operation of any hospitality property. Without clearly delineated job descriptions and management styles, there is little hope for sustained success in the hospitality industry. Sustainable hospitality service requires two key ingredients: employee recognition and strong management. Through proper leadership and recognition of emotional labor, managers must learn how to guide and develop the behaviors of their employees, and the first step in accomplishing this is to become an effective leader.
"Transformational leadership as optimal hospitality management style"
"Employee competence development and effective training programs"
At no time can either management or employee stand alone in the delivery of optimal guest service. When management fails to recognize the emotional labor skills of employees, a substandard guest service environment will inevitably result. At the same time, management must continually ensure that employees feel positive about working for the organization by acknowledging and valuing their emotional labor contributions. With identification and involvement on both sides, employees will be less likely to leave their positions and will relate far more positively to customers, ultimately improving the quality of guest services for all.
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