Impact of Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Exhaustion with Mediating Role of Emotional Labor: Study on Hotel Frontline Staff

Abstract

This study aims to examine the impact of emotional intelligence on emotional exhaustion. Where emotional labor is tested as mediator between emotional intelligence and emotional exhaustion. Two strategies of emotional labor are used to examine the relation i.e. surface acting and deep acting. This research is proposed in view of the increasing demand and impact of emotional exhaustion under the effect of surface and deep acting. The data from the hospitality industry is used, with sample size of 191. To conduct this study a detailed literature is reviewed and arguments are presented. Conservation of resources and emotion regulation theories are also discussed in this study. In order to investigate the model of the study, data is collected from the frontline employees of the 3 hotels of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Questionnaires are distributed among employees for data collection through emails. Detailed analysis is conducted through SPSS to test the hypothesis. Results of the study are based on descriptive statistics, factor analysis, reliability, correlation and regression analysis. One of the significant findings is that deep acting and surface acting are actually operating as mediator among the relationship of emotional intelligence and emotional exhaustion and effects the relationship of both variables. It is also observed that employees with high level of emotional intelligence generally adopt deep acting which prevents them from emotional exhaustion. While employees with low level of EI adopt surface acting which leads to emotional exhaustion of employees. This study also concludes that emotional intelligence is inversely related to emotional exhaustion. This study is a hallmark for the hospitality industry of Pakistan to control the factors effecting the emotional exhaustion of employees, to increase retention and, to enhance the performance of employees to give a boost in this industry.