Emotional Intelligence as a Moderator of Affectivity/Emotional Labor and Emotional Labor/Psychological Distress Relationships

Emotional labor refers to effort, planning, and control required to display organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal
transactions and performed by individuals either through deep acting or surface acting. Deep acting refers to the modification
of inner feeling in order to express the organizationally desired emotions, whereas surface acting refers to the change of
emotional expression without facilitating the change of inner emotional state. The authors examined the moderating role of
emotional intelligence dimensions (self-emotional appraisal; others’ emotional appraisal, use of emotion, and regulation of
emotion) in the affectivity (a general positive or negative tendency to experience a particular mood)-emotional labor and
emotional labor-psychological distress relationships among 210 university teachers. Specifically, we found that (a) regulation
of emotion was a particularly important emotional intelligence dimension in influencing the use of deep acting, both directly
and indirectly through the interaction with negative affectivity; (b) positive affectivity emerged as an important affectivity
dimension in influencing the use of deep acting both directly and indirectly through the interaction with self-emotional appraisal;
(c) negative affectivity was a particularly important affectivity dimension in influencing the use of surface acting, both
directly and indirectly through its interaction with emotional intelligence dimensions of self-emotional appraisal and use
of emotion; and finally (d) regulation of emotion interacted with deep acting to influence the psychological distress arising
from EL requirements.