The Conjoint Effect of Workplace Spirituality and Emotional Labour on Service Providers’ Wellbeing: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

Is emotional labour a burden or a boon to service providers who have greater workplace spirituality (WS)? We test a moderated mediation model in which emotional exhaustion mediates the conjoint effect of WS and emotional labour on job satisfaction. Linking conservation of resources (COR) theory with the mechanism of ‘value congruence’ in person–environment fit theory, we theorize that spiritual values are a key factor in generating necessary resource gains for deep acting (DA) due to the value fit of these two motivational vectors. As a boundary condition for use of the benefits of DA, WS can bridge the gap between theoretical assumptions concerning the benefits of DA and the lack of empirical evidence that DA mitigates emotional exhaustion. Concurrently, we challenge the perception of WS as universally beneficial to employees’ wellbeing by proposing that WS amplifies the detrimental effects of surface acting because the externalized and inauthentic nature of this type of emotional regulation transgresses basic spiritual values. Our hypotheses find support in a study of 196 Israeli service providers at inbound call centres.

Keywords

Emotional labour workplace spirituality emotional exhaustion job satisfaction value congruence

To ensure that their emotions are aligned with the expectations of their jobs, service providers must regulate their emotions towards customers, service providers have to regulate the emotions that they display towards customers. In this process of emotion management, referred to as emotional labour, employees invoke two main strategies: deep acting (hereinafter: DA), which occurs when they align their actual feelings with a requisite emotional display, or surface acting (hereinafter SA), occurring when they display requisite emotions without making an inner emotional adjustment (Hochschild, 1983). Given the essentiality of emotional-labour process in service delivery, the need to better understand it has become particularly important in view of the growth and global expansion of the service industry. After more than three decades of research, numerous studies exploring various circumstances that shape the consequences of emotional labour for sundry wellbeing outcomes such as stress, burnout and job satisfaction, it is clear that emotional labour can be an extremely taxing practice (e.g., Grandey et al., 2013; Hulshege & Schewe, 2011; Kammeyer-Mueller et al., 2013).

Over time, with the growing realization that emotional labour is enacted in different ways by different individuals and that emotional labour is more taxing for some people than for others, attention has begun to shift from the consequences of emotional labour to its antecedents. Increasingly, studies now focus on personal circumstances and individual differences that shape the selection and the consequences of emotional-labour strategies (Kammeyer-Mueller et al., 2013). One such difference, recently proposed, is workplace spirituality (hereinafter WS) (Byrne et al., 2011; Lee et al., 2014; Zou & Dahling, 2017). WS occurs when employees are synchronized with organizational values and find meaning and purpose larger than oneself in their work, promoting a sense of transcendence, authenticity and community (meaningful relationships and common values) in the workplace (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2003) and willingness to contribute to a ‘greater good’ by being of service to others (Milliman et al., 2003).

These characteristics of WS suggest that high-WS employees regulate their emotions differently than do other employees and that this difference in emotion regulation influences the downstream consequences of emotional labour for employee wellbeing outcomes (Byrne et al., 2011). Zou and Dahling (2017) provide the first empirical examination of the importance of WS in mitigating the harmful effects of SA on the general life subjective wellbeing of employees in the U.S. and China. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989), they proposed that emotional labour is less costly to employees who have greater WS (Zou & Dahling, 2017; cf. Lee et al., 2014). No empirical research to date, however, has tested this theory directly by exploring the conjoint effects of WS and emotional labour strategies on employees’ emotional exhaustion.

Building on these insights, the current study explores the role of WS and emotional labour in shaping the relationship between emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction, two of the paramount and most studied wellbeing outcomes in service jobs (Huang et al., 2015). We focus on WS as opposed to other approaches to spirituality because of its ability to be fostered in the workplace (Zou & Dahling, 2017). Managers can enhance WS by taking various steps such as encouraging employees to perform value-expressive behaviours, promoting community building or facilitating positive thinking (Rego & Pina e Cunha, 2008; Zou & Dahling, 2017). Accordingly, we test a moderated mediation model in which WS moderates the indirect effect of emotional labour on job satisfaction through emotional exhaustion.

Our postulations challenge the conventional wisdom that WS is universally beneficial to emotional management. We propose that service providers may find WS either a burden or a boon depending on the type of emotional regulation they enact. We identify WS as an important boundary condition for utilizing the benefits of DA due to the value fit between emotional labour and the motivational resources conferred by WS. Contrastingly, we also propose that WS amplifies the detrimental effects of SA because the externalized and inauthentic nature of this type of emotional regulation clashes with basic spiritual values. This value mismatch makes SA costlier to high-WS employees because it places greater focus on resource loss that increases mental strain (Edwards & Cable, 2009; Halbesleben et al., 2014). Thus, our study yields a more balanced and nuanced understanding of the interaction between emotional labour and motivational resources, such as WS, that takes into account both resource-building and resource-depleting processes within the COR framework.

Emotional labour, Emotional Exhaustion and Job Satisfaction

Hochschild (1983) identifies two main strategies that workers use to adjust their emotions to organizational rules. In SA, employees manipulate outer manifestations of emotion to meet organizational expectations, yielding an emotional display that is discrepant from their actual emotions. In DA, contrastingly, workers modify their actual emotions to align them with organizational expectations by adopting the customer’s perspective or reinterpreting the situation using techniques, such as guided imagination (e.g., perceiving an abusive customer as a frustrated child) or active arousal of thoughts and memories (e.g., reflecting on a pleasant memory to change a negative emotion into a positive display) (Grandey, 2003). Employees who internalize the organization’s requirements by DA report stronger feelings of authenticity and fewer feelings of faking and emotional dissonance (Brotheridge & Lee, 2002). Research is clear that SA is more harmful to employees’ wellbeing than DA (Grandey & Gabriel, 2015). In two meta-analytic studies, SA was found negatively related to job satisfaction and positively related to emotional exhaustion, while DA was positively related to job satisfaction and not significantly related to emotional exhaustion (Hulshege & Schewe, 2011; Kammeyer-Mueller et al., 2013).

COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989) provides one of the primary theoretical explanations for the differential outcomes of SA and DA (Grandey & Gabriel, 2015; Huang et al., 2015; Zou & Dhaling, 2017). According to this theory, people experience detriments to wellbeing when their tangible or intangible resources become depleted due to an imbalance between efforts expended and resources generated. The COR lens yields two main explanations of the transmission of SA to detriment to wellbeing. The first centres on the particularly stressful experience of SA. While both SA and DA are strenuous forms of emotional regulation, SA consumes more emotional resources because it entails emotional dissonance and a feeling of inauthenticity. Accordingly, it requires ongoing effortful regulation that depletes resources at an unsustainable rate because its intrinsic emotional façade involves the continuous exertion of self-control (Grandey & Gabriel, 2015). In contrast, DA, as an antecedent-focused form of emotion regulation, requires only a temporary exertion of effort during the initial stage of aligning one’s actual feelings with the requisite emotional display (Zou & Dhaling, 2017).

The second COR explanation focuses on the specific benefit of DA in generating new resources. While both SA and DA consume resources, only the latter can create potential downstream resource gains such as positive social feedback (Côté & Morgan 2002), feelings of accomplishment (Brotheridge & Lee, 2002) and authentic positive emotions (Scott & Barnes, 2011) that may offset the resource loss (Huang et al., 2015), compensate for the energy losses occasioned by DA (Grandey & Gabriel, 2015), and induce greater job satisfaction among service employees (Huang et al., 2015). The inauthentic display of emotions in SA, in contrast, creates a net loss in resources because it is less likely to enhance resources. This net loss explains both the positive relation of SA to emotional exhaustion and its negative relation to job satisfaction.

In both explanations, emotional exhaustion functions as a mediator between emotional labour and job satisfaction. Emotional labour induces emotional exhaustion and depletes employees’ emotional resources, decreasing job satisfaction (Grandey, 2003; Huang et al., 2015), while the availability of personal resources associated with reduced emotional exhaustion may lead employees to greater job satisfaction (Cropanzano et al., 2003; Huang et al., 2015).

Notably, missing in the COR literature is the question of how individuals valorize their resources (Halbesleben et al., 2014). Different people may value the same resource differently; resources that are productive for some people, may be counterproductive for others (Gorgievski et al., 2011). To rectify this problem, Halbesleben et al. (2014) suggest that we perceive resources in COR theory as motivational vectors grounded in hierarchically ordered values. In this approach, individual differences in resource evaluation are perceived as motivational differences in willingness to invest current resources in acquiring a new resource. People hold different values and pursue them for different goals and in different ways. By implication, personal values may provide crucial insights into the value that people assign to their resources.

Importantly, when people invest resources in order to gain additional resources, they tend to assign more value to resources that complement their existing resources (Schmidt & Keil, 2013). This idea of ‘resource caravans’ (Hobfoll, 2011; Hobfoll et al., 2018) perceives resource gains as a chainlike process in which resource accumulation is motivated by the extent to which the new resource fits with existing resources. For example, service employees who view work requirements as challenges and growth opportunities rather than threats, are likely to be less receptive to SA and to place higher value on DA because the values of DA fit better with values of personal growth (Huang et al., 2015).

The idea of ‘resource caravans’ is complemented by that of ‘value congruence’ in person–environment fit theory (Edwards & Cable, 2009). According to this theory, employees’ welfare and performance depend on the extent to which they regulate their emotional displays by employing specific behavioural strategies that are congruent with their value hierarchy. Value-congruent behaviours enhance positive feelings and wellbeing, while value-incongruent behaviours increase exhaustion and stress and detract from wellbeing.

In what follows, we formulate our research model and present our hypotheses. Drawing on mechanisms from COR theory and person–environment fit theory, we conceptualize WS as a ‘resource caravan’—a specific pattern of personal-motivational values—and propose that employees who have greater WS assign higher value to DA as a resource for managing their service interactions because DA complements basic motivational resources (i.e., values) that WS provides. The resulting downstream resource gains are likely to outweigh the cost of the DA, manifesting in less depletion of emotional resources and greater job satisfaction. SA, in contrast, clashes with the basic value hierarchy (the ‘resource caravan’) associated with WS due to its inauthenticity, taking a higher toll on the wellbeing of high-WS employees.

The Conjoint Effect of WS and Emotional Labor

Interest in spirituality in the management and organizational literature has mushroomed in the past two decades following a multitude of studies showing that spirituality enhances organizational performance due to its positive relation to various beneficial outcomes in employees’ wellbeing (Garg, 2017). In particular, spirituality is found to enhance job satisfaction (Altaf & Awan, 2011; Clark et al., 2007) and to mitigate emotional exhaustion and stress (Estupinan & Kibble, 2018; Lee et al., 2014).

Given the diverse definitions and operationalizations of spirituality in the organizational literature (Kapuscinski & Masters, 2010), we focus on WS because of its practicality as a specific pattern of personal values that can be promoted in the workplace by managers (Garg, 2017). Following Zou and Dahling (2017), we adopt the framework developed by Rego and Pina e Cunha (2008), who provide an individual-focused conceptualization of WS as a non-denominational construct independent from religious practices. In their definition, WS is a psychological state ‘based on personal values and philosophy. It is about employees who view themselves as spiritual beings whose souls need nourishment at work, who experience a sense of purpose and meaning in their work, and a sense of connectedness to one another and to their workplace community’ (Rego & Pina e Cunha, 2008, p. 55).

Within the COR framework, WS itself can be conceptualized as representing a specific pattern of resources that typically occur together. These resources include the affirmation of employee values and experiences of meaningful and harmonious connections with the job (self-development and growth), with organizational values (authenticity), with others (community) and with a ‘greater good’ (transcendence and servitude). These resources are considered intrinsic motivators (Gatling et al., 2016), that encourage internalized behaviours and may therefore effectively explain the differential effects of deep and SA on job satisfaction via their asymmetrical influences on emotional exhaustion.

SA and DA are receptive to different kinds of resources (Huang et al., 2015). Resources that encourage employees to externalize their behaviour—for example, financial incentives (Grandey et al., 2013) or social exchange (McCance et al., 2013)—are especially helpful in buffering the negative effects of SA on employees’ wellbeing. In contrast, resources that encourage internalized behaviour among employees are helpful in compensating for the effort of DA and are therefore likely to enhance its beneficial influence on employees’ wellbeing.

We propose that WS, as a facilitator of internalized behaviours, is particularly well suited to buffering the effect of DA on emotional exhaustion and to amplifying job satisfaction. It enhances service employees’ intrinsic motivational resources to better manage their emotions in service interactions through DA. This is because DA complements the resource caravans of WS in several ways. First, as an antecedent-focused form of emotion regulation, it aligns employees’ actual feelings with organizational emotional values before an anticipated service interaction occurs. This internalization of organizational expectations, integrating aspects of the external environment (i.e., organizational display rules) into self-directed autonomous behaviour, fits well with the general tendency of high-WS employees to seek harmony and alignment between their personal values and the organizational culture (Gatling et al., 2016).

Second, service employees pursue emotional congruence by DA in order to feel authentic (Brotheridge & Lee, 2002) and to seem authentic to customers (‘faking in good faith’) (Grandey, 2003). Authenticity is also an important value and motivational resource in WS, whetting spiritual employees’ general desire to engage with their job (Saks, 2011) in order to interact meaningfully with their workplace and experience unity and harmony by integrating into their surroundings (Milliman et al., 2003).

Third, Allen et al. (2014) postulate that DA has a stronger negative effect on burnout in collectivistic societies because such societies value the process of changing emotions as a way to maintain group harmony. WS also emphasizes the importance of community-building. High-WS employees place more value on forming meaningful relationships and feeling valuable to others due to their greater communal orientation (Milliman et al., 2003; Rego & de Chuna, 2008).

To summarize, because DA complements the values of WS, we would expect WS to amplify the positive effect of DA on job satisfaction both directly and by buffering the depletion of employees’ emotional resources. The hypotheses are formulated as follows:

Hypothesis 1a (H_1a): The relationship between DA and emotional exhaustion is moderated by WS, such that employees with greater WS who engage in DA are less emotionally exhausted.

Hypothesis 1b (H_1b): The relationship between DA and job satisfaction is moderated by WS, such that employees with greater WS who engage in DA are more satisfied with their jobs.

Hypothesis 1c (H_1c): Emotional exhaustion mediates the interactive effect of DA and WS on job satisfaction, such that employees with greater WS who engage in DA are less exhausted and therefore more satisfied with their job.

Contrastingly, we propose that WS is likely to exacerbate the detrimental downstream consequences of SA for employees’ emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. Given their high valorization of authenticity, unity and harmony, high-WS employees are likely to suffer more than others from the inauthenticity and emotional dissonance associated with SA and its mandatory ongoing effort to maintain an emotional façade. From a COR perspective, the ‘faking’ of emotions in SA collides with the resource caravan provided by WS. Resources that buffer the harmful consequences of SA are those that allow employees to disengage—that is, to uncouple their selves from their work role—and recover from the stress that accompanies faking and inauthenticity (Grandey et al., 2013). Because SA clashes with WS values, we would expect WS to exacerbate the detrimental effect of SA on job satisfaction directly, by enhancing its adverse effect on job satisfaction, and indirectly, by magnifying the downstream depletion of employee emotional resources. The hypotheses are formulated as follows:

Hypothesis 2a (H_2a): The relationship between SA and emotional exhaustion is moderated by WS, such that employees with greater WS who engage in SA are more emotionally exhausted.

Hypothesis 2b (H_2b): The relationship between SA and job satisfaction is moderated by WS, such that employees with greater WS who engage in SA are less satisfied with their jobs.

Hypothesis 2c (H_2c): Emotional exhaustion mediates the interactive effect of SA and WS on job satisfaction, such that employees with greater WS who engage in SA are more exhausted and therefore less satisfied with their jobs.

Figure 1 presents the research model.

Figure 1.

Source: The authors.

Method

Procedure

Service employees at three Israeli call centres completed a paper survey. Participation in the survey was voluntary. We distributed and collected questionnaires at the end of the work day. To minimize common method variance, we collected data at two points in time. At Time 1, employees opted into the study and completed measures of WS, SA, DA and demographic variables. At Time 2, three weeks later, they completed measures of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. To encourage participation and minimize survey non-response at Time 2, we offered respondents an opportunity to win one of five NIS 50 (approximately $14) gift cards in a lottery draw.

Participants

The sample comprised 196 complete responses, 72% of all employees invited to participate in the study. The final sample ranged in age from 19 to 50 years old; the mean age was 26.7 (SD = 4.9). Respondents were 88% female and 76% Jews, 17% Muslims and 7% Christians. Average job seniority was 33 months (SD = 28.35).

Measures

All items in the questionnaire were translated into Hebrew using back-translation procedures and were answered on 6-point rating scales (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree). Scale reliability (Cronbach’s alphas) for all measures is shown in Table 1.

Table 1.

Descriptives.

Variable	1	2	3	4	5	6
1. WS	[0.89]
2. Deep acting	0.29**	[0.75]
3. Surface acting	0.01	0.24**	[0.78]
4. Emotional exhaustion	0.15*	0.19**	0.49***	[0.87]
5. Job satisfaction	0.11	0.18*	–0.29**	–0.48***	[0.75]
6. Seniority	0.53***	0.13	0.18*	0.29**	–0.29**
Mean	3.87	4.22	3.94	3.98	3.41	32.85
SD	0.96	0.80	1.09	1.25	1.00	28.77

Source: Primary data.

Note: n = 196. All scales are 6-point Likert type. Values below the diagonal are correlations; values on the diagonal in squared parentheses are inter-item reliabilities.

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 and ***p < 0.01.

Workplace Spirituality

We used the measure of WS developed by Rego and Pina e Cunha (2008), which includes 17 items in five dimensions: alignment with organizational values (five items), sense of community (five items), contribution to community (three items), enjoyment at work (two items) and opportunities for the inner life, for example, ‘My organization respects my “inner life”’ (two items).

Emotional Labour

Four items from the compounded questionnaire (Diefendorff et al., 2005), which includes items originally developed by Brotheridge and Lee (2002) and Grandey (2003), were used to measure SA (e.g., ‘I put on an act in order to deal with customers appropriately’) and six items measured DA (e.g., ‘I try actually to experience the emotions that I must show to customers’).

Emotional Exhaustion

We used five items from Shirom and Melamed (2006) burnout measure: respondents’ self-rated present degree of exhaustion, for example, ‘I feel emotionally drained’.

Job Satisfaction

We used Roznowski’s (1989) four-item scale, modified from the job descriptive index (JBI) and covering four facets of job satisfaction: work, co-workers, supervision and opportunities for promotion.

Analytic Strategy

We applied a moderated mediation analysis, using Model 8 of the PROCESS.3.4 macro in SPSS.25 (Hayes, 2013), to test both the direct effect of emotional labour on job satisfaction and its indirect effect on job satisfaction via emotional exhaustion on the values of WS. To reduce any multicollinearity, WS, SA and DA were mean-centred in the moderated mediation models.

Results

Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Table 1 reports correlations, descriptive statistics and scale reliability for all variables. Cronbach’s alpha exceeded the threshold value of 0.6, indicating good internal consistency among the items within each variable. Given that our data were self-reported, Table 2 reports the results of a series of confirmatory factor analyses to assess the discriminant validity of our hypothesized measurement model compared with other plausible models (Podsakoff et al., 2012). Parcelled indicators of WS were defined using the five dimensions of this variable. For each of the remaining four variables, we formed two parcelled indicators using the single factor method (Landis et al., 2000) by constraining a principal-components analysis of its items to produce a single-factor solution. We then paired the item with the highest loading and the item with the lowest loading and placed the pair into the first composite. The next-highest and next-lowest loading items were then paired and placed into the second composite, and so on until all items were assigned to the two composites.

Table 2.

Measurement Model Comparisons.

Models	Factors	✗²	∆✗²	df	RMSEA	CFI	TLI	SRMR
Baseline	5 factors: a, b, c, d, e	82.68		55	0.05	0.97	0.96	0.05
Model 1	4 factors: [ab], c, d, e	219.32	136.64*	59	0.12	0.83	0.78	0.13
Model 2	4 factors: [ac], b, d, e	170.62	87.32*	59	0.10	0.88	0.85	0.10
Model 3	4 factors: [ae], b, c, d	232.87	150.19*	59	0.13	0.82	0.76	0.12
Model 4	3 factors: [ac], [bd], e	205.22	122.32*	62	0.11	0.85	0.81	0.10
Model 5	3 factors: a, [bc], [de]	207.61	124.93*	62	0.11	0.85	0.81	0.10

Source: The authors.

Note: Factors: a. workplace spirituality; b. surface acting; c. deep acting; d. emotional exhaustion; and e. job satisfaction. Baseline model is the Hypothesized model. Factors in squared parenthesis were combined into one factor. CFI, Comparative fit index; RMSEA, root mean square error of approximation; SRMR, standardized root mean square residual; TLI, Tucker–Lewis index.

*p < 0.001, two-tailed test.

We tested our hypothesized measurement model against all alternatives. We evaluated the fit of the models using four different fit indexes. Our model fits the data better than all the alternatives. Table 2 depicts the results for our model and for five alternative models with the highest fit indexes scores. The results indicate that the five variables in our model are distinctive constructs and were therefore retained in the subsequent analysis (Podsakoff et al., 2012).

Testing the Hypotheses

Table 3 reports the moderating effects of WS on the relationship between emotional labour and emotional exhaustion. In line with Hypothesis 1a (H_1a), WS buffers the positive effect of DA on emotional exhaustion. Contrary to H_2a, however, workplace spiritually does not interact with SA to predict emotional exhaustion.

Table 3.

Moderating Effects of Workplace Spirituality on the Relationship Between Surface Acting (X1), Deep Acting (X2) and Emotional Exhaustion (M).

	Consequent: Emotional Exhaustion (mediator)
	Model 1			Model 2
Antecedents	Coeff.	SE	p	Coeff.	SE	p
WS	–0.05	0.11	0.66	0.07	0.09	0.48
Deep acting (X1)	0.21*	0.10	0.04	–	–	–
WS × deep acting	–0.33**	0.13	0.00	–	–	–
Surface acting (X2)	–	–	–	0.57***	0.08	0.00
WS × surface acting	–	–	–	–0.10	0.08	0.90
Seniority	0.01*	0.00	0.00	0.01*	0.00	0.02
Constant	3.56***	0.15	0.00	3.63***	0.13	0.00
R² = 0.16 F (4, 191) = 8.30***				R² = 0.29 F (4, 191) = 19.19***

Source: The authors.

Note: OLS unstandardized coefficients. Results are based on 5,000 bootstrap samples. Seniority is measured in months. OLS: Ordinary least square.

*p < 0.05, **p <0.01 and ***p < 0.001.

Table 4 reports the moderating effects of WS on the relationship between emotional labour and job satisfaction. Supporting H_2b, the negative interaction between WS and SA suggests that the more employees with greater WS engage in SA the less satisfied they are with their jobs. Contrary to H_1b, however, the interactive effect of WS and DA on job satisfaction is not significant.

Table 4.

Direct and Indirect Effects of Deep Acting (X1), Surface Acting (X2) and Emotional Exhaustion (M) on Job Satisfaction (Y), moderated by workplace Spirituality.

Direct Effect	Consequent: Job Satisfaction (dependent variable)
Direct Effect	Model 1					Model 2
Antecedents	Coeff.		SE		p	Coeff.		SE		p
Emotional exhaustion (M)	–0.37***		0.05		0.00	–0.34***		0.05		0.00
WS	0.30***		0.07		0.00	0.37***		0.07		0.00
Deep acting (X1)	0.288*		0.08		0.00	–		–		–
WS × deep acting	0.039		0.07		0.55	–		–		–
Surface acting (X2)	–		–		–	0.01		0.07		0.94
WS × surface acting	–		–		–	–0.18**		0.06		0.00
Seniority	–0.01***		0.00		0.00	–0.01***		0.00		0.00
Constant	5.22***		0.20		0.00	5.12***		0.22		0.00
	R² = 0.392 F (5, 190) = 24.515***					R² = 0.377 F (5, 190) = 24.487***
Conditional indirect effect by workplace spirituality	Boot Effect (X1)	Boot SE		Boot CI LL, UL		Boot Effect (X2)	Boot SE		Boot CI LL, UL
–1 SD	–0.20	0.05		–0.31, –0.10		–0.20	0.05		–0.30, –0.11
Mean	–0.09	0.04		–0.18, –0.01		–0.19	0.04		–0.27, –0.12
+1 SD	0.04	0.08		–0.13, 0.20		–0.19	0.05		–0.28, –0.09
Moderated mediation	Index	Boot SE		Boot CI LL, UL		Index	Boot SE		Boot CI LL, UL
	0.12	0.05		0.03, 0.23		0.01	0.03		–0.05, 0.09

Source: The authors.

Note: OLS unstandardized coefficients. Results are based on 5,000 bootstrap samples. Seniority is measured in months. OLS: Ordinary least square.

*p < 0.05, **p <0.01 and ***p < 0.001.

Table 4 also reports the moderating effects of WS on the indirect effects of emotional labour on job satisfaction through emotional exhaustion. In line with H_1c, the moderated mediation results reported in Table 4 show that WS buffers the negative mediating effect of emotional exhaustion on the relationship between DA and job satisfaction: High-WS employees who engage in DA are less exhausted and therefore more satisfied with their jobs. Contrary to H_2c, however, WS does not moderate the negative effect of SA on job satisfaction through emotional exhaustion.

Discussion

This study found that employees with greater WS who engage in SA are less satisfied with their jobs, whereas employees with greater WS who engage in DA are less exhausted and therefore more satisfied with their job. Our findings confirm the important role of spiritual values in the emotional-labour process. They also provide evidence that WS may be instigating both resource-building and resource-depleting processes depending on the value congruence between the motivational resources provided by WS and the emotional-labour strategy that employees apply.

Consistent with the ‘resource caravans’ idea in COR theory (Hobfoll, 2011) and ‘value congruence’ in person–environment fit theory (Edwards & Cable, 2009), we found that when high-WS service providers engage in DA, they are protected from resource depletion and, in turn, enjoy greater job satisfaction. Because its values are complemented by the self-engaging internalized and authentic process of DA, WS may be channelling resources to service providers that help them offset the resources that DA depletes and enhances their job satisfaction as a result. The specific nature of those ‘resource gain mechanisms’ provided by WS, should be tested more directly in future research.

Furthermore, high-WS service providers are more vulnerable to the detrimental consequences of SA for their job satisfaction. Given the misfit between the values of WS and the externalized, self-disengaging and inauthentic emotional regulation process of SA, we find a negative effect of SA on job satisfaction only among service providers who are highly committed to the values of WS.

Our findings underscore the relevance of WS in reconciling inconsistencies in findings regarding the effects of DA. By applying the idea of ‘resource caravans’ to examine the value fit between emotional labour and the motivational resources conferred by WS, this study bridges the gap in the organizational literature between the theoretical assumption that DA may be beneficial to employees’ wellbeing (Côté & Morgan, 2002; Brotheridge & Lee, 2002; Scott & Barnes, 2011) and the lack of empirical evidence that DA mitigates emotional exhaustion (Hulshege & Schewe, 2011; Kammeyer-Mueller et al., 2013). In a related contribution, our moderated mediation model delineates a possible process through which the conjoint influence of WS and DA is carried forward to an effect on job satisfaction, by revealing that the interaction between WS and DA amplifies job satisfaction by mitigating emotional exhaustion.

Our research, however, challenges the consensus that WS is universally positive. While previous studies focus only on WS benefits for employees’ wellbeing, ours advances a more nuanced understanding of COR theory and how it relates to different types of emotional labour, providing the first empirical evidence that WS amplifies the negative effect of SA on job satisfaction. By outlining both a resource-building and a resource-depleting process simultaneously, our moderated mediating model offers a more comprehensive understanding of the risks and rewards involved in fostering WS.

Practical Implications

Our study suggests that organizations should think carefully about the extent to which different emotion-management demands tie into their broader organizational culture. Unlike other individual-focused conceptualizations of spirituality, WS can be actively inculcated among employees until it becomes part of the organizational culture (Zou & Dhaling, 2017). Managers can foster WS by promoting community building and helping employees perform value-expressive pro-social behaviours at work (Rego & Pina e Cunha, 2008).

Our findings also suggest, however, that WS may not be beneficial to the organization if it is linked to service-interaction norms that prioritize SA over DA. To improve the benefits of WS, managers who wish to cultivate spiritual values in a service organization should actively encourage employees to engage in DA rather than SA in their service interactions. Conversely, service organizations that already implement programs that promote the use of DA are advised to complement them by fostering WS values among their employees.

Moreover, our findings show a positive correlation between WS and DA but no correlation with SA. Thus, managers may find it easier to encourage service providers to use DA once WS is fostered in the organization and its values permeate the organizational culture. This suggestion also echoes a recent call for service managers to rethink the ‘traditional emotional display rules’ and to ‘emphasize instead more authentic service encounters in order to lessen the toll that service climate takes on certain employees’ (Katz-Navon et al., 2020).

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

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