How does emotional labor influence voice behavior? The roles of work engagement and perceived organizational support

Abstract

Promoting employee voice behavior is important for the sustainable development of organizations. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, the study examined the association between emotional labor and employee voice behavior and the mediation of work engagement in this relationship. Surveys were collected at two time points, four weeks apart, from 629 employees in the service industry in China. The results show that surface acting is negatively related to work engagement and that deep acting is positively related to work engagement. Employees’ work engagement is positively associated with voice behavior. Hence, work engagement appears to be a mediating variable that translates the emotional labor into voice behavior. Moreover, perceived organizational support moderates the relationship between emotional labor and voice behavior. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.