The burden of esthetic labor on front-line employees in hospitality industry

Abstract

Hospitality industry has recently used esthetic labor on front-line employees to provide customers with the experience of quality service. The front-line employees must strive to meet various esthetic requirements and improve their personal esthetic skills, which might create stress for employees and make them feel burdened. Previous studies have not elucidated the burden of esthetic labor and its influence from the employee's perspective. Hence, the purpose of this study is to uncover the sources of burden of esthetic labor on front-line employees in the hospitality industry. Through in-depth interview and content analysis, this study extracted the burden of esthetic labor into three dimensions: organizational esthetic requirements and training, customer service pressures, and burdens in time off work. Managerial implications and future research directions are also discussed. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.