New Vantage Points on Emotional Labor and Its Service Context: An Introduction to the Emotional Labor and Service Special Issue

Abstract

This special issue introduces new perspectives on emotional labor in the service context. That is, while service work has been a focus of much of the emotional labor research world, explication of the context in which that service work occurs (including the customers served, the leadership of those who serve, and the larger organizational context) has not received much attention. In addition, the emotional labor of customers has also not been much explored. The papers included in this special issue explore these issues from the viewpoints of both the fields of organizational behavior and services management; they consider emotional labor from both employees’ and customers’ perspectives; and they explore the outcomes of emotional labor in ways that signal the common human experiences of people when in interaction with each other. Together, these papers offer new insights on emotional labor by translating service characteristics and service leadership into attitudes and experiences of service workers and customers, their behaviors and emotions, and ultimately into their health and wellbeing. This introduction provides a series of lenses useful for interpreting the papers in this special issue. We hope that the depth and diversity of new directions for emotional labor research and practice that are suggested by this special issue will inspire many researchers and practitioners navigating this world to provide both understanding of it and further the health and well-being of those involved in it.