A Human Experience (HX) Perspective on Emotional Labor and Service: Building a Service Climate on a Foundation of Authenticity and Justice

Abstract

This article seeks to broaden emotional labor research through the lens of a Human Experience (HX) perspective, in contrast to either an Employee (EX) or a Customer (CX) perspective. In services, an HX perspective explicitly acknowledges that both employees and customers are humans with the same set of basic human needs to gratify in their Moment of Truth (MOT) interactions. The focus here is on both parties’ needs for authenticity and justice. This HX perspective is applied here to guide integrating emotional labor dynamics and scholarship into a service climate research framework (Bowen and Schneider 2014). The emotional labor focus on employees helps balance the stronger focus on the customer in the service literature. An agenda for future research on the HX perspective is outlined, including the study of emotional labor in underdeveloped areas of the world where the human experience of both those who serve and those served can be unbearable.