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Psychological Capital as a Moderator Between

Emotional Labor, Burnout, and Job Satisfaction Among
School Teachers in China

Article  in  International Journal of Stress Management · November 2011

DOI: 10.1037/a0025787

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Psychological Capital as a Moderator Between
Emotional Labor, Burnout, and Job Satisfaction
Among School Teachers in China
Francis Cheung
Lingnan University

Catherine So-kum Tang

National University of Singapore

Shuwen Tang
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

In this study, we examined the relationship between emotional labor and burnout
as well as job satisfaction. Besides, we also explored whether psychological
capital (PsyCap) moderated the emotional labor-burnout or job satisfaction
associations. In total, 264 full-time Chinese school teachers in China were
recruited. Results showed that PsyCap was related to emotional labor, burnout,
and job satisfaction in the hypothesized direction. Furthermore, PsyCap mod-
erated the association between emotional labor and the outcome variables. For
instance, positive association between surface acting on depersonalization as
well as negative association with job satisfaction was weaker when PsyCap was
high. In addition, positive association between deep acting and job satisfaction
was further reinforced among participants with high PsyCap but not among
participants with low PsyCap. Finally, the relationships of PsyCap with deper-
sonalization as well as job satisfaction were more salient among employees who
reported infrequent use of expression of naturally felt emotion. Limitations and
implications of the study were discussed.
Keywords: emotional labor, psychological capital, burnout, job satisfaction

This article was published Online First October 3, 2011.

Francis Cheung, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, Lingnan University, Hong
Kong, China; Catherine So-kum Tang, Department of Psychology, National University of
Singapore, Singapore; Shuwen Tang, Department of Educational Psychology, School of Edu-
cation, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Francis Cheung, Department of
Sociology and Social Policy, Lingnan University, 8 Castle Peak Road, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong,
China. E-mail: francischeung@ln.edu.hk

348
International Journal of Stress Management © 2011 American Psychological Association
2011, Vol. 18, No. 4, 348 –371 1072-5245/11/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0025787
Emotional Labor, Psychological Capital 349

Emotional labor refers to employees’ management of emotions in accor-

dance to organizational display rules (Grandey, 2000; Hochschild, 1983).
Employees have to display positive emotions even if customers are being
difficult and unreasonable (Grandey, Dickter, & Sin, 2004). Therefore, per-
forming emotional labor becomes an inevitable work characteristic in human
service occupations. Research shows that performing emotional labor, par-
ticularly surface acting, is frequently associated with poorer psychological
health and job dissatisfaction (Grandey, 2000). While impending the use of
emotional labor appears to be an unrealistic solution, identifying resources
that helps employees to cope with the stress derived from emotional labor
becomes crucial. In recent years, some studies have reported that psycho-
logical capital (PsyCap) is a personal resources which is significantly asso-
ciated with employees’ job performance and psychological well-being (Lu-
thans, 2002; Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2006). Drawing from the
conservation of resources model (Hobfoll, 1988), it is possible that PsyCap
can be a personal resources to moderate the association between emotional
labor and psychological well-being. In this study, we aim to examine whether
PsyCap is associated with emotional labor, burnout, and job satisfaction.
Furthermore, we also investigate the extent to which psychological capital
moderates the association between emotional labor and burnout as well as job
satisfaction.

EMOTIONAL LABOR

Emotional labor has been conceptualized differently in earlier studies

(see Zapf, 2002, for review). In line with recent research (e.g., Diefendorff,
Croyle, & Gosserand, 2005; Judge, Woolf, & Hurst, 2009; Rupp, McCance,
Spencer, & Sonntag, 2009), we examine three emotional labor strategies,
namely surface acting, deep acting, and expression of naturally felt emotion.
Surface acting refers to the change of emotional expression without
changing the inner emotional state. A typical example of surface acting is
employees faking a smile to display the organizationally required emotion.
Compared with surface acting, deep acting requires the modification of
employees’ inner feeling to express the organizationally desired emotion. For
example, employees can use attention deployment to facilitate the change of
inner emotion to align with the organizational display rules (Grandey, 2000).
Although both surface acting and deep acting enable employees to ex-
press the organizationally required emotion, the essence of these two
strategies is different: Surface acting focuses solely on the displayed
emotion, whereas deep acting involves managing both displayed emotions
and inner feelings (Hochschild, 1983).
350 Cheung, Tang, and Tang

Recent studies include the expression of naturally felt emotion as an

alternative emotional labor strategy (Diefendorff et al., 2005). It refers to
spontaneously experiencing and displaying the felt emotion in the workplace.
In other words, employees use their genuine emotion when they interact with
their clients. Diefendorff et al. (2005) showed that this emotional labor
strategy was negatively correlated with surface acting, but positively corre-
lated with deep acting among human service employees.
According to the conservation of resources model (Hobfoll, 1988),
employees are motivated to conserve and build on their resources at work to
minimize the extent to which they expend resources in their emotional labor
at work. When there is an imbalance between emotional demand and re-
sources available to perform the emotional labor, or when emotional labor
strategies do not generate the desired reward to offset the effort required,
burnout symptoms and job dissatisfaction may occur.
Surface acting entails the expenditure of energy and resources to inhibit
or suppress the “true” emotion. Thus, it is more likely than deep acting and
expression of naturally felt emotion to be associated with burnout and job
dissatisfaction. Previous research has consistently shown that frequent use of
surface acting was related to psychological ill-health, job dissatisfaction, and
burnout among Western (e.g., Beal, Trougakos, Weiss, & Green, 2006;
Brotheridge & Grandey, 2002; Brotheridge & Lee, 2002; Grandey, 2003) and
Chinese employees (e.g., Cheung & Tang, 2009, Cheung & Tang, 2010).
Deep acting was sometimes found to relate to psychological well-being, such
as job satisfaction and a sense of personal accomplishment (Brotheridge &
Lee, 2002; Grandey, 2003). Furthermore, studies on Chinese human service
professionals also found that the expression of naturally felt emotion at work
was associated with good quality of work life (Cheung & Tang, 2009), job
satisfaction, and low psychological distress (Cheung & Tang, 2010).

Hypothesis 1a: Surface acting is associated positively with burnout but

negatively with job satisfaction.

Hypothesis 1b: Deep acting is associated negatively with burnout but

positively with job satisfaction.

Hypothesis 1c: Expression of naturally felt emotion is associated nega-

tively with burnout but positively with job satisfaction.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL, BURNOUT, AND EMOTIONAL LABOR

The construct of PsyCap (Luthans, 2002; Luthans et al., 2004; Luthans

& Yousself, 2004, Luthans & Yousself, 2007; Youssef & Luthans, 2007) is
Emotional Labor, Psychological Capital 351

largely drawn from the theory and research of positive psychology (Peterson
& Seligman, 2004; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Sheldon & King,
2001). Its focus is on people’s strength and how they can grow and thrive in
the workplace. It has been defined as an individual’s positive psychological
state that is characterized by four personal qualities, namely efficacy, opti-
mism, hope, and resilience. Efficacy is the personal belief that one has the
ability to mobilize motivation, cognitive resources, and course of action to
successfully execute a specific task (Bandura, 1997). Optimism refers to the
positive attributional style of making an internal, stable, and global attribu-
tion on positive events (e.g., good job performance), while making an
external, unstable, and specific attribution for negative events (e.g., failure in
completing a job task) (Seligman, 1998). Hope is the perceived capability to
derive pathways to the desired goals and to motivate oneself via agency
thinking in using these pathways (Snyder, 2000; Snyder, Sympson, Ybasco,
Borders, Babyak, & Higgins, 1996). Finally, resilience refers to the positive
coping and adaptation when individuals face adversity or risk (Masten &
Reed, 2002).
Drawing on the conservation of resources model, it is generally
hypothesized that these personal qualities enable the workers to cope
better in the workplaces. Therefore, PsyCap should be positively related
to psychological health and outcome. Past research shows that PsyCap is
indeed positively related to employees’ psychological health and job
satisfaction (e.g., Luthans, Avolio, Walumbwa, & Li, 2005). The positive
relationship between different PsyCap constructs, such as efficacy and
resilience on psychological well-being has also been found among Chi-
nese work sample by Siu and colleagues (Liu, Siu, & Shi, 2010; Lu, Siu,
& Cooper, 2005; Siu, Chow, Phillips, & Lin, 2006; Siu, Lu, & Spector,
2007; Siu, Spector, & Cooper, 2005).

Hypothesis 2: Psychological capital is associated negatively with burnout

but positively with job satisfaction.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AND EMOTIONAL LABOR

In this study, we hypothesize that PsyCap relates differently to the three

emotional labor strategies. In general, we hypothesize that PsyCap is posi-
tively associated with deep acting but negatively to surface acting. For
instance, deep acting is often related to higher job performance (e.g.,
Grandey, 2003) and sense of personal accomplishment (Brotheridge &
Grandey, 2002), while surface acting is not related to better job performance.
With the positive and successful work experience associated with deep
352 Cheung, Tang, and Tang

acting, efficacy in performing well in the job will be enhanced. Therefore, we

hypothesize that efficacy is positively associated with deep acting but neg-
atively to surface acting.
Deep acting is also hypothesized to be positively related to optimism.
Deep acting involves flexibility in using different cognitive strategies (e.g.,
cognitive restructuring) to modify their cognitions and eventually their emo-
tional expression. The cognitive flexibility is an important aspect of opti-
mism: Employees view the causes of desirable events (e.g., successful
service interaction) as being within their power and control, and when
encountering setbacks in their job, they can attribute to external and situation-
specific factors. Therefore, deep acting should be positively related to opti-
mism.
Finally, past research suggests that employees who adopt deep acting
obtain much valuable resources, such as higher job satisfaction and better
psychological health. These resources will help the employees to rebound
from work setbacks (resilience) and higher motivation will drive the
employees to locate alternative paths to achieve their goal (hope).
Compared with deep acting, surface acting is frequently associated with
psychological ill-health, such as burnout and lower job satisfaction (e.g.,
Bono & Vey, 2005). Therefore, it will drain away employees’ personal
resources and create barriers for employees’ to rebound (resilience) or locate
alternative paths in their work (hope).

Hypothesis 3a: PsyCap is negatively related to surface acting.

Hypothesis 3b: PsyCap is positively related to deep acting.

Finally, we hypothesize that expression of naturally felt emotion is

positively associated with PsyCap. Based on the limited available reports
(Cheung & Tang, 2009, Cheung & Tang, 2010), it appears that the expression
of naturally felt emotion at work provides employees with higher satisfaction
and better psychological health, such as lower psychological distress (e.g.,
Cheung & Tang, 2010). Thus, we hypothesize that expression of naturally
felt emotion help the employees to preserve personal resources, and provide
them with higher confidence to succeed (efficacy), ability to bounce back
from failure (resilience), perform their work with optimism, and keep their
motivation (hope) in their work.

Hypothesis 3c: PsyCap is positively related to expression of naturally felt

emotion.
Emotional Labor, Psychological Capital 353

PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AS MODERATOR

We further hypothesize that PsyCap serves as a moderator between

emotional labor and burnout/job satisfaction. However, we hypothesize that
PsyCap interacts differently with the three emotional labor strategies. We
first hypothesize that the negative association between surface acting and job
satisfaction and the positive association between surface acting and burnout
is weaker when PsyCap is high. When employees possess high PsyCap, these
resources will buffer the negative outcome of performing surface acting.

Hypothesis 4a: PsyCap moderates the relationship between surface act-

ing and job satisfaction. In particular, the relationship between surface
acting and job satisfaction is less negative when PsyCap is high.

Hypothesis 4b: PsyCap moderates the relationship between surface act-

ing and burnout. In particular, the positive relationship between surface
acting and burnout is weaker when PsyCap is high.

For deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotion, employees can
gain psychological resources, such as more positive emotions by performing
these emotional labor processes. In other words, performing deep acting and
the expression of naturally felt emotion will result in better job satisfaction
and lower burnout. When employees have high PsyCap, they are equipped
with extra resources to handle their work tasks on top of the positive
outcomes derived from these emotional labor strategies.

Hypothesis 4c: PsyCap moderates the relationship between deep acting

or expression of naturally felt emotion and job satisfaction. In particular,
the relationship between deep acting or the expression of naturally felt
emotion and job satisfaction is more positive when PsyCap is high.

Hypothesis 4d: PsyCap moderates the relationship between deep acting

or expression of naturally felt emotion and burnout. In particular, the
negative relationship between deep acting or the expression of naturally
felt emotion and burnout is stronger when PsyCap is high.

Finally, recent studies suggest that when testing moderating effect, it is

important to consider the nature of the stressors, resources, and strains.
According to Daniels and de Jonge (2010), job demands, job resources, and
job strains each contain cognitive, emotional, and physical elements. Based
on the matching hypothesis proposed by de Jonge and colleagues (Daniels &
de Jonge, 2010; de Jonge & Dormann, 2006; de Jonge, Le Blanc, Peeters, &
354 Cheung, Tang, and Tang

Noordam, 2008), moderating effects is more likely to occur when there is a

match between components (e.g., cognitive resource and cognitive strain).
However, when there is a mismatch between resources and strain (e.g.,
cognitive resource and emotional strain), the moderating effect will be less
likely to occur.
In this study, we argue that PsyCap is a set of cognitively related
resources. For example, efficacy is the subjective belief in one’s own com-
petence and the belief that one is capable of performing certain goals. In
building resiliency, cognitive processes are employed to frame setbacks in
terms of impact, control, and options (Luthans, Avey, Avolio, Norman, &
Combs, 2006). Optimism involves the cognitive formulation of different
attributional causes of event. Furthermore, hope is related to how to locate
potential pathways to achieve goals. Therefore, PsyCap could be conceptu-
alized as a cognitive resource that employees can use when facing job
setbacks. Based on the matching hypothesis, it is expected that PsyCap as a
cognitive resource should result in stronger moderating effect on cognitive-
related outcomes, such as depersonalization and job satisfaction because
there is a better fit of the resources and strain. However, the moderating effect
of PsyCap on emotional-related outcomes, including emotional exhaustion
and lack of personal accomplishment would be weaker.

Hypothesis 4e: The moderating effect is found more often for matching
cognitive resources (PsyCap) and cognitive strains (i.e., depersonaliza-
tion, job satisfaction) than for nonmatching cognitive resources and
emotional strains (i.e., emotional exhaustion, lack of personal accom-
plishment).

PURPOSES OF THE PRESENT STUDY

Emotional labor research has been frequently conducted in Western

settings. Prior research suggests that Chinese (collectivistic) and Westerners
(individualistic) are governed by different emotional display rules (Ekman,
1971). In particular, Westerners are more likely to express negative emo-
tional expression when they encounter situation that provokes negative
emotional experience. However, Chinese will restrain their negative emo-
tional expression when they are dealing with similar situation because
expressing negative emotions will hamper the group harmony. Therefore, it
is theoretically important to understand how emotional labor operates in
different cultural context and whether the cultural influence affects the job
satisfaction and burnout among Chinese the same way as reported in Western
settings.
Emotional Labor, Psychological Capital 355

Majority of emotional labor research has been conducted with employees

in the human services sectors. There is relatively little research that examined
emotional labor in the school setting. Constanti and Gibbs (2004) discussed
that teachers were required to perform emotional labor (e.g., to conceal or
manage actual feelings) in school settings to ensure successful delivery of
service to students. Naring, Briet, and Brouwers (2006) also found that
emotional labor, such as surface acting, was a significant correlate of teachers
burnout, particularly depersonalization. While school teachers in Hong Kong
(Tang, Au, Schwarzer, & Schmitz, 2001) and China (Feng, 2007; Zhang &
Yu, 2007) have reported high burnout and low job satisfaction, there is not
yet any study that examined the association between emotional labor and job
satisfaction as well as burnout. Besides, there is no empirical report on how
teachers’ PsyCap relates to the association between emotional labor and job
satisfaction or burnout.
To summarize the above discussion, the main objective of this study are
fourfold: (1) to examine the association between emotional labor and burnout
as well as job satisfaction, (2) to examine the association between PsyCap
and burnout as well as job satisfaction, (3) to examine the association
between emotional labor and PsyCap, and (4) to examine whether PsyCap
moderates the associations between emotional labor and burnout as well as
job satisfaction among school teachers in China.

METHOD

Recruitment Procedure and Participant Characteristics

All participants were full-time Chinese school teachers residing in the

People Republic of China (PRC). Invitation letters were sent to six
schools in Hangzhou area, a major city located in the Yangtsz River Delta
in China. Among the invited schools, three primary and two secondary
schools agreed to participate in this study. Participating schools recruited
their employees by internal memo and emails. Participation in this project
was voluntary and they did not receive any monetary reward. Each
participant received a questionnaire package, in which the study objec-
tives, the use of information, and psychological measures were included.
All participants were asked to sign a separated consent form before
completing the questionnaire. Confidentiality was ensured and no indi-
vidual response was reported to the school. Completed questionnaires
were returned to the coordinator in each participating school and these
completed questionnaires were then sent to the research team for analysis.
To enhance the response rate, a summary of findings were provided to
individual participants as a token of appreciation.
356 Cheung, Tang, and Tang

In total, 287 questionnaires were distributed and 264 valid questionnaires

were returned for analysis. The return rate was about 92%. Among them, 82
(31.1%) participants were men, 160 (67.5%) were women, and 22 partici-
pants were with unidentified sex. The mean age was 34.4 years old (SD !
8.09). They had 10.23 years (SD ! 7.93) of teaching experience on average
and about 88% of them had a university degree.

Measures

Emotional labor strategies were measured by the Emotional Labor Scale

(Diefendorff et al., 2005). Seven items were used to measure surface acting
(e.g., “I put on an act in order to deal with customers in an appropriate way”
and “I fake a good mood when interacting with customers”), four items were
used to measure deep acting (e.g., “I try to actually experience the emotion
that must show to customers” and “I work hard to feel the emotion that I need
to show to customers”), and three items were used to measure expression of
naturally felt emotion (e.g., “The emotion that I express to customers is
genuine” and “The emotion that I show to customers comes naturally”). This
scale showed satisfactory internal consistency (" values ranged from .75 to
.91) and was found to correlate with emotional expressivity and display rules
(Diefendorff et al., 2005). In this study, we adopted the Chinese translated
emotional labor scale from Cheung and Tang (2009). The translated scale
showed satisfactory internal consistency (" values ! .79, .67, and .60,
respectively, for surface acting, deep acting, and expression of naturally felt
emotion) and was correlated with quality of work life among Chinese human
service professionals (Cheung & Tang, 2009). Participants rated on a 5-point
Likert-scale, ranging from 1 “strongly disagree” to 5 “strongly agree.” Higher
scores on this scale indicate that participants adopted more surface acting,
deep acting, and natural felt emotion at work. For the present study, the
internal consistency was satisfactory, with Cronbach’s " value being .82, .78,
and .90 for surface acting, deep acting, and the expression of naturally felt
emotion, respectively.
PsyCap was measured by a 24-item scale designed by Luthans, Youssef,
and Avoili (2007). There are four dimensions of PsyCap, and each is assessed
by 6 items. Sample items include “I feel confident analyzing a long-term
problem to find a solution” (efficacy), “If I should find myself in a jam at
work, I could think of many ways to get out of it” (hope), “I can get through
difficult times at work because I’ve experienced difficulty before” (resil-
ience), and “I’m optimistic about what will happen to me in the future as it
pertains to work” (optimism). This scale demonstrated excellent internal
reliabilities in an earlier study and was found to relate to job satisfaction and
Emotional Labor, Psychological Capital 357

self-rated performance (Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Norman, 2007). The

original scale was translated to Chinese by a professional translator. The
translated items were back-translated and cross-checked by an individual
who did not have prior knowledge of the items.
To examine the factor structure, a confirmatory factor analysis was
conducted. Results did not support the original four-factor model (CFI ! .87,
NFI ! .82, RMSEA ! .09). Therefore, all the items were grouped together
to form an overall PsyCap variable. The overall PsyCap approach has been
used in earlier studies (e.g., Luthans, Norman, Avolio, & Avey, 2008). To
obtain the composite PsyCap score, the mean for each of the four original
subscales of psychological capital were added together and averaged to get a
composite average for each subject’s PsyCap score. Participants rated on a
6-point scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). The
internal reliability of the composite PsyCap scale was .94.
Job satisfaction was measured by the 5-item Job Satisfaction Index
developed by Brayfield and Rothe (1951). Sample items include “I find real
enjoyment in my job” and “Most days I am enthusiastic about my work.” The
Chinese translation of the scale demonstrated satisfactory internal consis-
tency (" ! .73), and was negatively correlated with surface acting (Cheung
& Tang, 2010). In the present study, participants rated their level of satis-
faction from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Higher scores
indicate that participants were satisfied with their present job. For the present
study, the internal consistency of job satisfaction scale was satisfactory, with
Cronbach’s " value being .80.
The 22-item Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1986)
was used to assess the frequency of employee experiencing burnout. The
instrument consists of three subscales that measure emotional exhaustion,
depersonalization, and lack of personal accomplishment. Sample item of
the above three dimensions were “I feel emotionally drained from my
work” (emotional exhaustion), “I don’t really care what happens to some
recipients” (depersonalization), and “I feel I’m not positively influencing
other people’s lives through my work” (lack of personal accomplish-
ment). A Chinese version of this scale is available (Tang, 1998). The
translated scale demonstrated good internal consistency, with " values of
.86, .82, and .82 for emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of
personal accomplishment, respectively. The translated scale was also
found to correlate with emotional dissonance among Chinese human
service professionals (Cheung & Tang, 2007). Participants rated their
feelings and attitudes toward their work on a 4-point scale, ranging from
1 (never) to 4 (always) Items on each dimension were then averaged and
formed the composite score. Higher scores indicate higher levels of the
three dimensions of burnout. For the present study, the internal consis-
tency was satisfactory, with Cronbach’s " value being .87, .82, and .85
358 Cheung, Tang, and Tang

for emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and lack of personal accom-

plishment, respectively. Participants were also asked about their age, sex,
and years of teaching experience.

Analytic Procedure

Descriptive statistics (Mean, SD, correlation) of major variables were

first computed. The role of PsyCap as a moderator between emotional
labor, burnout, and job satisfaction were examined with a series of
moderated regression analyses. Using the procedure suggested by Baron
and Kenny (1986), the main effects of the predictor and hypothesized
moderator were controlled before determining the moderating effect of
the hypothesized moderator on the predictor-outcome association. As
such, for all subsequent moderated regression analyses in predicting
burnout and job satisfaction, the main effects of emotional labor and
PsyCap were entered in the first block. The interaction term of emotional
labor and PsyCap was entered as the second block. Following the rec-
ommendation of Aiken and West (1991) and Fraizer, Tix, and Barron
(2004), all main effects of predictors and interaction terms were centered
before entering the regression analyses.

RESULTS

The means, SDs, range, Cronbach’s " values, and results of bivariate
correlation analyses were presented in Table 1. The first set of hypotheses
concerned the association between emotional labor and burnout as well as
job satisfaction. Hypothesis 1a was partially supported, as surface acting
was positively related to emotional exhaustion (r ! .16, p ! .01) and
depersonalization (r ! .16, p ! .01). Hypothesis 1b was also partially
supported. Deep acting was only negatively related to lack of personal
accomplishment (r ! #.13, p ! .04). Hypothesis 1c was supported,
expression of naturally felt emotion was negatively related to emotional
exhaustion (r ! #.28, p ! .01), depersonalization (r ! #.35, p ! .01),
lack of personal accomplishment (r ! #.32, p ! .01), and positively
related to job satisfaction (r ! .19, p ! .01).
The second hypothesis was to examine the association between PsyCap
and burnout as well as job satisfaction. We found that the correlations
between PsyCap and burnout as well as job satisfaction were all in predicted
direction. In particular, PsyCap was negatively related to emotional exhaus-
tion (r ! #.50, p ! .01), depersonalization (r ! #.56, p ! .01), and personal
 Table 1. Correlation Table (n ! 264)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1 Age —
2. Sex #.32!! —
3. Work Year .78!! #.14 —
4. Surface acting .19 #.11 .17!! (.82)
Emotional Labor, Psychological Capital

5. Deep acting .03 #.04 .05 .43!! (.78)

6. Naturally felt emotion #.17!! .12 #.13! #.43!! #.01 (.90)
7. PsyCap #.07 #.08 #.06 #.11 .12 .35!! 1.00
8. Emotional exhaustion .10 .07 .08 .16!! #.06 #.28!! #.50!! (.87)
9. Depersonalization .13 #.09 .03 .16!! #.03 #.35!! #.56!! .60!! (.82)
10. Lack of personal accomplishment .04 #.02 .02 .10 #.13! #.32!! #.50!! .20!! .35!! (.85)
11. Job satisfaction #.03 .08 #.03 .07 .04 .19!! .28!! #.15! #.21!! .21!! (.80)
Mean 34.4 — 10.23 2.99 3.52 3.71 4.23 2.30 1.73 2.17 4.20
SD 8.10 — 7.93 .82 .78 1.07 .71 .64 .65 .58 .78
Range 22–60 — .5–35 1–5 1–5 1–5 1.4–5.8 1–4 1–4 1–4 1–7
Note. Numbers in parentheses represent internal consistency "values of the scale.
!
p $ .05. !! p $ .01.
359
360 Cheung, Tang, and Tang

accomplishment (r ! #.50, p ! .01) and positively related to job satisfaction

(r ! .28, p ! .01). Therefore, Hypothesis 2 was supported.
The third hypothesis was to examine the association between PsyCap and
emotional labor. Results showed that PsyCap was associated with different
emotional labor strategies. In particular, PsyCap did not significantly relate to
surface acting (r ! #.11, p ! .07) nor deep acting (r ! .12, p ! .06),
however, it was positively correlated with the expression of naturally felt
emotion (r ! .35, p ! .01). Detailed results of the intercorrelations were
presented in Table 1.
We computed a series of moderated regression analyses to examine the
interaction between emotional labor and psychological capital in predicting
burnout and job satisfaction. As shown in Table 2, the interaction terms of
surface acting and PsyCap were significant for depersonalization (% ! #.18,
p $ .01) and job satisfaction (% ! .20, p $ .01). Figure 1 showed that
employees with high PsyCap tend to report lower level of depersonalization,
regardless of their level of surface acting. However, employees with low
PsyCap tend to report much higher depersonalization when they frequently
used surface acting in the workplace. In Figure 2, it showed that when
employees were frequently performing surface acting, those with high Psy-
Cap reported higher job satisfaction than their counterparts with low PsyCap.
Thus, PsyCap buffered the negative association of performing surface acting
on both job satisfaction and depersonalization. Hypothesis 4a and 4b were
partially supported.
In terms of deep acting and PsyCap, results showed that the interaction
term was significant for job satisfaction (% ! .16, p $ .01) only. Figure 3
showed that when performing deep acting, employees with higher PsyCap
reported higher level of job satisfaction when compared to employees with
low level of PsyCap. In other words, psychological capital had magnified the
positive association between deep acting and job satisfaction.
Finally, we found that two interaction terms between the expression of
naturally felt emotion and PsyCap were significant for depersonalization
(% ! .18, p $ .01) and job satisfaction (% ! #.17, p $ .01). Figure 4 and
5 showed that when participants had low PsyCap, employees who adopted
low levels of naturally felt emotion were more likely to report higher
depersonalization and lower job satisfaction than those who adopted more
expression of naturally felt emotion. However, when participants had high
psychological capital, there were no significant differences on depersonal-
ization and job satisfaction between employees who adopted high and low
levels of naturally felt emotion. Results of these moderated regression anal-
yses were summarized in Table 2. Based on the hierarchical regression
analyses, Hypothesis 4c and 4d was only partially supported.
Based on the interaction analyses, interaction effects only occurred when
there was a match between PsyCap and cognitive-related strain (i.e., job
 Table 2. Moderated Regression Analyses in Predicting Burnout and Job Satisfaction—Emotional Labor and PsyCap as Predictors
Lack of personal
Emotional exhaustion Depersonalization accomplishment Job satisfaction
2 2 2
% SE r % SE r % SE r % SE r2
Step 1 .26 .31 .25 .11
Surface acting .11! .03 .11! .03 .05 .03 .11 .05
PsyCap #.48!! .03 #.54!! .03 #.50! .03 .33!! .05
Step 2 .26 .35 .26 .16
Surface acting .11! .03 .10! .03 .04 .03 .11 .05
PsyCap #.49!! .04 #.51!! .03 #.48!! .03 .31!! .05
Surface acting & PsyCap .06 .03 #.18!! .03 #.08 .02 .20!! .04
Emotional Labor, Psychological Capital

Step 1 .25 .30 .26 .10

Deep acting #.01 .03 .04 .03 #.07 .03 .00 .05
PsyCap #.49!! .04 #.55 .03 #.49!! .03 .32!! .05
Step 2 .25 .31 .26 .13
Deep acting #.01 .03 .04 .03 #.07 .03 .00 .05
Psy Cap #.50!! .04 #.55!! .03 #.49!! .03 .32!! .05
Deep acting & PsyCap .06 .03 #.07 .03 #.04 .03 .16!! .04

Step 1 .26 .33 .27 .11

Naturally felt emotion #.13! .04 #.18!! .04 #.16!! .03 .10 .05
PsyCap #.45!! .04 #.49!! .04 #.44!! .03 .29!! .05
Step 2 .26 .36 .28 .14
Naturally felt emotion #.13! .04 #.14!! .04 #.14!! .03 .06 .05
PsyCap #.45!! .04 #.47!! .03 #.44!! .03 .28!! .05
Naturally felt emotion & PsyCap #.03 .03 .18!! .03 .08 .03 #.17!! .04
! !!
p $ .05. p $ .01.
361
362 Cheung, Tang, and Tang

Figure 1. Interaction effect of surface acting and PsyCap in predicting depersonalization.

satisfaction and depersonalization). None of the interaction effect occurred

where there was a mismatch between PsyCap and emotional-related strain
(i.e., emotional exhaustion and lack of personal accomplishment). Thus,
Hypothesis 4e was supported.

Figure 2. Interaction effect of surface acting and PsyCap in predicting job satisfaction.
Emotional Labor, Psychological Capital 363

Figure 3. Interaction effect of deep acting and PsyCap in predicting job satisfaction.

DISCUSSION

Emotional labor is a unique work characteristic of human service em-

ployees. Identifying factors that can mitigate the negative outcome of per-
forming emotional labor is of theoretical and practical importance for em-
ployees and their organization. In this study, we attempt to investigate
PsyCap as personal resources to moderate the association between emotional
labor and job satisfaction/burnout.

Figure 4. Interaction effect of expression of naturally felt emotion and PsyCap in predicting
depersonalization.
364 Cheung, Tang, and Tang

Figure 5. Interaction effect of expression of naturally felt emotion and PsyCap in predicting job
satisfaction.

The first objective of this study is to evaluate the association between

emotional labor on burnout and job satisfaction. As hypothesized, surface
acting correlated more positively with burnout while deep acting was only
negatively related to lack of personal accomplishment. Based on the conser-
vation of resources model, performing surface acting is emotionally taxing
and important resources will be drain away that result in net loss of resources.
By deep acting, even though employees have to invest much emotional
resources, positive outcomes such as higher job satisfaction and better job
performance will be gained. These positive outcomes can help employees to
restore or regain important resources. The difference between surface acting
and deep acting on gaining resources results in different health and job
outcomes. Our results echoed with earlier studies (Brotheridge & Lee, 2002;
Grandey, 2003; Totterdell & Holman, 2003) that indicate the differential
outcomes of performing surface acting and deep acting in the workplace.
Together, these results reaffirmed the different outcomes of performing
surface and deep acting across different cultural settings. The present study
also show that the expression of naturally felt emotion is negatively related
to burnout but positively to job satisfaction. Similar results were also reported
by a recent study on Chinese human service professionals (Cheung & Tang,
2010).
The second objective is to investigate the association between PsyCap on
burnout and job satisfaction. Results showed that higher PsyCap was indeed
negatively related to burnout and positively to job satisfaction. These findings
were generally in line with earlier studies that show that various dimensions
Emotional Labor, Psychological Capital 365

of psychological capital are related to subjective well-being in both Western

(e.g., Luthans et al., 2005, Luthans et al., 2007) and Chinese employees (e.g.,
Siu et al., 2009, Siu et al., 2007).
The third objective was to evaluate the association between PsyCap and
emotional labor. As hypothesized, we found that psychological capital cor-
related differently with the three emotional labor facets. Although PsyCap
did not correlate with surface acting and deep acting, both correlations were
in the predicted direction, in which PsyCap was negatively related to surface
acting but positively related to deep acting. We speculate that deep acting
will contribute to higher job success and better job performance. Therefore,
deep acting should enhance the employees’ sense of efficacy in the workplace
and the positive work experience can enable the employees to think in a more
optimistic way. By surface acting, however, resources is required to suppress
negative emotions or faking positive emotions. Therefore, prolong surface
acting might erode the employees’ ability to cope with the stress (resilience)
and will have lower hope for future success. The expression of naturally felt
emotion was the only significant emotional labor strategy that correlated with
PsyCap. This emotional labor strategy allows employees to enjoy higher
autonomy over their emotional expression in the workplace. Thus, it may
provide employees a better sense of mastery over their work as well as the
opportunities to test different methods when dealing with their customers.
This study represents the first attempt to extend the concept of PsyCap to the
emotional labor research. There is no prior study that examines the associ-
ations between various dimensions of psychological capital and emotional
labor strategies. Further research is needed to determine whether these
findings are consistent across different work samples.
Finally, we hypothesize that PsyCap moderates the association between
emotional labor and burnout or job satisfaction. In total, 12 moderated
regression analyses were performed and five interactions were significant.
For example, a more positive association between deep acting and job
satisfaction was found among participants with high PsyCap but not among
participants with low PsyCap. Based on the conservation of resources model,
the availability of important resources such as PsyCap has further reinforced
the positive association between deep acting on job satisfaction. Interestingly,
we also find that PsyCap facilitates a strong positive association between
surface acting and job satisfaction. Based on the conservation of resources
model, surface acting will relate to drainage on important resources that
eventually associates with lower job satisfaction. However, the availability of
PsyCap enables the employee to offset the net loss and thus employees can
achieve better job outcomes, such as higher job satisfaction. The present
findings were in line with earlier studies that found high levels of efficacy in
Chinese employees would buffer the effect of work stress on mental well-
being (Lu et al., 2005; Siu et al., 2007, Siu et al., 2005).
366 Cheung, Tang, and Tang

It is interesting to note that PsyCap moderates the association only

between emotional labor and depersonalization as well as job satisfaction. No
significant interaction is shown on emotional exhaustion and lack of personal
accomplishment. According to Maslach, Schaufeli, and Leiter (2001), emo-
tional exhaustion and depersonalization represent the affective and cognitive
aspects of burnout, respectively; whereas the lack of personal accomplish-
ment is closely related to whether the employees have sufficient resources or
rewards to get the job done. Similarly, job satisfaction requires the employees
to cognitively evaluate their attitudes toward different job aspects. Therefore,
it appears that the moderating effect of PsyCap is stronger on the cognitively
related outcomes than the affective outcomes. The differential interaction
effects provide empirical support on the matching hypothesis (de Jonge &
Dormann, 2006) in which interaction occurred when there was a match
between strain and resources. However, the current design does not allow us
to test the complete matching hypothesis, such as whether emotional-related
resources moderate the association between emotional labor and strains.
Future studies should thus incorporate other types of resources (e.g., emo-
tional support from colleagues or organizations) to comprehensively test the
matching hypothesis.

Limitations

This study has several limitations that should be taken into consideration.
First, participants were surveyed at a single time point, and thus conclusion
about causes and effects could not be made. Longitudinal designs should be
employed to examine the temporary associations between emotional labor
and the outcomes.
Second, this study relied on self-reports of participants regarding
emotional labor, PsyCap, job satisfaction, and burnout symptoms. Com-
mon method variance might have affected the strength of observed
relationships (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, & Podsakoff, 2003). To address the
issue of common method variance, a Harman’s one factor test was
conducted. All the observed variables (i.e., emotional labor, PsyCap,
burnout, job satisfaction) were entered into an exploratory factor analysis
and the unrotated factor solution was used as an indicator of the potential
common method variance effect. Substantial amount of common method
variance is present if a single factor emerges or one general factor
accounts for the majority of the covariance among the measures. Factor
analysis result showed that multiple factors were identified. Therefore,
results in this study cannot be attributed solely to the common method
variance. However, as suggested by Podsakoff et al. (2003), the Harman’s
Emotional Labor, Psychological Capital 367

one factor test can only provide a crude estimation but not statistically
controlling the common method variance per se. Therefore, to tackle the
potential problem of common method variance, future studies should
consider including data from other sources (e.g., supervisors, coworkers)
as external validation.
Third, the underlying dimensions of the PsyCap construct are still under
discussion. As suggested by Luthans et al. (2007), there are a number of
potential human strengths that may also be important in the research on
positive organizational behavior, such as creativity, flow, humor, gratitude,
forgiveness, and spirituality. Future studies can explore how these human
strengths influence the associations between emotional labor and outcomes.
Fourth, a convenient sample of school teachers was recruited. Thus, it
remains unclear the extent to which the present sample represented the
teacher population and the human service profession in China. It is also
unclear regarding whether the present findings could be generalized to other
work settings, such as profit making organizations where positive emotional
display is heavily emphasized.
Finally, in the present study, we found that PsyCap had moderated the
association between emotional labor and depersonalization or job satisfaction.
However, important personal factors, such as affectivity (moods) and extraver-
sion personality (disposition) may also significantly influence the association
between emotional labor and job outcomes (Judge, Woolf, & Hurst, 2009). To
draw a better conclusion, future study should include both extraversion and
affectivity in the regression analyses as control so that we can evaluate the unique
contribution or the moderating role of PsyCap on emotional labor.

Practical Implication

This study shows that PsyCap is an important personal resources in two

ways: it relates directly to higher job satisfaction and lower burnout; besides, it
also moderates the associations between emotional labor and outcomes, such as
depersonalization and job satisfaction. These results provide important insights
on various human resources practices, such as personnel selection of job candi-
dates and training workshop for job incumbents. For example, organizations can
assess the level of PsyCap in personnel selection with standard written tests. With
the availability of psychometrically sound measurement scales, such as the
Psychological Capital Questionnaire (Luthans, Youssef, et al., 2007), organiza-
tions could select job candidates with positive personal qualities for their orga-
nizations. Furthermore, organization can assist employees to enhance their Psy-
Cap by providing training workshops. According to Youssef and Luthans (2007),
a key feature of PsyCap is that it is malleable and open to development.
368 Cheung, Tang, and Tang

Therefore, it is feasible to enhance PsyCap via training to weaken the association

between emotional labor, especially the use of surface acting, on health or job
outcomes. A recent study by Luthans, Avey, and Patera (2008) demonstrated the
utility of PsyCap training. In particular, these researchers showed that PsyCap of a
work sample in the United States could be increased by a two hour web-based
training program. Therefore, enhancing employees’ PsyCap provides a potentially
rewarding strategy to mitigate the aversive outcome of perform emotional labor.

CONCLUSION

To conclude, findings of this study provide strong support in extending the

PsyCap construct to better understand factors that influence the association between
emotional labor and various outcomes, such as burnout and job satisfaction.

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