Introduction
Modern organisations are experiencing a steady increase in older workers (Hedge, Borman and Lammlein Reference Hedge, Borman and Lammlein2006). These workers are likely to be in the service sector because it is physically less demanding. Thus, prolonged employment is more feasible (Czaja Reference Czaja, Birren and Schaie2001). A unique work requirement in the service industry is emotional labour, which is the need to express organisational desired emotions in the workplace (Hochschild Reference Hochschild1983). Recent studies reveal that the emotional labour patterns of older workers are different from those of younger workers (Cheung and Tang Reference Cheung and Tang2010; Dahling and Perez Reference Dahling and Perez2010). However, the effect of different emotional labour strategies on the ageing process in the workplace has not been explored.
In this study, we adopt the socio-emotional selectivity theory (Carstensen, Isaacowitz and Charles Reference Carstensen, Isaacowitz and Charles1999) to explain how emotional labour relates to successful ageing in the workplace. We also explore the mediating effect of job satisfaction between emotional labour and successful ageing at work. The findings of this study will be useful for organisations in devising strategies to support successful ageing among older workers.
Age and emotional labour
Emotional labour refers to the regulation of emotion at work in accordance with organisational display rules (Grandey Reference Grandey2000; Hochschild Reference Hochschild1983). To fulfil these organisational display rules, employees usually adopt two emotional labour strategies, namely surface and deep acting (Brotheridge and Lee Reference Brotheridge and Lee2002; Grandey Reference Grandey2000).
Surface acting refers to changes in emotional expression without facilitating a change in inner emotional state. For example, employees can fake a smile without actually experiencing the accompanying positive emotions. Grandey (Reference Grandey2000) suggested that surface acting resembles the response-focused emotion regulation. In particular, individuals only focus on the modification of the physiological or observable signs of emotions that occur after the emotional responses are generated.
Deep acting is another common emotional labour strategy in the workplace. By deep acting, employees control both their internal feelings and external expression. To fulfil display rules, employees need to first experience the internal feelings (such as joy) before showing the organisational desired emotional expression. Grandey (Reference Grandey2000) suggested that deep acting is a form of antecedent-focused emotion regulation in which employees try to regulate their emotions through different cognitive strategies, such as cognitive reappraisal (Lazarus Reference Lazarus1991).
Research shows remarkable differences between younger and older workers' in terms of their preferences in emotional labour. In particular, older workers tend to adopt more deep acting in the workplace than their younger counterparts (Dahling and Perez Reference Dahling and Perez2010). This pattern can be attributed to the level of motivation and mastery of emotional regulation. According to the socio-emotional selectivity theory (Carstensen et al. Reference Carstensen, Isaacowitz and Charles1999), older individuals usually invest more resources in emotion regulation and allocate more cognitive resources to emotional tasks because they have more life experience. Moreover, they are more capable of mastering different regulation strategies. To maximise socio-emotional gain using their limited cognitive resources, older workers will prefer deep acting over surface acting when required to express organisationally required emotions in the workplace. The former allows them to control their emotions more effectively and thus avoid a full emotional outburst.
Recent studies have begun to explore the effects of emotional labour on the psychological wellbeing of older workers. Cheung and Tang (Reference Cheung and Tang2010) report that the frequent use of deep acting is related to higher job satisfaction and lower psychological distress among older Chinese workers. These findings suggest that deep acting has positive effects on the psychological wellbeing of older Chinese workers.
Research also shows that surface or deep acting results in distinct health and job outcomes. For instance, the frequent use of surface acting is related to psychological ill-health, negative job outcomes and burnout symptoms (Beal et al. Reference Beal, Trougakos, Weiss and Green2006; Brotheridge and Lee Reference Brotheridge and Lee2002; Grandey Reference Grandey2003; Naring, Briet and Brouwers Reference Naring, Briet and Brouwers2006). In contrast, deep acting tends to relate positively to psychological wellbeing, higher job satisfaction, and personal accomplishment (Brotheridge and Lee Reference Brotheridge and Lee2002; Cheung and Tang Reference Cheung and Wu2010; Grandey Reference Grandey2003). These studies discuss the different impacts of different forms of emotional labour on health and job outcomes. However, the relationship of emotional labour to older workers' wellbeing – particularly in terms of their developmental trajectory in the workplace – is still unknown. In this study, we attempt to extend the emotional labour research by considering its influence on older workers' perception of successful ageing in the workplace.
Emotional labour and successful ageing in the workplace
Successful ageing is conceptualised as an absence of disease or illness (Rowe and Kahn Reference Rowe and Kahn1997) and contentment and satisfaction with life (Butt and Beiser Reference Butt and Beiser1987; Palmore Reference Palmore1979) among older people. Recent studies have attempted to understand the successful ageing process in different specific domains (e.g. the workplace). Based on empirical research, Robson et al. (Reference Robson, Hansson, Abalos and Booth2006) proposed a research model that delineates five key successful ageing dimensions in the workplace. These five dimensions are adaptability and health, positive relationships, occupational growth, personal security, and lastly, continued focus on, and achievement of, personal goals. Adaptability and health refers to the ability of older workers to adapt to changes in their jobs and the physical status that might affect job performance. Positive relationship refers to satisfying work relationships with colleagues and supervisors. Occupational growth refers to the perception that an individual still has room for further advancement. Personal security refers to the perception that one's personal safety is secured and whether the work demand is high. Finally, achievement of personal goals refers to the belief that one can achieve his or her self-defined goals.
The empirical study on older workers' perceptions of the ageing process in the workplace, particularly in the Chinese work context, is rare. However, some traditional values and beliefs may impose unique challenges on Chinese workers. For example, the family is the fundamental social unit in the Chinese cultural system. Chinese workers strive for an optimal balance between work and family, although work–family conflicts may pose great challenges. In other words, ‘pressures from work and family roles are mutually incompatible in which participation in one role makes it difficult to participate in the other’ (Greenhaus and Beutell Reference Greenhaus and Beutell1985). Furthermore, Chinese people generally believe that older people should cease work and be taken care of by their offspring as a filial norm. Hence, when older workers continue to engage in paid work, their families may be stigmatised and criticised for not fulfilling their filial responsibilities to their parents. This expectation is inevitably a potential stressor for older workers, lowering their motivation for further occupational growth and hampering their intention to continue working.
The Chinese cultural context provides an interesting and practical backdrop for discussing the successful ageing process in the workplace, considering the increasing ageing working population in many Chinese societies such as Hong Kong. Thus, more empirical attention should be given on the psycho-social determinants of the ageing processes among Chinese workers.
To our best knowledge, no earlier research has examined how emotional labour relates to successful ageing in the workplace. Therefore, we aim to extend the existing research by examining whether the use of different emotional labour strategies (specifically surface and deep acting), relates to successful ageing in the workforce. We hypothesise that older workers who frequently adopt deep acting should display more successful ageing in the workplace. The use of deep acting (antecedent-focused regulation) can preserve more cognitive resources (Gross Reference Gross2002), which enable older workers to adapt to their work tasks better, achieve occupational growth, and focus on their work roles. In addition, more cognitive resources enable older workers to feel more effective in handling their daily work. Finally, deep acting can increase the overall positive emotional experience, which is a key element of social support from others (Uchino, Cacioppo and Kiecolt-Glaser Reference Uchino, Cacioppo and Kiecolt-Glaser1996).
Surface acting, in contrast, drains away the important cognitive resources of older workers. It consequently hampers their job performance and the achievement of future goals. Suppression or emotional inhabitation is also related to psychological or physiological ill-health (Gross Reference Gross2002). Finally, suppression diminishes the quality of social interaction because important social signals are masked and individuals who practice suppression are less responsive to the emotional cues of their partners (Gross Reference Gross2002).
• Hypothesis 1a: Surface acting is negatively related to successful ageing in the workplace.
• Hypothesis 1b: Deep acting is positively related to successful ageing in the workplace.
Job satisfaction as a mediator
Job satisfaction is a worker's emotional response to his/her judgement of job value (Henne and Locke Reference Henne and Locke1985), and its positive association with successful ageing in the workplace has consistently been observed (Abraham and Hansson Reference Abraham and Hansson1995; Robson and Hansson Reference Robson and Hansson2007). People with high job satisfaction are believed to possess more psycho-social resources for occupational growth, maintenance of work performance and management of reduced work capabilities due to ageing than workers who are dissatisfied with their work. Therefore, job satisfaction may allow more successful ageing among older workers.
Past research has also demonstrated the impact of emotional labour on job satisfaction (Grandey Reference Grandey2000; Yang and Chang Reference Yang and Chang2008). For instance, job satisfaction would be reduced by surface acting because surface acting is emotionally taxing for employees (Beal et al. Reference Beal, Trougakos, Weiss and Green2006). Deep acting relates positively to the quality of work life, because employees experience lower emotional dissonance, which in turn affects their psychological wellbeing (Bakker and Heuven Reference Bakker and Heuven2006). Past research shows that the use of surface acting is related to lower job satisfaction, whereas the use of deep acting is related to higher job satisfaction among Chinese workers (Cheung and Tang Reference Cheung and Tang2009, Reference Cheung and Tang2010).
Based on the discussion above, the indirect effect of emotional labour, via job satisfaction, on successful ageing in the workplace is plausible. This study examines whether job satisfaction functions as a mediator between emotional labour and successful ageing in the workplace. Past research has reported the mediating role of job satisfaction in the emotional labour process. For example, Cheung and Tang (Reference Cheung and Tang2007) find that job satisfaction partially mediates the association between emotional dissonance (a psychological state that resembles surface acting) and psychological distress among Chinese service professionals. Similarly, we hypothesised that job dissatisfaction may lead to a poorer sense of the overall ageing experience at work, including lower levels of perceived achievement, security and health.
Hypothesis 2: Job satisfaction mediates the association between emotional labour and successful ageing in the workplace (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Theoretical model.
Methods
We recruited the participants for the study from a large public hospital in Hong Kong. The employees were informed via internal memo. Research assistants were sent to the hospital to collect data from employees who agreed to participate in this project. All participants were currently employed, full-time, Hong Kong Chinese, and aged 45 years or above during the study period. The use of the age criterion of 45 years or above has been widely adopted in studies involving older workers (Adams Reference Adams2004). Moreover, it is in line with the criterion indicated in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA, 1967, US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).
Questionnaire packages containing the study objectives, the use of information and psychological measures were distributed to the target participants. Participation in the research was voluntary. An informed consent was obtained from each participant, and confidentiality was assured. To get a higher response rate, we gave supermarket coupons (worth US $6.00) to all participants as an incentive. A total of 260 questionnaires were sent, and 242 valid questionnaires were gathered, obtaining a response rate of 93.1 per cent. Among the participants, 117 (48.3%) were men and 125 (51.7%) were women, with a mean age of 51.1 years (standard deviation (SD)=4.45). Moreover, 179 (74%) were engaged in non-managerial/clerical positions, whereas 63 (26%) were held managerial/professional posts. The average working pattern was 45.7 hours per week (SD=9.63). The t-test results showed that the men were older (mean=52.1 and 50.1, t=3.56, p<0.01) and had longer working hours (mean=46.67 and 42.4, t=2.57, p<0.01) than the women.
Measures
The questionnaire was composed of two sections: (1) the assessment scales of emotional labour, job satisfaction and successful ageing in the workplace; and (2) the demographic information. All questionnaire items were originally written in English. We adopted the back-translation procedure (Brislin Reference Brislin, Triandis and Berry1980) to ensure that the items were comprehensible to the Chinese participants. In particular, we employed a professional translator to first translate the questionnaire items into Chinese. Then, back translation was conducted by a Chinese-speaking psychologist who has no prior knowledge of the scales. Two research assistants were asked to comment on the translated items. Finally, the two investigators compared the items and ensured that the newly translated version was comprehensible and conveyed the same meaning as the original.
Emotional labour strategies
The emotional labour strategies employed were measured by the Emotional Labour Scale (Diefendorff, Croyle and Gosserand Reference Diefendorff, Croyle and Gosserand2005). 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’). The Chinese version of the emotional labour scale was used to measure surface and deep acting (Cheung and Tang Reference Cheung and Tang2010). The two emotional labour sub-scales were significantly correlated with burnout (Cheung and Tang Reference Cheung and Tang2010). Participants rated on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (‘strongly disagree’) to 5 (‘strongly agree’). Higher scores on these scales indicated that participants adopted more surface acting and deep acting. In the present study, the internal consistencies of the two scales of surface and deep acting were 0.91 and 0.74, respectively.
Job satisfaction
Job satisfaction was measured by the Job Satisfaction Index developed by Brayfield and Rothe (Reference Brayfield and Rothe1951). Three items were adopted from the scale, including, ‘I feel fairly satisfied with my present job’, ‘Most days I am enthusiastic about my work’ and ‘I find real enjoyment in my work’. These short forms of the Chinese version were used because prior research showed that this scale had satisfactory internal reliability (alpha coefficient=0.77; Cheung and Tang Reference Cheung and Tang2010). Its score was significantly correlated with surface and deep acting (Cheung and Tang Reference Cheung and Tang2010). Participants rated their level of satisfaction from 1 (‘strongly disagree’) to 5 (‘strongly agree’). Higher scores indicate that the participants were satisfied with their present job. The alpha coefficient of the scale for the present sample was 0.84.
Successful ageing in the workplace
Successful ageing in the workplace was measured by the successful ageing in the workplace scale written by Robson et al. (Reference Robson, Hansson, Abalos and Booth2006). The scale consists of five sub-scales, namely adaptability and health (18 items), positive relationships (seven items), occupational growth (eight items), personal security (seven items), and continued focus and achievement of personal goals (three items). The sample items included ‘I accept suggestions for improving my performance’, ‘I am satisfied with my co-workers’ and ‘my career is still growing’. All dimensions were found to correlate with subjective successful ageing among older workers in the United States of America (Robson et al. Reference Robson, Hansson, Abalos and Booth2006). The questionnaire items were originally written in English. A professional translator who had no prior knowledge of this scale was employed to translate all questionnaire items. Two psychologists further compared the items and confirmed that the original and newly translated items had no significant discrepancies. Participants rated their feelings and attitudes toward their work on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (‘strongly disagree’) to 5 (‘strongly agree’). Higher scores indicated higher levels of the five dimensions of successful ageing in the workplace. In this study, the internal consistency of the five dimensions were 0.88, 0.83, 0.84, 0.82 and 0.78 for adaptability and health, positive relationship, occupational growth, personal security, and continued focus and achievement of personal goals, respectively.
Demographics
Participants were also asked about their age, gender and duration in years of work experience.
Results
We first conducted correlation analysis and found that surface acting was negatively related to three dimensions of successful ageing in the workplace, including adaptability and health (r=−0.23, p<0.01), personality security (r=−0.15, p<0.05) and continuous focus on goals (r=−0.24, p<0.01). Deep acting was positively correlated with all dimensions of successful ageing in the workplace (r ranged from 0.29 to 0.41, all p<0.01). Based on these results, Hypothesis 1a was only partially supported, whereas Hypothesis 1b was fully supported. No significant correlation was observed between demographics, including sex, age and job rank, and any dimension of successful ageing (p>0.05). The correlation results are displayed in Table 1.
Table 1. Correlation analyses
Notes: N=242. SD: standard deviation.
Significance levels: * p<0.05, ** p<0.01.
We acknowledge the potential effect of job rank on successful ageing in the workplace. Specifically, managerial employees usually enjoy higher job autonomy over work tasks (Savery Reference Savery1988) and should have more access to valuable resources (such as information). Therefore, we hypothesised that managerial employees might report higher successful ageing in the workplace than non-managerial employees. We divided the total sample into two groups (managerial and non-managerial positions) and then performed further correlation analyses by group to compare their correlation patterns. The results of the sub-group analyses were consistent with the overall sample, that is, surface acting was negatively related to successful ageing in the workplace, whereas deep acting was positively related to successful ageing in the workplace. Although the negative correlation between surface acting and successful ageing in the workplace dimensions were not statistically significant in the managerial sample, this negative correlation can be attributed to the smaller statistical power of the sample size (N=63 (Table 2)).
Table 2. Correlation analysis by job ranks
Significance levels: * p<0.05, ** p<0.01.
We tested the mediation hypothesis (Hypothesis 2) by structural equation modelling using EQS (Bentler Reference Bentler2003). Our data fit well with the proposed model as the fit indices (Comparative Fit Index (CFI)=0.97; Goodness of Fit Index (GFI)=0.96; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA)=0.07) satisfied the statistical convention (Kline Reference Kline2010). All the pathways in the model were significant (p<0.05), and thus, the mediation effect (Hypothesis 2) was also supported. We conducted a post hoc analysis to evaluate whether the full mediation model fits better with the data. The results showed a significant increase in model misfit [∆χ2 (degrees of freedom=2)=35.33, p<0.01]. In other words, the hypothesised partial mediation model fits better with the empirical data. The details of the structural equation modelling results are presented in Figure 2. Briefly, we found that emotional labour strategies had both direct and indirect effects (through job satisfaction) on successful ageing in the workplace. We also found that work status (that is, managerial/non-managerial status) did not significantly affect the association between emotional labour and successful ageing in the workplace.
Figure 2. Final model.
Discussion
According to Chou (Reference Chou2011), many older Chinese employees have to continue working to support themselves because of the lack of appropriate support from public and private sectors. Work has thus become an increasingly important aspect of life in old age. Current research suggests that older workers often experience different challenges in the workplace, including cognitive and physical decline (Hansson et al. Reference Hansson, DeKoekkoek, Neece and Patterson1997; Kooij et al. 2007), as well as age-related stereotypes and discrimination (Posthuma and Campion Reference Posthuma and Campion2009). Cognitive/physical decline and unfavourable work conditions inevitably affect their functioning and pose a challenge to their ageing well in the workplace. Older workers who are unable to achieve successful ageing in the workplace may have lower motivation to continue working (Cheung and Wu 2010). Thus, management has to understand the factors that support older workers for them to continue to thrive and flourish in the workplace. Previous studies have proposed different approaches to support productive and successful ageing for older workers. For example, individual factors, such as adoption of selective optimisation with compensation (Baltes and Baltes Reference Baltes, Baltes, Baltes and Baltes1990), are suggested to enhance the functioning of older workers (Yeung and Fung Reference Yeung and Fung2009). From an organisational perspective, age-friendly human resource policies (Hansson et al. Reference Hansson, DeKoekkoek, Neece and Patterson1997) as well as technological innovation (Hardy and Baird Reference Hardy, Baird, Charness and Schaie2003) have been found to support successful ageing among older employees. Although the role of emotional regulation is closely related to wellbeing among older individuals (Carstensen, Fung and Charles Reference Carstensen, Fung and Charles2003), no prior studies have examined whether emotional regulation relates to successful ageing in the workplace. This study expands the existing literature by focusing on the role of emotional regulation on the ageing and work life of older employees.
Our results clearly indicate that the adoption of different emotional labour strategies affected ageing in the workplace in different ways: surface acting had a negative effect, whereas deep acting had a positive effect on successful ageing in the workplace. These findings were consistent across the two job ranks. These results also correspond with the conservation of resource model and the socio-emotional selectivity theory, in which the use of deep acting helps older workers preserve valuable resources such as cognitive resources. The availability of resources enables older workers to cope well in the workplace, create better interpersonal relations and perform their jobs well. Conversely, the use of surface acting results in a net loss of resources, hampering the performance of older workers in the workplace. These findings are consistent with those of Beal et al. (Reference Beal, Trougakos, Weiss and Green2006), which suggest that surface actors experience fewer positive emotions and are more likely to devalue themselves (Goldberg and Grandey Reference Goldberg and Grandey2007) and consequently hamper their ageing process in the workplace.
Our findings provide empirical support for the argument that, by selecting emotional regulation strategies such as deep acting, older workers can regain important personal resources such as higher job satisfaction, which consequently promote successful ageing in the workplace. To facilitate successful ageing among older workers, organisations should devise human resource strategies to support the use of deep acting in the workplace. One possible strategy is deep acting training (Totterdell and Holman Reference Totterdell and Holman2003). Past research suggests that older individuals appear to be effective in the use of cognitive strategies to regulate their emotions (Carstensen, Gross and Fung Reference Carstensen, Gross and Fung1997). Therefore, training workshops can include cognitive-related skills, such as attention deployment and cognitive reappraisal (Grandey Reference Grandey2000; Gross Reference Gross1998). Although no study has demonstrated the effectiveness of deep acting training, past research has shown that emotional regulation can be changed by a short training programme (Totterdell and Parkinson Reference Totterdell and Parkinson1999). However, in designing deep acting training, organisations should pay attention to the needs of older workers. Older workers, for instance, normally experience a slowing of information-processing abilities (Cerella Reference Cerella, Birren and Schaie1990) and a reduction in attentional resources (McDowd and Birren Reference McDowd, Birren, Birren and Schaie1990). Therefore, trainers should provide sufficient breaks between training sessions to allow the older workers to absorb the training materials. In addition, a training programme should adopt more modelling with concrete information so that older workers can directly transfer the newly learnt materials into the workplace.
Another key finding of this study was that job satisfaction was a correlate that mediated the associations between emotional labour and successful ageing in the workplace. Organisations should thus devise mechanisms to enhance employee job satisfaction. For instance, organisations can conduct periodic staff opinion surveys to understand the needs and challenges of older workers better. Organisations can arrange leisure activities to foster the sense of belongingness and strengthen the social support network among co-workers and between supervisors and subordinates. The latter is particularly important as a recent meta-analysis showed that a work-related source of social support is a much more important resource in reducing burnout compared with non-work-related social support (Halbesleben Reference Halbesleben2006).
Limitations and future studies
This study has several limitations, and our results should be interpreted with caution. First, we surveyed participants at a single time-point, and thus, conclusions about cause and effect could not be made. Longitudinal design should be employed to examine the temporary association between emotional labour and successful ageing in the workplace. Second, we relied solely on self-reporting from participants about their use of emotional labour, job satisfaction and successful ageing in the workplace. Therefore, the results might be affected by common method variance. Future studies should consider the use of data from other employees (such as supervisors and co-workers) as external validation. Third, we only examined two aspects of emotional labour, namely surface and deep acting. Other aspects of emotional labour, such as emotional dissonance and expression of naturally felt emotions, were not included. Future studies should extend the research by incorporating these facets of emotional labour and their effects on successful ageing in the workplace.
