How Emotional Intelligence Mediates Emotional Labor in Public Service Jobs

• Date: 01 September 2015
• Author: Mary E. Guy,Hyun Jung Lee
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X13514095
• Published date: 01 September 2015
• Subject Matter: Articles

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2015, Vol. 35(3) 261 –277

© The Author(s) 2013

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X13514095

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Article

How Emotional Intelligence

Mediates Emotional Labor in

Public Service Jobs

Mary E. Guy1 and Hyun Jung Lee2

Abstract

Most public service jobs involve emotionally intense work demands. For this reason,

the terms emotional intelligence and emotional labor have entered the lexicon of public

service. The former refers to the ability to sense and regulate one’s own emotions

as well as to sense others’ emotional state, while the latter refers to the exercise of

emotive skills to get the job done. This study examines how emotional intelligence

mediates emotional labor in the performance of work duties by using job satisfaction

and burnout as criterion variables. Although findings are mixed with regard to job

satisfaction, a statistically significant relationship exists in the mediation between

emotional labor and burnout. Specifically, the ability to regulate one’s own emotions

decreases burnout. Implications for training and development are discussed.

Keywords

emotional intelligence, emotional labor, job satisfaction, burnout

About 75% of public service jobs contain emotionally intense work demands (Guy,

Newman, & Mastracci, 2008). This is the case across all types of governmental and

nonprofit service agencies and is especially true in the everyday experience of street

level workers. For this reason, two constructs—emotional intelligence and emotional

labor—constitute a burgeoning area of interest for agencies that strive to improve

responsiveness to citizens and for human resource experts interested in learning more

about individual level performance.

1University of Colorado Denver, CO, USA

2EWHA Woman’s University, Seoul, Korea

Corresponding Author:

Mary E. Guy, School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado Denver, 1380 Lawrence Street, Suite 500,

Campus Box 142, Denver, CO 80217-3364, USA.

Email: Mary.Guy@ucdenver.edu

514095ROP35310.1177/0734371X13514095Review of Public Personnel AdministrationGuy and LeeGuy and Lee

research-article2013

262 Review of Public Personnel Administration 35(3)

One could argue that any work that brings one person in contact with another will

eventually require the management of emotions. Public service jobs take this to a

higher level (Hsieh, 2014; Resh, 2010; Zimmerman, 2011). The power of the state

juxtaposed against the will of the citizen presents a combustible mix: Citizens often

seek government’s help on the worst minute of the worst day of their lives. The emo-

tional intensity of emergency response, domestic violence, trauma care, searches and

seizures, protective services for abused children, law enforcement arrests, and victim

services, for example, separates public work from the more pedestrian world of pro-

duction and sales. Emergency medical technicians often find themselves performing

emotional labor as well as administering first aid because calming a panicked victim

is as important as medical ministrations.

Emotional intelligence has already become a popular topic for in-service training.

How it is used in the actual performance of emotionally intense work, however, needs

to be better understood for two reasons: First, it will help training and development

specialists know how to train workers to hone and apply their emotive skills. Second,

it will reveal more precise understanding about the difference between emotional

intelligence, per se, and the performance of emotionally intense work. A few studies

have attempted to join the constructs of emotional labor and emotional intelligence.

For example, Aristea, Foios, Efstratia, and Dimitris (2012) study physicians in Greece;

Kim, Yoo, Lee, and Kim (2012) study hotel employees; and Grandey (2000) studies

workplace emotive expression in general. To date, the public administration research

is split on these constructs, with some authors writing about emotional intelligence

(Berman & West, 2008; Vigoda-Gadot & Meisler, 2010) and others writing about

emotional labor (Guy et al., 2008; Mastracci, Guy, & Newman, 2012; Hsieh, Jin, &

Guy, 2012; Sloan, 2014). To enrich research across the entire dimension of emotion in

public service work and to understand how these constructs interact, we clarify both

from a theoretical standpoint and then use a structural equation model to test the

assumption that emotional intelligence mediates the performance of emotional labor,

resulting in differential levels of job satisfaction and burnout. We close by discussing

implications for practice, training, and research.

Emotional Intelligence

To understand how emotional intelligence manifests itself in the workplace, it is best

thought of as an ability rather than a personality trait. For this reason, we use the ability

model, which defines emotional intelligence as the ability to accurately sense one’s

own emotional state, to control one’s state in a manner that is constructive, and to

accurately sense the emotional state of another person, responding in a way that elicits

desirable behavior (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2004, 2008). Using emotional intelli-

gence involves the ability to perceive, understand, appraise, and express emotion,

coupled with the ability to generate and regulate feelings (Leuner, 1966; Mayer,

DiPaolo, & Salovey, 1990; Mayer & Salovey, 1997; Salovey & Mayer, 1990).

Managing emotions requires self-awareness and the ability to access and generate

emotions, to understand and reason about them, and to reflectively regulate them. It