Here is a great abstract from the Emotional Intelligence Consortium on how EI and emotions influence emotional labor strategies at work. Interestingly, the emotional labor strategies are divided up into

surface acting (e.g., an emotional mask),

the expression of emotion in the moment (e.g., whatever I feel is being expressed right now) and

deep acting (e.g., when the emotions on the mask match those within the body - or authentic emotions).

Deep acting was found to be related to more positive work outcomes.

The authors investigated how affectivity, as measured by the Positive and Negative Affectivity Scales (PANAS) and EI, as measured by the Wong and Law EI Scale, influence the use of emotional labor strategies at work among 486 Chinese employees. Emotional labor strategies were measured by the Emotional Labor Scale which consists of seven items that measure surface acting (e.g., “I put on an act in order to deal with customers in an appropriate way,” “I fake a good mood when interacting with customers”), four items on deep acting (e.g., “I try to actually experience the emotion that must be shown to customers,” “I work hard to feel the emotion that I need to show to customers”), and three items on the expression of naturally felt emotion (e.g., “The emotion that I express to customers is genuine”). The results revealed that Regulation of Emotion was a particularly important EI dimension in influencing the use of deep acting. The use of deep acting is preferred as it is often found to relate to positive job outcomes. According to the authors, organizations should implement strategies, including personnel selection or training, to ensure that employees possess this core emotional competency.

Cheung, F.Y., & Tang, C.S. (2009). The influence of emotional intelligence and affectivity on emotional labor strategies at work. Journal of Individual Differences, 30(2), 75-86.

All the best,
John Schinnerer, PhD