Going beyond deep and surface acting: a bottom-up taxonomy of strategies used in response to emotional display rules

Figures & data

Table 1. Emotional labour strategies across the Dutch sample and the Turkish sample.

Categories	Number	Description	Dutch (N = 147) (% of strategies)	Turkish (N = 165) (% of strategies)
Deep acting			27.9	34.5
Cognitive change	1	Changing the appraisal of the situation to be able to feel the required emotions	15.6	26.7
Attentional deployment	2	Directing attention away from the situation or thinking about events that will lead to feel the required emotions	0.7	3
Deep acting unspecified	3	Modifying one’s underlying emotional state without explicit mentioning of cognitive change or attentional deployment	11.6	4.8
Surface acting			19.7	18.8
Faking	4	Displaying unfelt emotions	15.6	12.1
Hiding Surface acting unspecified	5 6	Hiding true emotionsModifying one’s outward expressions without changing the underlying emotion, and without explicit mentioning of faking or hiding Modifying one’s outward expressions without changing the underlying emotion, and without explicit mentioning of faking or hiding	4.1 0	6.7 0
Automatic regulation	7	The automatic display of an organizationally desired emotion derived from an emotion that is spontaneously felt	5.4	1.8
Emotional deviance	8	Expressions or behaviours failing to meet display rule	7.5	8.5
Other	9	Strategies that could not be captured by any of the categories mentioned above	39.5	36.4

Table 2. Bottom-up derived strategy categories.

Category	Description	Example
Emotional labour strategies
Surface acting	Modifying outward emotional expression	Fake my emotions and smile
Deep acting-Perspective-taking	Taking customer’s perspective	Put myself in a customer’s shoes
Deep acting-Positive reappraisal	Reinterpreting the situation in a more positive way	Think that I am not the only one who is responsible for the situation
Deep acting-Acceptance	Accept the situation as it is	Accept difficult encounters as part of my job
Additional Categories
Changing customers’ cognitions	Changing customers’ appraisals of the situation	Ask the customer to put him/herself in my shoes by saying “Would you make such a decision if you were me?”
Changing customers’ affect	Changing customers’ feelings about the situation	Make jokes to make things positive
Solution-oriented	Attempting to solve the customers’ problems	Try to come up with a solution as fast as possible
Waiting	Waiting for the situation to unfold without actively intervening in the situation	Count till 10
Avoidance	Avoiding having to deal with the situation	Stay away from the situation
Deviance Categories
Deviance in good faith	Protecting one’s boundaries with self-protective and assertive behaviours	Tell a patient “Now, you are crossing the line. We are not continuing with this.”
Deviance in bad faith	Deviating from display rules with an intention of bad will	Serve without smiling and perform my job at a minimum level.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.