Determining the ease of managing emotional labour: Its impact on turnover intentions among customer-facing retail employees

The purpose of this study is to explore the ease of emotional labour management among customer-facing employees working in small retail stores. It also aims to identify and validate the key determinants influencing employees’ emotional labour management and turnover intentions.

A conceptual framework grounded on extant theories and literature was proposed which hypothesized emotional intelligence, supervisor support and job benefits as the determinants of emotional labour management and turnover intentions. The proposed conceptual framework was validated using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) based on 213 responses collected via self-report questionnaire administered to frontline employees working in 36 retail stores in Chennai.

The SEM estimation validated all hypothesized interrelationships where emotional intelligence emerged as the most important determinant of emotional labour management (ft = 0.45, p < 0.01) followed by job benefits (ft = 0.36, p < 0.01) and supervisor support (ft = 0.13, p < 0.05) which also had a substantial negative influence on turnover intentions. Emotional labour management was found to have a significant negative effect on turnover intentions (ft = -0.19, p < 0.01).

This study is unique in terms of emotional labour (EL) measurement. While past research measured EL as the degree of labour involved or strategies adopted to perform EL, this study focuses on the ease of managing EL. Besides, the study findings offer crucial theoretical and managerial implications which serve as a value addition to the existing EL research.