The Mediating Role of Emotional Dissonance in the Relationship of Teacher's Emotional Labor Strategies with Occupational Well-Being

Abstract

Emotional dissonance resulting from an employee’s emotional labor strategies is usually considered to lead to negative employee's outcomes such as reduced occupational well-being. The purpose of this research was to test the effects of emotional labor strategies (surface acting, deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotions) on occupational well-being considering the mediating role of emotional dissonance. The sample of this research consisted of 150 high school teachers in Isfahan who were selected by the stratified random sampling method. The instruments which used in this study were Teacher Emotional Labor Strategy Scale (TELSS), emotional exhaustion subscale in Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and occupational well-being scale. Structural equation modeling (SEM) through AMOS-22 was used for data analysis. The results indicated that, emotional labor strategies relate significantly to emotional dissonance, and emotional dissonance relates negatively to occupational well-being. In addition, emotional dissonance mediated the effect of all emotional labor strategies on occupational well-being. These findings could be explained by differences in the nature of various emotional labor strategies. Implications for teaching and teacher education are put forward.