In the UK, the hospitality industry plays a significant role in creating jobs and contributing to the country’s economic development. The hotel sector within this industry is considered to be well-developed and attracts many local as well as international guests each year. Hospitality is about providing service, and organisations in this sector aim at providing excellent customer service in order to maintain their competitive position in the market. Hotel employees play an important role in delivering this service to customers, and are required to provide service with a smile, regardless of what they feel, in order to conform to the organisation’s rules and regulations. However, employees’ suppression of their emotions can result in emotional dissonance, which can affect their well-being. This research aims to explore the factors that enhance and alleviate employees’ emotional labour, and the influence of performing emotional labour on an employee’s well-being. In addition, the role of coping factors in helping employees to deal with the consequences of performing emotional labour will be examined. A qualitative research method has been used for this research, with nine semi-structured face-to-face interviews being conducted. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected data. The findings show that emotional labour plays an important role in the hotel industry, and that it has both positive and negative effects on an employee’s well-being. Although there was evidence that training was delivered on how to deliver excellent customer service, there was insufficient training on emotional management. Data collected from the participants played a key role in developing a conceptual framework, which can be used for hotel organisations and future researchers with regard to helping hotel employees to overcome the negative consequences of emotional labour. Further research is needed to examine the usefulness of this conceptual framework.
| Date of Award | 5 Feb 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Andrew Jenkins (Main Supervisor) & Snow Wu (Co-Supervisor) |
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