Self-verification striving and employee outcomes: The mediating effects of emotional labor of South Korean employees

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to test whether self-verification striving serves as an individual difference antecedent of emotional labor and explore whether various emotional labor tactics acted as mediatingmechanisms through which self-verification striving relates to employee outcomes. Design/methodology/approach - The sample used in this paper consisted of supervisor-subordinate dyads working in six hotels in South Korea and used multi-level analyses and the Monte Carlo method to test the research hypotheses presented in this paper. Findings - Self-verification striving was positively and directly related to job performance as well as two out of three forms of emotional labor (i.e. the expression of naturally felt emotions and deep acting). Selfverification striving also indirectly related to job satisfaction through the expression of naturally felt emotions and indirectly related to job performance through deep acting. Practical implications - The findings of this paper suggest that organizations should consider selfverification striving as an employment selection criterion and provide training programs to help their customer service employees engage in appropriate types of emotional labor. Originality/value - This paper is the first to explore the underlying mechanisms through which selfverification striving relates to employee outcomes. It also empirically bolsters the notion that expressing naturally felt emotions is an important means of authentic self-expression that positively contributes to job satisfaction. Further, the authors found that self-verification striving positively relates to job performance partially through deep acting. Moreover, they have shown that self-verification striving, as an individual differences variable, is an antecedent of different types of emotional labor.