The Effect of Emotional Display Rules on Service Employee Burnout: A Focus on the Mediation of Challenge Appraisal and Hindrance Appraisal

Emotional display rules are official and unofficial requirements on how people should express their emotions to others in organizations, playing crucial roles in emotional management. According to the job demand-resources model, emotional display rules can cause job stress and burnout because they are job demands. However, in light of the challenge-hindrance job stress model, the effect of job demands on burnout may differ according to whether people perceive them as challenges or hindrances. The purpose of this study is to determine the causal relationship among emotional display rules, challenge appraisal, hindrance appraisal, and service worker burnout. In this study, we postulate that emotional display rules increase burnout, while challenge and hindrance appraisals mediate the display rules-burnout relationship. A total of 213 survey responses were collected from frontline workers in the service industry, and an analysis of results revealed that emotional display rules are positively associated with burnout, while challenge appraisal negatively mediates the display rules-burnout relationship. We also found that hindrance appraisal did not mediate between emotional display rules and burnout, while perceived organizational support and self efficacy did not moderate the relationship between emotional display rules and burnout. These results may demonstrate the possibility that service worker burnout can be buffered with the perception of emotional display rules as challenging rather than hindering job demands. In addition, they imply that service workers’ perceptions and mind controls are more important than external factors like organizational support in managing job demands, such as emotional display rules. This study shows the importance of job appraisal in understanding service workers’ stresses and burnout.