Emotional labor among police officers: a diary study relating strain, emotional labor, and service performance

Using emotional labor and conservation of resources (COR) theory, this diary study aims to gain insight into the role of daily strain in emotional labor and service performance on a day-to-day basis. Strain was taken into account both as an antecedent (at the start of the work shift), and as a consequence (at the end of the work shift) of emotional labor (surface acting, deep acting) and emotional dissonance. The participants were 53 Dutch police officers who completed a three-day diary questionnaire (i.e. 159 measurement occasions). The results of multilevel analyses showed that, as hypothesized, daily strain at the start of the work shift was positively related to daily surface acting and unrelated to daily deep acting. Furthermore, daily surface acting mediated the relationship between strain at the start of the work shift and (a) service performance and (b) strain at the end of the work shift. Additionally, as predicted, daily surface acting was particularly related to emotional dissonance when strain at the start of the work shift was high.