Abstract
Building on cognitive appraisal theory of stress, we examined the direct relationship between the emotional labor strategies of employees (i.e., surface and deep acting) and outcomes (i.e., psychological strain and creativity). In addition, we investigated the indirect relationship between emotional labor strategies and outcomes via job stressors (i.e., challenge and hindrance stressors). We collected time-lagged data from service sector employees in Italy and tested the data using path analysis. We found that surface acting predicted psychological strain and creativity, and the indirect relationship between surface acting and outcomes via hindrance stressor was significant. Whereas, deep acting predicted psychological strain but not creativity and the indirect relationship between deep acting and psychological strain via challenge stressor was significant. Our data failed to support the indirect association between deep acting and creativity. Our study highlighted that emotion regulation strategies of employees were related to challenge and hindrance stressors and thus underlines that employees should carefully manage their emotional displays at work. Implications and future research directions are discussed.