Faking Versus Feeling Emotions: Does Personality–Job Fit Make a Difference

Abstract

Emotional labor (EL) involves regulating, managing, and sensing others’ emotions to achieve organizational goals. However, it is often considered a unitary variable, without examining the specific types of emotional labor (i.e., deep acting and surface acting). Thus, the purpose of this research is to extend the under-researched work on surface-acting and deep-acting strategies of EL on job involvement in the public sector by examining the mediating effects of personality–job fit. This research employs the 2016 Merit System Principles survey data to explore the relationship between the variables. Results show that personality–job fit has a positive mediating effect on deep-acting EL and job involvement and a negative mediating effect on surface acting and job involvement. Findings may help administrators understand and prevent the potential results of employees’ EL behavior and the importance of personality–job fit in organizational outcomes.