WHEN FAKING EMOTIONS AT WORK HARMS FAMILY LIFE: EMOTIONAL LABOR SPILLOVER AND FAMILY QUALITY AMONG UNIVERSITY TEACHERS IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

This research explored how the emotional labor strategies, that is surface acting and deep acting, relate to the family quality of life of university teachers in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan, with a comparison between public and private sector universities. The study involved a sample of 450 married university teachers (male = 310; female = 140) from public (n = 230) and private (n = 220) universities who completed the Emotional Labor Scale. These teachers' spouses assessed family quality of life with the Beach Center Family Quality of Life Scale. Pearson correlation, mediation analysis in SPSS 25, and independent samples t-tests were used for data analysis. Surface acting at work was found to have a positive correlation with surface acting at home (r =.33, p <.01) and a negative correlation with family quality of life (r = -.18, p <.01). Deep acting at work was a positive predictor of deep acting at home (β =.315, p <.01) but showed an insignificant relationship with family quality of life. Surface acting at work served as a negative predictor of family quality of life (β = -.192, p <.01). This negative relationship was mediated by surface acting at home (indirect effect =.038, 95% CI [.012.069]). Females reported a higher level of emotional labor than males (t = 2.35, p <.05). Those teachers whose spouses are not working ones reported higher family quality of life (M = 112.40 vs. 109.65, t =2.58, p <.01). Those living in joint families reported doing more emotional labor at home (M = 17.85 vs. 15.90) and also having more family quality of life (M = 112.70 vs. 109.85) than nuclear families (p <.01). Teachers working in public universities reported their emotional labor at work to be significantly higher (M = 29.40 vs. 27.65, t = 3.12, p <.01) and also surface acting (M = 19.50 vs. 18.25, t = 3.05, p <.01) than their private university counterparts with no sector differences in family quality of life. The research discovered that emotion faking at work negatively affects family life as it gets spilled over to the home. So, teachers who regularly do surface acting, indirectly carry on this disingenuous emotional showing in their interactions with family and this results in spouse's wondering indeed whether the care and the affection shown is genuine or not. Public university teachers are subjected to much more emotional labor demands than their private sector counterparts.