The topic of emotions in the workplace is beginning to garner closer attention by researchers and theorists. The study of emotional labor addresses the stress of managing emotions when the work role demands that certain expressions be shown to customers. However, there has been no overarching framework to guide this work, and the previous studies have often disagreed on the definition and operationalization of emotional labor. The purposes of this article are as follows: to review and compare previous perspectives of emotional labor, to provide a definition of emotional labor that integrates these perspectives, to discuss emotion regulation as a guiding theory for understanding the mechanisms of emotional labor, and to present a model of emotional labor that includes individual differences (such as emotional intelligence) and organizational factors (such as supervisor support).

In the past, emotions were ignored in the study of organizational behavior (Arvey, Renz, & Watson, 1998; Putnam & Mumby, 1993). The workplace was viewed as a rational environment, where emotions would get in the way of sound judgment. Thus, emotions were not even considered as explanations for workplace phenomenon. This view is being dismantled as more researchers are finding how workplace emotions help to explain important individual and organizational outcomes (for a review, see Arvey et al., 1998). More specifically,...