Workers’ Emotional Labour and Service Delivery of Leisure Based Firms in Port Harcourt

Abstract

This study examines the correlation between emotional labour management and quality service delivery effectiveness in the tourism and hospitality industry in Port Harcourt. The crosssectional survey research design was adopted, involving 76 hotels. The study was conducted at the organisation level of analysis, with the research data collected through questionnaire and supported with interviews. The descriptive data analysis was done using mean, and the research hypotheses were tested using Spearman‟s Rank Order Correlation Coefficient QSR NVIVO was used to analyse the interview data. The results of the analysis show that deep acting and surface acting management as dimensions of emotional labour management substantially associates positively with the rate of customer patronage, but negatively with the rate of customer dissonance. The study found that interface workers‟ deep and surface acting management in hotels lead to increase in the rate of customer patronage, and also decreases the rate of customer dissonance behaviour. The study thus concludes that as the hotel customers are situated in conducive emotional climate in their interactions with interface staff, their perceived sense of service quality increases, while their dissonance behaviour decreases. Based on this, the study recommends that hotels management should engage their interface staff on both emotional intelligence and impression management training to enhance their emotional labour capabilities, to sustain service quality delivery effectiveness.