Relation Between Display Rules and Emotive Behavior Strategies and Its Outcomes Among South Korean Public Service Employees

Public service organizations impose behavioral expectations, known as emotional display rules, to ensure that their employees treat citizens properly. In response, employees apply two emotive behavior strategies: surface acting and deep acting. Previous studies, nearly all of them in Western countries, have reported mixed findings on the relationship between organizational display rules, emotive behavior strategies, and job-related outcomes. This article clarifies those mixed results in the literature and examines these relationships in a sample of 208 public servants in South Korea, where both collectivism and hierarchy are predominant in public organizations. Structural equation modeling revealed that both emotional display rules were positively associated with surface acting and deep acting, and that deep acting was negatively associated with burnout but positively associated with job satisfaction. Surface acting was significantly and positively related to burnout and also, surprisingly, to job satisfaction. Aspects of Korean culture and public organizations that could explain this finding are discussed.