Research Proposal on Emotional Labor of Human Employees

This research proposal explores the emotional labor of hotel employees in the hospitality industry. It aims to determine the emotional labor characteristics prevalent among employees and how it affects customer relationship development. The proposal includes a literature review, conceptual framework, research questions, methodology, expected results, theoretical implications, and limitations.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research proposal on “Emotional Labor of Human Employees”
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

2
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Topic of the Research......................................................................................................................4
Current Research on the Topic........................................................................................................4
Research Background......................................................................................................................4
Research Aims and Objective..........................................................................................................5
Research Questions..........................................................................................................................6
Literature Review:...........................................................................................................................6
Conceptual framework:...................................................................................................................6
Customer relationship development:...............................................................................................7
Human resource development:........................................................................................................8
Cultural intelligence:.......................................................................................................................9
Diversity management:..................................................................................................................11
Hypothesis of the research is provided below:..............................................................................11
Methodology..................................................................................................................................12
Introduction....................................................................................................................................12
Method Outline..............................................................................................................................13
Research Philosophy......................................................................................................................13
Research Approach........................................................................................................................13

3
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Design............................................................................................................................14
Analysis Strategy...........................................................................................................................14
Data Collection technique..............................................................................................................15
Ethical Considerations...................................................................................................................15
Expected Results............................................................................................................................16
Expected Result of the hypothesis.................................................................................................16
Expected Result of the data...........................................................................................................16
Expected Outcome of the Research...............................................................................................17
Theoretical Implication..................................................................................................................17
Limitations of the Research...........................................................................................................17
References......................................................................................................................................18

4
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Introduction
Topic of the Research
The following research will explore the hospitality industry in a new perspective. The
topic of the research is “Emotional Labor of the hotel employees”.
Current Research on the Topic
The research topic is quite unique and there are a few researches that have been
conducted over the years on the same topic. The growing demands of customer satisfaction and
meeting all the global standards in the hotel industry have given rise to the demand for a
improved relation among the employees and the labor. The improved relation among the labor
industry will make it possible for the organization to generate more amount of revenue. Thus the
following research will be providing a much greater scope as it will engage in the detailed
discussion of one of the most modern trends of the hospitality industry (Grandey & Gabriel,
2015).
Research Background
Emotional Labor emerges at the process of emotional play management as employees
serve the customers during the process of interpersonal communication. The duty of the job will
never be restricted to just apparent work. Managing the own emotions is always necessary for the
employees of the hospitality industry (Hofmann & Stokburger-Sauer, 2017). The study of
emotional labor around the hotel staff has now became one of the most significant branches in
this particular field. In the service process the customers may form a quality perception through

5
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
the emotive coping played by the frontline hotel employees (Bhave & Glomb, 2016). For a
service oriented corporation, emotional performance of the employees has an effect upon the
outcomes that includes the likes of the retention, satisfaction of the customers, emotional
exhaustion of the employees and many more as such. In the modern days most of the human
resource operators in the hotel industry has started to observe emotional labor phenomenon and
aims to take effective measures to control the rate of exhaustion through the management of the
employee’s emotions (Grandey & Gabriel, 2015). Therefore the examination of the emotional
labor strategy involves the selection and the factors of the antecedents and consequences would
be valuable for its application.
The organizations are turning towards the different forms of communication that involves
emotional labor in order to maintain long term relationships with their surroundings. Having
positive emotional expressions, sustaining positive relationships and the suppression of the
negative emotional expressions is utmost impor4tant for the employees of the hotel. The
successful management of the emotions of an employee is important as because it helps them to
understand their feelings for each such instances. It also helps to express their emotions in the
perfect way (Gabriel et al. 2015).
Research Aims and Objective
The aim of the research is to determine the emotional labor characteristics that are quite
prevalent among the employees of the hotel industry (Liu, 2017). The emotional labor and its
application by the employees will be the main focus of the following study.

6
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
The researcher has the objective of arriving at a particular conclusion after implementing
all the different theories and frameworks to determine the emotional labor strategies in the hotels
and how they are used by the employees.
Research Questions
The main research questions that will form the basis of the following research are;
1. What is emotional labor and how it is used by the employees of the hotel?
2. How does the behavior of the employees help in the success of the hotels?
3. How can diversity management theory be implemented in the organization?
Literature Review:
Conceptual framework:
Figure 1. Conceptual labor quotient of employees

7
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Source: Author
Customer relationship development:
According to Altinay, Saunders and Wang (2014) customer relationship development
plays a very important in the revenue generation of all the industries. The fact applies more
appropriately for the service industry because its revenue generation depends on the ability of its
staff members to serve customers efficiently. Trainor et al. (2014) further mentions that the
service companies like the hotels owing to the intense competition in the industry require cater to
the requirements of the customers and their emotions. The revenue generation in the hotels to a
great extent to this power of their staff members to connect to the customers emotionally.
Hudsonet al (2016) further point out that the hotel organizations in order to attract more
customers and retain their existing customers have created the social media portals. These social
media portals allow these hotel companies to connect to their customers on regular basis.
Agnihotriet al., (2016) further supports this opinion and point out that hotel companies use the
social media portals to gain information about customer expectations from their brand in the
future. The customers view these gestures of hotel companies as a sign of giving them
importance and this creates positive impacts on the former. They reveal their expectations and
future purchase decisions regarding the services of the hotels. The apex management of the
hospitality organizations can use the information regarding the preferences of the customers
while forming their future product packages. One can infer from this explanation that since the
future products of these hotels are aligned to expectations of the customers, they are capable of

8
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
creating greater degree of customer satisfaction. Dhar (2015) mentions that the hotels can also
train their employees to understand the customers’ emotion better. This is more applicable for
the multinational hotel chains which receive visitors from different countries having diverse
cultures. Agnihotriet al., (2016) points that hotels can train their employees about the different
cultures and expectations of the customers belong to these cultures. The staff members are as a
result able to offer appropriate service and assistance to the customers from across different
cultures, thus maximizing their degree of satisfaction. This shows that understanding the
emotions labor of customers have become very important for the hotels to ensure customer
relationship development. This in turn leads to revenue generation and boosts the brand power of
the hotels. These superior services to customers are important for the hotel organizations to
retain and boost their brand power in the global market.
Human resource development:
Agnihotriet al., (2016) mention that hotels must train their employees to ensure customer
satisfaction. As pointed out by İplik, Topsakal and Iplik(2014), hotels are increasing feeling the
need to manage and understand the emotional labor of their employees. Emotional labor of
employees refers to the attributes of employees like performance, their connectivity to the
organization and their alignment to attain customer relationship development. Lu and Gursoy
(2016) points out those hotel organizations today have to put a lot of stress on their human
resources owing to the pressure to meet diverse needs of the customers. Moreover, the hotels are
often compelled to curtail their employee sizes to as a part of their cost cutting strategies. These
cost cutting strategies put extreme stress on the existing human resources of these hotels. Their
employees as a result experience low degree of emotional labor and job satisfaction. Heponiemi
et al. (2014) mentions that job satisfaction is inversely related to employee turnover. Thus, one

9
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
can infer from the opinions of Lu andGursoy (2016) and Heponiemi et al.(2014) that low job
satisfaction due to increase in stress on the existing human resources leads to high employee
turnover in hotels. Altinay, Saunders and Wang (2014) already points out that customer service
development in service organizations depend largely on employees. Thus, one can infer that
reduction in the number of employees and low emotional labor among them reduces the power
of the hotels to ensure customer satisfaction. This is because the less number of employees are
not able to provide optimum services to the large number of customers. Dhar (2015) points out
those hotels can train their employees to make them more efficient in serving customers and
ensuring their satisfaction. Thus, one can point out from this explanation that human resource
development methods can training employees can enable banks to deal with this pressure on
their human resources. As Agnihotriet al., (2016) point out that training can enable the hotels
boost the emotional labor quotient among the employees which would in turn improve their
performances. This efficient team of employees would be able to serve customers better to bring
about higher level of customers satisfaction and revenue generation. According to Khanfar
(2014), this high degree of employee labor standard is particularly of great significance in the
five stars, six stars and seven star hotels because they serve high-income customers. Thus, it can
be summarized that high employee emotional quotient is important to high degree of customers
relation development in hotels.
Cultural intelligence:
Mowforth and Munt (2015) point out that the customers in the multinational hotels expect the
staff members of the hotels serving them to be culturally intelligent. The customer base of the
multinational hotels was traditionally concentrated with North America and Europe due to high
economic development in these two markets. Since, these two markets are cultural identical, the

10
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
hotel staff serving tourists from these two market could understand their culture and ensure their
satisfaction. However, as Cohen and Cohen (2015) points out that economic development and
increase in the income of the people in the emerging markets like Asia has led to increase in
tourist population from the market as well. Asian countries unlike the western cultures have their
own distinct cultures and perceptions stemming from them. For example, many Asian
communities prefer only vegetarian food which is not a case in the western cultures. The staff of
the multinational hotels serving these tourists needs to understand and respect the cultural
aspects of the diverse consumers. This again points out to the importance of training the human
resource in the hotels as pointed out by Dhar (2015). Rohmetra and Arora (2015) supports Dhar
(2015) and point that cultural training of employees enables them to serve more effectively. This
leads to high level of customer satisfaction which leads to high level of revenue generation in the
hotel companies. Namasivayam, Guchait and Lei(2014) points out that this increased customer
satisfaction has positive impact on the employee satisfaction. As already pointed out by
Hudsonet al (2016), hotel companies, especially the multinational hotel companies today lay
great emphasis on social media presence. They encourage their customers to express their
feedback and suggestions about the service experience. The social media websites enable
customers to express the rates of their satisfaction and dissatisfaction in form of stars. The hotel
companies trace the employees who have served these customers against the numbers of stars
received from particular customers. The heads of the departments like food and beverage and
housekeeping are able to measure the performance of their employees and are able to appraise
them. Thus, cultural intelligence among employees and high level of customers’ satisfaction
boosts employee labor quotient. One can also point that less amounts of stars point out to low
level of customer satisfaction which means that the concerned employee lacks training. As far as

11
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
the opinion of Cohen and Cohen (2015) is concerned, one can point out that to a certain extent
this poor performance can be attributed to the lack of cultural intelligence among employees.
Thus, hotels can train their employees to improve their cultural intelligence which would boost
their performances. These employees would also as a result be able to improve their
performances and cause high degree of customer satisfaction. These training of employees on
cultures of customers would as a result motivate them and boost their emotional quotient. Thus,
this analysis proves that cultural intelligence boosts emotional labor quotient of its employees.
Diversity management:
In the contemporary hospitality industry, the human resources managers employ
workforce from different cultural background. It requires the managers to have adequate
knowledge about the various cultural traits of the people they are employing. A lack of
knowledge about the cultural background of the employees will lead to conflict in the workplace.
The impact of diversity management is more in the luxurious hotels than the local hotels as they
cater to the needs of a large amount of customers. The employment of workforce from diverse
cultural background is beneficial in meeting the requirements of the customers from different
background. They get satisfied when the hotel authority looks after small details about their
cultural traits and nothing is more important for an organization than customer satisfaction (De
León, Huynh & Plaisance, 2014).
Hypothesis of the research is provided below:
H0: Employee labor quotient is related to customer relationship management
H10: Employee labor quotient is not related to customer relationship management

12
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
H2: Employee labor quotient is related to human resources management
H20: Employee labor quotient is not related to human resources management
H3: Employee labor quotient is related to cultural intelligence
H30: Employee labor quotient is not related to cultural intelligence
H4: Employee labor quotient is related to diversity management
H40: Employee labor quotient is not related to diversity management
Methodology
Introduction
The third part of the following research deals with the different methods that are needed
by the researcher to complete the research properly and find out an effective result. The main
objective of the research will be to determine the emotional labor of the human employees in the
hotel industry. The research will try to determine the different elements related to the emotional
behavior of the hotel employees towards the customers. The researcher has used a number of
different theories and frameworks related to the topic in the review part of the proposal. The
following methodology provides a basic knowledge to the approach of the researcher towards the
particular research.

13
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Method Outline
The outline of the research will help to assess the particular ways and directions that will
be taken by the researcher.
Research Methodologies Methods to be used
Research Philosophy Positivism
Research Approach Deductive
Research Design Descriptive
Research Analysis Strategy Deductive
Data Collection Technique Secondary Sources
Research Philosophy
The positivism research philosophy has been used in this particular research. The
selection of the positivism research philosophy in this regards is quite justified because the
researcher will be able to research the topic in a critical and logically organized manner. In
Positivism research philosophy the interpretation is derived by the use of the sensory
experiences. The research is based on a number of facts derived from earlier researches. The

14
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
researcher has avoided the use of the other kinds of research philosophies as both the other kinds
are based generally on human perceptions which generally vary from person to person.
Research Approach
The main purpose of the research approach is to understand the inner meaning of the
topic and make its evaluation in a constructive manner. For the particular research based on the
“Emotional labor of the hotel employees”, the researcher will be approaching the research on a
deductive way. This will help the researcher to gain the valuable insights of the earlier works
related to the same field. However the most important reason for selecting the particular research
design will be the saving of the valuable time, as the researcher will get more time to analyze the
earlier studies more vividly. It will not be feasible enough for the researcher to develop new
theories and models related to the same. The particular research approach is adopted by the
researcher as because it helps the researcher to develop the hypothesis for the research based on
the existing theories and frameworks of the research. Thus the selection of the deductive
approach is exactly justified in the following case.
Research Design
The researcher in this particular research will be using the descriptive research design.
The use of the descriptive research design will help to gain a detailed description of the different
concepts and frameworks of the selected topic on emotional interest of the hotel employees. The
in depth understanding of the different terms and elements related to the selected topic can only
be achieved through the use of the deductive approach of the organization. The descriptive
research design is best suited for this particular research as because the research topic aims to

15
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
gain an idea of the in depth emotional behaviors of the different employees in a hospitality
industry.
Analysis Strategy
Research approach is key to the success of the research as it helps the research to achieve
a particular direction. The researcher in this particular research will be using the deductive
strategy and will restrict himself from the use of the inductive strategy. It will be easier for the
researcher to carry on the research with the help of the existing set of theories and models rather
than the new set of models and theories. The other reason for not selecting the inductive model is
because it is based on human perception and thus again it can be said the outcome of one person
can totally vary from one person to the other. The deductive research strategy will be also of
great help to save time while carrying out the research.
Data Collection technique
The findings from the particular research will be of immense importance to the success of
the study. The findings will be mainly based on the secondary analysis, which will involve the
use of secondary sources of data. The data will be mainly collected from different types of
journals, books, articles, previous researches, news sources, hotel brochures and many other
similar sources. The focus of the study will be on the employee of the hotels and their emotional
behavior.
Ethical Considerations
Ethics in a research is one of the main needs and consideration that must be fulfilled by
the researcher. The researcher must be honest and integrated while the total process of the

16
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
research undergoes. This starts with the beginning of the research until its end. The research
must be plagiarism free and the researcher must not copy any information from other researchers
who have conducted the study on the same field, rather he can get the necessary ideas and the
information from such works. Therefore maintenance of ethics is one of the most basic and
important considerations of a research. The research will involve a short survey to be taken on
the employees of a number of different hotels.
Expected Results
Expected Result of the hypothesis
It can be expected from this research that customer relationship management have a
direct impact on the emotional labor of hotel employees. This is because employees often
connect with the customer on personal grounds in order to make them feel comfortable in the
hotel. Moreover, human resources management plays an important part in enhancing customer
satisfaction. Effective recruitment, selection and training of the hotel employees decide on the
customer satisfaction in the upcoming days. Therefore, it can be expected that diverse workforce
in the hotel industry paves the way for a better customer satisfaction. From this research, it can
be expected that, the cultural intelligence of the employees in the hotel industry will cater to the
specific needs of the employees as per their cultural background.
Expected Result of the data
Both primary and secondary data will be collected for this research. However, primary
data will be focused more than the secondary research. It can be expected that the survey among
the hotel employees will lead to a positive outcome. They will respond effectively to the

17
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
questions and reflect their satisfaction of working in the hotel industry. The research on the
secondary sources will be effective in drawing attention on the previous researches done on the
subject. It can be expected that the secondary data will be able to focus on the positive impact of
the research variables on the topic if emotional labor in the hotel industry.
Expected Outcome of the Research
It can be expected that the research will be able to find a probable solution to the problem
of emotional labor in the hotel industry. The research outcome will be able to draw positive
conclusion that the research variables will have a significant impact.
Theoretical Implication
The theoretical implication of this research will be based on the use of different concepts
and theories related to customer relationship, human resources and diverse workforce. The use of
the particular theories will provide a strong base in this research.
Limitations of the Research
The research will be limited to the following factors:
 There was not much scope of gathering secondary data
 The customers of the hotel industry were not surveyed
 There was not much time for doing the research properly
 There were lack of proper resources to conduct the research effectively
 Due to lack of human resources in the research process, there is doubt regarding the
validity of evidence collected (Walker & Walker, 2016)

18
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
References
Agnihotri, R., Dingus, R., Hu, M. Y., &Krush, M. T. (2016). Social media: Influencing customer
satisfaction in B2B sales. Industrial Marketing Management, 53, 172-180.
Altinay, L., Saunders, M. N., & Wang, C. L. (2014). The influence of culture on trust judgments
in customer relationship development by ethnic minority small businesses. Journal of
Small Business Management, 52(1), 59-78.
Bhave, D. P., & Glomb, T. M. (2016). The role of occupational emotional labor requirements on
the surface acting–job satisfaction relationship. Journal of Management, 42(3), 722-741.
De León, J. A., Huynh, C. T., & Plaisance, B. E. (2014). DIVERSITY In THE
WORKPLACE. Organizational Processes and Received Wisdom, 191.
Dhar, R. L. (2015). Service quality and the training of employees: The mediating role of
organizational commitment. Tourism Management, 46, 419-430.
Gabriel, A. S., Daniels, M. A., Diefendorff, J. M., & Greguras, G. J. (2015). Emotional labor
actors: A latent profile analysis of emotional labor strategies. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 100(3), 863.

19
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Grandey, A. A., & Gabriel, A. S. (2015). Emotional labor at a crossroads: Where do we go from
here?.
Heponiemi, T., Kouvonen, A., Virtanen, M., Vänskä, J., &Elovainio, M. (2014). The prospective
effects of workplace violence on physicians’ job satisfaction and turnover intentions: the
buffering effect of job control. BMC health services research, 14(1), 19.
Hofmann, V., & Stokburger-Sauer, N. E. (2017). The impact of emotional labor on employees’
work-life balance perception and commitment: A study in the hospitality
industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 65, 47-58.
Hudson, S., Huang, L., Roth, M. S., & Madden, T. J. (2016). The influence of social media
interactions on consumer–brand relationships: A three-country study of brand perceptions
and marketing behaviors. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(1), 27-41.
İplik, F. N., Topsakal, Y., &Iplik, E. (2014). The effects of emotional labor on job attitudes of
hotel employees: mediating and moderating roles of social support and job
autonomy. International Review of Management and Marketing, 4(3), 175.
Jones, P., Hillier, D., & Comfort, D. (2016). Sustainability in the hospitality industry: Some
personal reflections on corporate challenges and research agendas. International Journal
of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(1), 36-67.
Jung, H. S., & Yoon, H. H. (2014). Moderating role of hotel employees’ gender and job position
on the relationship between emotional intelligence and emotional labor. International
Journal of Hospitality Management, 43, 47-52.

20
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Kandampully, J., Zhang, T., & Bilgihan, A. (2015). Customer loyalty: a review and future
directions with a special focus on the hospitality industry. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(3), 379-414.
Kim, M., Vogt, C. A., & Knutson, B. J. (2015). Relationships among customer satisfaction,
delight, and loyalty in the hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism
Research, 39(2), 170-197.
Lam, W., Huo, Y., & Chen, Z. (2018). Who is fit to serve? Person–job/organization fit,
emotional labor, and customer service performance. Human Resource
Management, 57(2), 483-497.
Lee, J. J., & Ok, C. M. (2014). Understanding hotel employees’ service sabotage: Emotional
labor perspective based on conservation of resources theory. International Journal of
Hospitality Management, 36, 176-187.
Liu, X. (2017). Emotional Labor Strategy of Hotel Frontline Employees: The Antecedents and
Consequences. Journal of Service Science and Management, 10(05), 425.
Lu, A. C. C., &Gursoy, D. (2016). Impact of job burnout on satisfaction and turnover intention:
Do generational differences matter?. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 40(2),
210-235.
Trainor, K. J., Andzulis, J. M., Rapp, A., &Agnihotri, R. (2014). Social media technology usage
and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social
CRM. Journal of Business Research, 67(6), 1201-1208.
Walker, J. R., & Walker, J. T. (2016). Introduction to hospitality management. Prentice Hall.

21
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Xu, S., Martinez, L. R., Van Hoof, H., Estrella Duran, M., Maldonado Perez, G., & Gavilanes, J.
(2017). Emotional Exhaustion Among Hotel Employees: The Interactive Effects of
Affective Dispositions and Positive Work Reflection. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly,
1938965517748774.