Does the perception of red tape affect the emotional labor of frontline retail staff in China? A post-COVID-19 era.
Red tape denotes valid rules or procedures that contribute nothing to achieving an organization's goals. How red tape affects corporate employees' emotional labor has received little attention. Therefore, this study recruited retail staff from Beijing after the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2025-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327359 |
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| author | Qin Qiang Kaixin Wang Jianxin Lai |
| author_facet | Qin Qiang Kaixin Wang Jianxin Lai |
| author_sort | Qin Qiang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Red tape denotes valid rules or procedures that contribute nothing to achieving an organization's goals. How red tape affects corporate employees' emotional labor has received little attention. Therefore, this study recruited retail staff from Beijing after the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing the roles of negative emotions and customer orientation. Red tape negatively affected surface and deep acting among retail employees. Negative emotions mediated the relationships between red tape and surface and deep acting. Customer orientation moderated the relationship between negative emotions and surface acting as well as deep acting. Lastly, implications are provided for companies to promote employee emotional labor.While these measures were operationally necessary, their prolonged enforcement and administrative burden led employees to perceive them as bureaucratic obstacles rather than supportive regulations. Employees with high customer orientation may adopt alternative regulation strategies, such as cognitive reappraisal, instead of surface acting. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-398fbd5ec6d542f2aaa5c6ef31870b0a |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj-art-398fbd5ec6d542f2aaa5c6ef31870b0a2025-08-20T03:12:32ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01207e032735910.1371/journal.pone.0327359Does the perception of red tape affect the emotional labor of frontline retail staff in China? A post-COVID-19 era.Qin QiangKaixin WangJianxin LaiRed tape denotes valid rules or procedures that contribute nothing to achieving an organization's goals. How red tape affects corporate employees' emotional labor has received little attention. Therefore, this study recruited retail staff from Beijing after the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing the roles of negative emotions and customer orientation. Red tape negatively affected surface and deep acting among retail employees. Negative emotions mediated the relationships between red tape and surface and deep acting. Customer orientation moderated the relationship between negative emotions and surface acting as well as deep acting. Lastly, implications are provided for companies to promote employee emotional labor.While these measures were operationally necessary, their prolonged enforcement and administrative burden led employees to perceive them as bureaucratic obstacles rather than supportive regulations. Employees with high customer orientation may adopt alternative regulation strategies, such as cognitive reappraisal, instead of surface acting.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327359 |
| spellingShingle | Qin Qiang Kaixin Wang Jianxin Lai Does the perception of red tape affect the emotional labor of frontline retail staff in China? A post-COVID-19 era. PLoS ONE |
| title | Does the perception of red tape affect the emotional labor of frontline retail staff in China? A post-COVID-19 era. |
| title_full | Does the perception of red tape affect the emotional labor of frontline retail staff in China? A post-COVID-19 era. |
| title_fullStr | Does the perception of red tape affect the emotional labor of frontline retail staff in China? A post-COVID-19 era. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Does the perception of red tape affect the emotional labor of frontline retail staff in China? A post-COVID-19 era. |
| title_short | Does the perception of red tape affect the emotional labor of frontline retail staff in China? A post-COVID-19 era. |
| title_sort | does the perception of red tape affect the emotional labor of frontline retail staff in china a post covid 19 era |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327359 |
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