Measuring emotional labour : a construct validation and cross-validation study

Emotional labour (EL) refers to mechanisms employees use to adjust their outward expression of emotion, during customer-employee exchanges, and in order to meet organisational expectations. Consistent with guidelines for demonstrating the psychometric properties of a construct, it is important to measure the reliability and validity of such instruments to determine their usefulness for future research. To date, no research known to the current researchers has validated the commonly-used EL scale through a cross-validation procedure. The results of this study provide support for a two-factor model of EL, with dimensions of surface and deep acting, which is invariant across the two samples of nurses. This research confirms the generalisability and usefulness of this scale in measuring EL in the workplace.