The Interplay between Perspective Taking and Proactive Personality: Effects on Emotional Labor Strategies, and Further on Job Performance and Career Satisfaction

Using the motivated information processing theory, this project investigates whether and how perspective taking influences employees’ emotional labor strategies, and further on their job performance and career satisfaction. We will also examine the moderating role of proactive personality in the linkage between perspective taking and employees’ emotional labor strategies. We will conduct a cross-sectional study (Study One) and a quasi experiment (Study Two) using samples of 300 customer-contact employees each for both studies in this research. The data will be collected in two large five-star hotels located in Mainland China. In both studies, the data will be collected from the participants and their immediate supervisors. Multilevel analyses will be used to analyze the data. The findings provide theoretical and empirical implications on perspective taking, proactive personality and emotional labor literatures, and extend to improving the selection and training of customer-contact employees.