Impacts of Job Standardisation on Restaurant Frontline Employees: Mediating Effect of Emotional Labour

Managers of food service operations standardise various aspects of operations to sustain consistent service quality. Frontline employees in these operations are expected to carry out tasks as per standards. Standards demand that frontline employees regulate their behaviours and emotions to complete their duties. Therefore, referring to the organisational role theory and the emotion regulation theory as the directing basis, this study examined the impact of job standardisation on emotional labour, as well as the effect of emotional labour on emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction of frontline employees in the hospitality sector. This study also examined the mediating effect of emotional labour on the relation between job standardisation, on one hand, and emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction on the other hand. The data collection was carried out in food service operations in Lebanon. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to assess the relations. The results showed that job standardisation negatively affected emotional labour and that emotional labour had a positive effect on emotional exhaustion and a negative effect on job satisfaction. Furthermore, emotional labour mediated the relation between job standardisation and emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. Practical and theoretical implications and directions for future research are also provided.