Happy or Sad: Investigating the Impact of Service Employees’ Felt Emotions on Service Outcomes

Study examines the impact of naturally felt emotions of frontline service employees (FSE) on service outcomes. Unlike previous research, this paper focuses on eight discrete emotions of 181 FSE and their impact on job role performance, service quality performance, and display rule performance. Results show that (1) anger, guilt, contempt, sadness, worry, joy, interest, and contentment have differing effects on FSE service outcomes, (2) not all FSE emotions experienced significantly impact service outcomes, (3) positive emotions are the most significant predictors of service quality and job role performance, and (4) sadness can have a positive impact on service quality performance.