Transformational leadership and service recovery performance: The mediating effect of emotional labor and the influence of culture

The current study examined the relationship between transformational leadership and service recovery performance and the mediating effect of emotional labor. To uncover potential cross-cultural differences, a sample of 217 front-line hospitality employees from the United States (Study 1) and 219 front-line hospitality employees from China (Study 2) were used. The results demonstrate transformational leadership was positively related to deep acting and negatively related to surface acting emotional labor strategies. Additionally, deep acting was positively related to service recovery performance, while surface acting was negatively related to service recovery performance. These findings were consistent between the U.S. and Chinese sample; however, the mechanisms and paths between transformational leadership and service recovery performance differed between the two samples suggesting culture influenced how transformational leadership is related to service recovery performance through deep acting (Study 1) or surface acting (Study 2) emotional labor strategies.