Most studies on emotional labor strategies have adopted a variable-centered analysis rather than a person-oriented analysis. However, some scholars (Chang et al., 2018; Cossette & Hess, 2015; Hülsheger & Schewe, 2011) have contended that exploring emotional labor strategy profiles and their adaptability in real situations by using a person-oriented analysis, which can compensate for deficiencies of variable-centered analysis, has more ecological validity and practical value. Furthermore, some scholars (Chang, 2018; Vansteenkiste et al., 2009; Wang & Hanges, 2011) have demonstrated that rather than a variable-oriented analysis emphasizing the quality or quantity of variables, a person-oriented analysis stresses the quality and quantity of profiles by classifying and comparing profiles from the perspectives of quality and quantity, which can not only determine differences among profiles more meaningfully and systematically but also clarify the key reasons for differences in profiles more distinctly. Moreover, teachers perform emotional labor (Hochschild, 1983; Yin, 2015), and thus, understanding their emotional labor strategies is crucial. Therefore, this study adopted a person-oriented analysis to analyze teachers’ emotional labor strategy profiles from the perspective of quality and quantity and their relationships with antecedent variables (organizational identification and role identification) and outcome variables (job emotions, job satisfaction, and job burnout).



In accordance with scholars who have used person-oriented analyses (Marsh et al., 2009; Vansteenkiste et al., 2009; Wang & Hanges, 2011), this study inferred that teachers’ emotional labor strategy profiles can be classified into four different quality/ quantity profiles: high maladaptive (surface acting) and high adaptive (deep acting/expression of naturally felt emotions) emotional labor strategies belong to the high-quantity group (high surface acting/high deep acting/high expression of naturally felt emotions); low maladaptive (surface acting) and low adaptive (deep acting/expression of naturally felt emotions) emotional labor strategies belong to the low-quantity group (low surface acting/low deep acting/low expression of naturally felt emotions); low maladaptive (surface acting) and high adaptive (deep acting/expression of naturally felt emotions) emotional labor strategies belong to the good-quality group (low surface acting/high deep acting/high expression of naturally felt emotions); and high maladaptive (surface acting) and low adaptive (deep acting/expression of naturally felt emotions) emotional labor strategies belong to the poor-quality group (high surface acting/low deep acting/low expression of naturally felt emotions).



Concerning the relationships of emotional labor strategy profiles with organizational and role identification, on the basis of social identity theory (Ashforth & Mael, 1989) and past studies (Demir, 2015; Newman et al., 2016; Uzun, 2018), this study deduced that the organizational identification emphasized in Western society might predict emotional labor strategy profiles. Grounded in domestic Taiwanese research (Hsu & Huang, 2009; Hwang, 2004; Yen & Hwang, 2011) and relevant studies (Brotheridge & Lee, 2002; Hou et al., 2015; Lin & Shao, 2009), this study inferred that the role identification stressed in Eastern culture also predicts emotional labor strategy profiles. Accordingly, organizational and role identification might predict emotional labor strategy profiles.



This study investigated the differences in emotional labor strategy profiles on job emotions, job satisfaction, and job burnout from the perspectives of quality and quantity. From the perspective of quantity, based on emotional labor strategy theory (Hochschild, 1983; Diefendorff et al., 2005) and conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989), emotional labor strategies are workers’ emotional regulation strategies for following emotional expression rules at work; thus, the higher the quantity of emotional labor strategies adopted, the more psychological effort is spent on emotional regulation and the more inner resources are lost, which leads to work maladaptation. Specifically, the higher the quantity of emotional labor strategy profiles adopted, the higher the degree of work maladaptation. Accordingly, the adaptive variables (positive emotions and job satisfaction) of the good-quality group might be greater than those of the high-quantity group; those of the poor-quality group might be smaller than those of the low-quantity group; those of the good-quality group might be equal to those of the poor-quality group; those of the good-quality group might be smaller than those of the low-quantity group; those of the poor-quality group might be greater than those of the high-quantity group; and those of the good-quality group might be smaller than those of the low-quantity group. Differences in emotional labor strategy profiles on maladaptive variables (negative emotions and job burnout) produced results that were the direct opposite of the aforementioned results.



From the perspective of quality, grounded in the multiple dimensions of emotional labor strategies (Hochschild, 1983; Diefendorff et al., 2005), surface acting is maladaptive (poor quality), and deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotions are adaptive (good quality); thus, adaptive deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotions increase the adaptation of the profiles, whereas surface acting reduces their adaptation. Accordingly, the adaptive variables (positive emotions and job satisfaction) of the good-quality group might be greater than those of the high-quantity group; those of the poor-quality group might be smaller than those of the low-quantity group; those of the high-quantity group might be equal to those of the low-quantity group; those of the good-quality group might be greater than those of the poor-quality group; those of the good-quality group might be greater than those of the low-quantity group; and those of the poor-quality group might be smaller than those of the high-quantity group. Differences in emotional labor strategy profiles on maladaptive variables (negative emotions and job burnout) produced results that were the direct opposite of the aforementioned results. This study explored whether the quality or quantity perspective better explains the difference in emotional labor strategy profiles on job emotions, job satisfaction, and job burnout.



In sum, this study adopted a person-oriented analysis from the perspectives of quality (based on multidimensional emotional labor strategies, namely adaptive and maladaptive) and quantity (based on emotional labor strategy theory and conservation of resources theory) to explore teachers’ emotional labor strategy profiles and their relationship with organizational identification, role identification, job emotions, job satisfaction, and job burnout. The participants were 970 Taiwanese junior high school teachers (347 men and 623 women). An emotional labor strategy scale, teacher job identification scale, teacher job emotions scale, job satisfaction scale, and job burnout scale were adopted; cluster analyses, discriminant analyses, and analyses of variance were performed. The following results were obtained: (a) cluster analyses of teachers’ emotional labor strategy profiles revealed four profiles: a high-quantity group, a low-quantity group, a good-quality group, and a poor-quality group; (b) organizational identification and role identification predicted emotional labor strategy profiles; and (c) generally, the difference in emotional labor strategy profiles on job emotions, job satisfaction, and job burnout demonstrated that the good-quality group was the most adaptive, the poor-quality group was the most maladaptive, and the adaptation of the high- and low-quantity groups was between that of the good- and poor-quality groups. The results supported the perspective of quality; specifically, the emphasis of quality but not the quantity of emotional labor strategy profiles could better explain the difference in emotional labor strategy profiles on job emotions, job satisfaction, and job burnout.



The study first adopted a person-oriented analysis from the perspectives of quality and quantity to explore teachers’ emotional labor strategy profiles and their relationship with related factors, which not only addressed the limits of past studies that adopted variable-centered analyses but also provided practical suggestions. For example, teachers should pay attention to the quality rather than quantity of such profiles by upgrading their adaptive emotional labor strategies and reducing maladaptive emotional labor strategies simultaneously to promote positive emotions and job satisfaction as well as reduce negative emotions and job burnout. Furthermore, educational authorities can guide teachers in using good-quality emotional labor strategy profiles to adapt to work by developing teacher training courses.