How Does Subordinate Surface Acting In Supervisory Interactions Harm Partner Marital Satisfaction?

When interacting with leaders, employees often engage in surface acting (i.e., faking and suppressing emotions), and the consequences may go beyond work boundaries. Little research has assessed how surface acting in supervisory interactions at work is linked to employee marital satisfaction. Therefore, this study attempts to verify: 1. Surface acting exists among members of the organization, especially between employees and leadership;2. How dose surface acting impact on employees in the process of emotional interaction between employees and leaders; 3. According to the self-control strength model and the spillover-crossover model, we try to verify the mechanism of ego depletion and social undermining in the relationship between emotional labor and marital satisfaction. This study will be tested by three sub-studies.The sample of the first study came from a manufacturing company in Shanghai,which includes 93 employee-leader Pairing data. The purpose is to prove that subordinates use surface acting while interacting with supervisors. Through the analysis of SPSS20.0, the results show that the false emotions played by the employees in the process of interaction with the supervisors are positive predicting the hidden emotions of supervisors in surface acting(β = 0.274,p<0.05).The second study involves 339 employees. We also invited his/her spouse to evaluate the perception of social undermining and marital satisfaction. The purpose is to test the mechanism of ego depletion and social undermining in the relationship between emotional labor and marital satisfaction. Through the analysis of SPSS20.0 and AMOS22.0, we can see that " surface acting → ego depletion → social undermining " of each path is significant, the effect value is 0.124; " ego depletion →social undermining→ marital satisfaction" of each path is significant, the effect value is -0.527;The sample of the third study is 170 Chinese employee-partner dyads, the purpose is to explore the dual-career couples in the social undermining and marital satisfaction of the direct cross effect. Through the analysis of SPSS20.0 and AMOS22.0, we can see that"marital satisfaction (husband) → marital satisfaction (wife)" (B = 0.259, SE = 0.098, P<0.01, 95% CI = [0.245, 0.533]) and "marital satisfaction (wife) → marital satisfaction(husband)" (B = 0.207, SE = 0.092, P <0.05, 95% CI = [0.237, 0.515]) were all significant, which means marital satisfaction between husband and wife has a direct cross effect.These findings extend the theory and research of emotional labor to employee-leader interactions, and contribute to future research and theory-building on leadership, emotional labor and the variables in family field. Our results offer practicalimplications for leaders, organizations and employees. Finally, research limitations and future research directions are discussed.