Unveiling the Mediating Role of Surface Acting and Deep Acting in Linking Calling Orientation and Work Engagement of Teachers ()
1. Introduction
In order to develop in a more competitive global setting, companies are striving to enhance their governance relationships with customers (Grant et al., 2007) . While serving customers, workers in different organizations experience emotional demands that require performing explicit emotions (Glomb et al., 2004) . For instance, cops need to communicate harsh and negative emotions while upholding the law, and customer support suppliers need to communicate sympathy while interfacing with displeased customers. The emotional demands present in a work can vary, influencing the nature and strength of emotional labor.
Apart from an expanded interest in emotional labor and customer service in current years, organizational researchers have paid greater attention to the meaning individuals infer from paid employment. Similarly, the widely held print media has blowup with publications advertising strategies that individuals and organizations can use to form a more meaningful work experience (Bronson, 2002) . So as to know and examine the ways individuals see, relate to, and find meaning in paid work, researchers have increasingly looked towards the work orientation concepts such as job, career and calling orientations. In addition to the work orientation constructs the work engagement of workers has become essential area of interest for positive organizational behavior scholars and practitioners (Abid et al., 2018; Cooper-Thomas et al., 2014; Kolodinsky et al., 2018; Macey & Schneider, 2008; Mahon et al., 2014; Rich et al., 2010) . Viewing this, the present study further explored the work orientation construct i.e. calling orientation and work engagement in the context of teaching and the role played by teacher’s emotional labor strategies in the effect of their calling orientation on their engagement on work.
1.1. Teacher’s Calling Orientation and Work Engagement
Work engagement is a happy and rewarding emotional state concerning job characterized by vigour, dedication, and absorption (Schaufeli, 2013) . While explaining the manner of workers engaged on work, Schaufeli et al. (2002) justified that people who are more engaged in their work are more energized, devoted to and passionate about their job, and pleased in what they are doing. Due to the growing interest and scholarly advancement in identifying the antecedents of work engagement, additional study is needed to identify and investigate the elements linked with employee work engagement (Smithikrai, 2019; Saks & Gruman, 2014) . On top of this, Mahon et al. (2014) stated that psychological factors that influence work engagement should be investigated. Similarly, Wiedemann (2019) believes that it is critical for work engagement researchers to investigate the situations required for workers to gain insight into the innate need for personal growth and purpose, not just for their own wellbeing but also for the benefit of their institutions. Thus, the current study investigates the psychological factors that affect workers’ engagement at work, focusing in particular on calling orientation to work as a major predictor of workers’ engagement at work. A contemporary perspective on the calling orientation is an inner motivation to engage in meaningful and self-actualizing work (Hall & Chandler, 2005) . Workers that are called to their jobs do so not only for the money; they work because it satisfies them mentally. This is related to the idea that doing work that has meaning and purpose is calling.
In relation to the study between calling orientation and work engagement previous studies confirmed that there is an association between perceived calling and work engagement. For instance, Hirschi (2012) , in his study, found an average relationship between the calling orientation and work engagement. Furthermore, in their survey research, Xie, Xia, Xin, and Zhou (2016) discovered that subsequent work engagement was predicted by one’s perception of calling. In a survey research including 351 nurses, Ziedelis (2019) discovered a strong correlation between calling and energy and dedication components. Ryan & Deci, 2000) , also argued that individuals that have a calling orientation are really driven and enthusiastic about what they do, and their work has given them their sense of self. As a result, they make an effort to fully use their resources (attention, absorption), as well as their entire potential, in order to fulfill their passion (energy). Therefore, those who are called are intrinsically driven and enthusiastic about their work, which also serves as their identity. Employees who are called experience a sense of purpose and belonging in their work, and they want to use it to better society (Bunderson & Thompson, 2009) . As the previous studies on calling orientation mostly emphasized the workers in hospitals, industries and hotels (Ziedelis, 2019; Dobrow, 2013; Hagmaier & Abele, 2012; Lee, 2016) , the present study, uniquely, was intended to explore the concept in the teacher subjects.
1.2. Teachers Calling Orientation, Emotional Labor Strategies and Work Engagement
Emotional labor, according to Grandey (2000) is the purposeful repression or display of emotion in order to achieve organizational objectives. In the teaching context, emotional labor is considered as teacher’s manner of inhibiting, generating, managing feelings and expressing emotions as to the standards and expectations of teaching (Yin & Lee, 2012) . Subsequent studies have found that there are three emotional strategies such as surface acting, deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotions used by an employee in any organization (Cheung et al., 2018) . Surface acting denotes while the employee changes his/her emotional expression without changing internal emotional state whereas deep acting denotes the change of employees’ internal feeling so as to display the expected emotions of the organization. On the other hand, the expression of naturally felt emotion denotes the employees’ natural experience and display of the felt or genuine emotions in the work (Diefendorff et al., 2005) .
Therefore, emotional labor has become significant element of teachers’ role while operating aspects in job. The current studies functioning in service occupations have unduly emphasized on negative outcomes of emotion such as stress (Ogińska-Bulik, 2006) and burnout (Bakker et al., 2010) . However as a result of the current trend of positive psychology that focuses on human strength and well-being, the studies related to burnout have shifted its attention towards examining work engagement as the consequences of emotion (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000) . Realizing these issues, the present researchers also tend to shift their attention to see the relationship of emotional labor with other variables such as calling orientation and work engagement. Little study results were found in relation to the association between the specific types of emotional labor strategies, surface acting and deep acting, and work engagement (Chan, 2009) . Confirming this, Grandey (2000) found that employees using surface acting are deprived of their humanity and likely to tend to face great level of burnout and defection. Consequently, this negative result on workers would cause less service quality (Brotheridge & Lee, 2002; Grandey, 2000) . On the other hand, the negative results can cause a diminished service value and loss on the image of the organization. On the other hand, employees who are performing deep acting express their actual or genuine feeling rather than fake ones. This would let them frequently possess good mood to engage in work, increase their well-being, and feeling of success in their work responsibilities (Rafaeli & Sutton, 1987; Brotheridge & Lee, 2002) . Therefore employees who frequently engage in deep acting are likely to have increased level of work engagement as compared to those who perform surface acting. In this aspect, the researchers, in this study, are believed to conduct further study as there are no previous empirical studies attempted particularly on the teaching profession and teacher subjects.
With regards to the researches on the association between calling orientation and emotional labor, Diefendorff & Gosserand (2003) confirmed that individuals high in the calling orientation may find their job more significant and have a more prominent desire for communicating real feelings that conform to emotional demands bringing about less surface acting. Additionally, Yugo (2009) found that individuals low in calling highly engage in emotional labor whereas high calling people engages in significantly more deep acting and genuine felt emotion. This indicates that low calling individuals are not as ready to show natural or genuine emotions or make genuine emotional displays and should fake their emotion to agree with emotional demands. Yet again, as with deep acting, high calling people feel more genuine felt emotions. Thus the calling orientation likely related to a higher level of deep acting and genuine felt emotions than surface acting.
Despite different studies carried out in relation to the present study variables much of these studies were not situated in the school setting and teachers were not included as the subject of the study. Besides, none of the previous studies examined the mediating role of emotional labor on the relationship between calling orientation and work engagement. Therefore the present research is unique and believed to provide original contributions to the academic world and studies being conducted in the same domain.
2. The Present Study
As the context of the present study is secondary school, there has been an insufficient study conducted on how secondary school teachers are trying to manage their emotions but there were few attempts on work engagement factors and it’s antecedents, job satisfaction, job performance, organizational responsibility, turnover and others (Feleke & Markos, 2018; Tefera, 2016; Mengistu, 2012) . The current study examined the model that connects calling orientation and work engagement through the potential mediators of surface acting and deep acting.
3. The Research Hypotheses
As shown in Figure 1, in the present study the following hypotheses were tested. First, calling orientation is positively related to teachers work engagement; second, calling orientation is negatively related to teachers’ surface acting; third, calling orientation is positively related to teachers’ deep acting; fourth, surface acting is negatively related to teachers work engagement; fifth, deep acting is positively related to teachers work engagement; six, surface acting mediates the relationship between teachers calling orientation and work engagement; seventh, deep acting mediates the relationship between teachers calling orientation and work engagement.
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Figure 1. Proposed conceptual framework.
4. Methods
In the study a predictive non-experimental correlational design was used because the study variable do not require any experimental approach and it is convenient to see the relationship between two or more variables without manipulation or control.
4.1. Sample and Sampling Techniques
The study collected data through self-administered questionnaire. In this study, secondary school teachers were recruited who had worked at least for 1 year. A total of 300 (225 males and 75 females) teachers of were included in the study with an age range of 22 - 58 years, participated in the study. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select participant teachers of this study. All the participants were secondary school teachers in Wolaita zone, Ethiopia. All of these selected participants were never experienced with outcome measures of the present study and completed the survey questionnaire anonymously after agree and provide informed consent. All procedures of this study were conducted in line with ethical standards.
4.2. Procedures
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4.3. Measures
Main Model and Variables
The research data of the present study were collected via self-administered questionnaire. The present study employed the pre-established and validated data collection instruments so as to collect data in relation to the variables of the present study such as emotional labor, affective commitment and work engagement. These measuring instruments are hospitality emotional labor by (Chu et al., 2012) , Calling orientation: the 11 item calling subscale of the measure of work orientation originally developed by Wrzesniewski et al. (1997) and further developed by Yugo et al. (in progress) and Work engagement scale by (Schaufeli et al., 2006) will be used. Thus, the items of each variable were properly modified according to the nature of the participants and context of the study. All variables, except for the demographical information survey, were measured using a five-point Likert scale. The measurements of each construct are listed in Table 1, along with their standard factor loadings (SFL).
4.4. Data Analysis Strategy
The present study investigated how teachers’ calling orientation and work engagement related with the mediating role of emotional labor strategies (surface acting and deep acting). Pearson’s correlation analysis was first calculated to find out how the research variables correlated with one another. Then, structural equation models (SEM) were used so as to test the hypothesized association among variables and tests of preliminary models. Furthermore the goodness of fit of the study variables was tested using SEM to see and explain the path influence of independent variable on the dependent variable. Model fit was also assessed by RMSEA, TLI, and CFI. The acceptable level for model fit was values less than or equal to .08 for the RMSEA and greater than or equal to .90 for the TLI and CFI (Hu & Bentler, 1999) . Finally, the significance of indirect effects was observed through the bootstrap test calculated 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals. Every analyses of this study were made using SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 24.0 was also used to apply SEM.
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Table 1. Measurements for variables.
5. Results
The results of correlations among variables, demographic information of the respondents, descriptive statistics, reliability analyses, factor analyses, path analysis, are reported in this Chapter.
All of the hypotheses received preliminary support from correlational analysis (see Table 2). Calling was significantly and positively correlated with surface acting (r = .50, p < .05), Deep acting (r = .48, p < .05) and Work engagement (r = .46, p < .05) Similarly, Surface acting was significantly and positively correlated with deep acting (r = .66, p < .05) and work engagement (r = .46, p < .05)). Additionally, deep acting was significantly and positively correlated with work engagement (r = .37, p < .05). The correlations were both statistically significant and in the expected directions, indicating that surface acting and deep acting are likely to fully mediate the hypothesized calling and work engagement relationship. Although several significant relationships were observed between the control variables and some of the study variables, gender was not shown to have a significant and positive relation with other control and study variables except with work engagement. To minimize and control for the possible effects of control variables on the study variables, they were including the test of the hypothesized structural models. However, they were subsequently shown to have no significant effect on any of the study variables, and were thus excluded from the final model.
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Table 2. Means, standard deviations and correlations of study variables and control variables.
Notes: 1) N = 300. ES: Educational Status. WoEx: Work Experience. SA: Surface Acting. DA: Deep Acting. WE: Work Experience. 2) *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.
5.1. Demographics Information
So as to get the necessary information about the measurement scales and the study subjects, descriptive statistic (e.g., percentages, means) are calculated.
As depicted in the above Table 3 among the 300 teachers 225 (75.0%) were male and the remaining 75 (25.0%) were female, 131 (43.7%) were aged 26 - 30 years, 215 (71.7%) hold Ba degree qualification and 117 (39.0%) and 118 (39.3%) have worked for 5 - 10 and 1 - 5 years respectively.
5.2. Assessment of Measurement Model
5.2.1. Reliability Testing
The reliability estimates of Calling, emotional labor and work engagement were computed using Cronbach’s alpha reliability estimation technique. The results are depicted in Table 4.
As the reliability estimates in Table 4 indicate, the alpha scores of the study measures such as Calling, Surface acting, Deep acting and Work engagement were .78, .87, .72 and .72 respectively.
5.2.2. Validity Testing
After checking for reliability, the data were checked for validity. The average variance extracted (AVE) has been checked to ensure the convergent validity. As per the rules mentioned on various literatures, the AVE value should be greater than .50. In addition, the data were checked for discriminant validity. The value of the square root of AVE must be greater than the correlations between the construct and those of the other constructs. The reliability and validity results of each construct are shown in Table 5.
5.2.3. Results of Factor Analysis
To determine if the sample satisfies the necessary requirements for factor analysis, two tests are often computed: the Barlett’s test of sphericity and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test of sampling ampleness (Andersen & Herbertsson 2003) . Similar to this, the KMO test is used in this study to determine if the data set is sufficient for factoring and is a requirement for factor analysis (Andersen & Herbertsson 2003) . A KMO score below .50 is considered undesirable, a result above .60 is considered fair, a result above .70 is considered moderate, a result above .80 is considered meritorious, and a value over .90 is considered magnificent, according to the standards established by Kaiser and Rice (1974) . As a consequence, the combined items’ KMO score result in the current research was .75. The sample meets Kaiser and Rice’s (1974) requirements, making it suitable for factor analysis.
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Table 3. Demographic Information of the study participants.
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Table 5. The reliability and validity of constructs.
Note: WE: Work Engagement. SA: Surface Acting. DA: Deep Acting.
5.2.4. Measurement Model
To evaluate the measurement model compatibility indices and examine the validity of the study’s scales, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used. There were four latent constructs (Calling, Surface acting, Deep acting and work engagement) and 11 observed variables. In terms of model fit indices, the measurement model was well matched to the data. This measurement model adequately reflected the latent variables. The test of the measurement model came into being a satisfactory fit to the data: χ2 (38, N = 300) = 66.17, χ2/df = 1.74; RMSEA = .050; RMR = .038; TLI = .944; NFI = .915 and CFI = .961. All the factor loadings for the indicators on the latent variables were significant (p < .001), indicating that all the latent constructs were well represented by their indicators.
5.2.5. Structural Model
In view of an acceptable fit of the CFA model, the resulting step was to test the estimated model. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is a multivariate method that depicts the relationship between numerous factors. As depicted in Figure 1, the results showed a good fit between our theoretical model and the data: (χ2/df = 1.74; p < .001; RMSEA = .050; CFI = .961; GFI = .963; TLI = .944). All standardized path coefficients were statistically significant (p < .001), indicating that the hypothesized paths were significant. In addition to this, before running the parallel mediation analysis (SPSS V.25 PROCESS MACRO software, IBM Corp: Armonk, NY, USA), we first checked if all 4 factors, calling orientation, surface acting, and deep acting, explained a significant amount of variance in work engagement, further indicating a parallel mediation situation. The linear regression analysis revealed that 51% variance of work engagement was explained by calling orientation, surface acting, and deep acting, with an F of 103.119 (3, 296) at p < .001. Generally, a VIF above 4 or tolerance below .25 indicates that multicollinearity might exist, but in our case all VIF were below 2.9 and tolerance values above .34, with a Durbin-Watson coefficient of 2.014 at p < .001. The regression analysis coefficients revealed that calling orientation (F = 14.463, p < .001), surface acting (F = 5.579, p < .001) and deep acting (F = 9.092, p < .001) were all predicting factors of work engagement, except for CF (F = .115, p = .734).
Finally, in accordance with the hypothesis, we decided to use Process Model 4 (Hayes, 2013) , which computes a parallel mediation model in which the two mediators (Surface acting and Deep acting) stand-in in parallel to each other mediate the indirect impact of calling orientation. The parallel mediation analysis’s step-by-step findings showed that the independent variable, calling orientation has a significantly positive effect on a mediator i.e. surface acting (b = .472, t = 10.692, p < .001), a path for the second mediator, deep acting, revealed that the independent variable, calling orientation has a significantly positive effect on a mediator i.e. deep acting (b = .529, t = 9.675, p < .001).
We also provide the coefficients for each of the two mediators’ b paths. The b path for the first mediator, surface acting, obtained (b = .327, t = 5.317, p < .001), demonstrating the significantly positive effect of surface acting, on the dependent variable work engagement. The b path for the second mediator, deep acting, obtained (b = .080, t = 1.535, p = .126 (p < .001)), demonstrating deep acting was not significant predictor of work engagement. The direct effect c prime was still significant for the independent variable, calling orientation was still a significant predictor of the dependent variable i.e. work engagement (b = .458, t = 9.309, p < .001) (b = .655, t = 14.612, p < .001). The total effect of the calling orientation on work engagement was .655 at p < .001, with LLCI of .567 and ULCI of .743. The direct effect of calling orientation on work engagement was .458 at p < .001, with LLCI of .361and ULCI of .555.
The path indicates that teachers who have higher scores on calling orientation, surface acting and deep acting are more likely to engage on their work.
For every confidence interval in the result, the degree of confidence was 95.0000, and there were 5000 bootstrap samples for percentile bootstrap confidence intervals. While controlling for their interconnected impact, the two mediator variables were examined at the same time. The findings based on the 5000 bootstrapped samples showed that, while the overall impact of calling orientation on work engagement was significant, (βtotal = .655, SE = .045, p < .001), the direct effect (βdirect = .458, SE = .049, p < .001) was still significant, while the mediators, surface acting (βindirect = .152, at p < .001, with BootLLCI of .075 and BootULCI of .245) and deep acting (βindirect = .042, at p < .001, with BootLLCI of −.022 and BootULCI of .110) remained significant predictors of work engagement (Figure 2 and Table 6).
6. Discussion
The present study investigated the effect of calling orientation on work engagement, and further examined the mediator effect of surface acting and deep acting on the relationship between calling orientation and work engagement of secondary school teachers. The study found that there was a positive relationship between the calling orientation and work engagement of teachers, which suggested that teachers with calling orientation were more likely to engage on their work. The findings are consistent with earlier research on nurses. Employees who have and live a calling in a given domain have a feeling of significance and identity, attach meaning and worth to their work, and are enthusiastic about their employment, according to the study (Perrone-McGovern et al., 2014) . Similarly, the survey results on 832 Chinese workers showed that the calling positively associated with workers’ career adaptability, work engagement and career satisfaction (Xie, Xia, Xin, & Zhou, 2016) . The other study conducted on nurses showed that perceiving one’s work as a personal calling allows predicting nurses’ dedication and absorption over and above the main factors in work environment. Hirschi & Herrmann (2012) and Serow (1994) in their study investigated the relationship between calling and work engagement and found that calling significantly predicted work engagement among working adults. Thus it is safe to conclude that when teachers have calling for their teaching profession, their engagement in their work could be impacted positively.
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Figure 2. A comparisons of the indirect effects of DA and SA by parallel mediation analysis. NB: 300 N Regression coefficients represented by the a, b, and c pathways are all significant according to 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals that do not include zero (based on 5000 bootstrapped samples). C = total effect, c’ = a direct effect (After accounting for a and b). SA = surface acting, and DA = deep acting.
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Table 6. Direct and indirect effects and 95% confidence intervals for the final model.
p < .05; CO: Calling orientation; SA: Surface Acting; DA: Deep Acting; WE: Work engagement.
With regard to the second hypothesis, the present study found that calling orientation has a positive and significant relationship with surface acting. However the result was against the pre-stated hypothesis. To state more, teachers sense their job as valuable and integral to their lives; this leads them to exhibit the required or appropriate emotion, whenever they serve their customers, by changing their outward appearances. However this finding was not consistent with the majority of previous studies. For instance; Hochschild (1983) in his study confirmed that individuals who have a strong calling are less likely to indulge in surface acting, as they would rather make an effort to actually transform their emotions rather than masking their emotions. Additionally a study by Diefendorff & Gosserand, (2003) people with a high calling orientation may find work more important and have a stronger need to express true feelings that conform to emotional demands, which results in less surface acting. Similarly, from a motivational perspective, low calling people may lack the emotional energies or concentration to engage in more effortful emotional labor tactics, resulting in more surface acting surface acting. On the other hand the result for the third hypothesis i.e. calling orientation is related to deep acting was tested positive. To state more; teachers with better calling orientation modify their own inner feelings in order to display the appropriate emotions. This finding was consistent with the study by Hochschild (1983) which revealed that individuals with a high calling will participate in deeper types of emotional regulation, such as deep acting, as a result of the passion and purpose they gain from their profession.
The study result with respect to hypothesis four i.e. surface acting is negatively related to teachers work engagement confirmed that there was a negative relationship between teacher’s surface acting and their work engagement. This result was consistent with previous meta-analyses that focused on service workers’ managing of emotions (Hülsheger & Schewe, 2011; Mesmer-Magnus et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2011) . The study found that surface acting produces negative results in managers. Other study revealed that utilizing a deep acting strategy improves performance and has no negative effects on employees’ well-being, but using a surface acting approach frequently has negative effects on workers’ personal well-being (Grandey, Rupp, & Brice, 2015; Hülsheger & Schewe, 2011) . This is similar to the fifth hypothesis i.e. deep acting is positively related to teachers’ work engagement. With regard to the last two mediation hypotheses, the present finding is unique in its nature. As far as the present researchers reviewed the previously conducted researched none of those studies found making both surface acting and deep acting a mediating variable in order to test the relationship between calling and work engagement.
The present study has brought multiple contributions to formulating a theory of mediation between teachers calling and work engagement. The tested model would be useful for teachers and leaders who are at the university level in that they would. For instance, the leaders would understand how to review the emotional display rules of teachers when they interact with the students. Additionally, based on the model formulated in the present study, leaders and practitioners shall identify teacher’s emotion as a core issue in maintaining the professional ethics of teachers in the teaching profession.
Despite being the significances to the all practitioners in the education sector, our study has certain limitations. First, as the variables of the study were measured by self-report questionnaires, there might be subject to social desirability bias as a result some of the results would be exaggerated, though measures were taken to assure anonymity. Second, this study included only the secondary school teachers teaching in urban schools generalization to other rural school areas may not be applicable unless it is replicated in some other rural schools. Third, most previous studies were focused on studying emotional labor in terms of its strategies such as surface acting, deep acting and natural emotion. But the present study did not take into account the role of those natural or genuine emotions while examining the relationship between the study variables.