An Empirical Study On The Effects of Emotional Labour Perceived (Theses)

Southern Cross University
ePublications@SCU
Theses
2014
An empirical study on the effects of emotional

labour, perceived organisational support and
perceived supervisor support on tour guides' role
performance in Hong Kong
Yin Chu Florence Yim
Publication details
Yim, YC 2014, 'An empirical study on the effects of emotional labour, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor
support on tour guides' role performance in Hong Kong', MBA thesis, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW.
Copyright YC Yim 2014
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An Empirical Study on the Effects of Emotional Labour, Perceived
Organisational Support and Perceived Supervisor Support on Tour
Guides’ Role Performance in Hong Kong
Yim Yin Chu Florence

Master of Business Administration
A thesis submitted to the School of Business and Tourism,

Southern Cross University, Australia,
in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Business Administration
June 2014
ABSTRACT
Tour guides play a key role in hosting group package tours; their service
quality directly influences customers’ overall impressions of and satisfaction with the
tour. Past studies on tour guides have mostly used qualitative methods to explore the
nature of roles performed by tour guides and have seldom considered relationships
with other relevant factors. To fill this research gap, this study aims to examine the
effects of emotional labour, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor
support on tour guides’ role performance in addition to the identification of tour
guides’ key roles. A theoretical framework has been developed to examine the
relationships among the independent variables (emotional labour, perceived
organisational support and perceived supervisor support) and the dependent variable
(role performance), and to investigate the correlation between each independent
variable and the dependent variable.
In order to test the hypotheses, this study adopts a quantitative approach for
data collection and analysis. Samples were drawn on the basis of the convenience
method whereby self-administered questionnaires were sent to target participants,
who are licensed tour guides or escorts, via different channels. In the main study, 610
i
questionnaires were distributed and 309 valid responses were used for data analysis. A
set of statistical techniques which included the reliability analysis, t-tests, ANOVA,
correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and principle component analysis
were utilised to compute the relevant statistics with the use of SPSS version 19.
The results show that all independent variables are correlated with the
dependent variable. Except for surface acting which is negatively related to role
performance, all other variables are positively related to role performance. Thus,
Hypotheses 1, 2 and 3 are supported. With respect to the prediction of role
performance, it is found that only emotional labour (including deep acting and surface
acting) and supervisor concern and care (a factor of perceived supervisor support)
predict role performance, whereas perceived organisational support (including
organisational care and rewards, job training and facilitation, organisational
recognition and appreciation) and supervisor recognition and appreciation (a factor of
perceived supervisor support) do not significantly predict role performance. Hence,
Hypothesis 4 is partially supported. As a result of the principal component analysis
three major tour guide roles were identified: ‘Communicative and Intermediary Role’,
‘Sales and Interactionary Role’ and ‘Social and Ambassador Role’. In addition, a Tour
Guide Emotional Labour Scale was generated for measuring the emotional labour of
ii
tour guides.
The thesis ends with conclusions and recommendations made to the tourism
industry, academia and other concerned parties. With reference to the research
findings, it is suggested that travel agencies implement appropriate human resources
practices such as establishing emotional display rules, enhancing emotional training,
cultivating a caring and supportive culture in the workplace, reviewing selection
criteria and developing a fair reward system so as to encourage tour guides to achieve
a better role performance. Further, it is recommended that researchers work
collaboratively with the industry in upgrading tourism products and services. Finally,
organisations involved in tour guide training should revisit their programmes to
include emotional labour training in the curriculum.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
After finishing this paper, I find myself indebted to so many people. Utmost
gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Catherine Cheung, whose guidance, insightful advice
and encouragement, has illuminated my passion for research, ushering me into the
world of academia. Thanks are also due to Professor Rob Law and Dr Ada Lo for
assessing the content validity of the questionnaire; Dr Haiyan Kong for proofreading
the Chinese version of the questionnaire; Ms Grace Wong, for leading me through the
design of the questionnaire; and Mr Daniel Leung for disentangling the complications
I encountered while using the SPSS software.
I am grateful to friends in the tourism industry, including Ms Selina Ho and
Ms Winnie Fong for valuable comments on the preliminary questionnaire; Miss Liela
Thadani, Mr Josiah Chan, Ms Christina Wong, Mr Joseph Chan and Ms Anne Yip, for
their kind permission to have the questionnaires distributed in their working units. I
would like to extend my thanks to the following people at Southern Cross University:
Professor Ian Eddie for his thoughtful guidance throughout the course of my studies,
Associate Professor Michelle Wallace for her administration of the examination
process and Mr John Revington for editing the thesis. Thanks is also given to Ms
iv
Betty Yuen of Hong Kong Institute of Technology for handling all tedious course
administration.
My sincere appreciation goes to my students: Mr Timothy Wong, Mr Ericsson
Wong and Miss Janice Chan for providing inputs to the questionnaire design, with
special thanks to Mr Timothy Wong for working collaboratively with me to finish the
data input. I would like to thank my friends: Dr Connie Mok for her astute
observations and advice after reviewing the questionnaire and for her continuous
support to my family; and Ms Emma Leung, who without a word of complaint joined
me in distributing the questionnaires at the airport.
Heartfelt gratitude to my family – my mom, who in her most humble and quiet
manner taught me to have persistence and courage; my beloved brothers and sisters,
especially Brenda, Daisy, Rita and Angel, for their enthusiasm in distributing
questionnaires at the airport with me. Another indispensable character in this journey
is my daughter Michelle, whose support manifested in her patience while
proofreading my work, always being her cheerful and thoughtful self. Her presence
encouraged me to carry on. Lastly, I would like to thank my deceased husband Terry,
whose unfailing dedication to academic research inspired me to pursue a doctoral
v
degree, and whose endless love supported me to get through this journey.
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................ iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................................vii
LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................xii
LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................xiii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE THESIS .............................................. xiv
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1
1.1 Background of the Study.................................................................................... 1
1.2 An Overview of the Tourism Industry in Hong Kong ....................................... 6
1.2.1 Tourist Arrivals and Tourism Expenditure ............................................. 6
1.2.2. Tourism Bodies....................................................................................... 8
1.2.3 The Government Support for Tourism ................................................. 11
1.2.4 The Travel Industry in Hong Kong ...................................................... 12
1.2.5 Qualifications of Tour Guides .............................................................. 13
1.2.6 Employment Benefits for Tour Guides ................................................ 14
1.2.6.1 Remuneration ........................................................................ 14
1.2.6.2 Training and Development .................................................... 15
1.2.7 Research on Tour Guides in Hong Kong .............................................. 15
1.3 Justification for the Study ................................................................................ 20
1.4 Contributions of the Study ............................................................................... 25
1.5 Definition of Terms .......................................................................................... 26
1.6 Organisation of the Thesis................................................................................ 28
1.7 Chapter Summary............................................................................................. 29
Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................... 31
2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 31
2.2 Role Performance of Tour Guides .................................................................... 31
2.2.1 Introduction .......................................................................................... 31
2.2.2 Definition of Role Performance ........................................................... 33
2.2.3 Definition of a Tour Guide ................................................................... 34
2.2.4 The Origin of Tour Guides’ Roles ........................................................ 36
2.2.5 The Roles of Tour Guides .................................................................... 38
2.2.6 Research into Tour Guides’ Roles ........................................................ 53
2.2.7 Summary .............................................................................................. 53
2.3 Emotional Labour............................................................................................. 55
2.3.1 Introduction .......................................................................................... 55
2.3.2 Definitions and Overview of Emotional Labour .................................. 57
vii
2.3.3 Positive Impacts of Emotional Labour ................................................. 59
2.3.4 Negative Impacts of Emotional Labour ............................................... 60
2.3.5 Theories of Emotional Labour ............................................................. 61
2.3.6 Emotion Strategies Applications .......................................................... 69
2.3.7 Research on Emotional Labour ............................................................ 73
2.3.8 Emotional Labour Requirements in the Tourism Industry ................... 75
2.3.9 Emotional Labour Studies in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry .... 77
2.3.10 Summary .............................................................................................. 81
2.4 Perceived Organisational Support .................................................................... 82
2.4.1 Development of Perceived Organisational Support ............................. 82
2.4.2 Factors Affecting Perceived Organisational Support ........................... 84
2.4.3 The Theoretical Foundation of Perceived Organisational Support ...... 86
2.4.4 Research on Perceived Organisational Support – Antecedents and
Outcomes.............................................................................................. 90
2.4.5 Summary .............................................................................................. 98
2.5 Perceived Supervisor Support .......................................................................... 99
2.5.1 Introduction .......................................................................................... 99
2.5.2 Definitions and Overview of Perceived Supervisor Support ............... 99
2.5.3 Types of Supervisor Support .............................................................. 101
2.5.4 Research on Perceived Supervisor Support – Antecedents and
Outcomes............................................................................................ 103
2.5.5 Summary ............................................................................................ 108
2.6 The Classification of Perceived Organisational Support and Perceived
Supervisor Support......................................................................................... 109
2.6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................ 109
2.6.2 Perceived Organisational Support and Perceived Supervisor Support
are Related Constructs........................................................................ 109
2.6.3 Perceived Organisational Support and Perceived SupervisorSupport are
Different Constructs ........................................................................... 112
2.6.4 Perceived Organisational Support and Perceived Supervisor Support in
the Travel and Tourism Industry ........................................................ 114
2.6.5 Summary ............................................................................................ 117
2.7 Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses ........................................................ 118
2.7.1 Conceptual Framework ...................................................................... 118
2.7.2 Emotion Labour and Role Performance ............................................. 120
2.7.3 Perceived Organisational Support and Role Performance ................. 124
2.7.4 Perceived Supervisor Support and Role Performance ....................... 128
2.7.5 Emotional Labour, Perceived Organisational Support,Perceived
viii
Supervisor Support and Role Performance ........................................ 132
2.8 Chapter Summary........................................................................................... 133
Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................ 134
3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 134
3.2 Research Paradigms and Methodologies ....................................................... 134
3.2.1 Research Paradigms and Research Methods: Positivist vs.
Phenomenological Approach ............................................................. 135
3.2.2 Justification for the Research Paradigm of this Study ....................... 138
3.3 Research Design ............................................................................................. 141
3.4 Development of the Research Instrument ...................................................... 145
3.4.1 Measurement Items from the Literature ............................................. 146
3.4.2 The Preliminary Questionnaire for In-depth Interviews .................... 151
3.4.3 New Items Generated from In-depth Interviews ................................ 152
3.4.4 Content Validity Test .......................................................................... 159
3.4.5 The Pilot Study Questionnaire ........................................................... 159
3.4.6 The Main Survey Questionnaire ........................................................ 160
3.5 Sampling Plan ................................................................................................ 161
3.5.1 Sampling Population .......................................................................... 161
3.5.2 Sampling Frame ................................................................................. 162
3.5.3 Sampling Unit .................................................................................... 163
3.5.4 Sampling Method ............................................................................... 163
3.5.5 Sample Size ........................................................................................ 164
3.6 Data Collection Process ................................................................................. 165
3.6.1 Pilot Study .......................................................................................... 165
3.6.2 Main Survey ....................................................................................... 168
3.7 Data Analysis Methods .................................................................................. 170
3.8 Ethical Issues .................................................................................................. 177
3.9 Chapter Summary........................................................................................... 179
Chapter 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS ................................................ 180
4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 180
4.2 Pilot Study ...................................................................................................... 181
4.2.1 Survey Periods.................................................................................... 181
4.2.2 Response Rates ................................................................................... 182
4.2.3 Demographic Characteristics of Respondents.................................... 183
4.2.4 Reliability Test for Pilot Study ........................................................... 185
4.3 Main Survey ................................................................................................... 186
4.3.1 Survey Periods ................................................................................... 186
4.3.2 Response Rates ................................................................................... 187
ix
4.3.4 Reliability Test for Main Survey ........................................................ 191
4.4 Descriptive Statistics ...................................................................................... 193
4.5 Comparing the Means .................................................................................... 202
4.5.1 T-test of Two Means ........................................................................... 202
4.5.2 One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) .......................................... 203
4.6 Principal Components Analysis ..................................................................... 206
4.6.1 PCA of Emotional Labour .................................................................. 207
4.6.2 PCA of Perceived Organisational Support ......................................... 209
4.6.3 PCA of Perceived Supervisor Support ............................................... 211
4.6.4 PCA of Role Performance .................................................................. 213
4.6.5 Summary of PCA ............................................................................... 216
4.7 Assessment of Hypotheses ............................................................................. 221
4.7.1 Correlations Analysis ......................................................................... 222
4.7.2 Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) ................................................ 224
4.7.3 Summary of Hypotheses Testing ........................................................ 230
4.8 Discussion of Findings ................................................................................... 233
4.8.1.1 The Gender of Respondents ................................................. 233
4.8.1.2 Age Distribution................................................................... 233
4.8.1.3 Education Level ................................................................... 234
4.8.1.4 Years of Experience ............................................................ 235
4.8.1.5 The Effects of Demographics on Research Findings ........... 235
4.8.2 Assessment of Hypotheses ................................................................. 236
4.8.2.1 Deep Acting and Role Performance ..................................... 237
4.8.2.2 Surface Acting and Role Performance ................................. 239
4.8.2.3 Perceived Organisational Support and Role Performance ... 241
4.8.2.4 Perceived Supervisor Support and Role Performance ......... 243
4.8.2.5 Prediction of Tour Guides’ Role Performance ..................... 244
4.8.3. Key Roles of Tour Guides .................................................................. 248
4.8.3.1 Communicative and Intermediary Role .............................. 250
4.8.3.2 Sales and Interactionary Role ............................................. 251
4.8.3.3 Social and Ambassador Role ............................................... 253
4.8.3.4 Summary of Tour Guides’ Roles in Hong Kong ................. 255
4.9 Chapter Summary........................................................................................... 257
Chapter 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................... 258
5.1 Chapter Introduction ...................................................................................... 258
5.2 Contribution of the Study ............................................................................... 258
x
5.2.1 Theoretical Contributions ................................................................... 259
5.2.2 Practical Contributions ....................................................................... 261
5.3 Research Implications .................................................................................... 264
5.3.1 Implications for Travel Agencies ....................................................... 264
5.3.2 Implications for Educational Organisations ....................................... 267
5.3.3 Implications for Travel-related Organisations .................................... 268
5.4 Suggestions and Recommendations ............................................................... 269
5.4.1 Suggestions on Human Resources Management in Travel Agencies 269
5.4.2 Suggestions for Academia .................................................................. 278
5.4.3 Suggestions for Educational Organisations ........................................ 279
5.4.4 Suggestions for Travel-related Organisations .................................... 279
5.5 Limitations of the Study ................................................................................. 280
5.6 Suggestions for Future Research .................................................................... 282
5.7 Chapter summary ........................................................................................... 285
BIBLIOGRPAHY ...................................................................................................... 288
APPENDIX 1 ............................................................................................................. 303
APPENDIX 2 ............................................................................................................. 320
APPENDIX 3 ............................................................................................................. 331
xi
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Functions of Tourism-related Bodies in Hong Kong ................................. 10

Table 2 Business Nature of Different Travel Agency Businesses in Hong Kong ... 13
Table 3 Summary of Tour Guides’ Roles ................................................................ 42
Table 4 Summary of the Definitions of Emotional Labour .................................... 58
Table 5 Summary of Emotional Labour Research in Tourism ................................ 80
Table 6 Differences between Positivism and Social Constructionism .................. 137
Table 7 Items Adapted from the Literature for the Preliminary Questionnaire .... 148
Table 8 Items Generated from In-depth Interviews .............................................. 155
Table 9 Pilot Study Response Rates ...................................................................... 182
Table 10 Pilot Study Samples ................................................................................. 182
Table 11 Demographic Profile of Respondents in Pilot Study ............................... 183
Table 12 Scale Reliability Analysis for Pilot Study ................................................ 186
Table 13 Main Survey Response Rates ................................................................... 187
Table 14 The Profile of Participating Travel Agencies in Main Survey ................. 188
Table 15 Demographic Profile of Respondents in Main Survey ............................ 190
Table 16 Scale Reliability Analysis for Main Survey ............................................. 192
Table 17 Means, Standard Deviation and Correlations of the Independent Variables
and the Dependent Variable ..................................................................... 193
Table 18 Means, Standard Deviations and Correlations of Deep Acting................ 197
Table 19 Means, Standard Deviations and Correlations of Surface Acting ............ 198
Table 20 Means, Standard Deviations and Correlations of Perceived Organisational
Support ..................................................................................................... 199
Table 21 Means, Standard Deviations and Correlations of Perceived Supervisor
Support ..................................................................................................... 200
Table 22 Means, Standard Deviations and Correlations of Role Performance ....... 201
Table 23 t-test of Gender and Variables .................................................................. 204
Table 24 One-way ANOVA Test of Variables across Respondents’ Demographic
Profile ....................................................................................................... 205
Table 25 Findings of Principal Component Analysis ............................................. 216
Table 26 Results of Principal Component Analysis on Emotional Labour (N = 303)
.................................................................................................................. 217
Table 27 Results of Principal Component Analysis on Perceived Organisational
Support (N = 303) .................................................................................... 218
Table 28 Results of Principal Component Analysis on Perceived Supervisor Support
(N = 303) .................................................................................................. 219
xii
Table 29 Results of Principal Component Analysis on Role Performance (N = 303)
.................................................................................................................. 220
Table 30 Pearson Correlation between the Independent Variables and Role
Performance (N = 303) ............................................................................ 223
Table 31 Pearson Correlation among the Independent Variables............................ 224
Table 32 Results of Multiple Regression of the Independent Variables Predicting
Role Performance..................................................................................... 228
Table 33 Results of the Hypothesised Relationships .............................................. 232
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 The Dynamics of Tour Guides’ Roles ......................................................... 40

Figure 2 Conceptual Framework of Present Study .................................................. 119
Figure 3 A Schematic View of the Research Process of this Study ......................... 141
Figure 4 A Schematic View of the Development Process of the
Research Instrument .................................................................................. 145
Figure 5 The Sampling Population, Sampling Frame and Sampling Unit .............. 162
xiii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE THESIS
DA Deep Acting
EL Emotional Labour
POS Perceived Organisational Support
PSS Perceived Supervisor Support
RP Role Performance
SA Surface Acting
xiv
Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
During the past four decades, Hong Kong has transformed itself from an
industrial centre to a service centre by adopting multi-focused economy in which
tourism has emerged as one of the major economic pillars. Hong Kong was ranked as
one of the world’s top 10 tourism receipt destinations in 2012 (United Nation World
Tourism Organisation 2014). According to the World Travel and Tourism Council
(2014), the direct contribution from travel and tourism to Hong Kong’s economy was
US$ 24.5 billion (8.9% of the GDP) in 2013 and this figure is forecast to rise by 4.6%
in 2014. In addition, 346,000 jobs (9.2% of the total workforce) were generated from
travel and tourism in 2013 and this figure is forecast to rise by 4.8% in 2014.
Undoubtedly, successful tourism development in Hong Kong is a product of
the collective efforts of different parties including the government, the industry and
the front-line tourism employees such as tour guides. In the tourism industry, tour
1
guides are persons who lead tour groups to attractive sightseeing spots while
providing interpretation and commentary (Ap & Wong 2001). They are regarded as
representatives of a destination with a responsibility to promote that destination (Pond
1993). The tour guides’ performance directly affects tourists’ overall satisfaction of
the tour (Wong & Wang 2009), which in turn influences tourists’ intention to stay and
desire to spend at a destination (Dahles 2002).
Tour guides play different roles such as information giver, cultural mediator,
caretaker, tour leader and salesperson. Under certain circumstances, these roles may
come into conflict, thus placing tour guides in dilemmas. This can be illustrated by the
notorious ‘forced shopping’ which happened in inbound tourism in Hong Kong.
Tourists complained that they were forced to buy goods in assigned stores during their
trips in Hong Kong (Travel Industry Council Hong Kong 2013). Some cases have
been reported by the media or posted on YouTube and have aroused widespread
public concern about tour guides’ professional conduct. For example, a video showing
a tour guide verbally insulted a group of tourists for their frugal spending in Hong
Kong was shown by a Chinese media outlet. This caused a lot of criticism of tour
guides’ unprofessional conduct in mainland China and Hong Kong. However, the tour
2
guide stated that she had just followed the company’s instruction to take tourists
shopping at designated stores. Forced shopping is one of the many examples of how
tour guides are required to carry conflicting job roles.
The above example shows that travel agencies and tour participants have
different expectations of tour guides. Travel agencies require a tour guide to be a
professional salesperson whereas tour participants expect a tour guide to help them
and be a good tour leader. These different role expectations generate confusion for the
guide and will negatively affect his or her performance. The conflicts between
tourists, tour guides and travel agencies inspired the researcher of this study to initiate
a study on tour guides’ role performance. It is expected that the results generated from
this study will provide insights into the first research question: ‘What are the key roles
played by tour guides?’ Through the identification of a set of common roles, travel
agencies can provide support to tour guides so as to facilitate their role performance
(RP).
Another stimulus for this study is related to the personal experience of the
researcher. She was responsible for handling customer complaints while working in a
3
travel agency. In her past working experience, she found that many complaints
resulted from the failure of tour guides to control their emotions. Customers were
irritated by tour guides’ negative attitudes, inappropriate facial expressions or
language. Many complaints could be avoided if tour guides were able to manage their
emotions more effectively.
As suggested by other researchers, jobs in the tourism industry demand a great
amount of emotional labour (EL) due to the long interaction time with tour
participants and the varied emotions associated with tour guiding (Guerrier & Adib
2003; Rafaeli & Sutton 1987; Wong & Wang 2009). Therefore, the researcher
speculates that emotional labour will affect tour guides’ role performance (RP). Based
on this assumption, the second research question is: ‘To what extent does emotional
labour affect tour guides’ role performance?’ Since no previous studies report on the
relationship of these two dimensions, the present research is the first empirical study
to explore the relationship of emotional labour and role performance in the tourism
literature.
In addition to emotional labour, it is believed that perceived organisational
support (POS) and perceived supervisor support (PSS) are important dimensions
4
affecting tour guides’ role performance. George et al. (1993) suggested that effective
perceived organisational support is important for an individual to carry out his or her
job effectively and deal with stressful situations. Moreover, evidence from the
business literature shows that POS and PSS help to reduce role conflicts and
ambiguities, work stress and turnover intentions, yet they also increase job satisfaction
(Cropanzano et al. 1997; Grandey 2000; Ross & Boles 1994).
The conjecture on the effect of POS and PSS on RP leads to research question
three, four and five:
 To what extent does organisational support affect tour guides’ role
performance?
 To what extent does supervisor support affect tour guides’ role performance?
 What kinds of support should be provided by travel agencies to enable tour
guides to perform their roles effectively?
Based on the rationales stated, a theoretical model was devised to investigate
the relationships between the independent variables (EL, POS, and PSS) and the
dependent variable (RP). Furthermore, this research investigates which independent
5
variables predict role performance. The research outcomes provide insights into the
relationships between the variables under examination and the implications for
academia and the industry which will be useful for enhancing tour guides’ role
performances.
1.2 An Overview of the Tourism Industry in Hong Kong
1.2.1 Tourist Arrivals and Tourism Expenditure
The tourism industry is one of four key industries in Hong Kong. It contributes
significantly to economic growth and provides employment opportunities to local
people as stated in section 1.1. Tourism activities in Hong Kong cover both inbound
tourism and outbound tourism. According to the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB)
(2014), the inbound arrivals reached a record high of 54.2 million visitors in 2013, up
by 11.7% on the previous year. The total tourism expenditure associated with inbound
tourism also reached a historical high of HK$296.56 billion in 2012.
The rapid growth in inbound arrivals can be attributed to the vigorous efforts
6
of the government, in particular, the measures of broadening the Individual Visit
Scheme (IVS) to allow residents from 49 cities across mainland China to visit Hong
Kong on an individual basis. The IVS, a liberalisation measure under the Closer
Economic Partnership Arrangement, started in 2003 as one of the key measures to
revitalise tourism development in Hong Kong after the SARS outbreak in 2002 and
2003. According to HKTB (2014), 75% of visitors in 2013 came from China.
For outbound tourism, despite explicit statistics on the tourist numbers and
expenditure is not available. However, outbound travel expenditure can be estimated
from the outbound levy collected by Travel Industry Council Hong Kong (TICHK). In
Hong Kong, a levy of 0.15% of tour fare is collected through the travel agencies when
customers purchase tour products consisting of two of more items in transportation,
accommodation and sightseeing activities. The money collected goes to the Travel
Industry Council Hong Kong as council levy. According to TICHK (2014), the total
amount collected from the outbound levy in 2013 was HK$23,843,116 which
indicates that the travel expenditure of Hong Kong residents in packaged tours, and
flight/hotel packages amount to HK$158.95 billion.
7
1.2.2. Tourism Bodies
Recognising the great economic benefits brought by tourism, the government
plays an active role in steering tourism development. Different administration bodies
have been established to oversee the various aspects of tourism development. On the
policy and strategy development level, the Tourism Commission (TC) has been set up
to formulate and coordinate the implementation of policies, strategies and plans in
relation to tourism. The Travel Agents Registry, a department under the TC, has been
formed to regulate travel agents so as to protect the interests of Hong Kong outbound
travellers and inbound visitors.
Working closely with the TC, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) is a
promotional arm of TC. HKTB’s primary responsibilities include marketing and
promoting Hong Kong as a preferred destination worldwide and organising various
tourist programmes to enhance visitors’ experiences. At the same time, they make
recommendations to the government on the range and quality of tourist facilities. The
HKTB also conducts extensive research on visitors’ profiles and preferences, tourism
trends and patterns. Such information is useful for formulating marketing strategies to
attract different visitor source markets and segments.
8
At the operational level, the government regulates the standard of tour guides’
services through the accreditation systems run by the Travel Industry Council Hong
Kong (TICHK). Tour guides and tour escorts are required to complete prescribed
training organised by TICHK and pass a certificate examination before qualifying for
escorting tours. Moreover, the TICHK introduced a Continuous Professional
Development (CPD) programme in 2007. Tour guides are required to fulfil the
training requirements of the CPD programme for renewal of their Tourist Guide Pass.
The functions of various tourism bodies are shown in Table 1.
9
Table 1 Functions of Tourism-related Bodies in Hong Kong
Tourism Bodies Nature Major Functions

Hong Kong Tourism A government department • To formulate and coordinate the
Commission under the Commerce and implementation of policies, strategies and
Economic Development plans for tourism development
Bureau • To coordinate the work of other
government bureaux and departments on
policies and initiatives which have an
impact on tourism development
Travel Agents Registry Under the Tourism • To administer the Travel Agents
Commission Ordinance (TAO)
• To issue licenses to travel agents
• To inspect the travel agent register
• To handle enquiries and complaints
• To provide secretariat support for the
Advisory Committee on Travel Agents
• To administer the Travel Industry
Compensation Fund
Hong Kong Tourism A statutory body formed under • To market and promote Hong Kong as a
Board the Hong Kong Tourism preferred destination worldwide
Board Ordinance • To organise various tourist programmes
with trade-related sectors to enhance
visitors’ experiences
• To make recommendations to the
government on the range and quality of
tourist facilities
• To promote the importance of tourism to
the community
• To conduct research into visitors’ profiles
and preferences, tourism trends and
patterns
Travel Industry Council To regulate the outbound and • To set up and enforce rules, regulations
Hong Kong inbound travel agents under and professional ethics within the travel
the Travel Agents Ordinance industry
10
• To organise training courses to upgrade
the standards of members
• To run the accreditation systems for tour
escorts and tour guides
• To mediate disputes between members or
between members and the public
• To collect the outbound levy
• To raise awareness of travel safety and
travel protection among travellers
• To handle enquiries and complaints
lodged by outbound travellers and
inbound visitors
• To provide assistance to people who
apply the Travel Industry Compensation
Fund and Package Tour Accident
Contingency Fund Scheme
(Reproduced from the Websites of Hong Kong Tourism Commission, Hong Kong Tourism Broad,
Travel Industry Council Hong Kong)
1.2.3 The Government Support for Tourism
Apart from establishing the tourism administration bodies, the government has
implemented a variety of measures to encourage tourism development. For example,
it launched the ‘Individual Visit Scheme’ to release entry requirements for visitors
from mainland China, and signed the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement
(CEPA) with the Chinese government to allow travel agencies in Hong Kong to set up
business in China and provided visa-free visit for tourists from 170 countries (Hong
Kong Information Service Department 2013).
11
The government has been relentless in its efforts to create the best
environment to enable the sustainable development of tourism. In this light, the
government has invested heavily in developing world-class infrastructures such as the
airport, a new cruise terminal, cross-border transport links, new event venues and
tourist attractions. Moreover, a number of projects to redevelop existing tourist
attractions are underway, for instance the expansion of Hong Kong Disneyland and
new attractions in the Ocean Park (Hong Kong Tourism Commission 2013).
1.2.4 The Travel Industry in Hong Kong
According to TICHK (2014), Hong Kong had 1,716 registered travel agencies
for inbound travel, outbound travel and local travel. The nature of travel agency
businesses varies across the industry. Some focus on one type of business (e.g.
ticketing) while others may provide a full range of travel services. Table 2 shows the
business nature of different types of travel agencies.
12
Table 2 Business Nature of Different Travel Agency Businesses in Hong Kong
Types of Travel Agency Business Nature

Outbound Travel Agency • Package tour (retail)
• Ticketing (retail)
• Air plus hotel packages
• Meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE)
• Cruise packages
• Package tour (wholesale / tour operator)
• Ticketing (wholesale)
• Corporate / business travel
• Hotel reservation
Inbound Travel Agency • Long haul (e.g. America / Europe / Africa / Australia / New
Zealand)
• Mainland China / Taiwan
• MICE
• Japan / Korea / Southeast Asia / India
• Hotel Reservation
• CNTA-endorsed Hong Kong receiving agents for Chinese
tours
Local Travel Agency • Local Tour

• Hire car
• Hotel
• Booking for locals
(Source: Website of Travel Industry Council Hong Kong)
1.2.5 Qualifications of Tour Guides
In Hong Kong, tour guides are classified as either ‘tour escorts’ or ‘tourist
guides’. Tour escorts are the staff appointed by tour operators to accompany tour
13
groups to overseas destinations and to take care of the tour participants throughout the
whole tour (TICHK 2014). To obtain a mandatory tour escort pass, every tour escort
has to attend a ‘Certificate Course for Outbound Tour Escort’ organised by the
TICHK so as to obtain a tour escort pass. Tourist guides are persons assigned by a
travel agency to receive and take care of travellers visiting Hong Kong (TICHK
2014). A qualified tourist guide should hold certificates recognised by the TICHK and
pass the relevant examinations in order to obtain a valid tourist guide pass. According
to TICHK (2014), in April 2014, Hong Kong had 19,840 accredited tour escorts and
6,781 accredited tour guides.
1.2.6 Employment Benefits for Tour Guides
1.2.6.1 Remuneration
Tour escorts and tour guides can work on a permanent or on a part-time basis.
Permanent staff earn a basic salary plus tips from customers and commissions from
shopping and from selling optional tours. They are protected by the Hong Kong
minimum wage policy, specifying that the hourly rate of the average monthly income
should not be less than HK$30. In addition, they are entitled to other fringe benefits
14
such as medical benefits, pay leave and study grants. Furthermore, part-time tour
escorts or guides do not have a basic salary. Their income for each tour depends on
the group size and tour duration. For example, the guide fee for a three-day short-haul
China tour with 15 tour participants is aroundHK$1200. Similar to the permanent
staff, the average hourly rate of part-time tour guides should not be less than HK$30.
However, part-time tour guides are not entitled to fringe benefits.
1.2.6.2 Training and Development
Many large travel agencies provide in-house training to equip tour guides with
professional skills and knowledge. The training programmes include orientation
programmes for new-joiners, sales training, product training, customer services skills
training etc. Recently, some travel agencies started to recognise the increasing
work-related stress of tour guides by providing emotional management programmes
to enhance employees’ emotional intelligence.
1.2.7 Research on Tour Guides in Hong Kong
Previous studies of travel and tourism have mainly focused on measuring

15
customer satisfaction and the service quality of travel agencies. Few studies have
investigated tour guides’ performance (Heung 2008). In the literature review, it is
found that a few studies examine tour guides’ performances from a service quality
perspective. For example, Wong (2001) examined the relationship between service
quality dimensions and tourist satisfaction. Wong’s results showed that the
professional skills, customer relationships / empathy and communication of tour
guides lead to tourist satisfaction while shopping / tipping, poor guide conduct, poor
itineraries, bad communication and poor customer relations cause dissatisfaction.
Moreover, Heung (2008) proposed tour guides’ service quality could be
assessed by ‘core service delivery’, ‘customer orientation’ and ‘communication
effectiveness’. According to Heung (2008), the quality of tour guiding is of
fundamental importance because it is the core service which needs to be performed on
the tour. For instance, tour guides have to make sure the itinerary is arranged in
accordance with the tour plan. Customer orientation means tour guides putting
customers’ needs and interests ahead of their own and performing tasks that are
valued by customers. To this end, tour guides have to focus on leading the tour,
solving problems and ensuring customer satisfaction, instead of focusing on their
personal interests such as shopping commissions. Communication effectiveness
16
emphasises timely communication with tourists in respect of the itinerary
arrangements, providing good commentary on tourist attractions and handling
customer inquiries and complaints.
Heung’s (2008) study showed positive relationships between tour guide
service quality and agency’s reputation as well as word-of-mouth publicity. Among
all attributes, ‘professional attitude and ability’ is the key determinant affecting
agencies’ reputations and the level of word-of-mouth publicity. As a consequence,
Heung makes a few recommendations. He suggests that travel agencies should select
people of the right calibre for the job. Moreover, training has to be provided to
develop staff’s professional attitude. In addition, he suggests that travel agencies
should honour their promises to customers in the areas of paying more attention to
honesty and trustworthiness.
Zhang and Chow (2004) assessed tour guides’ performances as perceived by
mainland Chinese outbound visitors by employing the importance-performance
analysis model. They identified 20 major service quality attributes in tour guiding.
The results show that tour guides perform very well in 11 service quality attributes,
including ‘punctual’, ‘inform visitors of safety regulations’, ‘brief visitors on daily
17
itinerary’, ‘polite’, ‘respect customers’, ‘knowledge of destination’, ‘honest and
trustworthy’, ‘deliver service promised in itinerary’, ‘good presentation skills’,
‘well-trained’, and ‘communicated well in Mandarin / Cantonese’. Areas which need
improvement include ‘problem solving ability’ – in particular the ability to handle
emergencies arising in tours and the ability to satisfy visitors’ specific needs. The
study also raises the concerns about ‘forced shopping’. The mainland Chinese visitors
did not think tour guides had taken them to reliable shops and hence tour guides were
perceived as not being honest and trustworthy.
Apart from searching for dimensions affecting tour guides’ quality of service,
researchers also examine issues and factors affecting the professional performance of
tour guides. Ap and Wong (2001) carried out a study to examine the current level of
professional service standards of tour guides and to identify issues and challenges
faced by tour guides. Their study reveals that the professionalism of tour guiding has
been impeded by the inadequate training opportunities provided and the lack of a
quality assurance system to monitor tour guides’ service. Additionally, the results
show that some unhealthy industry practices adversely affects tour guides’
performance. It is found that, in order to cover the loss resulting from a low reception
fee in receiving the mainland Chinese groups, travel agencies force tour guides to
18
persuade tourists to buy luxurious goods at designated shops. Ap and Wong (2001)
commented that the ‘forced shopping’ adds pressure to tour guides’ roles and creates
many complaints.
As a result, the researchers made a number of recommendations for improving
the professionalism of tour guides. Some of these suggestions have been adopted by
the Hong Kong Government to revamp the industry practices. One of the key
measures introduced was the inbound tourist guide accreditation system in 2002.
Under the new system, tourist guides are required to pass a qualifying examination in
order to obtain a tourist guide pass. They are not allowed to receive inbound tourists
without such a qualification. The accreditation system helps maintain a high standard
of tour guiding service in Hong Kong.
Mak, Wong and Chang in 2011 conducted a study similar to the research of
Ap and Wong (2001). They examined the critical issues affecting the service quality
and professionalism of tour guides in Hong Kong and Macau. Six key issues that
affect tour guides’ performance have been identified in the study: (1) the unhealthy
business practices of Chinese outbound travel agencies, (2) the immaturity of the
Chinese tourism market, (3) exploitative measures used by inbound tour operators, (4)
19
human resource issues, (5) role conflict and (6) service quality assurance mechanisms.
Recommendations are made to address these key issues that aim to improve the
service quality and professionalism of the tour guiding profession in Hong Kong and
Macau.
1.3 Justification for the Study
The significance of tour guides’ contributions to the tourism industry has been
widely discussed in tourism literature. Researchers recognise that tour guides’
performance is a predominant factor affecting the overall evaluation of the service
quality in tours (Ap & Wong 2001; Kong, Cheung & Baum 2009; Quiroga 1990;
Wang, Hsieh & Chen 2002; Yu, Weiler, & Ham 2002) whereas Mossberg (1995)
stated that the company’s image, customer loyalty and word of mouth are affected by
tour guides’ performance. In addition, customer satisfaction with tour guides’ services
will be translated into purchase intentions and positive word of mouth communication
(Geva & Goldman 1991; Mossberg 1995).
20
Because professional tour guides are valuable assets to travel companies (Pond
1993), the roles of tour guides are worth studying (Research Objective 1) so that
travel agencies can provide relevant support to ensure tour guides perform their jobs
effectively (Research Objective 5). There is a rich body of literature examining the
nature of tour guides’ roles in different tourism contexts. However, many of those
studies adopt a qualitative approach and hence the present research will be the first
quantitative study on tour guides’ role performance. The findings will help fill
research gaps in the current tourism literature.
The nature of tour guides’ work requires them to frequently interact with
customers, thus demanding large amount of emotional labour (Guerrier & Adib 2003;
Wong & Wang 2009). Guerrier and Adib (2003) commented that boundaries between
the work and leisure activities of overseas tour representatives are blurred. Tour
representatives do not have official working hours as they have to look after the tour
participants almost 24 hours a day. Therefore, the type of emotional strategy used in
each encounter with tour participants will affect the quality of service provided by
tour guides. As a result, it is important to study the effects of different emotional
strategies (Research Objective 3) on role performance in order to identify the effective
strategy to be used.
21
Apart from the long customer interaction time, the diverse emotions to be
displayed under different circumstances complicate emotional labour requirements.
Tour guides have to continuously adjust their emotions so as to cope with different
situations. They can only display emotions that conform to the situation and tour
participants’ expectations. For example, they have to look happy when entertaining
guests and stay calm while handling problems. The constant change of emotional
states and expressions may result in emotional fatigue and dissonance (Hochschild
1983). In the long run, this will affect the physical and mental health of tour guides.
An extensive body of research has been focusing on the relationships between
emotional labour and individual- and organisation-related outcomes. However, no
study has previously attempted to examine the relationship between emotional labour
and role performance in the tourism industry. The present study will enrich the
existing literature and add knowledge to the understanding of the relationship between
these two dimensions (Research Objective 2).
The heavy demands of emotional labour, together with the increasing
customer expectations make the jobs of tour guides more and more challenging. To
22
cope with the accelerating job demands, organisations should provide a supportive
environment to enable tour guides to perform their roles (Anderson, Provis & Chappel
2002; Grandey 2000). It is expected that POS and PSS will be identified as crucial
factors in supporting tour guides’ role performance. Despite the awareness of the
importance of POS and PSS on performance, no relevant study in the tourism
literature was found which examines the relationships among these three dimensions.
Nevertheless, empirical evidence is available in business management literature,
showing that POS and PSS are both important to employee performance (Cropanzano
et al. 1997; Einsenberger et al. 1997; Grandey 2000; Ross & Boles 1994).
In view of the dearth of studies exploring the relationships of POS, PSS and
RP in tourism literature, this study aims at adding knowledge to the current literature
by providing a theoretical framework to examine the relationships between emotional
labour, POS, PSS and RP (Research Objective 2) and identify the factors which
predict RP (Research Objective 3). Moreover, the results will provide insights for
travel agencies into the appropriate support to be provided to tour guides and the
effective human resources policies to be enacted to facilitate tour guides’
performances (Research Objective 5). Finally, the development of a Tour Guide
Emotional Labour Scale (TGELS) as a result of this study can serve as a measuring
23
scale to evaluate tour guides’ emotional labour in future studies (Research Objective
4). The research questions and objectives of this study are formulated as follows:
The research questions are:
1. What are the key roles played by tour guides in guiding service?
2. To what extent does emotional labour affect tour guides’ role performance?
3. To what extent does organisational support affect tour guides’ role performance?
4. To what extent does supervisor support constitute to tour guides’ role
performance?
5. What kinds of support should be provided by travel agencies to enable tour
guides to perform their roles effectively?
The specific Research Objectives are:
1. to identify the key roles performed by tour guides;
2. to investigate the relationships between tour guides’ role performance and
emotional labour; role performance and POS; role performance and PSS;
3. to examine the effect of emotional labour, POS and PSS in predicting tour
guides’ role performance;
24
4. to develop a Tour Guide Emotional Labour Scale (TGELS) to measure tour
guides’ emotional labour presentation; and
5. to discuss the implications of this study for improving tour guides’ performance.
1.4 Contributions of the Study
This research centres on measuring the role performance of tour guides. In
terms of theoretical contribution, it is the first empirical study in the tourism literature
to examine the relationship between role performance and each of the following:
emotional labour, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support.
The findings provide academia with new insights into the relationships between the
variables examined. The results generated in the current study will help researchers to
explore other dimensions of tour guides’ performance or to acquire casual
relationships of other variables related to tour guides’ performance in future studies.
On the practical side, the findings will help travel agencies understand which
dimensions will have a significant effect on tour guides’ role performance. Based on
the research results, management in travel agencies will be able to apply appropriate
25
measures to enhance tour guides’ role performance. Finally, the development of a
Tour Guide Emotional Labour Scale (TGELS), as a result of the study, can serve as a
measuring instrument to evaluate tour guides’ emotional labour in further studies.
Moreover, Human Resources Managers of travel agencies can make use of the
measurement scale to assess their tour guides’ emotional display in order to identify
areas for improvement.
1.5 Definition of Terms
Tour Guide
A tour guide is defined as ‘a person who guides visitors in the language of
their choice and interprets the cultural and natural heritage of an area, which person
normally possesses an area-specific qualification usually issued and/or recognized by
the appropriate authority’ (European Federation of Tourist Guide Association 2014).
Tour Escort
A tour escort is defined as ‘a representative of a tour operator providing basic
assistance to travellers’ (European Federation of Tourist Guide Association 2014).
26
Emotional Labour
For the purpose of this study, emotional labour is defined as the process of
regulating one’s emotional display through surface acting or deep acting in order to
fulfil one’s job roles (Ashforth & Humphrey 1993; Zapf & Holz 2006).
Perceived Organisational Support
Perceived organisational support is defined as ‘the degree to which the
individual believes that the organisation cares about them, values their input and
provides them with help and support’ (Erdogan & Enders 2007, p.322).
Perceived Supervisor Support
Perceived supervisor support is defined as the degree to which individuals
believe that their immediate managers or supervisors value their contributions and
care about their wellbeing (Kottke & Sharafinski 1988).
27
1.6 Organisation of the Thesis
This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One begins with the research
background and an overview of Hong Kong’s tourism development and relevant
research on tour guides. This is followed by a justification of the research and a
presentation of the research questions and objectives and a discussion of the
contribution of the study.
In Chapter Two, the literature related to the concept of emotional labour, POS,
PSS and role performance is reviewed. The key concepts, definitions and findings of
previous studies related to each topic are discussed. In addition, a research model
displaying the relationships between variables will be presented, followed by a
discussion of the research hypotheses and propositions.
In Chapter Three, the methodology employed for this study is elaborated. This
part includes a discussion of the research paradigm, the research design, the
development of the research instrument, data collection processes, data analysis
methods and ethical issues related to the research.
28
In Chapter Four, findings of the pilot study and the main survey are reported.
Based on the statistics generated from SPSS, results of the testing of the hypothesised
relationships and the effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable
are interpreted and explained.
Chapter Five concludes the thesis with a discussion of the research
contributions and recommendations. From the implications of the research,
recommendations for improving tour guides’ role performances are made to academia
and the tourism industry. The research limitations and suggestions for further research
directions are then discussed.
1.7 Chapter Summary
This chapter has provided some key information concerning the present study.
The background to the current research has been described so as to provide
information on the rationale for conducting this study. In addition the justification for
the research and the research questions and objectives, as well as the contributions of
the study have been elaborated. Furthermore, information pertinent to the
29
understanding of current tourism development in Hong Kong has been presented. The
next chapter will review the literature relevant to the research variables and discuss
the research framework.
30
Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
This chapter begins with a discussion of the different types of role performed
by tour guides, and then reviews the current literature on emotional labour, perceived
organisational support and perceived supervisor support. The discussion includes the
key concepts and findings of pervious research relating to the variables under
examination. This is followed by a presentation of the rationales for the hypotheses
and a research model in which the proposed relationships between key variables are
thoroughly discussed.
2.2 Role Performance of Tour Guides
2.2.1 Introduction
The importance of tour guide performance in the tourism development of a
destination has been well acknowledged by researchers. Dahles (2002, p.783) claimed
31
that tour guiding is ‘a strategic factor in the representation of a destination area’. The
service provided by tour guides affects the quality of tourist experience, tourists’
intention to stay at the destination and the possible economic benefits brought by
tourism (Dahles 2002). Pond (1993) stated that tour guides are delegated with a
responsibility to publicise the destination. They are viewed as representatives of a site,
region and country. Wong and Wang (2009) found that tour guides’ performances
directly affect customers’ overall impressions of and satisfaction with tour services.
Tour guides play a key role in the promotion of tour services, and some
researchers have suggested that tour guides are endorsers of package tours (Wang et al.
2002). While identifying the roles of tour guides in nature tourism, Weiler and Davis
(1993) reported that tour operators tend to emphasise the experiential qualifications of
tour guides in their promotional materials in order to attract customers. Geva and
Goldman (1991) found that customers attribute the success of the tour to the tour
guide rather than the tour company. This is because tour guides stay constantly with
the group and help solve the problems arising on the tour.
Given that tour guide performance is a pivotal dimension to the overall
evaluation of tourism service quality and a key factor affecting customers’ purchase
32
intention (Ap & Wong 2001; Kong et al. 2009; Quiroga 1990; Wang et al. 2002; Yu et
al. 2002), it is worthwhile to inquire into the kinds of roles tour guides perform and
factors constitute to the successful role performance of these roles.
2.2.2 Definition of Role Performance
Pearce (1984, p. 132) defines roles as ‘the duties and obligations which attend
the social positions people occupy’. Biddle (1986) refers to roles as an individual’s
expectations for his / her behaviour in relating to the social position. Solomon,
Surprenant, Czepiel and Gutman (1985) suggested that service encounters are literally
role performances, whereas service providers have to adopt a set of behaviours that
corresponds to their service role in the workplace. For instance, a person who has a
specific job title like tour guide should have the right behaviour to perform the roles
of this position. The interpretation of role performance in this study is based on the
definition proposed by Solomon et al. (1985).
In the tourism industry, tour guides are expected to perform an array of roles
such as information giver, cultural ambassador, caretaker, middleman, entertainer and
so on. In this study, role performance refers to the different types of roles that are
33
performed by tour guides.
2.2.3 Definition of a Tour Guide
Tour guides have other titles such as courier, tour leader, tour escort or tour
manager and researchers do not agree on a universally accepted term (Holloway
1981). The different titles given to tour guides cause confusion for outsiders; Pond
(1993) distinguished a tour guide from a tour manager by the duties they perform. He
suggested that tour guides are responsible for giving commentaries and ensuring the
tour is successful, whereas tour managers are accountable for the preparatory and
administrative work of the tour.
With reference to the definition of a tour guide, researchers have different
interpretations. According to Weiler and Davis (1993), a tour guide is someone
responsible for delivering a tour experience. Pond (1993, p.17) identifies a tour guide
as ‘one who conducts a tour… one with a broad-based knowledge of a particular area
whose primary duty is to inform’. According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary (2005, p. 690), a guide is defined as ‘a person who shows other people the
way to a place, especially somebody employed to show tourists around interesting
34
places’.
While there are different definitions for a tour guide, this study adopts the
definition given by the European Federation of Tourist Guide Association (EFTGA)
(2014) since it provides a comprehensive description on the roles played by tour
guides. The definition of a tour guide, as listed in EFTGA’s (2014) Website, is ‘a
person who guides visitors in the language of their choice and interprets the cultural
and natural heritage of an area, which person normally possesses an area-specific
qualification usually issued and/or recognized by the appropriate authority’
As stated, tour guides are classified as either tourist guides or tour escorts in
Hong Kong. Tourist guides receive and take care of travellers visiting Hong Kong
whereas tour escorts accompany travel groups to overseas destinations and look after
the tour participants in the journey. They have to take a prescribed training course and
pass an examination which is organised by the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong
before they are qualified as a licensed tour escort or tourist guide.
35
2.2.4 The Origin of Tour Guides’ Roles
The roles of the modern tour guides can be traced back to the Grand Tour of
the 17th and 18th centuries when scholars travelled to Europe to learn the different
cultures (Cohen 1985). According to Cohen (1985), the roles of today’s tour guides
have been developed from two main domains of early tourism activities: the
pathfinder and the mentor. In the past, tourists relied on tour guides to lead the way
through the environment when entering an unknown territory and to gain access to
places that were barred to tourists. Pathfinders were usually local people with a sound
knowledge of their home environment but without specialised training in tour guiding.
As tourism infrastructure and orientation devices gradually develop, tourists can find
their way by using maps, guide books and signposts. Consequently, the importance of
tour guides as pathfinders has gradually decreased.
Today, on account of more advanced technologies such as smart phones, the
internet, the global positioning system (GPS) and different travel apps, tourists can
navigate easily. Nevertheless, despite high-tech orientation and navigation devices,
pathfinders remain important in some remote areas of the world like the hill tribe
villages or on some remote islands (Cohen 1985). Moreover, in some areas,
36
path-finding has become a specialised profession which serves special interest
travellers, for example, mountaineering in the Himalayas or safari in the Amazon
rainforest. Apart from directing routes and finding attractions, another role of
pathfinders is to help tourists access remote social environments where tourism is
undeveloped. This task demands high mediation skills from tour guides to facilitate
the tour group’s interactions with the local community (Dahles 2002).
Another role of early tour guides was that of mentor. This role was initially
developed in the religious settings where a specialist served as a personal tutor or
spiritual advisor to help followers to attain an acclaimed spiritual state (Cohen 1985).
During the Grand Tours, tutors played the role of mentor, leading young people on
cultural pilgrimages to the centres of European learning. In religious pilgrimages,
mentors sometimes needed to be pathfinders as well, taking the pilgrims to holy
places. Dahles (2002, p. 786) commented that the role of mentor ‘resembled the role
of teacher, instructor or advisor’. In cultural tourism, the role of mentor is a
prominent one where tour guides identify the objects of interest, provide
interpretations of other cultures, and tell tourists where and when to look and how to
behave in host countries (Dahles 2002).
37
2.2.5 The Roles of Tour Guides
A number of studies have been devoted to identifying the roles of tour guides
in different tourism contexts such as nature-based tours, chartered tours, indigenous
tours and wilderness tours (Howard, Thwaites & Smith 2001; Mossberg 1995;
Randall & Rollins 2009; Valkonen 2009; Weiler & Davis 1993). Holloway (1981, p.
398) commented that ‘the guiding role is not yet ritualized and institutionalized, but is
subject to continuous reinterpretation by passengers, and by guides themselves’.
Guiding is a multifaceted role, composed of different sub-roles like ‘information giver,
teacher / instructor, motivator to the tour experience, ambassador of the destination,
entertainer for the tour group, confidant / shepherd and group leader’ (Holloway
1981, p.385-386). Pond (1993) summarised the roles of tour guides as: leader,
educator, ambassador, host and facilitator.
Among all the studies on tour guides’ roles, Cohen’s (1985) model is probably
the most systematic one and is often cited as a basis for examining tour guides’ roles
(Weiler & Davis 1993). Cohen (1985) investigated the origin, structure and dynamics
of tour guides’ roles and proposed a model (see Figure 1) to explain the transition
from the original roles to the present day roles of professional guides. Cohen (1985)
38
suggested tour guides’ roles all come under the leadership and mediatory spheres and
argues that they have four major components: instrumental, social, interactionary and
communicative.
In the instrumental component, tour guides are responsible for direction giving,
access to non-public areas and controlling the group; in the interactionary component,
the key role of tour guides is to ensure the tour arrangements run smoothly; in the
social components, tour guides have to maintain the cohesion and morale of the group;
the last component of communication emphasises the sophisticated interpretation of
local culture and provision of correct information. Some of these roles are focused on
the external environment and others emphasise the interactions with tourists. Cohen
(1985) called the former roles outer-directed and the latter roles inner-directed. For
example, instrumental and interactionary roles are outer-directed; whereas social and
communicative roles are inner-directed.
39
Figure 1 The Dynamics of Tour Guides’ Roles
Outer-Directed Inner-Directed
(1) Original Guide (2) Animator
Leadership Sphere (instrumental primacy) (social primacy)
(3) Tour Leader (4) Professional Guide
Mediatory Sphere (interactionary primacy) (communicative primacy)
Adapted from Cohen (1985, p.17)
The roles in guiding are subject to tour guides’ interpretations (Holloway
1981). Some guides may think that the role of information giver is important, while
for the others, the job of entertainer is a central part of their jobs. For example,
Holloway found that tour guides of bus excursions believe that their roles in
encouraging social interaction among passengers and providing interesting
commentaries are important aspects of their jobs (Holloway 1981).
Besides tour guides’ interpretations of their roles, the context in which the tour
takes place also affects tour guides’ roles. For example, Valkonen (2010) pointed out
that guiding in natural environments is different from other tourism segments. Not
only do nature tour guides provide tourism services, but also they produce nature
experiences. Their roles include making the natural environment accessible,
40
understandable and meaningful for tourists. Unlike city tour guides, nature tour guides
are themselves part of the product; they have to embody the excitement they are
selling and help customers enjoy the adventure.
Over the years, researchers have examined the different types of roles
performed by tour guides. Table 3 presents a summary of the roles modified from the
study of Zhang and Chow (2004). This is followed by a thorough discussion of each
role.
41
Table 3 Summary of Tour Guides’ Roles
Roles Researcher Year

Actor Holloway 1981
Valkonen 2010
Ambassador Holloway 1981
Pond 1993
Buffer Schmidt 1979
Pearce 1982
Dahles 2002
Caretaker Fine and Speer 1985
Catalyst / Entertainer / Holloway 1981
Fun maker Cohen 1985
Sharpe 2005
Wong and Wang 2006
Valkonen 2010
Cultural Broker Holloway 1981
Cohen 1985
Katz 1985
Guerrier and Adib 2003
Host Pond 1993
Information giver Holloway 1981
Hughes 1991
Intermediary Schmidt 1979

Ryan and Dewar 1995
Interpreter / Translator Almagor 1985
Holloway 1981
Katz 1985
Ryan and Dewar 1995
Leader Cohen 1985
Geva and Goldman 1991
Pond 1993
Mediator Schmidt 1979
Holloway 1981
Cohen 1985
Katz 1985
42
Roles Researcher Year
Middleman Van den Berghe 1980
Organiser / Problem Hughes 1991
Solver Pearce 1982
Schuchat 1983
Cohen 1985
Wong and Wang 2006
Safety Keeper Sharpe 2005
Valkonen 2010
Salesperson Fine and Speer 1985
Gronroos 1978
Teacher / Educator Holloway 1981
Pearce 1982
Cohen 1985
Fine and Speer 1985
Pond 1993
Mancini 2001
(Modified from Zhang & Chow 2004, p.83)
Actor
Most tour guides admit the fact that success in their job requires a certain level
of acting. A tour is a show, and the tour guide’s (actor’s) job is to gain the attention
and support of the tourists (the audience) (Chu & Murrmann 2006). From the moment
they introduce themselves to the audience, tour guides are under the spotlight, and
have to maintain an idealised performance. Valkonen (2010) asserted that the natural
environment is a theatrical setting in which the wilderness tour guides actively
perform to create specific experience for the tourists in nature tourism. Holloway
(1981) found that the tourists of a bus excursion did not remember exactly what the
43
tour guide had done for them. They just cared about whether the guide was concerned
about their needs or not and whether the guide was able to present the information in
an interesting way and hold their attention. The acting role of tour guides is congruent
with the emotional labour theories. Both suggest that service employees have to
manage their emotions in order to satisfy customers’ expectations.
Information Giver and Cultural Ambassador
Tour guides are regarded as information givers because they have to
disseminate information about a destination. Tourists rely on them and seek their
advice on almost everything, for example, where to eat cheaply and well or where to
get the best buy in souvenirs. In addition, tour guides are responsible forgiving
commentaries to introduce the tourist attractions and cultures of a host country.
Being the interpreter of the host culture, tour guides become cultural
ambassadors for the host country (Holloway 1981). Yu et al. (2002) echoed
Holloway’s ideas. They comment that tour guides should possess good cultural
knowledge as they facilitate tourists in understanding local culture and customs
accurately. Moreover, tour guides are representing the host country, and the attitudes
they project directly influence tourists’ perceptions of the national characteristics of
44
the host population. Therefore, their presentations should be made in an interesting
and sincere manner (Ap & Wong2001).
Buffer
Gurung et al. (1996) suggested that tour guides serve as a buffer to protect
travellers from difficulties while visiting new environments. Schmidt (1979) argued
that a good tour guide should be able to provide tourists with a relatively
well-structured and safe environment in which to have authentic experiences which
fulfil their travel motivations. However, a buffer may also limit the opportunity for
interaction between tourists and local people. In Yogyakarta, for example, tour
arrangements and interpretations of cultural events and sites are tightly controlled by
the government (Dahles 2002). As a result, tourists may not experience authentic
cultures.
Caretaker
Schuchat (1983) commented that a tour guide is like a parent. He or she looks
after tour members round the clock in every aspect of their lives. Howard et al. (2001)
reported that the indigenous tour guides at Mutawintji Historic Site in Australia have
to remind visitors to wear proper outfit such as hats and walking shoes for their
45
heritage walk. Most importantly, tour guides are responsible for the safety and
security of group members. They have to ensure the tour is conducted in a safe
manner and keep on reminding tour members the safety measures.
Catalyst / Entertainer / Fun Maker
Holloway (1981) stated that, in an unfamiliar environment, tour guides
function as catalysts in drawing people together. At the beginning of the tour,
members do not know each other. Tour guides play a key role in maintaining social
cohesion and creating a joyful atmosphere within the group (Cohen 1985; Holloway
1981). Tour guides use lots of humour and entertainment to break the ice in the group,
to start the communication among tour members, and to build up group morale.
The ability of tour guides to promote interaction within the group and to
mediate tourist–host interactions is pivotal to the success of a trip, in particular for
trips lasting several days. Quiroga (1990) found that the ability of a tour guide to
develop positive group dynamics among the tour group is a significant determinant of
customer satisfaction.
46
Cultural Mediator and Broker
Researchers have suggested that tour guides play a mediating role in
cross-cultural or intercultural settings (Geva & Goldman 1991; Taft 1981; Wong 2001;
Yu et al. 2002). Taft (1981) defined cultural mediators as individuals who facilitate the
communication and understanding between people from different cultural background
and/or different languages. Other terms to describe the tour guide’s cultural mediator
role include: go-between, cultural broker and intermediary (Cohen 1985; Dahles
2002).
Yu et al. (2002) stated that visitors join guided tour for the sake of acquiring
new and rewarding intercultural experiences, and avoiding interaction problems in the
host country. To this end, tour guides’ performances influence tourists’ experience in
multiple ways. For example, tour guides decide which places to visit and which parts
of the host culture to expose visitors to. Moreover, visitors rely on the guide’s
language translation and their interpretation of host cultures. This increases the
guide’s influence on the tourists’ perceptions and understanding of the host culture. Yu
et al. (2002) use the term ‘intercultural competence’ (IC) to refer to the degree to
which a guide is competent to be an effective cultural mediator. They suggest that IC
is affected by a tour guide’s knowledge of the host country in areas such as knowledge
47
of tourist sites and attractions, cultural values, language, communication styles,
customs and artefacts. Besides knowledge, tour guides should possess positive
attitudes and strong interpersonal communication skills.
In order to minimise language and cultural barriers, travel agencies often
employ tour guides with cultural backgrounds that are similar to those of the visitors.
For instance, tour operators in Asian countries like Japan, Thailand and Malaysia
prefer to employ tour guides of Chinese origin or those who can speak Mandarin to
serve tourists from China.
Host
The role of host provides meanings to many tour guides for choosing the
profession of tour guiding (Pond 1993). According to Pond (1993), good hosts should
be able to create an environment that people feel happy and comfortable. They are
friendly, helpful and good at communication. Very often, wearing the hat of host, tour
guides should demonstrate the passion and a genuine interest in serving tourists.
Intermediary / Middleman
Tour guides act as ‘middlemen between the tourists, local population, sites and
48
institution and tourist facilities’ (Holloway 1985, p. 13). They try to ‘integrate the
tour members into the visited setting and at the same time insulate them from the
setting’ (Schmidt 1979, p. 454). For example, they help tourists bargain with local
sellers and solve problems arising from their interaction with local people. By
protecting the tour members from any threatening situation, the guide enables the
group to integrate into the environment safely (Schmidt 1979). In the presence of a
tour guide, group members feel more comfortable in interacting with each other.
Interpreter
Interpretation of local culture form an important part of a tour guide’s role in
cross-cultural tourism. Therefore, tour guides need to have a good understanding of
the hosts’ and the tourists’ culture (Schmidt 1979). Sometimes, tour guides use
analogies, metaphors and similes that tourists can understand to explain the local
culture or concepts (Howard et al. 2001). It is common to find that the interpretations
of a place are prescribed in standardised commentaries or stories. As a result,
narrations about cultures become uniform.
Tour Leader and Organiser
Tour guides are virtually responsible for the success of a trip, its goals and
49
arrangements, the enjoyment and security of tourists (Valkonen 2010). Their major
responsibilities are to organise and monitor the itinerary, and liaise with service
suppliers to deliver the core tour services (Heung 2008). Being a tour leader and
organiser, they have to make sure accommodation, meals, transportation and
sightseeing are properly arranged and free of problems. This means that tour guides
are required to have certain organisational and communications expertise in
interacting with the local community. They need to be able to liaise with hotels,
restaurants, transport companies and tourist attractions. In some tourism settings like
nature tourism and wilderness tourism in remote and undeveloped tourist areas, the
success of tour programmes is highly dependent upon the skills, abilities and
performance of tour guides (Valkonen 2010).
Safety Keeper
In adventure tourism, an overarching role of tour guides is to ensure the safety
of tour participants (Sharpe 2005). Tour guides are responsible for keeping members
safe from harm in severe natural environments or extreme weather conditions in the
wilderness. Sharpe (2005) found that confidence in tour guides was highly affected by
their emotional demeanour when handling contingencies or adverse situations. Tour
participants perceive the tour guide as a safe and competent leader when he / she is
50
able to control his / her emotions of fear and anxiety in times of danger.
Salesperson
The roles of tour guides are not only confined to information giver, cultural
mediator, caretaker or organiser. Tour guides are also salespersons of the company’s
tour products and services. In Hong Kong, tour companies’ incomes are heavily
reliant on commissions from tourist shopping. In order to meet the financial targets of
the company, tour guides take tourists to purchase at assigned shops where
commissions are offered. Sometimes tour guides might display negative emotions to
attempt to force tourists to purchase when they are reluctant to do so. Such unhealthy
industry practices cause tension between tour guides and tourists, which results in
complaints (Ap & Wong 2001).
Teacher / Educator
According to Cohen (1985) the teacher role evolved from the mentor role.
Cohen (1985, p. 8) stated that the mentor serves as ‘a guru to the novice, adept, or
seeker, guiding him towards insight, enlightenment, or any other exalted spiritual
state’. Modern tour guides do not have to perform such a spiritual role. However, they
have a responsibility to educate tourists about the destination, artefacts, attractions or
51
host culture.
The role of teacher is not merely to disseminate information; it involves the
transfer of knowledge to tourists. Effective knowledge transfer involves different
techniques. It has been suggested that engaging tourists in relevant activities is an
effective way for them to learn about the local culture. Experiential learning is one of
the most effective ways to learn. For example, having tourists live with indigenous
people for a period of time can promote their understanding of local customs. Story
telling can be another way of transferring knowledge. Howard et al. (2001) found
that Aboriginal tour guides told stories of their own or stories of the site to establish a
link between themselves and visitors. This helped change the perception and attitudes
of visitors to Aborigines and Aboriginal culture.
52
2.2.6 Research into Tour Guides’ Roles
There is a substantial body of research on tour guides’ roles. For example,
Holloway (1981) examined the roles of the excursion guide; Cohen (1985)
investigated the origins, structure and dynamics of a tour guide’s roles; Howard et al.
(2001) studied the roles of indigenous tour guides; Randall and Rollins (2009) and
Weiler and Davis (1993) inquired into the roles of the nature-based tour guide; and
Valkonen (2009) studied the guide’s role in wilderness tours.
2.2.7 Summary
Tour guiding involves a number of sub-roles (Holloway 1981), and the relative
importance of each sub-role may vary in different types of tourism. For instance,
adventure and cultural guides have a different emphasis in their role performance.
Adventure guides have to promote nature to tourists. They themselves should embody
the excitement on tour and help tourists enjoy the adventure. Cultural guides, on the
other hand, should provide an accurate interpretation of the host culture and a
rewarding intercultural experience. Sometimes, the sub-roles may be in conflict with
each other (Holloway 1981); for example, when a guide has to simultaneously be a
53
‘parent’ to control discipline and an ‘entertainer’ to create fun.
The role descriptions have not been institutionalised and the relative
importance of each role is subject to interpretation by the tour guides and tourists who
are taking part in a tour (Holloway 1981). There is no consensus on which roles are
more important. Previous studies on tour guides’ role performance provides valuable
information for understanding the responsibilities and roles of tour guides. However,
previous studies did not take into account factors affecting the performance of these
roles. This study, not only explores the types of roles tour guides play, but also
examines their relationships with emotional labour, perceived organisational support
and perceived supervisor support.
54
2.3 Emotional Labour
2.3.1 Introduction
Hochschild (1983) coined the term emotional labour in her seminal work The
Managed Heart, a study of Delta Airlines flight attendants’ emotional dilemmas at
work. Hochschild (1983) found that flight attendants had to manage their emotions
according to the company’s display rules when interacting with customers. From her
observation, flight attendants were required to express positive emotions and suppress
negative feelings even when the displayed emotions were incongruent with their
internal feelings. Therefore, Hochschild (1983) suggests that, in addition to physical
labour and cognitive labour, employees have to perform emotional labour.
Researchers regard emotional labour as part of all work roles (Ashforth &
Humphrey 1993; Hochschild 1983; Rafaeli & Sutton 1987; Van Dijk & Kirk 2007;
Wong & Wang 2009). Sharpe (2005) has suggested that many service-related
employees are expected to perform emotional labour in addition to physical and / or
intellectual labour. Ashforth and Humphrey (1993) state that emotions are
indispensable to employees’ everyday work life; they argue that employees are
55
engaged in certain levels of emotional labour daily when performing their jobs.
While researchers argue that emotional labour is an indispensable part of
employees’ work life, Hochschild (1983) provides an explanation for this view. She
points out that employees perform emotional labour in exchange for a wage or a
reward. As such, they have to follow strictly the company’s requirements in
displaying positive emotions even though they are experiencing negative feelings
internally. Hochschild (1979) called this phenomenon the commoditisation of feeling,
with emotions being regarded as part of the labour in exchange for pay and rewards.
Since emotional labour is a kind of labour which is done to earn a wage,
emotional performance becomes one of the criteria for assessing employees’ overall
performance (Morris & Feldman 1996; Wong & Wang 2009). Wong and Wang (2009)
found that emotional display is a key factor in evaluating tour guides’ job
performances. If tour guides cannot meet the expectations of customers, they will be
considered poor performers. Tour companies set various job standards to ensure the
services of tour guides meet customers’ expectations. In general, tour guides are
expected to be friendly, cheerful and helpful at all times when interacting with
customers (Valkonen 2009).
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2.3.2 Definitions and Overview of Emotional Labour
Researchers have provided different definitions for emotional labour. The
various definitions in the literature are summarised in Table 4. In short, emotional
labour is the management of feelings and emotional expressions according to the
organisation’s requirements (Ashforth & Humphrey 1993; Gosserand & Diefendorff
2005; Hochschild 1983; Zapf & Holz 2006).
In this study, the definition of emotional labour is largely based on Ashforth
and Humphrey’s (1993) definition and has been modified to suit the purposes of the
study. Since tour guides have to manage their emotional behaviour and facial
expressions constantly to meet customers’ expectations when performing different
roles. Emotional labour in the current study refers to the act of displaying an
appropriate emotion to carry out the types of role through surface acting and deep
acting. However, the concept of genuine emotions as proposed by Ashforth and
Humphrey (1993) has not been adopted in the study owing to genuine emotions being
a spontaneous response without any management of emotion. Therefore, it does not
require effort in the management of emotion and does not constitute emotional labour.
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Table 4 Summary of the Definitions of Emotional Labour
Researcher Definitions of Emotional Labour
Hochschild The management of feelings to create a publicly facial and

(1983, p.7) bodily display via voice-to-voice or face-to-face
interpersonal interactions.
Ashforth and Humphrey The act of displaying the appropriate emotion to conform
(1993, p.88) with display rules through surface acting, deep acting or
the expression of genuine emotions.
Morris and Feldman The effort, planning, and control needed to express
(1996, p.987) emotions desired by the employing organisation during
interpersonal transactions.
Grandey The process of regulating both feelings and expressions
(2000, p.97) for organisational goals.
Ashforth and Tomiuk The act of conforming to (or attempting to conform to)
(2000, p. 184) display rules or affective requirements that prescribe
on-the-job emotional expression.
Gosserand and The process of regulating one’s emotional displays in
Diefendorff (2005, response to display rules so that work goals can be
p.1256) achieved.
Zapf & Holz Emotional regulation required to display emotions the
(2006, p.1) employing organisation wants its employees to display.
Van Dijk, Smith and The management of emotional display by staff to satisfy
Cooper organisational expectations during voice-to-voice or
(2011, p.39) face-to-face interpersonal interactions.
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2.3.3 Positive Impacts of Emotional Labour
Although emotional labour requires extra effort at work, previous studies have
shown that effective emotion management can benefit both employees and
organisations. For example, Wong and Wang (2009) reported that tour leaders
experience a sense of personal achievement on the tour when they are able to hide fear
and present a calm face while handling problems and crises. Godwyn (2006) found
that emotional labour helps employees build and maintain a good customer
relationship which in turn makes their jobs easier.
Organisations also benefit from employees’ positive emotional displays. In the
marketing literature, it has been documented that appropriate emotional displays
positively affect customers’ perceptions of service, word of mouth and repurchase
intentions (Rafaeli & Sutton 1987). Besides enhancing job effectiveness, emotional
labour provides financial benefits to both the organisation and the individual
employee. In the tourism industry, if customers are satisfied with the tour guides’
service, they will pay more tips, buy more souvenirs and participate in more optional
activities. Consequently, both tour guides and tour companies earn more money
(Wong & Wang 2009).
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2.3.4 Negative Impacts of Emotional Labour
The downside of emotional labour is the psychological harm to employees.
Hochschild (1983) pointed out that prolonged hours of carrying out emotional labour
result in emotional fatigue and emotional dissonance. In the long term, employees will
experience personal frustration, poor self-esteem and alienation as employees believe
that either the surface acting or deep acting is fraudulent (Ashforth & Humphrey
1993). In addition, emotional labour creates a feeling of estrangement and alienation
(Hochschild 1983), and hence undermines workers’ mental wellbeing (Wong & Wang
2009).
A large number of studies have shown that emotional labour affects
individuals’ wellbeing. Some research has shown that emotional labour is associated
with burnout, job dissatisfaction and turnover (Brotheridge & Grandey 2002;
Brotheridge & Lee 2003; Morris & Feldman 1996; Wong & Wang 2009; Zapf & Holz
2006). When examining the emotional labour of tour leaders in Taiwan, Wong and
Wang (2009) found that tour leaders experienced a certain degree of burnout due to
emotional exhaustion. Tour leaders reported that they suffered from insomnia and
stomach ache due to the stress of displaying desired emotions throughout the journey.
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Sometour leaders indicated that they would quit the job in order to avoid the negative
consequences of emotional labour.
2.3.5 Theories of Emotional Labour
Dramaturgical Theory
Goffman (1959) and later Hochschild (1979) both proposed that a person’s
emotional behaviour is influenced by social norms or rules. Hochschild (1979) called
such social norms and rules feeling rules. For example, a bride should feel happy on
her wedding day. Feeling rules also apply to the workplace. For instance, customers
expect service providers to maintain a smiling face at all times irrespective of their
true feelings.
With regard to dramaturgical theory, emotion management comes into play
when true feelings do not align with feeling rules. Goffman (1967) suggested that a
person has to change their outward appearance and behaviour in order to exhibit the
required emotions (i.e. surface acting). However, Hochschild (1979) argued that in
addition to surface acting, one has to alter internal feelings to generate the required
emotions (i.e. deep acting or emotion management). Hochschild’s (1979, 1983)
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conceptual framework of emotional labour formed the foundation for future studies in
emotional labour.
In the dramaturgical perspective, three important underlying principles of
emotional labour are brought out. Firstly, emotions need to be managed in order to
fulfil organisational requirements. Secondly, emotion management by either surface
acting or deep acting requires effort. Thirdly, the purpose of emotion management is
to achieve organisational goals. These three principles have been adopted while
formulating the research propositions for this study.
Social Theory
Drawing on the work of Hochschild (1983), Ashforth and Humphrey (1993)
re-assessed the concept of emotional labour, and in particular its relevance to the
service context. Ashforth and Humphrey (1993, p. 88) defined emotional labour as
‘the act of conforming display rules to express appropriate emotion through surface
acting, deep acting or the expression of genuine emotions’. They suggested display
rules are more appropriate for defining the social framework of emotion management.
While feeling rules prescribe what one should feel in a given situation, display
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rules prescribe the appropriate behaviour that one should display. Ashforth and
Humphrey argue that a service provider may respond spontaneously to a situation
without managing their internal feelings as suggested by Hochschild (1983). Hence,
they introduced a third type of acting called genuine acting; for example, a nurse can
be sympathetic to a patient genuinely without acting. Diefendorff, Croyle and
Gosserand (2005) endorsed Ashforth and Humphrey’s (1993) proposition and the
findings of their study showed that naturally felt emotions or genuine acting is a
distinct construct in addition to surface acting and deep acting.
Furthermore, Ashforth and Humphrey (1993) pointed out the high relevancy of
emotional labour to service encounters. Emotional labour helps employees handle
dynamic and evolving customer interactions. It is positively related to task
effectiveness when the expression is perceived as a sincere gesture by customers.
Another important contribution of Ashforth and Humphrey’s (1993) work is the
introduction of the social identity concept in emotional labour. They argue that the
negative effects of emotional labour on the wellbeing of employees can be moderated
by their identification with their organisational role. The stronger the identification of
the employee with their organisational role, the more likely they are truly themselves
when performing the role. Hence, the negative impacts of emotional labour such as
63
emotional dissonance and alienation can be lessened.
Wong and Wang’s (2009) study supported Ashforth and Humphrey’s (1993)
role identification concept. They found that the stronger tour guides identify with their
organisational roles, the more they will try to internalise the required emotions
through deep acting. Ashforth and Humphrey’s (1993) theory enriches the emotional
labour literature with some new concepts such as display rules, the genuine emotion
and the role identity in emotional labour.
Role Expectation Theory
Rafaeli and Sutton (1987) use role expectation theory to explain emotional
labour on the job. They argue that some occupations are already embedded with
expected emotional demand. For example, tour guides are expected to show
friendliness, cheerfulness and helpfulness to tour members whereas funeral mangers
should express empathy and solemnity to clients. As a result, employees have to
display different emotions so as to fulfil their job roles.
Rafaeli and Sutton (1987) conceptualised organisational context and emotional
transactions as two sources of role expectations. Selection, socialisation and reward
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systems are part of the organisational context that influences members’ emotional
displays. Organisations choose candidates to match the emotional demands of a job
through the selection process. Moreover, in order to ensure employees understand the
expected emotional expressions, desirable emotional displays are operationalised as
service standards and conveyed to newcomers through internal training or employee
handbooks. Apart from formal socialisation practices like training and experience
sharing with other colleagues, newcomers learn the expected emotions in informal
ways such as observing and imitating the role models’ behaviour. In addition,
organisations make use of reward and punishment systems to reinforce desirable
emotional behaviour.
Rafaeli and Sutton (1987) propose that emotional display is affected by
emotional transactions between the employee (sender) and the customer (receiver).
The response of the customer in the service interaction has an impact on the
employee’s feelings and consequently modifies his or her subsequent emotional
display. The emotional labour theory suggested by Rafaeli and Sutton (1987) can be
applied to the tourism field. It is common to find that travel agencies use selection,
socialisation and rewards to reinforce the desirable emotional behaviour among tour
guides. The work of Rafaeli and Sutton (1987) provides new insights into the study of
65
emotional labour by highlighting the specific sources of role expectations that
influence one’s emotional display. In addition, they offer the idea that emotional
display is affected by emotional transactions between the employee and the customer.
Nevertheless, their propositions have omitted some key dimensions such as
perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support which are believed
to have an impact on the level and amount of emotional labour delivered. The
premises of argument are that the working environment in which employees perform
their duties will affect their mood as well as their emotions. Empirical studies have
shown that a supportive climate is related to higher job satisfaction, lower stress and
turnover intentions(Cropanzano et al. 1997; Einsenberger et al. 1997).In this regard, in
addition to emotional labour, the impact of perceived organisational support and
perceived supervisor support on tour guide performance will be examined in this
study.
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Emotion Regulation Model
Grandey (2000, p. 97) adopted the emotional regulation theory of Gross
(1998a, 1998b) to operationalise emotional labour as ‘the process of regulating both
feelings and expressions in order to attain organisation goals’. The theory
hypothesised situational variables, individual factors and organisational factors as
antecedents of emotion regulation. Individual wellbeing and organisational wellbeing
are posited as the outcomes of emotion regulation.
With regard to the antecedents of emotional labour, Grandey (2000) proposed
two groups of situational variables: employees’ interactions with customers and
emotional events. She suggested that different work roles have special frequencies,
durations and varieties of customer contact, and such variations lead to different
demands on emotional labour. Work roles which require high frequency and long
duration of customer interaction as well as more varieties of emotional expression
increase the need for emotional labour (Grandey 2000). In addition, she suggested that
emotion regulation is affected by the positive or negative response to an event one is
experiencing. For example, the death of a family member is regarded as a negative
influence since it requires the employee to spend more effort in eliciting positive
emotions to meet display rules at work. By way of contrast, events that elicit positive
67
emotions such as receiving praise from supervisors is treated as a positive influence
since they enable a person to meet the display rules with less emotional effort.
Besides situational variables, Grandey (2000) proposes that emotional labour
is affected by personal factors such as gender, emotional expressivity, emotional
intelligence and affectivity. For example, women perform better in jobs requiring
emotional labour than men as they are more caring, emotionally expressive and
socialised in handling interpersonal relationships. Moreover, employees high in
emotional expressivity perform better as they are more willing to meet organisational
emotional rules. Furthermore, employees with high emotional intelligence are able to
handle customers more tactfully and make other people feel good. Lastly emotional
labour is affected by one’s affectivity. Two types of affectivity are identified: positive
affectivity (PA) and negative affectivity (NA). High PA people are enthusiastic and
optimistic whereas high NA people are gloomy and pessimistic. Grandey (2000)
suggested a high NA person has to do more emotional labour at work than a high PA
person.
Finally, Grandy (2000) proposed that organisational factors such as job
autonomy, supervisor support and co-worker support affect the level and type of
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emotional labour to be engaged in. If employees have control over their job or
emotional expressions, stress from emotional work will be lessened. Likewise,
employees are more willing to feel the expected emotions and display deep acting
when they have support from supervisors and co-workers.
Grandey (2000) posited burnout and job satisfaction as the outcomes of
individual wellbeing whereas performance and withdrawal behaviour as the outcomes
of organisational wellbeing. The emotion regulation model has been tested by other
researchers using quantitative methods (Diefendorff, Croyle & Gosserand 2005;
Totterdell & Holman 2003) and has been confirmed as being empirically viable.
2.3.6 Emotion Strategies Applications
Emotion strategies are also known as emotional regulation strategies (Grandey
2000; Zapf & Holz 2006), emotional labour strategies (Diefendorff et al. 2005;
Hülsheger, Lang & Maier 2010; Johnson & Spector 2007; Wong & Wang 2009) or
emotion management strategies (Kim & Han 2009). Emotion strategies are defined as
performing emotional labour by either surface acting or deep acting to deliver
acceptable emotional displays and behaviour for a special social context (Diefendorff
69
et al. 2005; Kim & Han 2009; Hülsheger et al. 2010). When employees encounter
emotional dissonance, felt emotions are different from organisational required
emotions. In these cases, they use an appropriate strategy to regulate their emotions to
ensure that their behaviour aligns with organisational display rules(Diefendorff &
Gosserand 2003).
Surface Acting and Deep Acting
Employers expect their employees to be constantly friendly and cheerful, and
yet, employees do not always feel positive. To cope with the constant demands of
emotion management, Hochschild (1983) suggested two types of strategies: surface
acting and deep acting to counter emotional dissonance. Surface acting refers to the
change of gestures, facial expressions or voice tone to exhibit required emotions
whereas deep acting relates to a change of inner state to experience the required
emotions (Hochschild 1983).
Surface acting involves simulating emotions that are not actually felt
(Ashforth & Humphrey 1993) through altering outward appearances like facial
expression, gestures or voice tone to comply with display rules (Augustine & Joseph
2008; Hochschild 1983). This can be exemplified by tour guides who pretend to be
70
cheerful, pleasant, sincere and energetic during tour guiding. They will cover up their
anger, hatred and disgust when facing difficult customers (Wong & Wang 2009).
Hülsheger and Schewe (2011) assert that surface acting is a process requiring effort to
manage emotions as one has to continuously monitor the actual and desired emotions.
While surface acting involves changing outward appearances, deep acting
entails changing internal feelings (Hochschild 1983). The concept of deep acting has
been derived from theatre performance in which actors have to alter their feelings in
order to play their roles. Likewise, in service settings, employees have to experience
emotions required for the situation in deep acting (Grandey 2003). Ashforth and
Humphrey (1993, p. 93) state that one has to ‘actively invoke thoughts, images and
memories to induce the associated emotion when engaging deep acting’, so that one’s
emotional display appears real and authentic.
Service workers use their past experiences and training to bring about
appropriate emotions for a given situation (Kruml & Geddes 2000). Totterdell and
Holman (2003) argued that deep acting involves modification of one’s perception of a
situation so as to express the desirable emotions. This can be achieved by attention
deployment or cognitive change. Attention deployment requires the imagination of
71
pleasant things or thoughts that induces the required emotions; cognitive change
employs the evaluation and appraisal of situations differently so as to change the
emotions that they induce (Totterdell & Holman 2003). When employees perform
deep acting, they become more empathetic to the customers and this increases the
likelihood of positive emotional expressions. Yet surface acting involves the faking of
the desired emotion and cannot provide the same impact (Totterdell & Holman2003).
Researchers in general agree that deep acting is a more desirable strategy in
emotional labour. There are two reasons. Firstly, deep acting is regarded as ‘acting in
good faith’ (Rafaeli & Sutton 1987, p. 32), and the service provider is perceived to be
more genuine in meeting customer expectations and organisational needs (Hochschild
1983). However, surface acting appears to be fake and insincere, resulting in the
perception of poor service (Grandey 2003). Previous research showed that deep acting
is positively related to affective delivery (i.e. positive emotional display) and service
performance whereas surface acting is not (Grandey 2003; Totterdell & Holman
2003).
Secondly, Grandey, Fisk, Mattila, Jansen and Sideman (2005) found that
respondents can differentiate between emotions expressed in surface acting and in
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deep acting. The findings of their research showed that deep acting is positively
related to ratings of customer satisfaction and perceived friendliness of employees.
Similar results were reported in the study of Collishaw, Dyer and Boies (2008), who
found that customers can tell whether the enthusiasm of a fitness instructor is genuine
or not, and such perceptions will affect customers’ positive affect, satisfaction with
and attitudinal loyalty to the instructor.
2.3.7 Research on Emotional Labour
Since the publication of Hochschild’s work, research on emotional labour has
been flourishing in response to the increasing importance of emotional labour in the
workplace (Ashworth & Humphrey 1993; Van Dijk & Kirk 2007). A number of
studies have explored the different aspects of emotional labour. For instance, some
researchers try to conceptualise the definitions of emotional labour (Hochschild 1983;
Ashforth & Humphrey 1993; Refaeli & Sutton 1987; Kruml & Geddes 2000) while
others enrich the literature by introducing various emotional labour dimensions
(Brotheridge & Lee, 2003; Diefendorff et al. 2005) and portraying the antecedents and
consequences of emotional labour ( Grandey 2000; Morris & Feldman 1996).
73
There are different views on the dimensions for emotional labour. Hochschild
(1983) categorised emotional labour into surface acting and deep acting. Ashforth and
Humphrey (1993) added a third dimension named genuine acting to describe
spontaneous emotions. Morris and Feldman (1996) proposed four dimensions:
frequency of interaction, attentiveness to display rules, variety of emotional
expressions and emotional dissonance.
The later studies are built mainly on the work of previous researchers. For
example, Kruml and Gedds (2000) based on Hochschild’s (1983) model to rename
surface acting and deep acting as ‘emotive dissonance’ and ‘emotive effort’; Chu and
Murrmann (2006) utilised Kruml and Gedds’s (2000) model to develop a
two-dimensional hospitality emotional labour scale (HELS). Besides, Brotheridge and
Grandey (2002) divided emotional labour into job-focused emotional labour and
employee-focused emotional labour and Brotheridge and Lee (2003) used a similar
concept to introduce six facets of emotional labour: frequency of interaction, intensity
and variety of emotional display, duration of interaction and surface and deep acting.
In the past few decades, emotional labour studies have been carried out in a
broad range of contexts such as airlines (Brotheridge & Taylor 2006; Hochschild
74
1983); nursing (Diefendorff et al. 2011); banking (Pugh 2001); fitness centres
(Collishaw et al. 2008); call centres (Totterdell & Holman 2003; Zapf & Holz 2006);
retailing (Wang 2009); massage and bodywork (Blau et al. 2010); police (Sliter et al.
2010); academia (Grandey 2003; Rupp & Spencer 2006); hospitality (Augustine &
Joseph 2008; Chu & Murrmann 2006; Gursoy, Boylu & Avci 2011; Kim 2008; Kim &
Han 2009; Seymour 2000; Zapf & Holz 2006); and tourism (Constanti & Gibbs 2005;
Guerrier & Adib 2003; Sharpe 2005; Sohn & Lee 2012; Van Dijk & Kirk 2007; Van
Dijk et al. 2011; Wong 2001; Wong & Wang 2009).
2.3.8 Emotional Labour Requirements in the Tourism Industry
In the tourism industry, the demand for emotional labour is immense (Rafaeli
& Sutton 1987; Guerrier & Adib 2003) due to the long hours of interacting with
customers and a wide range of emotions to be involved in at work. Guerrier and Adib
(2003) asserted that boundaries between work and leisure for overseas tour
representatives are blurred as there are no official working hours when tour guides are
on tour. They have to look after tour participants on a 24-hour basis. Apart from the
long working hours, the work tasks of tour guides require varied emotional display.
Wong and Wang (2009) found that the jobs of tour guides have to continuously adjust
75
their emotions in order to cope with different work situations. For example, tour
guides have to be both sympathetic and patient when handling guests’ problems.
For tourism activities that emphasise providing an authentic experience, the
demand of emotional labour is even higher (Franklin & Crang 2001). Van Dijk and
Kirk (2007) found that in some tourist sites such as theme parks and national parks,
tour guides are required to demonstrate emotional expressions that can provoke
visitors’ emotional responses and feelings; and such feelings are essential to the
experience of the world of fantasy or adventure (Van Dijk & Kirk 2007). Disneyland
is a classic example to illustrate the theatrical setting in tourism. Employees are
described as ‘cast members’ and the working environment as ‘the stage’. Employees
have to act out the roles that they were employed for once they are on ‘the stage’.
Moreover, tour guides play a dual role while they are on tour. On one hand,
they act as a service provider to the tour members; on the other hand, they act as a
consumer of the tour services provided by suppliers (Wong & Wang 2009). While on
tour, tour guides have to coordinate with hotel staff, ground crews, restaurant staff and
local guides to make sure that the tour is smoothly run. The interactions with suppliers’
staff further intensify the need for emotional labour compared with other service
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settings (Wong & Wang 2009). Sometimes, tour guides may even need to display
negative emotions when handling suppliers’ problems or striving to obtain benefits for
customers.
On account of the significant demand of emotional labour in the tourism
industry, travel agencies ask tour guides to practice the required emotional displays
through role plays or skill training so that they can provide the required emotional
expressions effortlessly. Most often, emotional display rules are formalised in training
manuals or service guidelines (Hochschild 1983).
2.3.9 Emotional Labour Studies in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry
In the hospitality literature, multiple studies on hospitality employees’
emotional labour were found. Seymour (2000) compared the emotional labour
involved in traditional and in fast food restaurant service work. The results showed
that traditional restaurant work demanded a higher degree of emotional labour as
customers expected employees’ service to be highly personalised and authentic. On
the contrary, customers at fast food outlets were aware that service was standardised
and they did not expect an extended emotional interaction with employees. Chu and
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Murrmann (2006) developed a hospitality emotional labour scale (HELS) for
assessing employees’ emotional labour performance. The HELS was significant
because the scale was specifically designed to track the emotional labour performance
of hospitality employees.
Other researchers examined the antecedents and outcomes of emotional labour
as well as their relationships. For example, Kim (2007) found that variety, duration
and positive display rules were significant predictors of hotel employees’ deep acting,
while negative display rules were predictors of surface acting. Besides, hospitality
employees who were high in extraversion were more likely to be involved in deep
acting, while surface actors were generally more exhausted and cynical than deep
actors. Gursoy et al. (2011) established a model to examine the relationships among
emotional labour and a few of its antecedents and outcomes. The results of their
research showed that emotional labour was negatively related to job satisfaction and
positively related to neuroticism. Moreover, job autonomy, moderated by work
experience and extraversion, was positively related to job satisfaction.
Tsai (2009) reported that the ability of self-emotional appraisal and emotional
appraisal by other people affected the in-role and extra-role service behaviour of hotel
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employees. Kim and Han (2009) studied relationships between emotional labour
consequences and employees’ coping strategies. The findings of their study indicated
that deep acting and surface acting provided negative consequences, whereas genuine
emotions generated positive consequences.
Whilst there is a rich pool of literature investigating the relationships between
emotional labour and individual outcomes like emotional dissonance, burnout and job
satisfaction, studies examining the relationship between emotional labour and role
performance are very limited. Hülsheger et al. (2010) commented that this may be due
to the difficulties of collecting performance data. Besides, most of the previous
studies on tour guides’ performance were based on qualitative findings. Very few
studies have used quantitative methods to analyse relationships between the different
variables involved in emotional labour. Table 5 summarises studies on emotional
labour in the tourism context. To fill the research gap, the present study examines the
effect of emotional labour on the different roles of tour guides, in particular, the
relationship between the two emotional strategies (i.e. surface and deep acting) and
role performance.
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Table 5 Summary of Emotional Labour Research in Tourism
Researcher Research Area Research Method

Anderson, Provis & Examined the emotional labour Qualitative method
Chappel (2002) performed by service workers in
the tourism industry
Guerrier & Adib (2003) Studied the emotional labour of Qualitative method
overseas tour representatives.
Sharpe (2005) Studied the emotional labour of Qualitative method
adventure guides
Constanti & Gibbs (2005) Explored emotional labour and Qualitative method
surplus value of holiday
'representatives'
Van Dijk & Kirk (2007) Examined the emotional labour and Qualitative method
emotional dissonance of tour guides
at a heritage tourism site
Wong & Wang (2009) Examined the display rules, Qualitative method
emotional labour strategies,
antecedents and consequences of
emotional labour for tour leaders
Sohn & Lee (2011) Explored the relationship of Quantitative method
HEXACO personality factors,
display rules and demographic
characteristics with emotional
labour
Van Dijk, Smith& Cooper Assessed the relationship between Quantitative method
(2011) emotional display and visitors’
perception of display, as well as
visitors’ perception and visitor
outcomes
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2.3.10 Summary
With the literature on emotional labour having been reviewed, it has been
observed that emotional labour is indispensable to employees’ work lives. There is
abundant evidence showing that emotional labour is related to the wellbeing of
organisations and individuals. Yet, no previous study has attempted to examine the
relationship between the emotional labour and role performance of tour guides. This
study is designed to add to the understanding of tour guides’ emotional labour and its
probable impacts on role performance.
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2.4 Perceived Organisational Support
2.4.1 Development of Perceived Organisational Support
The concept of perceived organisational support (POS) was developed by
Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison and Sowa in 1986 to explain the
organisation-employee relationship. Eisenberger et al. (1986) claimed that employees
have expectations about the degree of organisational support in various situations at
work such as making mistakes, having illnesses and attaining outstanding results. The
treatment rendered by the organisation under different situations affects their
interpretations of the underlying organisational motive and therefore the perceived
level of organisational support.
To test whether their assertion can be applied in a global context, Eisenberger
et al. (1986) designed the Survey of Perceived Organisational Support (SPOS)
questionnaire with 36 statements regarding employees’ evaluative judgments of the
organisation’s treatment of them in different situations. The questionnaire was then
sent to nine organisations in different business sectors like manufacturing, law,
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education and finance for collecting employees’ views on perceived organisational
support. The findings revealed that there was a general consensus on organisational
support in the diverse business contexts. In this regard, Eisenberger et al. (1986, p.
504) concluded that employees ‘formed global beliefs concerning the extent to which
the organisation valued their contribution and cared about their wellbeing’.
The work of Eisenberger et al. (1986) is important to the study of POS, since it
provides a universal definition for POS and a theoretical framework for subsequent
research. Many researchers adopt the definition of Eisenberger et al. (1986) in the
later studies of POS. For instance, Erdogan and Enders (2007, p. 322) defined POS as
‘the degree to which individual believes that the organisation cares about them,
values their input and provides them with help and support’. The SPOS questionnaire
has been widely used by other researchers in examining organisational behaviour and
social exchange.
Johlke, Stamper and Shoemaker (2002) commented that POS is of interest to
organisations and managers because it provides favourable outcomes that benefit both
organisation and employees. Previous studies have shown that high POS is related to
increased organisational comitment (Armeli et al. 1998; Eisenberger et al. 1986),
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reduced withdrawal behaviour (Wayne et al. 1997), and increased employee desire to
remain in the company (Nye & Witt 1993). Moreover, employees who have high POS
have increased positive job-related affect (Witt 1991), higher job involvement
(Eisenberger et al. 1999), higher performance and lower job-related stress such as
fatigue and burnout (Cropanzano et al. 1997).
2.4.2 Factors Affecting Perceived Organisational Support
POS is a vital source to meet employees’ socio-emotional needs for esteem,
approval and caring (Eisenberger et al. 1986). To attain a high level of POS,
organisations should first set up a fair pay and compensation system. Randall,
Cropanzano, Bormann and Birjulin (1999) state that direct benefits such as wages and
fringe benefits are important signs to show the care and support of an organisation.
Some researchers suggested that the discretionary benefits provided by organisations
which are not aimed at fulfilling legislation or union requirements are more valued by
employees (Blau 1964; Eisenberger et al. 1986; Gouldner 1960).
In Hong Kong, travel agencies provide discretionary benefits such as year-end
bonuses or double-pay to reward employees’ contributions. Such industrial practices
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are highly recognised by tour guides because they see the discretionary benefits as a
sign of the organisation’s care and recognition of their hard work. However, benefits
that are used for fulfilling legal requirements such as minimum wages and mandatory
provident funds will not be perceived as organisational support since these benefits
are enforced by statutory laws rather than the organisation’s discretionary choice.
Moreover, POS is influenced by the work environment. Extensive evidence
shows that POS is affected by supervisor-employee relationships, and training and
development as well as promotion opportunities (Wayne, Shore & Liden 1997);
clarity of job guidelines (Hutchison 1997); participation in goal setting and
availability of performance feedback (Hutchison 1997); fairness of rewards (Allen,
Shore & Griffeth 2003); autonomy (Eisenberger, Rhoades & Cameron 1999), job
security (Rhoades & Eisenberger 2002) and communications with immediate
supervisors and upper management (Allen 1995).
Furthermore, it has been found that supervisors play a key role in shaping
employees’ POS. Supervisors are regarded as part of the organisation’s management
team since they are highly involved in policy and procedure implementation at the
workplace. The way how they treat subordinates will mirror the organisation’s attitude.
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For example, a supportive supervisor will give employees the impression that the
organisation is supportive and caring too, thus contributing to high POS.
2.4.3 The Theoretical Foundation of Perceived Organisational Support
Two theories form the theoretical basis of POS: social exchange theory and
organisational support theory.
Social Exchange Theory
POS is based on the concept of social exchange (Blau 1964) and the norm of
reciprocity (Gouldner 1960). Settoon, Bennett and Liden (1996) affirmed that social
exchange theory was first developed by researchers to describe the motivational basis
of employees’ behaviour and positive attitudes. It emphasises on the importance of
understanding employees’ motivation and their relationship to the achievement of
organisational goals. The concept was later used for explaining organisation-employee
relationships. Researchers have suggested that there are different levels of social
exchange between employees and organisations, and employees and supervisors
(Settoon, Bennett & Liden 1996; Tekleab & Chiaburu 2011).
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According to social exchange theory, when one party treats another party well,
an obligation for future reciprocity will be generated (Gouldner 1960). Johlke et al.
(2002, p.117) claim that ‘POS is based on a social exchange interpretation of
organisational commitment, whereby employees extend their efforts and loyalties to
the organisation in return for the material commodities and social rewards it can
bestow’. The notion of future reciprocity is the basis of social exchange.
Lynch, Eisenberger and Armeli (1999, p. 467) asserted that social exchanges
between organisations and employees involve ‘the reciprocation of valued resources
fosters the initiation, strengthening and maintenance of interpersonal relationship’.
Employees believe that the organisation will fulfil its exchange obligations in the
future (Blau 1964) and they modify their attitudes and behaviours to meet the
organisation’s requirements (Wayne et al. 1997). This is a subjective evaluation rather
than an objective evaluation of organisational support. Over time, if both parties find
the exchange relationship mutually satisfying, they gradually increase the intensity
and values of the exchange (Tekleab & Chiaburu 2011). On the contrary, with the
repeated failure to receive benefits by either party that they think they deserve, the
exchange relationship will be weakened (Lynch et al. 1999).
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Social exchange theory is congruent with the conservation of resources (COR)
theory developed by Hobfoll (1989) in emotional labour literature as both emphasise
the norm of reciprocity. Under COR theory, it is suggested that employees invest their
resources (effort) in meeting job requirements in anticipation of obtaining gains
(rewards) in return. Brotheridge and Lee (2003) claim that a worker performs
emotional labour in expectation of establishing rewarding relationships with
constituents like customers and co-workers. When his / her expectation of building a
good relationship is not fulfilled, emotional exhaustion may happen. As a result, the
worker develops negative attitudes towards the job and may quit the job in order to
prevent a further drain of emotional resources.
Organisational Support Theory
As stated, employees are dedicated to the organisation in exchange for better
pay and benefits as well as socio-emotional support such as care, esteem and approval
from the employer (Blau 1964; Eisenberger et al. 1986; Rhoades & Eisenberger 2006).
In a similar vein, organisational support theory also emphasises the norm of
reciprocity: actions are taken to repay favourable treatment received from the other
party (Gouldner1960). Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) pointed out that
organisational support theory provides an explanation for the psychological process of
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employees in the course of their social exchanges with an organisation. When
employees have received beneficial treatment from a company, they will generate a
felt obligation to care about the company’s welfare and will assist the company to
achieve its objectives under the reciprocity norm.
According to organisational support theory, employees personify the
organisation and attribute human-like characteristics to it. For example an
organisation may show like or dislike for an individual. They view organisational
policies, norms and culture as gestures of an organisation’s intention in employee
relations (Eisenberger et al. 1986; Levinson 1965). Eisenberger et al. (2001, p. 42)
argued that ‘POS was an experience-based attribution concerning the benevolent and
malevolent intent of the organization’s policies, norms, procedures and actions as they
affected employee’.
Levinson (1965, p. 378-379) provided three reasons for the personification of
organisatons. ‘First, the organisation had legal, moral and financial responsibilities
for the actions of its agents (managers and supervisors). Second, organisational
precedents, traditions, policies and norms provided continuity and prescribed role
behaviours. Finally, the organisation exercised power over employees through its
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agents’. Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) claimed that organisational support theory
provides a profound theoretical background for researchers to test the processes of
POS and the relationships among antecedents and outcomes of POS.
In order to attain a good organisation-employee relationship, it is suggested
that organisations implement human resources policies that foster high POS. Findings
of previous studies show that favourable human policies are more likely to produce
positive employee citizenship behaviour (Tsui et al. 1997). Moreover, supportive
management practices are a key to encouraging service employees to provide good
service and achieve customer satisfaction (Schmit & Allscheid 1995; Schneider,
White & Paul 1998; Susskind, Kacmar & Borchgrevink 2003).
2.4.4 Research on Perceived Organisational Support – Antecedents and Outcomes
Antecedents of Perceived Organisational Support
Following the publication of Eisenberger et al. in 1986, extensive research has
been done to explore other facets of POS such as the antecedents and outcomes of
POS. Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) concluded that fairness of treatment,
supervisor support, organisational rewards, job conditions and employee
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characteristics are antecedents of POS after analysing more than seventy POS studies
conducted in different industries.
According to Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002), the fairness of treatment (r=.68)
within organisations isthe most prominent factor influencing POS. Shore and Shore
(1995) claimed that the fairness of procedures that determines the distribution of
organisational resources has a significant effect on POS. Greenberg (1990) suggested
the fairness of procedures is affected by employees’ perceptions of procedural and
distributive justice. Procedural justice concerns the fairness of procedures governing
decisions that affect employees while distributive justice relates to fairness in the
distribution of benefits in the organisation. Previous research provides evidence that
both procedural justice and distributive justice are positively related to POS though
the former has a stronger relationship (Cropanzano et al. 1997; Wayne et al. 2002).
This may be because procedural justice takes place on a day-to-day basis while
distributive justice might occur once in a while (Shore & Shore 1995).
Cropanzano and Greenberg (1997) sub-divided procedural justice into its
structural and social components. The structural aspect of procedural justice entails
the formal rules and policies in decision-making that affect employees. The social
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aspect of procedural justice involves the quality of interpersonal treatment in terms of
interactional justice and communication (Bies & Moag 1986). Organisations have to
treat employees with respect and dignity and provide adequate information to
employees before decisions aremade and implemented.
Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) reported that both aspects of interactional
justice are significantly related to employees’ POS. Their results are consistent with
findings of other research indicating that POS is enhanced through
employees’participation in organisational decision-making and recognition from top
management (Wayne et al. 2002). DeConinck & Johnson (2009) found that procedural
justice has an indirect relationship with organisational commitment through POS,
while interactional justice has a direct relationship with PSS.
Supervisor support (r = .64) is the second-most influencial factor contributing
to POS after fairness of treatment (Rhoades & Eisenberger 2002). Eisenberger et al.
(2002) reported that PSS among retail sales employees is positively related to changes
in POS over time, suggesting that supervisor support is an antecedent to POS. The
findings can be explained by the phenomenum that supervisors are viewed as
respresentatives of the organisation and thus favourable treatments received from
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supervisors will contribute to high POS.
The effect of organisational rewards and job conditions such as opportunities
for promotion, job autonomy, pay, job security, role stressors and training on POS was
reported to be moderate (r = .46) (Rhoades & Eisenberger 2002). One of the reasons
for the moderate effect is that many rewards and favourable job conditions are
contractual obligations rather than signs of the organisations’ desire to recognise
employees’ effort, thus reducing the effect on POS. Besides, personal characteristics
are found to have a weak effect (r = .10 to .24) (Rhoades & Eisenberger 2002).
Outcomes of Perceived Organisational Support
Findings of earlier research illustrate that POS engenders positive job
performance and work attitudes. A number of studies offer evidence to support the
significant relationship between POS and job-related outcomes such as performance
(in-role and extra-role), organisational commitment, job satisfaction, absenteeism and
turnover (Eisenberger et al.1986; Erdogan & Enders 2007; Maertz et al. 2007;
Rhoades & Eisenberger 2006; Stinglhamber & Vandenberghe 2003). Riggle,
Edmondson and Hansen (2009) performed a meta-analysis of the relationship between
POS and job-related outcomes with research published between 1986 and 2006. The
93
findings revealed that POS had a strong positive relationship with job satisfaction (r
= .64, p<.001) and organisational commitment (r = .71, p<.001); a weak positive
relationship with task performance (r = .18, p<.01) and contextual performance (r
=.26, p<.001); and a moderate negative relationship with intention to leave (r = -.49,
p<.001) (Riggle, Edmondson & Hansen 2009).
In another meta-analysis undertaken by Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002), the
relationships between POS, performance and withdrawal behaviour range from small
to moderate (in-role r = 0.16, p< 0.01; extra-role r = 0.20, p< 0.01). For instance,
in-role and extra-role performance directed toward inviduals and turnover have small
relationships whereas extra-role performance directed toward the organisation and
withdrawal behaviour (absenteeism, tardiness and turnover intention) have moderate
relationships.
Despite a weak relationship between POS and task performance in the
meta-analyses, George and Brief (1992) claimed that employees with high POS are
more willing to take up activities not specified in their job description. For example,
they are more willing to help co-workers, take action to protect the organisation from
risks, offer suggestions for improvement and acquire additional knowledge and skills.
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`Similar findings are reported by Eisenberger et al. (2001) in researching the POS of
postal employees. They show that POS positively affects preparedness to engage in
activities not specified in their job description since employees feel grateful to the
organisation for the care and concern rendered. Therefore, they have a felt obligation
to contribute to the organisation’s objectives by offering extra help to co-workers and
supervisors.
The notion of felt obligation to repay favourable treatment received from the
organisation can be observed in hospitality studies as well. In examining the
relationships between POS, organisational commitment, commitment to customers
and service quality in fast food firms, Vandenberghe et al. (2007) found that POS has
a positive relationship with the helping behaviour of employees at both the restaurant
level and the employee level. Moreover, Bell and Menguc (2002) reported that
employees with high POS received higher ratings in attentiveness, courtesy and
concern about customers. Masterson (2001) called this phenomenon a trickle-down
effect of POS; employees try to repay the company by offering a better service to
customers.
POS has a positive relationship with the temporal change in extra-role
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performance whereas performance does not relate to the temporal changes in POS
(Chen et al. 2009). The results indicate that increases in POS over time will lead to
increases in performance but not vice versa. This sheds light on the importance of
POS in performance management.
Reserachers have looked for reasons for the inconsistent results concerning the
effect of POS on performance. For instance, Pazy and Ganzach (2009) suggested the
forms of compensation in terms of fixed or variable pay structure (pay contingency)
moderate the relationship between POS and performance. The findings of their study
show that POS is highly related to performance in fixed pay contexts whereas PSS is
more relevant in variable pay contexts.
Unlike the mixed findings on relationships between POS and performance,
findings from former studies presentconsistent evidence that POS increases
employees’ sense of belonging and affective commitment to the organisation
(Eisneberger et al. 1986, 2001; Newman, Thanacoody & Hill 2011; Rhoades et al.
2001; Rhoades & Eisenberger 2002; Shore & Shore 1995;). The provision of
organisational support enhances an individual’s emotional attachment to,
identification with and involvement in an organisation, which, in turn, increases the
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feeling of obligation to repay the organisation through reciprocity (Edwards & Peccei
2010; Rhoades & Eisenberger 2002).
As a consequence, with a high emotional bond with the organisation, POS is
found to be negatively related to turnover intention (Cropanzano et al. 1997;
Eisenberger, Fasolo & Davis-LaMastro 1990; Wayne et al. 1997) and actual turnover
(Rhoades & Eisenberger 2002). Perryer et al. (2010) studied the turnover intentions of
a group of employees working in a federal government organisation in Australia. They
used the interactive effects of organisational commitment and POS to predict turnover
intentions. They found that employees with high levels of POS were less likely to
leave the organisation even if their organisational commitment was low.
In addition to positive organisation outcomes such as low turnover and high
organisational commitment, POS has a negative relationship with employee outcomes
like stress and burnout. Research findings indicate that POS has a negative
relationship with burnout and mitigates the effects of emotional dissonance and
burnout (Karatepe 2013; Walters & Raybould 2007). Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002)
report that POS has a significant positive relationship with job satisfaction and
positive mood. However, it has a moderate negative relationship with emotional strain.
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Evidently, employees with high POS find their job more enjoyable and meaningful,
and at the same time suffer less emotional strain. The results support the notion that
POS can fulfil employees’ socio-emotional needs to reduce emotional strain at work.
2.4.5 Summary
The job setting of tour guides is different from other occupations. Tour guides
are not stationed at one place; instead, they travel around and work with staff of
different organisations like hotels, airlines, airports, tourist attractions and so on.
Unexpected situations may occur on tours. Hence, the support from travel agencies is
of paramount importance if they are to carry out their jobs effectively.
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2.5 Perceived Supervisor Support
2.5.1 Introduction
In contrast to organisational support, supervisors pay more personal attention
to employees by giving feedback regarding job performance and providing immediate
assistance on a daily basis, thus establishing a close working relationship with
subordinates. Besides, supervisors provide emotional support to subordinates in
mitigating the negative impacts resulting from emotional dissonance (Grandey 2000;
Brotheridge & Grandey 2002). In the tourism industry, support from supervisors is
vital to tour guides who provide a high level of emotional labour.
2.5.2 Definitions and Overview of Perceived Supervisor Support
While POS concerns the organisation-employee relationship; PSS defines the
supervisor-employee relationship. Perceived Supervisor Support is the degree to
which immediate managers or supervisors value the contributions of subordinates and
care about their wellbeing (Kottke & Sharafinski 1988). PSS is the extent to which
employees perceive that supervisors provide support, encouragement and concern at
99
work (Griffin, Patterson & West 2001).
Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002, p. 700) suggested that ‘supervisor support
has been assessed with related measures involving leader-member exchange’. Liden,
Sparrowe and Wayne (1997) define leader-member exchange (LMX) as the
relationship of an employee and his / her immediate manager or supervisor. Similar to
POS and PSS, the leader-member exchange is based on a social exchange.
Subordinates have a felt obligation to reciprocate the support, trust, and other tangible
or intangible benefits received from the supervisor via good performance or positive
behaviour that will benefit the supervisor (Erdogan & Enders 2007).
The LMX relationship is built on the exchange of valued resources between
supervisors and subordinates (Liden, Sparrowe & Wayne 1997). The items for
exchange can be tangible material resources such as monetary rewards or intangible
resources like information exchange and emotional support. The greater the perceived
value of the exchanged items, the higher the quality of the LMX relationship (Wayne
et al. 1997) which is characterised by trust, liking and respect (Erdogan & Enders
2007). Settoon et al. (1996) found that the more the relationship is based on mutual
trust, loyalty, interpersonal affect and respect, the better the subordinates’ performance
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in both the in-role and extra-role duties.
LMX and PSS have conceptual similarities. The empirical findings in LMX
provide supplementary evidence to the study of perceived supervisor support. For
example, Settoon et al. (1996) surveyed a group of hospital workers about their
perceptions of the relationships between LMX, POS and different performance
qualities such as loyalty, affect, contribution and respect. The results showed that
LMX is positively related to POS (r=.68, p<.01).
2.5.3 Types of Supervisor Support
House (1981) discussed the different types of social support that an employee
experiences at the workplace in his book Work Stress and Social Support. He
identified four types of social support provided by supervisors and co-workers:
emotional, instrumental, informational and appraisal support. Emotional support
concerns the care, love, empathy and trust given by supervisors. Empirical data shows
that emotional support from supervisors mediates the relationship between job
stressors and strains (Firth et al. 2004).
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Instrumental support refers to the actual behaviours that directly help a person
in need. Examples of instrumental support include giving guidance and work
instructions, as well as providing equipment and facilities for employees to complete a
task. Research findings on instrumental support provide mixed results. Some research
has found that instrumental support buffers the relationship between work stress and
strains (Greenglass, Burke & Fiksenbaum 2001) while other studies indicate
instrumental support leads to individual negative affectivity (Deelstra et al. 2003).
Informational support is related to providing information to employees to use
to solve personal and work problems. Supervisors play an important role in
communicating the organisation’s directions, policies and salient market information
to employees. Not only can such information help employees complete their tasks
more efficiently, but it can also alleviate negative affectivity (Wong, Cheuk & Rosen
2000).
Appraisal support is the provision of evaluative feedback on employees’
performance. Hutchison and Garstka (1996) found that setting goals and providing
feedback increases employees’ organisational commitment and POS as they feel that
the organisation cares about their wellbeing.
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2.5.4 Research on Perceived Supervisor Support – Antecedents and Outcomes
Antecedents of Perceived Supervisor Support
The daily interactions between employees and supervisors affect the
perception of supervisor support (Ramus 2001). In studying what type of supervisory
behaviour will encourage employees’ participation in providing innovative ideas to
improve the environment, Ramus (2001) found that communication with staff is the
most important factor. A participative and open communication style is seen to be a
prerequisite for willingness to introduce eco-innovations among employees. Moreover,
developing trust and sharing information with subordinates are equally important.
Neves and Caetano (2006) found a relationship between PSS, interpersonal justice,
trust in the supervisor and affective commitment to the organisation. The findings
showed that the relationship between interpersonal justice and PSS is fully mediated
by trust in the supervisor, indicating that trust is an antecedent of PSS. The results
have implications for organisations regarding how to develop positive PSS.
Other researchers have proposed that leadership behaviour affects subordinates’
PSS. Liaw, Chi and Chuang (2010) claimed that employees’ intention to display
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customer-oriented attitudes is higher for supervisors who demonstrate
transformational leadership. This was because employees perceived a high PSS with
supervisors who are good at inspiring, leading and supporting subordinates. Besides,
they are more willing to devote additional effort to customer service as a means of
repaying the supervisor for the support offered. Besides, Wayne et al. (1997) have
suggested that supervisor perceptions of liking (i.e. affect) and expectations of an
employee are antecedents of PSS. High affect between supervisors and subordinates
increases the level of PSS. In addition, a high expectation of subordinates’
performance contributes to a high-quality supervisor-employee relationship.
Stinglhamber and Vandenberghe (2003) have stated that PSS is influenced by
organisational changes. They commented that the role of supervisor has become more
prominent on account of gobalisation. With the tremendous changes in company
structure that have resulted from mergers and acquisitions, it is harder for employees
to identify with their employers and their trust in employers is gradually reduced.
Consequently, employees are more eager to seek supervisors’ guidance, thus,
supervisor support becomes more important in the workplace.
In addition, the organisational structure affects the extent of PSS. Supervisors
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can develop personalised exchange relationships with employees if the company is
loosely structured. In companies with a traditional oranisational structures,
supervisors play an important role in formulating work roles and meeting the
expectations of employees (Graen & Scandura 1987). Nevertheless, the influcence of
supervisors has weakened due to the introduction of team-based structures. Griffin et
al. (2001) report thatPSS has less impact on employees and has a reduced influence on
their job satisfaction when teams are formed and employees are allowed to have a
certain level of job autonomy.
Some researchers have suggested that the POS of supervisors affects their
subordinates’ PSS (Rhoades & Eisenberger 2006; Tepper & Taylor 2003). When
supervisors perceive that they are valued and cared for by the organisation, they will
treat their subordinates more favourably. Several studies provide evidence to support
such an argument. For instance, Tepper and Taylor (2003) reported a positive
relationship between supervisors’ POS and subordinates’ perceptions of supervisors’
extra help. Similar findings were found by Rhoades and Eisenberger (2006) among
retail staff. Erdogan and Enders (2007) also reported supervisors’ POS moderated the
relationships between leader-member exchange, job satisfaction and job performance
in a grocery store chain. When supervisors have high POS, the positive relationship
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between LMX and job satisfaction appears stronger. Likewise, LMX is positively
related to performance when supervisors’ POS is high. The findings in the study of
Erdogan and Enders (2007) indicated that when supervisors are supported by an
organisation, they have more resources to support subordinates’ work. This increases
subordinates’ performance and job satisfaction.
Outcomes of Perceived Supervisor Support
Previous research on PSS has focused on the relationship between PSS and
POS (Eisenberger et al. 2002; Kottke & Sharafinshi 1988; Rhoades et al. 2001;
Rhoades & Eisenberger 2006; Stinglhamber & Vandenberghe 2003) and researchers
in general endorse the notion that employees’ PSS affects their POS. This positive
relationship is a result of the identification of supervisors with organisations.
Supervisors are viewed as the agents of an organisation since they play a key role in
developing employees’ roles and work requirements (Graen & Scandura 1987), as
well as providing relevant information about organisational changes (Eisenberger et al.
2002). Thus, supervisor support is associated with organisational support (Eisenberger
et al. 1986, 2002; Levinson 1965).
PSS is found to generate favourable outcomes for employees and organisations.
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Social and organisational support literature asserts that PSS is negatively related to
turnover (Eisenberger et al. 2002; Maertz et al. 2007; Payne & Huffman 2005) and
turnover intentions (Newman, Thanacoody & Hui 2011). Maertz et al. (2007) pointed
out that supervisors form individual relationships with employees that encourage a
stronger bond between supervisors and employees. Payne and Huffman (2005) found
that mentoring support from immediate supervisors had a significant negative effect
on the turnover of army officers. Wayne et al. (1997) found that PSS is positively
related to performance, organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and doing
favours.
Chen and Chiu (2008) investigated the relationship of PSS and organisational
corporate behaviour (OCB) and examined the mediating effects of job satisfaction,
person-organisation fit and job tension between PSS and OCB. Data were collected
from employees working at several banks and electronic companies located in Taiwan.
The results showed that PSS enhances the job satisfaction and person-organisation fit
of employees which in turn increases OCB. Moreover, job tension is lessened and
employees’ displayed OCB increases with higher levels of supervisor support.
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2.5.5 Summary
Evidence from previous research shows that PSS has positive relationships
with favourable outcomes like job satisfaction, performance and organisational
citizenship behaviour, yet, the relationship between PSS and role performance, in
particular in the tourism industry, has not been addressed. This study provides
empirical data on the relationship between PSS and role performance. The findings
add knowledge to the understanding of tour guides’ performance.
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2.6 The Classification of Perceived Organisational Support and Perceived
Supervisor Support
2.6.1 Introduction
There are two steams of views over the relationship between POS and PSS in
the literature. One stream of literature suggests that POS and PSS are related and that
they influence each other. For instance, some researchers postulate supervisor support
as an antecedent of POS (Rhoades & Eisenberger 2002). Another stream of literature
suggested that POS and PSS are two distinct concepts and employees can differentiate
between the two constructs (Kottke & Sharafinski 1988; Stinglhamber &
Vandenberghe 2003; Wayne et al. 1997). In the following section, the arguments of
both streams of views will be presented.
2.6.2 Perceived Organisational Support and Perceived Supervisor Support are
Related Constructs
Extensive evidence from past studies indicates a positive relationship between
POS and PSS (Kottke & Sharafinski 1988; Rhoades, Eisenberger & Armeli 2001;
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Yoon, Han & Seo 1996; Yoon & Lim 1999). Supervisors or line managers are highly
involved in the human resources policies and procedures such as conducting
performance appraisal, making promotion decisions, recruitment, career planning, and
occupational health and safety compliance. Supervisors are perceived as agents of the
organisation, hence, the favourable or unfavourable treatment provided by supervisors
is interpreted as organizational support (Levinson 1965; Eisenberger et al. 1986,
2002). In this regard, support from supervisors will contribute to a high POS
(Levinson 1965; Rhoades & Eisenberger 2002, 2006). The strength of this
relationship depends on whether the support is perceived as being due to the
supervisor’s own initiative or directions from the organisation (Eisenberger et al.
2002). When the favourable treatment comes from the organisation, the relationship
of POS and PSS is strong; if the favourable treatment is seen as being due to the
supervisor’s own initiative, the relationship is weak.
Employees realise that supervisors’ evaluation of their performance will
influence the decisions of the top management in offering discretionary benefits such
as pay increases or bonuses. This further reinforces the relationship of POS and PSS
(Eisenberger et al. 2002). Furthermore, employees believe that supervisors who are
highly valued and well-treated by the organisation strongly reflect the organisation’s
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character. They believe the higher the status of supervisors within the organisation, the
greater the relationship between POS and PSS as the supervisor support represents
organisational support (Eisenberger et al. 2002).
Eisenberger et al. (2002) have suggested that PSS is positively related to
changes in POS, providing the time interval between the assessment of POS and PSS
is sufficient for examining the changes. In a longitudinal study on retail employees’
perceptions of the effect of PSS on POS over time, Eisenberger et al. (2002) found
that employees who have high PSS are reported to have positive changes in POS over
time. In contrast, employees’ POS is not related to their temporal changes in PSS. The
findings support the argument that supervisors are agents of an organisation and their
behaviour is indicative of the organisational support, therefore PSS contributes to
POS (Eisenberger et al. 2002).
Tepper and Taylor (2003) reported a positive relationship between supervisors’
POS and subordinates’ perceptions of supervisors’ extra help. They suggested that
when supervisors perceive they are well treated by the organisation, they will
reciprocate by treating subordinates more favourably. Rhoades and Eisenberger (2006)
called this influence the ‘trickle-down effect’. Supervisors repay the favourable
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treatment received from the organisation in their treatment of subordinates. This
influences subordinates’ perceptions of organisational support, supervisor support and
performance. Rhoades and Eisenberger (2006) showed that supervisors’ POS is
positively related to their subordinates’ PSS in retail businesses. Moreover,
subordinates’ PSS was positively related to their perceived organisational support and
performance.
2.6.3 Perceived Organisational Support and Perceived Supervisor Support are
Different Constructs
Researchers have asserted that employees can distinguish between their
relationship with their immediate supervisor (i.e. PSS) and their relationship with the
organisation (i.e. POS) (Becker 1992; Dirks & Ferrin 2002; Kottke & Sharafinski
1988; Reichers 1985; Stinglhamber & Vandenberghe 2003; Wayne et al. 1997).
Judgments about POS and PSS are based on different factors. For POS, employees
consider prevailing organisational policies in terms of the fairness of the treatment
they receive, organisational rewards and job conditions (Rhoades & Eisenberger 2002)
whereas PSS is judged by the support they receive in the workplace like training
opportunities, career advice, and emotional support provided by immediate
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supervisors.
Wayne et al. (1997) argued that social exchanges between organisations and
employees are not comparable to the social exchanges between supervisors and
employees. The felt obligation to reciprocate the favourable experience of an
organisation is based on the organisation’s decisions which are usually made or
influenced by many individuals. On the other hand, the felt obligation to reciprocate
the favourable experience of a supervisor is directly related to one individual.
Settoon et al. (1996) suggested there are multiple relationships to explain the
exchange between organisations, supervisors and employees. The multiple exchange
relationships provide employees with different forms of resources and support. As a
result, organisations are benefited from the employee reciprocated behaviours that are
generated from each exchange relationship. Their proposition is supported by
Stinglhamber and Vandenberghe (2003). In a longitudinal study about organisations
and supervisors as different sources of support and targets of commitment,
Stinglhamber and Vandenberghe (2003) found that employees are more emotionally
attached to their supervisors. In addition, affective commitment to organisations does
not affect commitment to supervisors, and vice versa.
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In other studies on the relationships between POS, PSS and turnover, it has
been found that when the support from the supervisor is high, POS becomes a less
important predictor of turnover, whereas POS becomes more significant when support
from the supervisor is relatively low (Maertz et al. 2007).
2.6.4 Perceived Organisational Support and Perceived Supervisor Support in the
Travel and Tourism Industry
Research on POS and PSS in the travel and tourism industry is rare. To date,
only one study has investigated the moderating effect of POS on the relationship
between market orientation and the perceived ability of a travel firm’s frontline staff
in serving customers (Herington & Weaven 2009). The results indicate that POS plays
an important role in fostering the market orientation culture within the company.
Employees were found to be more loyal and willing to provide high quality customer
service when they receive high levels of organisational support.
Despite the dearth of POS and PSS literature in the travel and tourism industry,
several studies examining POS in the hospitality industry are available. Chew and
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Wong (2008) explored the relationships between career mentoring experience, POS,
employee commitment and turnover intentions among hotel workers in Malaysia.
Their results indicate that POS is significantly related to both affective commitment
and turnover intentions. Similar results were reported by He, Lai and Lu (2011). They
proposed that managerial support has a significant influence on employees’ affective
as well as normative commitment in the hotel industry in China. The findings of their
study indicate that managerial support directly influences affective commitment (r
= .481, p< .01) but not normative commitment (r = .141, p<.01). The results of these
two studies echo the previous findings of POS that employees reciprocate the support
from organisations by being more committed and loyal to the company.
Kim, O’Neill and Jeong (2004) examined the relationship between LMX, POS
and trust in organisation of hotel workers in Korea. Their findings indicate that POS is
positively related to trust in the organization which in turn affects organisational
commitment. Kim et al. (2004) suggested that the interpersonal relationships between
leaders and subordinates affect POS. Their propositions were supported as they found
that employees who came from a high LMX group reported stronger support from the
organisation in terms of concrete considerations, respect and appreciation of
performance, showed higher trust in the organisation and organisational commitment
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(Kim et al. 2004).
Moreover, Karatepe (2011), by using the job-demands resources model,
attempted to examine the moderating effect of POS and job autonomy on the
relationship between emotional dissonance and burnout (disengagement and
exhaustion) of frontline hotel employees in Turkey. The results indicate that the
presence of organisational support reduces the effect of emotional dissonance on
disengagement. Similar results were presented by Walters and Raybould (2007), who
found a negative relationship between POS and exhaustion and cynicism among hotel
food and beverage attendants. They said that they were less exhausted and cynical if
they received support from the organisation.
Although these studies are focused on hotel and catering businesses, the
findings provide good data for the tourism industry. The working conditions of tour
guides are quite similar to those of the hotel frontline staff. Both involve close
interactions with customers, long working hours and high demand for emotional
labour. Therefore, the findings of POS / PSS for hospitality industry workers can be
used as supplementary references for understanding the impacts of POS / PSS on tour
guides’ performance.
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2.6.5 Summary
In the tourism industry, employees perceive organisational support differently
to supervisor support. In the interviews with tour guides during the questionnaire
design stage, respondents said that they could distinguish between POS and PSS.
Consistent with the literature, they view company policies and procedures, mostly
pertaining to the human resources policies, as POS. Their perceived organisational
support includes a fair pay and more benefits provided by the company such as
training opportunities, paid holidays, longer meal breaks and better medical benefits.
Respondents also commented that supervisors form individual relationships
with subordinates; they are important teammates providing emotional support to help
tour guides cope with work stress. In addition, supervisors are regarded as the
organisation’s representatives and a bridge between the top management and tour
guides. They are responsible for implementing company policies, providing feedback,
and monitoring and evaluating employee performance. With supporting evidence
from current literature and field reports, POS and PSS are postulated as two distinct
constructs in the present study.
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2.7 Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses
2.7.1 Conceptual Framework
In this section, arguments for the propositions related to the study are
presented. Propositions illustrated relationships among emotional labour, POS, PSS
and role performance as depicted in Figure 2. There are four kinds of relationship to
be examined. They are the relationships between:
(i) Emotional labour and role performance
(ii) POS and role performance
(iii) PSS and role performance
(iv) Emotional labour, POS, PSS and role performance.
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Figure 2Conceptual Framework of Present Study
Emotional
Labor H1a, H1b
Perceived
Tour Guides’ Role
Organisational
H2 Performance
Support
H3
Perceived
Supervisor
Support
H4
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2.7.2 Emotion Labour and Role Performance
Researchers claim that emotional display is part of the work role and that
emotion management is imperative for one’s role performance (Brotheridge & Lee
2003; Diefendorff & Richard 2003). In the tourism industry, the demand for emotional
labour is substantial due to intensive customer encounters together with the
boundaryless work setting on tours (Sharpe 2005; Constanti & Gibbs 2005). Sharpe
(2005) noted that emotional labour constitutes a major part of adventure guides’ roles.
To make an adventure tour a success, tour guides have to express positive emotions
such as happiness and enjoyment while at the same time suppressing negative
emotions like fear and anxiety (Sharpe 2005).
Hochschild (1983) suggested that employees accomplish their roles by
engaging two emotional strategies, surface acting and deep acting to display the
required emotions. Van Dijk et al. (2011) recommended tour guides to engage in deep
acting when interacting with customers because their service will be perceived as
more authentic. This is because expressions of emotion convey important clues about
the expresser’s feelings, attitudes and intentions and only genuine expressions elicit
favourable customer responses and a good employee-customer rapport (Grandey et al.
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2005; Hennig-Thurau et al. 2006). For instance, an authentic display of understanding
and sympathy will be seen as being helpful and friendly, while fake displays of the
same emotions may be interpreted as dishonest and deceitful.
Other researchers also support the notion that deep acting is a better strategy.
For instance, Ashworth and Humphrey (1993) found that customers perceive service
as good only when service providers convey a sense of genuine interpersonal
sensitivity and care. Totterdell and Holman (2003) suggested that deep acting requires
employees to understand customers’ perspectives, and tour guides have to adjust their
inner emotional states in order to match with the outer expressions. As a result, the
emotions displayed are congruent with their true feelings. Previous studies provide
evidence that deep acting has a positive relationship with performance whereas
surface acting does not (Hülsheger et al. 2010; Sharpe 2005).
Apart from authenticity and sincerity, employees display a much friendlier
attitude during deep acting than during surface acting (Brotheridge & Lee 2003).
Friendliness enhances customer satisfaction and trust which in turn enables tour
guides to perform their roles more effectively (Chu & Murrmann 2006). Grandey
(2003) called friendly, warm and authentic service ‘affective delivery’. Hülsheger and
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Schewe (2011) suggested that affective delivery is central to the performance of
service-related jobs such as tour guiding.
Furthermore, deep acting is a preferred strategy in service encounters that
involve long contact hours. Diefendorff et al. (2005) suggests that long interactions
between service providers and customers provoke deep acting and naturally felt
emotions. Grayson (1998) held a similar view; he claimed that sincerity is valued in
long-term relationships where people are expected to show their ‘real’ selves. In his
field study of hotel employees’ emotional expressions, Grayson (1998) confirmed that
authenticity has a positive relationship with customer evaluations of long-term
relational encounters. In short-term service, such an impact is not observed as
customers do not care whether employees’ emotional displays are genuine or not.
Hobfoll’s (1989) conservation of resources theory explains why deep acting is
positively associated with role performance and surface acting is not. Emotional
labour drains tour guides’ mental resources when performing deep acting or surface
acting. They can replenish their mental resources through rewarding social
relationships resulting from deep acting and the positive emotions actually
experienced. Surface acting, on the other hand, depletes resources without a way of
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replenishing drained resources, thus negatively affecting the task performance and
job-related wellbeing (Judge et al. 2001; Riketta 2002). This proposition is partially
supported by Hülsheger and Schewe’s (2011) study which found that surface acting is
associated with lower performance and impaired psychological health, while deep
acting is positively related to emotional performance and customer satisfaction.
Based on the fact that emotional labour is part of tour guides’ work roles, and
findings of previous studies showing that deep acting generates positive outcomes for
customer satisfaction and employees’ emotional performance, it is proposed that deep
acting has a positive relationship with role performance whereas surface acting does
not. The following hypotheses are therefore proposed:
Hypothesis 1a: Deep acting is positively related to role performance
Hypothesis 2a: Surface acting is negatively related to role performance
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2.7.3 Perceived Organisational Support and Role Performance
As discussed in preceding sections, both the social exchange theory and the
norm of reciprocity offer support for the view that there is a relationship between POS
and employees’ behaviour in the workplace. Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002, p. 698)
argue that ‘employment as the trade of effort and loyalty for tangible benefits and
social rewards’. The tourism industry is no different. Employees expend effort in
performing required duties in exchange for tangible and intangible benefits such as
wages, medical benefits, recognition, approval and care. When employees feel that the
organisation is willing to pay more, give better benefits, and recognise their
contributions, they will repay this by increasing their efforts and loyalty to the
organisation (Johle et al. 2002; Eisenber et al. 1986).
In Hong Kong, a large part of tour guides’ income comes from the tips
provided by customers at the end of the tour. Their total income from tips is the
average daily tips multiplied by the number of days of the tour. For example, if the
tips on an eight-day American tour are US$15 per day per customer, the total income
from tips will be US$120 per customer. If a tour guide has been assigned to a group
that consists of more customers and lasts for a longer duration, he / she will have more
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income. As a result, tour guides are very concerned about tour assignments as they
directly affect their income.
It is common to find that tour companies use tour assignment as a tool to
recognise employees’ performance. Tour companies reward good performers by
assigning them tour groups with more customers and longer durations, whereas they
penalise poor performers by giving them smaller and shorter tour groups. In view of
this, tour assignment becomes one of the indicators of POS to show whether the travel
agency values an employee’s contributions or not. When tour guides perceive the
company values them, they will in turn support the company’s goals and values. For
example, expending extra effort in performing the required roles and treating
customers well are two ways tour guides repay companies for favourable treatment.
According to organisational support theory (Levinson 1965), employees
attribute human characteristics to organisations. The ways an organisation treats an
employee will indicate whether the organisation likes or dislikes that employee. Shore
and Shore (1995) propose that human resources practices such as policies about
wages, promotions, job security, recognition, job autonomy, training and development
affect employees’ POS as these human resources decisions provide indications of the
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organisation’s level of concern and care.
During interviews with tour guides for the design of questionnaire,
respondents commented that the various training programmes provided by the
company were helpful for enriching their job knowledge and skills. They viewed
training and development opportunities as an important organisational support to
enhance their performance. They particularly looked forward to having product
training, familiarisation tours, customer service training and emotion management
training. Previous studies support the view that training and development are vital in
sustaining staff performance. For example, Kruml and Gedde (2002) indicate that
emotive effort training is essential for helping tour guides cope with difficult
customers and performing their roles better. Informal sharing among employees in
handling difficult customers and coping with the stress of emotional labour is also
helpful (Anderson et al. 2002).
Respondents are also concerned about whether the organisation has a fair and
transparent system in the distribution of benefits. Their comments are consistent with
previous research findings stating that procedural and distributive justice in the
distribution of organisational rewards is a prominent factor influencing POS
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(Eisenberger et al. 1986).
On account of the special characteristics of tour guides’ jobs, most of the time
they have to work independently at overseas. The immediate support from the
organisation is an important support for dealing with problems on the journey. Tour
guides expect the travel agency to stand behind them when handling stressful
situations on tours like flight delays or conflicts with local service suppliers.
Moreover, tour guides want to be trusted by the management when dealing with
customer complaints. They hope that the company will listen to their viewpoints
before making a judgment on whether they have committed mistakes or not. Based on
the above rationales, it is proposed that POS is related to tour guides’ role
performance.
Hypothesis 2: Perceived organisational support is positively related to role
performance
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2.7.4 Perceived Supervisor Support and Role Performance
According to social exchange theory, employees who perceive support from
their supervisors have a felt obligation to reciprocate supervisors’ favours or kindness
by helping supervisors attain their stated goals (Erdogan & Enders 2007; Eisenberger
et al. 2002). By the same token, tour guides are more willing to devote extra effort in
performing their roles when they perceive a high level of supervisor support.
Accordingly, it is proposed that PSS leads to a high level of role performance. Though
previous studies on PSS have not focused on tour guides’ role performance, there is
evidence showing that PSS is positively related to in-role and extra-role performance
(Rhoades & Eisenberger 2006).
Immediate supervisors play an important role in daily work at the branch
office of a travel agency. They provide performance feedback and coaching to help
tour guides better fulfil their job responsibilities. In addition, supervisors clarify
company policies and directions, as well as provide relevant information needed by
tour guides in their work. Apart from supervisor support, experience sharing with
senior tour guides is constructive as the seniors provide useful tips for handling
difficult customers or solving problems occur on tours. Rowden (2000) suggests that
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senior staff play a role of mentor when socialising with the new or junior employees
in the company, resulting in high employee commitment to the organisation.
In travel agencies, supervisors are regarded as representatives of the
organisation. They are highly involved in various human resources practices such as
conducting performance appraisals, making promotion decisions, engaging in staff
recruitment and selection, career planning, and occupational health and safety
compliance. The ways of carrying out these human resources duties differ
substantially between supervisors. Some are very strict while others are lenient. Hence,
supervisors who are caring and are willing to listen to subordinates’ opinions; who
appreciate the extra effort of subordinates; who give another chance to subordinates
when they make mistakes and who help subordinates campaign for better benefits and
conditions are regarded as supportive supervisors. Tour guides who believe that their
immediate supervisors value their contributions and care about their wellbeing are
likely to reciprocate by displaying positive attitudes and behaviours towards
supervisors (Kottke & Sharafinski 1988).
Moreover, tour guides recognise the performance evaluation done by the
immediate supervisor will influence the top management’s decisions on their pay
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increments or promotion opportunities. In order to obtain a better rating, they work
harder. Since supervisors have all these influences on employees’ wellbeing, it is
argued that PSS will affect tour guides’ performance and behaviour.
Furthermore, the prolonged effort of tour guides in managing emotions can
deplete their energy, leading to emotional exhaustion and reduced performance
(Cropanzano & Greenberg 1997). Supervisors are an important source of emotional
support for workers who are involved in emotional labour (Brotheridge & Lee 2002;
Grandey 2000). When emotional resources are drained and burnout is stimulated,
workers may try to replenish their resources through their social support networks
(Athay & Darley 1982).
Anderson et al. (2002) found that the social support from managers and
supervisors helps tourism workers release the stress from emotional labour. Grandey
(2000) suggested that service employees require less emotional labour when the
working environment is supportive. This is because, when employees feel supported,
they may have more inner resources to fulfil their job roles and deal with difficult
customers. Past studies have provided empirical evidence that strong supervisor
support is positively related to higher job satisfaction and team performance, lower
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work stress and lower turnover intentions (Anderson et al. 2002; Babin & Boles 1996;
Eisenberger et al. 1997).
In view of the important role played by supervisors in terms of providing
performance feedback, giving job advice, solving work problems, implementing
human resources practices, influencing the distribution of benefits and providing
emotional support, it is proposed that with high PSS, tour guides will expend extra
efforts to perform their roles in order to pay back the favourable treatment from
supervisors. The following hypothesis is therefore proposed:
Hypothesis 3: Perceived supervisor support is positively related to role performance
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2.7.5 Emotional Labour, Perceived Organisational Support, Perceived Supervisor
Support and Role Performance
In addition to the individual impacts of each variable on role performance, it is
proposed that there will be a combined impact of the three independent variables on
role performance. The related hypothesis is:
Hypothesis 4: Deep acting, surface acting, perceived organisational support and
perceived supervisor support will together have an influence on role
performance
The results will be interpreted by the regression as follow:
Y = b0 + b1x1 + b2x2 + b3x3 +b4x4
Where Y = role performance
b0 = constant number of outcomes
bj = squared part regression coefficients
xj = independent variables.
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2.8 Chapter Summary
With the extant literature on role performance, emotional labour, perceived
organisational support and perceived supervisor support having been reviewed, it is
concluded that no single study has attempted to investigate the relationships between
these four variables. However, researchers do agree that supportive management
practices are a key in facilitating service employees to provide good service and
achieve customer satisfaction (Schmit & Allscheid 1995; Schneider et al. 1998;
Stinglhamber & Vandenberghe 2003; Susskind et al. 2003) and emotional labour is an
indispensable part of one’s work life (Ashforth & Humphrey 1995). This study is
designed to fill the research gap by adding empirical data to the existing literature on
tour guides.
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Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
The chapter details the methodology employed in the study. First, the
paradigm guiding the overall design and methodology is discussed, which is followed
by a description of the research design. A schematic view of the research process is
outlined in Figure 3.3 to illustrate the procedures involved in the research. Next, the
development process of the research instrument together with justifications is
explained. After that, the entire process of data collection in the pilot study and the
main study is elaborated. Finally, the statistical methods employed in data analysis
and the ethical issues involved in the survey are addressed.
3.2 Research Paradigms and Methodologies
A research paradigm provides a framework of reference regarding the
interpretation of the research methodology. Thus, a clear description of the available
research paradigms is essential to the understanding of the philosophical issues
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underlying this study.
3.2.1 Research Paradigms and Research Methods: Positivist vs. Phenomenological
Approach
There are different research paradigms in social research. Since most of the
studies adopt either the positivist or the phenomenological paradigm, discussion on
research paradigms will focus on these two approaches.
The positivist approach usually utilitises quantitative methods. According to
Easterby, Thorpe and Lowe (2002), positivists view the world as an objective reality
that is external to human beings; everything has a prior cause and its properties can be
measured and observed externally. This paradigm originated from natural sciences
where scientists build on what is known to create new knowledge.
Positivists focus on reducing well-established theories, testing hypotheses to
examine the relationships between variables and generalising the findings to all
common situations (Easterby et al. 2002). Researchers are required to be detached
from the object of study so as to maintain the objectivity of the study. The
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assumptions of ‘independence of the study’ and ‘value-free approach of the researcher’
in the positivist paradigm are being challenged by supporters of phenomenology.
Phenomenologist argue that the researcher is part of the observation and is therefore
not independent. Moreover, the researcher exercises value judgment in data
interpretation and analysis, meaning the research is not value-free.
The phenomenological approach (also known as constructivism), usually
involves the qualitative method. Constructivists consider the world to be a social
construct and researchers are part of what is being observed. Reality is formed and
arises from social interactions, which results in the different forms of human
behaviour (Easterby et al. 2002). Constructivists believe in that research is
‘value-bound’ and that it is difficult to differentiate the full causes and effects of
certain social phenomena (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie 2004).
Constructivists do not focus on external causes and rules to explain
phenomena they try to enquire into why people behave differently and have different
experiences. They suggest that researchers have to be involved in the subject being
investigated. Qualitative research emphasises the discovery of novel or unanticipated
findings. New ideas and theories are established through induction from the data, and
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research plans can be adjusted freely to cope with changes. Bryman (2004) argues that
qualitative research methods are more fluid and flexible than the quantitative method.
Table 6 presents the differences between positivism and social constructionism.
Table 6 Differences between Positivism and Social Constructionism
Positivism Social Constructionism
The Observer must be independent is part of what is being

observed
Human interests should be irrelevant are the main drivers of

science
Explanations must demonstrate causality aim to increase general

understanding of the
situation
Research progresses hypotheses and deductions gathering rich data from

through which ideas are induced
Concepts need to be operationalised so should incorporate

that they can be measured stakeholder perspectives
Units of analysis should be reduced to may include the complexity

simplest terms of ‘whole’ situations
Generalisation through statistical probability theoretical abstraction
Sampling requires large numbers of random small numbers of cases

selection chosen for specific reasons
Adapted from Easterby et al., (2002, p.30)
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Because academic research today is becoming increasingly complex,
interdisciplinary and dynamic; more and more researchers attempt to combine the two
methods to some extent in order to provide more dimensions regarding the
investigated subject (Easterby, Thorpe & Lowe 2002; Johnson & Onwuegbuzie 2004).
Johnson and Onwuegbuzie (2004, p. 15) have suggested that the mixed methods
employing both positivist and phenomenological approaches have become the third
research paradigm in academic research as ‘it can draw strengths and minimize the
weaknesses of both in single research studies and across studies’. Researchers
increasingly tend to combine the two methods by adopting qualitative method in data
collection and quantitative method in data analysis.
3.2.2 Justification for the Research Paradigm of this Study
This research has adopted a positivist paradigm with a quantitative method to
examine relationships between the four independent variables (deep acting, surface
acting, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support) and the
dependent variable (role performance). The rationale for employing a positivist
paradigm and a quantitative approach are:
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Firstly, this research is not intended to explore a brand new concept or novel
ideas. In fact, theories of emotional labour, perceived organisational support and
perceived supervisor support are well-established in literature. A rich body of studies
of emotional labour, POS and PSS can be found in business, organisational behaviour
and psychology literature. Nevertheless, relevant studies in the tourism context cannot
be found. Since the variables under study are not new concepts, it is more appropriate
to adopt a positivist paradigm. To fill the identified research gaps, this study has
employed a quantitative approach to investigate the effects of deep acting, surface
acting, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor support on role
performance. The findings of the current research will enrich the existing tourism
literature by providing empirical evidence to increase the understanding of tour guides’
role performances.
Secondly, prior studies on tour guides are mainly exploratory and use
qualitative approaches. The data analysis of past research is mostly based on tour
guides’ personal experience and sharing; hence findings tend to be subjective and may
not be generalised to a defined population. Because this study adopts a quantitative
approach, results generated are more statistically sound and can be generalised to the
population from which samples were drawn.

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Thirdly, a Tour Guide Emotional Labour Scale was developed as a result of the
study. The scale can be utilised by other researchers to measure tour guides’ emotional
labour in other parts of the world. It is hoped that with the increasing amount of
research conducted in this field, tourism scholars or practitioners will gain a better
insight into the effects of emotional labour on employees in the tourism industry.
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3.3 Research Design
Preliminary Review
• Deciding research
topic
Developing Research Methodology

Literature Review Establishing Theoretical
• Quantitative method
• Emotional labour, Frameworks
• Sampling population
POS, PSS, role
• Sampling frame
performance
• Sampling size
• Research paradigm
Developing Measurement Instrument

• Preliminary questionnaire
• Questionnaire for in-depth
interviews
Pilot Study
• Questionnaire for pilot survey
• Questionnaire for main study
Main Study
Data Analysis:
Regression, T-test,
descriptive statistics
Discussion
Implications and
Recommendations
Figure 3 A Schematic View of the Research Process of this Study

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Figure 3 shows a schematic view of the research process for this study.
Determining the research topic is the first step of the research process which is also
the most challenging part. After a preliminary review of the current issues in the
tourism industry, it has been found that the number of complaint related to tour guides’
performance is increasing, in particular complaints from mainland Chinese visitors
regarding ‘forced shopping’ by tour guides. A few cases were reported by the
international media or posted on YouTube and generated heated discussions in the
society and criticisms of tour guides’ service.
The fraudulent practices of tour guides have negatively affected Hong Kong’s
reputation as a world tourist destination, thus certainly warranting attention. The poor
performance of tour guides inspires the researcher of this study to initiate research on
tour guides’ role performance. It is hoped that the findings will offer academia and the
tourism industry to improve tour guides’ service quality.
As a result of the literature review, a theoretical framework was constructed
(see Section 2.8.1) to scrutinise the role performances of tour guides. Four constructs
(deep acting, surface acting, perceived organisational support and perceived
supervisor support) were set as the independent variables and one construct (role
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performance) was set as the dependent variable. Hypotheses were established to test
the relationships between the independent variables and the dependent variable.
After deciding on the research topic and laying out a theoretical framework,
the next step is to decide which research paradigm to adopt. Since the research
paradigm will steer the overall design of the research process; choosing an appropriate
paradigm is vital to the success in achieving the research objectives. With the research
questions and the research objectives having been considered, it is found that the
quantitative research approach is more appropriate. A survey provided empirical data
for analysing the relationships between the independent variables and the dependent
variable. Moreover, by adopting a quantitative approach, the results can be
extrapolated to the population from which the sample was drawn to explain tour
guides’ performances.
Subsequent to the selection of a research paradigm is the design of a
measurement instrument (i.e. the questionnaire) according to the purpose of the
current study. Since no questionnaire in current literature can be adapted in whole for
this study, it was necessary to develop a new questionnaire. The details of developing
the research instrument are discussed in Section 3.4.
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The desired data is collected using a questionnaire survey. A pilot study was
conducted before the main survey to resolve any uncertainty in areas such as response
rate, question applicability and question performance(Ticehurst & Veal 2000). The
details of the data collection and administration are elaborated in Section 3.6.
Data analysis involves a variety of statistical tests such as reliability test,
regression analysis and principal component analysis. The findings are interpreted in
relation to the research questions and hypotheses for the purpose of reaching the
conclusions of this study. To proceed, recommendations on various measures were
made to travel practitioners, academia and government departments to enhance tour
guides’ role performances.
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3.4 Development of the Research Instrument
Reviewing relevant The new scale was

and extensive developed
literature on EL, POS,
PSS and role
performance Content validity test
by university
professors and
Adapting relevant
research students
items of emotional
labour, POS and PSS
from literature to
The questionnaire of
build a preliminary
pilot study was
questionnaire
developed
Conducting in-depth
Pilot study
interviews with tour
guides
Modification of the
Reliability test by
preliminary
SPSS, revising the
questionnaire based
questionnaire
on tour guides’
The questionnaire of
Incorporating the main study was
supervisor’s feedback developed
into the new
questionnaire
Figure 4 A Schematic View of the Development Process of the Research Instrument
145
3.4.1 Measurement Items from the Literature
Figure 4 shows a schematic view of the development process of the research
instrument. The first step in establishing the questionnaire is to generate the
measurement items. Items related to emotional labour are drawn from the studies of
Chu and Murrmann (2006), Kruml and Geddes (2000), Diefendorff et al. (2005),
Brotheridge and Lee (2003) and Grandey (2003). Only items related to the tourism
industry are used. As a result, a total of twelve items were obtained from the literature
on surface acting and nine items on deep acting.
Measurement items related to POS are adapted from the Survey of Perceived
Organisational Support (SPOS), developed by Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison
and Sowa (1986). Based on the specific job settings in travel agencies, twelve items
are drawn from the SPOS to operationalise POS in travel agencies. Though this is a
short version of the original scale, Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002) stated that this
will not be a source of problems as the original scale of SPOS is unidimensional and
has high internal reliability.
To measure tour guides’ perception of supervisor support, the SPOS was
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adapted using the same approach as other researchers like Kottke and Sharafinski
(1988), Rhoades et al. (2001) and Maertz et al. (2007). That is, it was adapted by
replacing the term ‘the organisation’ with the term ‘the supervisor’. Twelve items
were adapted and modified from the SPOS.
Ultimately, twenty items regarding the roles of tour guides are drawn from the
work of different researchers like Holloway (1981), Cohen (1985), Zhang and Chow
(2004). Ultimately, a total of 65 items are adapted from the literature to make up an
initial questionnaire (see Table 7) for in-depth interviews.
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Table 7 Items Adapted from the Literature for the Preliminary Questionnaire
Construct / Item Author(s)
Emotional Labour - Deep Acting Emotional Labour - Surface Acting Chu and Murrmann (2006),
1. When getting ready to work, I tell myself that I am going to have 1. My smile is often not sincere. Kruml and Geddes (2000),
a good day. 2. I feel as if I have split personality when interacting with Diefendorff, Croyle and
2. I think of pleasant images when I am getting ready for work. customers because I act not like myself at all. Gosserand (2005),
3. I have to concentrate more on my behaviour when I display an 3. I display emotions that I am not actually feeling. Brotheridge and Lee (2003),
emotion that I don’t actually feel. 4. My interactions with customers are very robotic. Grandey (2003).
4. I try to actually experience the emotions that I must show to 5. I resist expressing my true feelings.
customers. 6. I put on act in order to deal with customers in an
5. I really try to feel the emotions I have to show as part of my job appropriate way.
6. I create certain emotions in myself to present the image the 7. I fake a good mood when interacting with customers.
company desires. 8. I just pretend to have the emotions I need to display for my
7. When helping customers, if I pretend I’m happy, I can actually job.
start to feel it. 9. I put on a ‘mask’ in order to display the emotions I need for
8. I change my actual feelings to match those that I must express to the job.
customers. 10. I show feelings to customers that are different from what I
9. If I think the company would not approve of my real feeling about feel inside
customers, I try to change those feelings. 11. I fake the emotions I show when dealing with customers.
12. I have to cover my true feelings when dealing with
customers.
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Perceived Organisational Support Perceived Supervisor Support Eisenberger, Huntington,

1. The organisation values my contribution to its wellbeing. 1. The supervisor fails to appreciate any extra effort from me. Hutchison and Sowa (1986)
2. The organisation fails to appreciate any extra effort from me. 2. Help is available from the supervisor when I have a
3. The organisation strongly considers my goals and values. problem.
4. Help is available from the organisation when I have a problem. 3. The supervisor enables me to perform my job to the best of
5. The organisation really cares about my wellbeing. my ability.
6. The organisation cares about my general satisfaction at work. 4. The supervisor is willing to help me when I need a special
7. The organisation enables me to perform my job to the best of my favour.
ability 5. The supervisor cares about my general satisfaction at work.
8. Even if I did the best job possible, the organisation would fail to 6. The supervisor shows very little concern for me.
notice. 7. The supervisor will listen to my opinion.
9. The organisation shows very little concern for me. 8. Even if I did the best job possible, the supervisor would fail
10. The organisation cares about my opinions. to notice.
11. The organisation takes pride in my accomplishments at work. 9. The supervisor ignores any complaint from me.
12. The organisation tries to make my job as interesting as possible. 10. The supervisor really cares about my wellbeing.
11. The supervisor will forgive an honest mistake on my part.
12. The supervisor takes pride in my accomplishment at work.
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Roles
1. Actor 11. Intermediary / Middleman Holloway (1981),
2. Ambassador 12. Interpreter / Translator Cohen (1985),
3. Buffer 13. Instructor Zhang and Chow (2004)
4. Caretaker 14. Motivator
5. Culture Broker 15. Organiser
6. Cultural Mediator 16. Problem Solver
7. Entertainer 17. Salesperson
8. Group Leader 18. Shaman
9. Host 19. Shepherd
10. Information Giver 20. Teacher / Educator
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3.4.2 The Preliminary Questionnaire for In-depth Interviews
In addition to the 65 items drawn from literature that are related to the five
variables, the definitions of variables are showed on the initial questionnaire to
provide respondents some ideas of the meaning of each variable. In addition, a few
brainstorming questions are used to initiate the discussion. Examples of
brainstorming questions include ‘Do you think that emotional labour affects tour
guides’ role performance?’, ‘Do you think that perceived organisational support
affects tour guides’ role performance?’, and ‘Do you think that perceived supervisor
support affects tour guides’ role performance?’
Open-ended questions are asked at the beginning of each interview section to
collect information on respondents’ understanding of the examined variables.
Examples of open-ended questions include: ‘What is emotional labour in your
understanding?’, ‘As a tour guide, what is your emotional behaviour when
interacting with customers?’, ‘What kinds of support do tour guides expect from
‘their company? Please give examples?’, ‘What kinds of support do tour guides
expect from their supervisors? Please give examples?’, ‘What are your roles as a
tour guide? Please give examples?’
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Lastly, questions intend to collect respondents’ personal details are included.
Since the study is conducted in a Chinese-speaking environment, the questionnaire
had both English and Chinese. A sample of the initial questionnaire for in-depth
interviews is represented in Appendix 1.
3.4.3 New Items Generated from In-depth Interviews
The purposes of in-depth interviews were twofold. Firstly, they were used to
cross-check whether or not the questions are appropriate for exploring the emotional
labour, POS, PSS and role performance of tour guides. Secondly, they were used to
generate additional items for the main survey. As a result, three in-depth interviews,
each lasted for about an hour and a half, were conducted with seven tour guides
working in Hong Kong on March 20 (3 participants), April 16 (2 participants) and
April 23, 2012 (2 participants). Responses of interviewees were recorded with an
iPhone and were transcribed by the researcher of this study during the interview.
Any ambiguity found in responses was clarified with interviewees at the interview to
minimise the disparity between the researchers’ interpretation and what the
interviewees actually meant. Concerning the background of interviewees, three are
students who work as part-time tour guides and the other four are full-time tour
guides working for a large local travel agency. With respect to the selection of
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respondents, the respondents had to meet two criteria: (i) holding a valid tour leader
or tour guide pass that is issued by the Travel Industry Council Hong Kong and (ii)
having tour guiding experience in the past year. As a result, three participants were
selected from the researcher’s own network and four were referred by one of the
participating travel agencies.
During interview meetings, interviewees were asked whether the
measurement items are appropriate for measuring the related variables. A
seven-point scale ranging from ‘very unrepresentative’ (1) to ‘very representative’ (7)
has been used to measure the representation of each item. Interviewees indicated
their answers by putting a tick at the appropriate space provided. There was also a
‘not sure’ (0) response available for them to choose in case they were uncertain of
the representation of the item.
The respondents commented that the questions are representative as all items
have been rated at five or above. However, five items adapted from the literature are
rephrased and nine new items are generated. As a result, a new questionnaire (see
Table 8) is created to include the feedback of interviewees. In the new questionnaire,
the questions relating to surface acting and deep acting were shuffled intentionally
and listed under the variable of emotional labour to avoid respondents’ inclination to
153
prefer either type of acting.
154
Table 8 Items Generated from In-depth Interviews
Construct Items developed after in-depth interviews
Emotional Labour 1. I think of pleasant images to create a positive feeling when I am getting ready for work.*
2. I have to concentrate more on my behaviour when I display an emotion that I don’t actually feel.
3. My smile is often not sincere.
4. I try to actually experience the positive emotions that I must show to customers.
5. I display emotions that I am not actually feeling.
6. To feel the positive emotions I have to show is part of my job.*
7. If I think the company would not approve of my real feeling about customers, I try to change those feelings.
8. I put on act in order to deal with customers in an appropriate way.
9. I create certain emotions in myself to present the image the company desires.
10. I put on a ‘mask’ in order to display the emotions I need for the job.
11. I show feelings to customers that are different from what I feel inside.
12. When helping customers, if I pretend I’m happy, I can actually start to feel it.
13. When helping customers, if I pretend I’m happy, I can actually start to feel it.
14. I have to cover my true feelings when dealing with customers.
15. I change my actual feelings to match those that I must express to customers.
16. I feel as if I have split personality when interacting with customers because I act not like myself at all.
17. My interactions with customers are very robotic.
18. I fake a good mood when interacting with customers.
19. I fake the emotions I show when dealing with customers.
*rephrased items (EL - item 1, 6)
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Perceived Organisational 20. The organisation values my contribution to its wellbeing.

21. The organisation fails to appreciate any extra effort from me.
Support 22. The organisation is concerned about assigning tours to me that I deserve.*
23. Help is available from the organisation when I have a problem.
24. The organisation really cares about my wellbeing.
25. The organisation cares about my general satisfaction at work.
26. The organisation enables me to perform my job to the best of my ability.
27. Even if I did the best job possible, the organisation would fail to notice.
28. The organisation shows very little concern for me.
29. The organisation cares about my opinions.
30. The organisation takes pride in my accomplishments at work.
31. The organisation tries to make my job as interesting as possible.
32. The organisation is willing to help me when I need a special favour. #
33. The organisation would grant a reasonable request for a change in my working conditions. #
34. If the organisation earned a greater profit, it could consider increasing my salary. #
Perceived Supervisor Support 35. The supervisor fails to appreciate any extra effort from me.
36. Help is available from the supervisor when I have a problem.
37. The supervisor enables me to perform my job to the best of my ability.
38. The supervisor is willing to help me when I need a special favour.
39. The supervisor cares about my general satisfaction at work.
40. The supervisor shows very little concern for me.
41. The supervisor will listen to my opinion.
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42. Even if I did the best job possible, the supervisor would fail to notice.
43. The supervisor ignores any complaint from me.
44. The supervisor really cares about my wellbeing.
45. The supervisor will forgive an honest mistake on my part.
46. The supervisor takes pride in my accomplishment at work.
47. The supervisor would grant a reasonable request for a change in my working conditions. #
48. The supervisor tries to make my job as interesting as possible. #
49. The supervisor disregards my best interests when he / she makes decisions that affect me. #
*rephrased items (POS – item 22)

#
new items (POS – item 32, 33, 34; PSS – 47,48, 49)
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Role Performance 50. Actor

51. Ambassador of the destination*
52. Buffer
53. Caretaker
54. Cultural mediator
55. Entertainer
56. Group leader*
57. Host#
58. Information giver
59. Intermediary / middleman
60. Interpreter / translator
61. Organiser
62. Problem solver#
63. Salesperson
64. Negotiator#
*phrased items (item 51, 56)
#
new items (item 57, 62, 64)
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3.4.4 Content Validity Test
The revised questionnaire was sent to two university professors and five
hospitality research students of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University for content
validity evaluation. They evaluate the items and questionnaire design for relevance,
clarity and understanding (Kruml & Geddes 2000). Based on their comments, the
items are further modified and the questionnaire layout is fine-tuned. Thus, the pilot
study questionnaire is established.
3.4.5 The Pilot Study Questionnaire
The pilot study questionnaire consists of five parts. The first three parts
measure the independent variables including – emotional labour (14 items), perceived
organisation support (14 items) and perceived supervisor support (16 items). Part four
measures the dependent variable – role performance (15 items). The last part attempts
to collect respondents’ demographic data. The measures use a seven-point Likert scale
(1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) to indicate the extent of respondents’
agreement with each item. Since, the pilot study is conducted in a Chinese-speaking
environment, the questionnaire had both English and Chinese version. All items were
translated from English to Chinese by the researcher and proofread by a Chinese

159
professor.
3.4.6 The Main Survey Questionnaire
The internal consistency of the measuring items is assessed after the pilot
study. The results show that the alpha coefficient of each scale is high, ranging
from .79 to .95, and above the acceptable criterion of .70 (see Section 4.2.4). The high
coefficients indicate that the test items for each construct have a high internal
consistency and hence the questionnaire is regarded as being reliable to be used for
testing the various constructs in the main study. Therefore, the main survey
questionnaire is basically the same as the one used in the pilot study. A sample of the
main study questionnaire is shown in Appendix 2 (English version) and Appendix 3
(Chinese version).
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3.5 Sampling Plan
3.5.1 Sampling Population
In social research, data are collected either from each member / unit or a
portion of the population. If data are from a portion of the sample population,
researchers have to make sure that the samples are representative of that population
(Bryman & Bell 2011). If samples are representative, the results of the study can be
generalised to the population from which samples are drawn (Tharenou, Donohue &
Cooper 2007). In many cases, researchers tend to collect data from a portion of the
population since it is quite impossible to include all sample units in the survey. Even
if it is feasible, it can be very expensive in terms of money, time and personnel
(Alreck & Settle 1995).
The population is the source from which the data are to be collected. Some
authors use the word ‘universe’ instead of ‘population’. For example, Bryman and
Bell (2011, p.176) defined the sampling population as ‘the universe of units from
which the sample is to be selected’. Zikmund et al. (2013) suggested using tangible
characteristics, for example age, gender, occupation and working location to define
161
the population. For easy reference, the sampling population, the sample frame and the
sampling unit of this study are presented in Figure 5.
Figure 5 The Sampling Population, Sampling Frame and Sampling Unit
Sampling Population
Travel agencies in Hong Kong
Sampling Frame
The directory of licensed travel
agencies in Hong Kong
Sampling Unit
Licensed tour escorts / tour
guides in Hong Kong
3.5.2 Sampling Frame
The sampling frame is the actual listing of the units in the population from
which samples are to be drawn (Babbie 2013). According to the TICHK (2014), there
are 1716 licensed travel agencies providing different travel services in Hong Kong in
February 2014. Not all of them offer tour packages with travel guides. In fact, many
small agencies mainly arrange air tickets and hotel accommodation for customers. In
order to gain access to the target sampling population, travel agencies which provide
162
tour escorting or guiding service to travellers have to be identified. The Directory of
Licensed Travel Agents, managed by the Travel Agents Registry, serves as a sampling
frame for selecting qualified travel agencies.
3.5.3 Sampling Unit
A sampling unit is a single element or group of elements subject to selection in
the sample (Zikmund et al. 2013). Thus the sampling unit under study was licensed
tour escorts or tour guides in Hong Kong.
3.5.4 Sampling Method
This study employed convenience sampling method for data collection. It is
impracticable to access all tour guides, therefore, the researcher contacted the target
participants through personal contacts and sending emails to travel agencies. Based on
the sampling frame and the sampling unit, suitable travel agencies or tour guides were
invited to participate. Hence, samples were based on the convenience method. Though
this method does not permit any control over the representativeness of samples and it
is has limitations in the generalization of findings, researchers assert that convenience
163
sampling is more commonly used than probability sampling in business research due
to ease of the implementation and lower cost (Bryman & Bell 2011).
3.5.5 Sample Size
The sample size is affected by a number of considerations such as confidence
level, time, cost, non-response rate and heterogeneity of the population (Bryman &
Bell 2011). Increasing the sample size will increase the precision of conclusions based
on research using the sample. However, up to a certain level, usually 1000 samples, a
sharp increase in precision becomes less likely whereas time and cost go up greatly
Therefore, decisions about the sample size involve a compromise between the need
for precision and constrains of cost and time (Bryman & Bell 2011).
For the purposes of this study, the sample size is proposed to be 300. The
number exceeds the minimum sample size of 108 as suggested byField (2009) for
testing the four predictors (deep acting, surface acting, perceived organisational
support and perceived supervisor support) in the regression model. Comrey and Lee
(1992) classified 300 as a good sample size for factor analysis. Moreover, the sample
size of this study is similar to the study of Kruml and Geddes’s (2000) study which
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explored the dimensions of emotional labour of service employees. Therefore, a
sample size of 300 is appropriate for providing reliable results of various statistical
analyses. To allow for the possibility of non-responses, the sample size was adjusted
from 300 to 350.
3.6 Data Collection Process
Data collection procedures involve two stages: the pilot study and the main
survey. This section describes the data collection process in both stages.
3.6.1 Pilot Study
A pilot study is conducted before the main survey to ensure the survey
instrument as a whole functions well. Bryman and Bell (2011) comment that pilot
studies are important in relation to research based on self-completion questionnaires.
165
The objectives of the pilot study are:
1. to ensure questions are understandable
2. to determine the adequacy of instructions given to respondents
3. to identify questions that are not measuring the constructs.
The pilot study was conducted from October to November, 2012. As discussed
in the previous section, a convenience sampling method was adopted in data
collection. The researcher selected travel agencies that were able to meet the research
requirements for participating in the survey. Access to travel agencies involves
personal contacts and sending emails. Invitations were sent to the potential target
participants. As a result, four travel agencies and four tour guides agree to participate
in the pilot study.
Distribution of questionnaires was through company representatives, having
them to send out the questionnaires to tour guides. Company representatives have
been briefed on the importance of protecting respondents’ privacy and the strict
confidence of survey information. Under no circumstance would the company record
the respondents’ names or review any information in the completed questionnaires.
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Furthermore, a cover letter assuring tour guides of the confidentiality and
anonymity of their responses was affixed with the questionnaire. Participants were
asked to read the cover letter before completing the questionnaire, and then place the
completed questionnaire in the provided envelope and seal it before returning it to the
company representative. The return questionnaires were then collected personally by
the researcher from the company.
For individual participants, the researcher clearly explained the purposes of the
study and its procedures to them during the survey. They were reminded to read the
cover letter before completing the questionnaire, place the completed questionnaire in
the provided envelop and mail it directly to the researcher. They are assured that their
responses will remain confidential and no information will be passed to the
management of their companies.
Altogether 73 questionnaires were distributed, 55were returned. After
excluding cases of missing values and incompletion, a total of 51 responses were used
in the analysis, giving a usable response rate of 69.9 per cent (see Section 4.2.2).
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3.6.2 Main Survey
The main survey was conducted from March to July 2013. Data were collected
from three different sources that comprised of travel agencies, the airport and a
training institute. Six hundred and ten questionnaires were sent and 407were returned.
Details of the main study samples are shown in Table 13 (see Section 4.3.2). After
excluding cases of missing values and unqualified respondents, a total of 309
responses were found to be usable, giving a usable response rate of 50.7 per cent (see
table 13).
In travel agencies, the data collection procedures were administrated in the
same manner as in the pilot study. The researcher delivered the questionnaires to the
company representatives in person and explained the research procedures and
reiterated the importance of keeping the data confidential.
Since the sampling frame was the same for both the pilot study and the main
survey, two precautionary measures were taken to prevent the same participant from
taking part in both studies. Firstly, different companies were selected in the main
study. Secondly, participants who were involved in the pilot study were excluded from
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the main survey. For example, a large retail travel agency distributed questionnaires to
different branches in the pilot study and the main survey.
For data collection at the airport, the researcher approached tour guides and
invited them to participate in the study. If they agreed, the researcher explained the
survey purposes and procedures, assuring them of the confidentiality of the survey.
Participants were asked to read the cover letter which detailed the survey process
before completing the questionnaire. Completed questionnaires were collected on-site
by the researcher.
The last source of data collection was the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational
Education (Haking Wong Campus) where tour guides were attending training courses.
The procedures were the same as those at the airport and participation was voluntary.
Completed questionnaires were collected on-site by the researcher.
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3.7 Data Analysis Methods
Various statistical tests were employed to examine the hypothesised
relationships between the independent variables and the dependent variable of the
research model. The relevant analyses included reliability tests, descriptive statistics,
t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), multiple regression analysis and
principal component analysis. The details of data analysis are discussed in the
following sections.
Reliability Analysis
Reliability analysis is used to assess the internal consistency of the set of
measurements for each variable in the study. Manning and Munro (2007) suggested
that for a measure with high internal consistency, the respondents’ scores on any one
item or factor tend to be correlated to the overall scale. Hence, it is safe to say that
individual items of the scale all measured the same construct.
There are a few ways to measure the internal reliability. The first method is the
test-retest reliability test. This involves testing the same sample at two different times.
For measurements to establish high reliability, the score at the time of first test should
170
be highly correlated with the score at the second measurement. However, the
test-retest method is time consuming and costly which makes it not unpopular.
Another way to assess the internal consistency is by testing the split-half reliability.
This method involves splitting the items of the measurement into two equivalent
halves, and creating two composite variables from these items. The scores of different
halves are tested for correlations. Results with higher correlations indicate higher
reliability. The problem with the split-half method is that there are various ways to
split the data, so results may differ according to the way in which the data are split
(Field 2009).
Compared to the test-retest and split-half method, the internal consistency
reliability indicated by the Cronbach’s alpha is a more commonly used approach for
assessing the consistency among variables in a summated scale. The Cronbach’s alpha
method is similar to the split-half method and it calculates the average of all possible
split-half correlation coefficients. It shows the item-total correlation of the scale
between 1 (perfect internal reliability) and 0 (no internal reliability). In general, values
of coefficient alpha above .70 are considered to represent acceptable reliability,
above .80 to represent good reliability and .90 to represent excellent reliability
(Manning & Munro 2007). In exploratory research, the acceptable level may be
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lower .60 (Hair et al. 1998). In this study, the internal consistency reliability method
was employed and Cronbach’s alpha value of .70was set as a criterion to measure the
reliability of each construct.
Descriptive Statistics
Frequency tables were used to show the demographic data of respondents in
terms of the number of people and the percentages belonging to each category. In
addition, the mean, standard deviation and item-to-item correlations of each variable
were calculated and discussed.
T-test
In order to measure the difference between the scores of male and female
respondents, an independent t-test was conducted for each variable.
One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
A one-way ANOVA test was conducted to compare the variable means among
different groups in terms of demographic data such as age, education level, year of
service and experience.
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Correlations Analysis
Pearson product-moment correlation (also known as Pearson’s r or simply
Pearson correlation) was conducted to examine relationships between the independent
variables (DS, SA, POS and PSS) and the dependent variable (RP). The r value
provides information on the strength of the relationship, and the sign (positive or
negative) indicates the direction of the relationship. Values range from 0 (no
correlation) to 1 (perfect correlation).
Multiple Regression Analysis
Multiple regression analysis was used to measure the degree and direction of
influence of each independent variable on the dependent variable. As a result of the
multiple regression analysis, a series of statistics was produced for data interpretation.
1. The multiple correlation coefficient (R) represents the combined correlation of
all independent variables with the dependent variable. It indicates the
percentage of variance in the dependent variable that is contributed by the
independent variables.
2. The coefficient of determination (R2) shows the proportion of variance in the
dependent variable to be explained by a particular independent variable. The
significance of R2 is tested using the F-statistic.
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3. The regression coefficient β is generated to reveal the correlation of each of
the independent variables with the dependent variable. The significance of the
coefficient β is tested using the t-statistic.
The prediction equation produced by the analysis is:
Y = b0 + b1x1 + b2x2 + b3x3 +b4x4
xj = independent variables
The regression coefficient βof each independent variable represents the
amount of influence of that factor in predicting the dependent variable. In short, the
higher the coefficientβ, the more the factor explains the tour guides’ role performance.
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Two analyses were conducted prior to the multiple regression analysis so as to
assess correlations between variables.
1. Pearson correlation analysis was used to check the strength of the relationship
between the independent variables and the dependent variable. If Pearson
coefficient r is insignificant, multiple regression analysis is not worth doing
(Field 2009).
2. Mutlicolinearity – if two variables have a high correlation, they will be
measuring the same thing. In this case, the interpretation of the coefficient β of
independent variables resulting from a multiple regression would be
misleading (Cohen et al. 2013). In this situation, the highly related variables
should not be included in the analysis. Mutlicolinearity is measured by the VIF
(Variance Inflation Factor) and tolerance values in this study. The VIF value
indicates whether a predictor has a strong linear relationship with other
predictors or not. According to Myers (1990), a VIF value of 10 indicates the
problem of multicolinearity. The tolerance value is the reciprocal of the VIF
value (1/VIF). Tolerance values below .10 signify a serious multicolinearity
problem (Field 2009).
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Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
A principal component analysis followed by a varimax rotation was applied on
the five variables to identify any underlying dimensions or components. PCA extracts
a set of underlying components and shows their variance on the original variable. The
variance is represented by the eigenvalues. Kaiser (1960) recommended that
components with eigenvalues greater than 1 are considered as significant components
and should be retained for varimax rotation.
In this study, varimax rotation was applied on the extracted components with
eigenvalues greater than 1 to identify a set of item loadings for each of these
components. Although Hair et al. (1998) stated that for a sample size 300, factor
loadings of .11 (p < .05) and .15 (p < .01) are significant, a more stringent .40 cut-off
was used in this study. Through the varimax rotation, this research attempted to
identify possible components underlying each variable.
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3.8 Ethical Issues
The following ethical issues are relevant to this research and have been
addressed.
Voluntary Participation
All participation in the survey is on a voluntary basis. If tour guides do not
want to participate in the survey, they can inform the researcher or company
representatives who are responsible for distributing the questionnaires. If they
declined to participate, this did not result in any form of penalty or negative
consequence from their employers. Moreover, participants do not have any working
relationship with the researcher. Therefore, there is no conflict of interest between the
researcher and the respondents.
Respondents were Well-informed
A cover letter (also known as ‘Information Sheet’ in this study), detailing the
research purposes, procedures and participants’ responsibilities, was attached to the
questionnaire. Participants were required to read it before completing the
questionnaire. They understood that they could withdraw from the survey at any time
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they want. Participants’ consent to be involved in the research was implied by the
completion and return of the questionnaire.
Communication channels were clearly stated in the cover letter. For example,
the contact details of the researcher and the thesis supervisor were provided to enable
participants to make contact when necessary. In addition, the contact details of the
Ethics Complaints Office of Southern Cross University (SCU) were also stated in the
cover letter. Participants could contact SCU if they wanted to lodge complaints about
the ethical conduct of this study.
Privacy and Anonymity
The confidential nature of responses was emphasised in the cover letter so that
participants could understand all relevant measures for protecting their privacy. Firstly,
only data that was deemed to be pertinent to the study was collected. Secondly, all
responses were anonymous. Thirdly, participants were asked to put the completed
questionnaires into the envelope provided and seal it for returning to the researcher.
All these measures were sufficient to protect participants’ privacy.
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3.9 Chapter Summary
This chapter outlined the research methodology and design. To achieve the
research objectives, a positivist paradigm and a quantitative method were adopted to
examine relationships between the dependent and independent variables. The process
of developing the research instrument was elaborated and the methods of sampling,
data collection as well as data analysis were discussed.
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Chapter 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
4.1 Introduction
This chapter focuses on the data analysis and discussion of results. Firstly, the
data collection processes of the pilot study and the main study are explained.
Discussion will cover the survey period, response rates, the demographic profile of
the respondents and the reliability of the measurement scale. Secondly, the results of
the data analysis including descriptive statistics, means comparisons, correlation
analysis, multiple regression analysis and principal components analysis will be
presented. Finally, the research findings will then be discussed and interpreted with
probable reasons and explanations.
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4.2 Pilot Study
4.2.1 Survey Periods
The pilot study was carried out from October to November, 2012 with the
purpose of testing all aspects of the survey. According to Veal (2006), pilot studies
are used to test questionnaire wordings, sequencing and layout, and to assess field
work arrangements, response rates and analysis procedures. Gaining access to
travel companies involved personal contact and sending emails. Invitations were
sent to potential targets. As a result, four travel agencies (a corporate travel
company, a tour wholesaler and two large retail travel agencies) and four tour
guides agreed to participate in the survey. The details of data collection were
elaborated in Chapter Three (see Section 3.6.1).
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4.2.2 Response Rates
Table 9 shows the response rates for the pilot study. Seventy-three
questionnaires were sent out and fifty-five were returned; fifty-one were usable,
which meant a usable response rate of 69.9%. Table 10 provides the details of
respondents.
Table 9 Pilot Study Response Rates

No. of Response
No. of questionnaire distributed 73
Non-responses 18
No. of Responses 55
Missing data 4
Total usable responses 51
1
Total usable response rate 69.9%
1
Note: Total usable response rate = Total usable response / No. of questionnaire distributed
Table 10 Pilot Study Samples

Travel agent / tour guide No. of questionnaires No of questionnaires
distributed returned
Hong Thai Travel 40 32
Farrington American Express 5 5
Travel Services Ltd
Wing On Travel 10 6
Jetour Holiday Ltd. 14 9
Tour Guides 4 3
Total 73 55
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4.2.3 Demographic Characteristics of Respondents
Concerning the demographic profile of respondents (see Table 11), 68.6%
were tour leaders, 5.9% were tour guides and 25.5% were engaged in both jobs. The
percentages of male and female respondents were 43.1% and 51% respectively. About
70% were aged under 45 and most were single (74.5%). For nearly 70%, secondary
school was their highest educational attainment. With regard to tenure, two-thirds of
the respondents had worked with their present company for more than four years, and
which 37.3% had worked for their company for over ten years. Almost half of the
respondents had been in the tour guide profession for more than ten years.
Table 11 Demographic Profile of Respondents in Pilot Study

Demographic characteristic Number (N=51) Percentage (%)
Tour leader / tour guide

Tour leader 35 68.6
Tour guide 3 5.9
Tour leader & tour guide 13 25.5
Gender
Male 22 43.1
Female 26 51.0
Age
18 – 24 9 17.6
25 – 34 17 33.3
183
35 – 44 10 19.6
45 – 54 12 23.5
55 – 65 1 2.0
65 or above 0 0.0
Marital status
Married 10 19.6
Single 38 74.5
Divorced 1 2.0
Education level
Secondary 35 68.6
Post-secondary 10 19.6
University or above 4 7.8
Years of service in the company

Less than 1 year 5 9.8
1–3 10 19.6
4–6 11 21.6
7–9 4 7.8
10 or above 19 37.3
Experience as a tour guide

1–3 7 13.7
4–6 10 19.6
7–9 4 7.8
10 or above 25 49.0
Remarks: The total percentage of each factor was not 100% due to the missing values were not showed.
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4.2.4 Reliability Test for Pilot Study
Reliability is an indicator showing the internal consistency of a measure
(Zikmund et al. 2013). A measure is reliable when applied to the same object
repeatedly, the same result will be generated each time (Babbie 2013). As pointed out
in Chapter Three, there are three approaches to measuring the reliability of the data: (i)
the test-retest method, (ii) the split-half method and (iii) internal consistency. In this
study, internal consistency was employed to measure the reliability of the data and
Cronbach’s alpha .70 was set as a criterion to measure the reliability of each construct.
The Cronbach’s alphas of each construct in the pilot study are shown in Table
12. It was found that the alpha coefficient of each construct was high, ranging
from .79 to .95, and so all were above the acceptable criterion of .70. The lowest
coefficient alpha was for deep acting (.79) and the highest was for perceived
supervisor support (.95). The high coefficients indicated that the test items of each
construct had a high internal consistency. Thus, the data was found to be reliable to be
used for testing the various hypotheses in the main survey.
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Table 12 Scale Reliability Analysis for Pilot Study
Construct Cronbach’s Alpha (α)
Deep Acting .785
Surface Acting .803
Perceived Organisational Support .913
Perceived Supervisor Support .951
Role Performance .927
4.3 Main Survey
4.3.1 Survey Periods
The main survey was conducted from March to July, 2013. A convenience
method was employed to select the sample. As discussed in the preceding chapter, the
researcher used the defined sampling frame and sampling unit to choose appropriate
travel agencies or tour guides to invite them to participate in the study. As in the case
of the pilot study, invitation letters were sent to target travel agencies to request their
support. Two travel agencies agreed to participate in the survey. Questionnaires were
also distributed to tour guides at the Hong Kong International Airport during the
Easter holidays when outbound travel was at a peak. Data were also collected at the
Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Haking Wong Campus) where tour
guides were attending training courses. The process of data collection was elaborated
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in Chapter Three (see Section 3.6.2).
4.3.2 Response Rates
Table 13 shows the response rates of the main survey. Six hundred and ten
questionnaires were distributed to target participants through different channels. Four
hundred and seven responses were received and 309 were usable, giving a usable
response rate of 50.7%. The details of the travel agency profile are presented in Table
14.
Table 13 Main Survey Response Rates

Travel Airport Training Total
Agencies Institute
No. of questionnaire 184 86 340 610
distributed
Non-responses 24 4 175 203
No. of Responses 160 82 165 407
Missing data 32 6 35 73
Not qualified1 0 0 25 25
Total usable responses 128 76 105 309
Total usable response rate2 69.6% 88.4% 30.9% 50.7%
Note: 1The respondents were not tour guides
Note: 2 Total usable response rate = Total usable response / No. of questionnaire distributed
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Table 14 The Profile of Participating Travel Agencies in Main Survey
Travel Agency Frequency Percentage (%)
Hong Thai Travel 134 43.4
Wing On Travel 45 14.6
Goldjoy Holiday 7 2.3
Morning Star 12 3.9
Sunflower Travel 15 4.9
Miramar Travel 11 3.6
CTS 10 3.2
1
Others 75 24.3
Total 309 100.0
Note1 Responses were collected from the training institute and companies were not identified
In the following section, the demographic profiles of respondents will be
analysed. This is important as the respondents’ demographic characteristics are the
means to provide settings for the interpretation of the research results. The statistics
for the respondents’ demographic profile are shown in Table 15. Among the
respondents, 88.1% were tour leaders, 1.7% were tour guides and 10.2% performed
both roles. Males accounted for 52.5% and female made up 46.5% and the remaining
1% respondents did not identify their gender.
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In respect to the age distribution, 24.1% of respondents were aged between 18
to 24; 39.6% were between the ages of 25 and 34; and 19.5% were aged between 35
and 44. The three age groups accounted for a cumulative percentage of 83.2%.
Respondents aged 45 or above comprised 16.2% of the total. With regard to marital
status, 77.2% of the respondents were single, 20.1% were married and 2.0% were
divorced. In terms of education level, 56.8% of the respondents had completed
secondary education, 27.7% had completed a post-secondary qualification and 14.9%
listed their highest qualification as university graduates. Concerning years of service
with the company, 20.5% of the respondents worked for less than 1 year; 24.4%
worked for 1 to 3 years; about 25% had been with the company for 4 to 9 years; and
29.7% had tenure of 10 years or more. Lastly, with regard to years of experience, the
pattern was similar to that of years of service: 17.2% had an experience of less than 1
year, 21.8% had 1 to 3 years’ experience; 23.1% had 4 to 9 years’ experience and 37%
had 10 or more years.
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Table 15 Demographic Profile of Respondents in Main Survey
Demographic characteristic Number (N=303) Percentage (%)
Tour leader / tour guide

Tour leader 267 88.1
Tour guide 5 1.7
Tour leader & tour guide 31 10.2
Gender
Male 159 52.5
Female 141 46.5
Age
18 – 24 73 24.1
25 – 34 120 39.6
35 – 44 59 19.5
45 – 54 43 14.2
55 – 65 5 1.7
65 or above 1 0.3
Marital Status
Married 61 20.1
Single 234 77.2
Divorced 6 2.0
Education Level
Secondary 172 56.8
Post-secondary 84 27.7
University or above 45 14.9
Years of Service in the company

1–3 74 24.4
4–6 51 16.8
7–9 24 7.9
10 or above 90 29.7
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Experience as a Tour Guide
1–3 66 21.8
4–6 39 12.9
7–9 31 10.2
10 or above 112 37.0
Remarks: The total percentage of each factor is not 100% due to the missing values are not showed.
4.3.4 Reliability Test for Main Survey
The statistical tests used in this study were based on assumptions that data
were normally distributed and samples came from the same population. Field (2009)
stated that if such assumptions were violated, the results would probably be inaccurate.
Therefore, it was important to check assumptions before implementing any statistical
procedures. The normality of data distribution of the five variables (DA, SA, POS,
PSS and RP) was checked by histogram, boxplot, skewness and kurtosis tests. As a
result, six outlier cases were identified and removed from the analysis. Hence, the
usable samples were reduced from 309 to 303. In the subsequent sections, the findings
of the survey will be presented and discussed.
Firstly, the internal consistency of the measurement scale was assessed. The
results (see Table 16) indicate that the alpha coefficient of SA, POS, PSS and RP were
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high, ranging from .83 to .93, representing a good internal reliability. DA had a lower
alpha coefficient (.65), which was below the acceptable level of .70. Hair et al. (1998)
suggested that the coefficient alpha may be reduced to .60 in exploratory research.
Kline (1999) also stated that a Cronbach’s alpha below .70 could be expected when
dealing with psychological constructs. Similar findings were found in other studies,
for example in a study on the development and validation of the hospitality emotional
labour scale, the α value of emotive effort (a construct which was conceptually the
same as Deep Acting) was .69 (Chu & Murrmann 2006). Though the α value of DA
was below .70, it was still considered acceptable.
Table 16 Scale Reliability Analysis for Main Survey

Construct Cronbach’s Alpha (α)
Deep Acting .648
Surface Acting .830
Perceived Organisational Support .876
Perceived Supervisor Support .927
Role Performance .884
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4.4 Descriptive Statistics
Means, standard deviations and correlations of study variables are presented in
Table 17. The means ranged from 4.16 to 5.50 and standard deviations ranged
from .48 to .98. All independent variables were related to the dependent variable at
p< .01.
Table 17 Means, Standard Deviation and Correlations of the Independent Variables

and the Dependent Variable
Item Mean SD Range 1 2 3 4 5
1. RP 5.5020 .62972 3.8 – 7.0 1
2. DA 5.2157 .59003 3.4 – 6.6 .432** 1
**
3. SA 4.1570 .98077 1.7 – 6.3 -.135 .226** 1
** **
4. POS 4.5278 .62652 2.3 – 6.7 .339 .392 .001 1
** ** *
5. PSS 5.0831 .47893 3.4 – 6.0 .308 .364 .118 .446** 1
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed).
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (1-tailed).
N = 303
Means, standard deviations and correlations of each variable are presented in
Tables 18–22. For deep acting (see Table 18), the means of deep acting ranged from
4.71 to 5.83, and standard deviations ranged from .79 to 1.30. In general, respondents
agreed that they engaged in deep acting when interacting with customers. The highest
mean score was for ‘Feeling positive emotions is part of my job’ whereas the lowest
mean score was for ‘I change my actual feelings to match those must be expressed to
193
customers’. All items were correlated to other items except item 5. Results showed
that item 5 and item 1 were not correlated.
For surface acting (see Table 19), the means of surface acting ranged from
2.86 to 4.94, and standard deviations ranged from 1.27 to 1.49. All of the item means
were less than 5, indicating that respondents disagreed to the statements about surface
acting. The lowest mean score was for ‘My interactions with customers are robotic’
with a score of 2.86. Tour guides did not consider their interactions with customers
were mechanical and lacked a human touch. In fact, the means for deep acting and
surface acting gave a hint of the respondents’ attitudes to the two types of acting.
However, how this attitude affected the role performance needed to be further tested.
Regarding the item correlations, most of the items were correlated to each other
except item 5 and item 6. These two items did not correlate with item 1.
The descriptive statistics of perceived organisational support are presented in
Table 20. The means of perceived organisational support ranged from 3.82 to 5.63,
and standard deviations ranged from 0.90 to 1.36. The highest mean score was for
‘Maintains a good reputation in the industry’ (5.63) whereas the lowest mean score
was for ‘Fails to appreciate my extra efforts’ (3.82). Surprisingly, the means of POS
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items were quite low, with many item means below 5. These results might provide
clues about the areas in which respondents felt that organisational support was low,
particularly in the appreciation of staff’s efforts and good work, as well as in the area
of rewards and recognition. Apart from item 12 and item 13, other items correlated
well with each other.
With regard to perceived supervisor support (see Table 21), it was found that
the means of perceived supervisor support ranged from 3.15 to 5.62, and standard
deviations ranged from 0.87 to 1.40. The highest mean score was for ‘Helps me solve
problems’ (5.62) whereas the lowest mean score was for ‘Ignores my complaint’”
(3.15). Comparing these results with the POS results, the mean of each item was
higher than the corresponding mean in the POS results. This might indicate that
supervisor support was perceived to be stronger than the organisational support. All
items were significantly correlated with each other.
Last, the descriptive statistics for role performance are depicted at Table 22.
The means of role performance ranged from 4.17 to 5.90, and standard deviations
ranged from .80 to 1.48. The highest mean score was for ‘Group leader’ (5.90) while
the lowest mean score was for ‘Negotiator’ (4.17). All item means, except for item 15,
195
were above 5 and were very close to 6. Respondents, in general, agreed that they had
to perform the listed roles. In regard to item-item correlations, excluding item 12 and
item 15, almost all items were correlated with each other.
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Table 18 Means, Standard Deviations and Correlations of Deep Acting
Item Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1. I think of pleasant images to create a positive feeling 5.31 1.105 1
2. I concentrate on my behaviour when display emotions 5.38 .931 .472** 1
that I do not feel
3. I try to experience the positive emotions that I must 5.58 .868 .321** .314** 1
show
4. Feeling positive emotions is part of my job 5.83 .793 .194** .301** .443** 1
** *
5. I change my emotions to meet company's requirements 4.96 1.097 .007 .209 .115 .248** 1
** ** ** **
6. I start to feel happy if I pretend to be happy 4.74 1.295 .244 .198 .203 .168 .147** 1
** * ** *
7. I change my actual feelings to match those I must 4.71 1.114 .082 .138 .115 .196 .123 .394** 1
express to customers
N = 303, grand mean 5.22, SD .590, max 6.57, min 3.43
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Table 19 Means, Standard Deviations and Correlations of Surface Acting
Item Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1. My smile is not sincere 4.94 1.354 1
2. I put on an act in order to deal with customers in an 4.24 1.486 .259** 1

appropriate way
3. I put on a mask to display the required emotions at work 4.40 1.472 .252** .792** 1
** **
4. I show feelings that are different from the inside feelings 4.34 1.274 .268 .656 .722** 1
** **
5. My interactions with customers are robotic 2.86 1.347 .053 .309 .287 .298** 1
** ** **
6. I cover my true feelings when dealing with customers 4.23 1.378 .009 .425 .435 .485 .383** 1
** ** ** ** **
7. I fake a good mood when interacting with customers 4.09 1.434 .189 .530 .555 .624 .384 .643** 1
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Table 20 Means, Standard Deviations and Correlations of Perceived Organisational Support
Item Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
1. Values my contribution 4.72 1.163 1

2. Cares about my wellbeing 4.13 1.226 .640** 1
**
3. Maintains a fair human resources system 4.30 1.261 .491 .615** 1
** **
4. Assigns tours to me based on my performance 4.73 1.187 .480 .472 .559** 1
** ** **
5. Increases my salary when have profit 3.94 1.357 .488 .580 .528 .514** 1
** ** ** **
6. Cares about my opinions 4.33 1.205 .570 .621 .573 .525 .624** 1
** ** ** ** **
7. Takes pride in my accomplishments 4.33 1.135 .619 .526 .501 .558 .566 .710** 1
** ** ** ** ** **
8. Provides training to enhance my performance 5.00 1.189 .272 .321 .403 .358 .408 .444 .415** 1
** ** ** ** ** ** **
9. Helps me when I have problems 5.36 1.054 .362 .302 .294 .292 .296 .342 .332 .426** 1
** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
10. Maintains a good reputation in the industry 5.63 .900 .307 .253 .268 .343 .263 .350 .344 .389 .538* 1
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
11. Cares about my general satisfaction at work 5.17 .996 .425 .394 .369 .320 .334 .443 .409 .367 .457 .575** 1
* ** *
12. Fails to appreciate my extra efforts 3.82 1.221 .058 .022 .117 .140 .059 .044 .035 .109 .029 .081 .058 1
** ** * ** * *
13. Fails to notice even when I do my best 3.85 1.119 .090 .086 .142 .144 .103 .088 .020 .134 .085 .133 .104 .601** 1
14. Shows very little concern to me 4.08 1.112 .260** .187** .215** .246** .135** .199** .253** .193** .214** .127* .155** .461** .611** 1

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Table 21Means, Standard Deviations and Correlations of Perceived Supervisor Support
Item Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
1. Values my contribution 5.32 .881 1
2. Maintains a good working relationship 5.56 .870 .707** 1

** **
3. Helps me strive for better benefits 5.14 1.101 .496 .623 1
4. Takes pride in my accomplishments 5.02 1.028 .506** .512** .592** 1

** ** ** **
5. Gives reasons for changing my work conditions 5.03 1.000 .464 .440 .556 .502 1
6. Helps me when I have a special request 5.41 .938 .475** .578** .612** .553** .575** 1
** ** ** ** ** **
7. Forgives my mistakes 5.30 .916 .381 .516 .583 .428 .436 .532 1
8. Helps me solve problems 5.62 .909 .460** .607** .543** .471** .478** .608** .645** 1
** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
9. Provides job feedback and advices 5.42 .887 .421 .540 .592 .519 .484 .581 .618 .648 1
10. Listens to me when handling complaints 5.46 .919 .413** .503** .539** .549** .470** .548** .479** .534** .602** 1
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
11. Gives praises and encouragement 5.49 .959 .434 .516 .468 .553 .435 .573 .531 .523 .607 .607 1
12. Cares about my general satisfaction at work 5.48 .876 .445** .563** .459** .536** .401** .491** .527** .547** .560** .572** .707** 1
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
13. Shows very little concern to me 4.67 1.389 .303 .318 .335 .233 .164 .335 .384 .313 .382 .266 .347 .339 1
14. Ignores my complaints 3.15 1.347 -.316** -.373** -.362** -.222** -.143** -.271** -.317** -.277** -.345** -.273** -.317** -.321** -.679** 1
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
15. Fails to appreciate my extra efforts 4.65 1.399 .331 .372 .365 .306 .215 .381 .376 .289 .446 .323 .358 .330 .708 -.750 1
16. Fails to notice even when I do my best 4.61 1.357 .354** .365** .388** .292** .225** .331** .354** .281** .412** .307** .340** .324** .685** -.754** .850
*
1

200
Table 22 Means, Standard Deviations and Correlations of Role Performance
Item Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
1. Actor 5.53 .982 1
2. Ambassador 5.58 .891 .384** 1
**
3. Buffer 5.72 .803 .394 .551** 1
** **
4. Caretaker 5.74 .950 .317 .376 .448** 1
** ** **
5. Cultural mediator 5.39 .939 .299 .548 .461 .342** 1
** ** ** **
6. Entertainer 5.30 1.094 .262 .487 .392 .400 .521** 1
** ** ** ** **
7. Group leader 5.90 .917 .237 .239 .373 .496 .282 .233** 1
** ** ** ** ** **
8. Host 5.05 1.223 .219 .425 .266 .290 .411 .431 .225** 1
** ** ** ** ** ** **
9. Information giver 5.60 .859 .219 .414 .420 .233 .454 .402 .401 .525** 1
** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
10. Intermediary / middleman 5.57 .918 .342 .391 .475 .338 .467 .372 .364 .407 .650** 1
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
11. Interpreter / translator 5.25 1.183 .222 .334 .334 .317 .491 .493 .275 .489 .508 .557** 1
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
12. Organiser 5.25 1.144 .088 .357 .282 .232 .329 .381 .285 .446 .525 .411 .519** 1
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
13. Problem solver 5.84 .794 .190 .337 .513 .437 .310 .287 .579 .253 .470 .456 .349 .347** 1
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
14. Salesperson 5.64 .902 .169 .407 .365 .304 .312 .380 .382 .228 .476 .359 .273 .278 .456** 1
** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
15. Negotiator 4.17 1.479 .138 .259 .184 .211 .224 .315 .073 .421 .254 .266 .389 .339 .068 .177** 1
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4.5 Comparing the Means
4.5.1 T-test of Two Means
An independent t-test was conducted to look for difference between the scores
of male and female respondents. The results are displayed in Table 23. Levene’s test
results were not significant, F ranged from .01 to 2.33, all ps> .05; so the assumption
of homogeneity of variance was tenable. The findings showed that differences in the
mean scores for males and females for different variables were very small. Some
variables like deep acting, perceived supervisor support and role performance
demonstrated more or less the same mean. In addition, only perceived organisational
support recorded a significant difference between males (M = 4.63, SD = .63) and
females (M = 4.48, SD = .62). The t-test for perceived organisational support was
t(298) = 2.04, p < .05 although the difference was only 0.15. In sum, it could be
concluded that no major differences were found between the means of male’s and
female’s responses, and that the two groups represented samples from the same
population.
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4.5.2 One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
In addition to the t-test, a one-way ANOVA test (see Table 24) was conducted
to compare the means for the variables for different demographic categories.
Demographics were selected as the independent variables and DA, SA, POS, PSS and
RP were dependent variables. The results of Levene’s test on all dependent variables
were not significant, so the assumption of homogeneity of variance was judged to
have not been violated. However age had a significant effect on the means for the
variable of SA, F (3, 297) = 4.35, p < .05. Post-hoc comparisons (Hoshberg) found
the age group of 45 or above (M = 3.74, SD = 1.17) displayed significantly lower
mean ratings of SA than both the age groups of 25 to 34 (M = 4.18, SD = .92) and 35
to 44 (M = 4.40, SD = .89). Apart from this, no other significant difference in means
was observed.
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Table 23 t-test of Gender and Variables
Male Female
Variable Mean SD Std. Error Mean SD Std. Error T df p
Mean Mean
DA 5.20 .61 .05 5.21 .57 .05 -.08 298 .936
SA 4.23 .94 .07 4.05 1.03 .09 1.60 298 .111
POS 4.62 .63 .05 4.48 .62 .05 2.04 298 .043
PSS 4.96 .48 .04 4.91 .47 .04 .99 298 .325
RP 5.41 .66 .05 5.44 .59 .05 -35 298 .730
P < .05 (2-tailed), N (male = 159, female = 141)
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Table 24 One-way ANOVA Test of Variables across Respondents’ Demographic
Profile
df
Between Groups Within Groups F Sig
Age
DA 3 297 1.358 .256
SA 3 297 4.351 .005*
POS 3 297 2.355 .072
PSS 3 297 .178 .911
RP 3 297 1.625 .184
Education Level
DA 2 298 .188 .829
SA 2 298 .002 .998
POS 2 298 .006 .994
PSS 2 298 .522 .594
RP 2 298 .396 .673
Year of Service
DA 4 296 .697 .595
SA 4 296 1.139 .338
POS 4 296 .625 .645
PSS 4 296 .203 .936
RP 4 296 1.740 .141
Experience
DA 4 295 .510 .728
SA 4 295 .724 .576
POS 4 295 .617 .650
PSS 4 295 .617 .650
RP 4 295 2.011 .093
*p<0.05
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4.6 Principal Components Analysis
A principal component analysis (PCA) followed by an orthogonal (varimax)
rotation was conducted for each variable to reduce the items to a smaller number. The
objective of doing the PCA was to find out, for each variable, whether any underlying
component factor affected it. The findings of the PCA were analysed and interpreted
according to the following criteria:
(i) The value of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) statistic was above 0.5 (Kaiser
1974).‘KMO represents the ratio of the squared correlation between variables
to the squared partial correlation between variables’ (Field 2009). KMO
statistics ranges between 0 and 1. A value of 0 indicates the application of PCA
is not appropriate whereas a value close to 1shows PCA is appropriate in use.
(ii) Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was significant at p > .05 (Field 2009). If Barlett’s
Test is significant, ‘it means that the correlations between variables are
significantly different from zero’ (Field 2009). This is an important criterion for
performance PCA.
(iii) The correlation coefficients of items in the communalities had to be above .30,
indicating that items correlated fairly well for performing PCA. Items that had
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correlation coefficients greater than .90 had been excluded due to
multicollinearity in the data.
(iv) Factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 were retained as recommended by
Kaiser (1960).
(v) Factor loadings greater than .40 on one factor only were considered significant
(Hair et al. 1998; Kline 1999).
4.6.1 PCA of Emotional Labour
Since both deep acting and surface acting had only seven items each, the
number of items was not sufficient for conducting an effective PCA. As such, the
items of these two variables were grouped together under the construct of emotional
labour for running the PCA. Table 26 presents the PCA results of emotional labour.
Communalities ranged from .358 to .735. The bivariate correlations between
items were all above .30 and so the correlation matrix was considered to be potentially
appropriate for PCA. The KMO = .83, which was considered to be very good (Field,
2009). Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was significant, χ2 (91) = 1538.747, p < 0.05. Both
criteria were satisfied, so it was appropriate to apply PCA to this dataset. The results
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from the PCA indicated three factors were extracted with eigenvalues greater than 1.
Together they accounted for 56.76% of the total variance.
Factor 1 accounted for 29.71% of the variance. Cronbach’s alpha was .87,
showing the scale had a high internal consistency. Seven items had a loading on
Factor 1. Six of them were items related to surface acting and one item (item 6)
related to deep acting. Therefore, the factor was renamed as ‘Surface Acting’.
revealing that the internal consistency of items was fairly acceptable. Among the five
items loading onto this factor, four were items related to deep acting and one item
related surface acting (item 11). As such, this factor was also remained as ‘Deep
Acting’
indicating that the scale had a poor reliability. Only two items had a loading for this
factor. Manning and Munro (2007) have suggested that if a factor has less than four
items loading onto it, it should be considered to be unreliable and researchers might
choose not to interpret it. Because the factor had only two items and the scale
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reliability was low, it was decided not to interpret it.
Three factors were extracted from the PCA; however, scree plot showed that
only two factors were important to emotional labour. The results were consistent with
those of previous studies (Brotheridge & Lee 2003; Chu & Murrmann 2006;
Hochschild 1983; Kruml & Geddes 2000), thus supporting the validity of a two-factor
construct for an emotional labour model. The findings of this study demonstrate that
the emotional labour scale can be applied to measure tour guides’ emotional strategies.
In regards to factor means, the mean score for deep acting (M = 5.19) was higher than
the score for surface acting (M = 4.13). It could be inferred that tour guides think deep
acting is more relevant to their work.
4.6.2 PCA of Perceived Organisational Support
Table 27 presents the PCA results for POS. Communalities ranged from .438
to .842. The bivariate correlations between items were above .30 and so the
correlation matrix was considered to be potentially appropriate for PCA. The KMO
= .87, which was considered to be very good (Field 2009). Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity
was significant, χ2 (91) = 2018.804, p < 0.05, indicating that correlations between
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items were sufficiently large for PCA. Results from the PCA extracted three factors
with eigenvalues over 1. Together they accounted 64.62% of the total variance. A
scree plot was conducted to re-confirm the results from PCA. It was found that three
factors should be retained, which is consistent with the PCA results.
showing the items had a high internal consistency. Seven items had loadings on this
factor. Most of the respondents concerned the degree of support extended by the
organisation such as ‘cares about my wellbeing’; ‘increases my salary’; ‘cares about
my opinions’; ‘takes pride in my accomplishment’ and ‘values my contributions’.
Given the nature of the underlying components extracted, the factor was named
‘Organisational Care and Rewards’.
representing a good internal consistency of items. Four items had loadings on Factor 2
and they were concerned with job performance. They were ‘maintains a good
reputation in the industry’; ‘helps me when I have problems’; ‘cares about my general
satisfaction at work’ and ‘provides training to enhance my performance’. In view of
the nature of this factor, it was named ‘Job Training and Facilitation’.
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Factor 3 accounted for 16% of the variance. Cronbach’s alpha was .82,
showing the items had a high internal consistency. Three items had a loading on this
factor: ‘fails to notice even when I do my best’; ‘fails to appreciate my extra efforts’
and ‘shows very little concern to me’. The items were negative statements related to
concern showed by organisations. The scores of these items had been reverted before
the data analysis. The Factor was labelled as ‘Organisational Recognition and
Appreciation’.
When comparing the factor means, it was found that the mean score of Factor
2 (M = 5.29) was the highest, followed by Factor 1 (M = 4.35) and Factor 3 (M =
3.92). This might indicate that tour guides regarded support to facilitate their job
performance was the most important factor in perceived organisational support.
4.6.3 PCA of Perceived Supervisor Support
Table 28 presents the PCA results for PSS. Communalities ranged from .461
to .871. The bivariate correlations between items were all above .30 and so the
correlation matrix was considered to be appropriate for PCA. The KMO = .93, which
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was considered as very good (Field 2009). Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was significant,
χ2 (120) = 3421.382, p < 0.05, indicating that correlations between items were
sufficiently large for PCA. The results from the PCA showed two factors were
extracted with eigenvalues greater than 1. Together they accounted for 64.22% of the
total variance. The scree plot also indicated that two factors should be retained in PSS.
representing a very high internal consistency. All items, except the reversed
statements (items 13 to 16), had loadings on Factor 1. The result was consistent with
previous studies (Kottke & Sharafinski 1988; Rhoades et al. 2001) showing PSS was
a unidimensional construct. Factor 1 was remained as ‘Supervisor Concern and Care’.
Factor 2 accounted for 23.12% of the variance. Cronbach’s alpha was -.02,
indicating that internal consistency of items was minimal. Four items had loadings on
Factor 2. They were items 13, 14, 15 and 16. All these items were negative statements
related to perceived supervisor support and the scores of these items had been reverted
before data analysis. The Cronbach’s alpha (-.018) showed that the scale was not a
reliable measure of perceived supervisor support. Nevertheless, Factor 2 accounted
for almost a quarter of the variance. This suggests that the items negatively affect tour
212
guides’ perceptions of supervisor support. In view of this, Factor 2 was named
‘Supervisor Recognition and Appreciation’.
When looking into the factor means, Factor 1 (M = 5.35) had a higher score
than Factor 2 (M = 4.27). This indicates that tour guides agreed that their supervisors
were supportive.
4.6.4 PCA of Role Performance
One of the study objectives was to identify the major roles of tour guides. As
such, the PCA helped reduce the fifteen roles into a few major dimensions. Table 29
presents the PCA results for role performance. Communalities ranged from .436
to .731. The bivariate correlations between items were all above .30 and so the
correlation matrix was considered to be potentially appropriate for PCA. The KMO
= .89, which was considered as very good (Field 2009). Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity
was significant, χ2 (105) = 1863.99, p < 0.05, indicating that correlations between
items were sufficiently large for PCA. The results from the PCA showed three factors
were extracted with eigenvalues greater than 1. Together they accounted for 58.31%
of the total variance.Scree plot indicated that three factors to be retained in role
213
performance.
showing the items had a high internal consistency. Items with loadings on Factor 1
included ‘host’, ‘interpreter / translator’, ‘organiser, negotiator’, ‘information giver’
and ‘intermediary / middlemen’. Tour guides believed that their primary role was to
help travellers become familiar with the destination, through providing relevant
information (M = 5.60) and proper interpretations (M = 5.25) of the place. Acting as
middlemen (M = 5.57) between the local people and travellers was equally important
for enhancing the communications of both parties. Given the nature of the roles, this
factor was labelled as ‘Communicative and Intermediary Role’.
showing that the internal consistency of items was good. Items with loadings on
Factor 2 comprised: ‘problem solver’, ‘group leader’ and ‘salesperson’. These roles
required professional skills such as problem solving, leadership and sales skills.
Among the three items, group leader (M = 5.90) and problem solver (M = 5.84) were
deemed to be the most important. Given the nature of the roles, this factor was
labelled as ‘Sales and Interactionary Role
214
Factor 3 accounted for 17% of the variance. Cronbach’s alpha was .80,
showing the items had a high internal consistency. Six items had a loading on this
factor: ‘actor’, ‘ambassador’, ‘buffer’, ‘cultural mediator’, ‘caretaker’ and
‘entertainer’. Unlike Factor 1 and Factor 2 which focused on tasks, Factor 3
emphasised the management of emotions. For example, tour guides had to act in front
of tour participations, they could not display their true feelings even when they felt
sad (actor, entertainer), and had to be patient, compassionate and empathetic when
taking care of the guests (caretaker, buffer, ambassador). In view of these
characteristics, Factor 3 was named ‘Social and Ambassador Role’.
The factor means showed that Factor 2 had the highest mean; it was followed
by Factor 3 and Factor 1. However, the scores were quite close (Factor 2 = 5.79,
Factor 3 = 5.54, Factor 1 = 5.14). The results show that tour guides considered all the
roles were equally important in their daily work.
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4.6.5 Summary of PCA
Table 25 summarises the findings of PCA. Two factors, namely ‘Deep Acting’
and ‘Surface Acting’, were extracted in regard to emotional labour. For POS, three
factors were extracted. They were labelled ‘Organisational Affection’, ‘Performance
Facilitation’ and ‘Organisational Concern’. Two factors were found in PSS:
‘Supportive Environment’ and ‘Supervisor Concern’. Lastly, three factors were
identified in RP, comprising ‘Communicative and Intermediary Role’, ‘Sales and
Interactionary Role’ and ‘Social and Ambassador Role’.
Table 25 Findings of Principal Component Analysis

Variable Factor Extracted Factor Mean
Emotional Labour Factor 1 – Surface Acting 4.13
Factor 2 – Deep Acting 5.19
Perceived Organisational Factor 1 – Organisational Care and Rewards 4.35
Support Factor 2 – Job Training and Facilitation 5.29
Factor 3 – Organisational Recognition and 3.92
Appreciation
Perceived Supervisor Factor 1 –Supervisor Concern and Care 5.35
Support Factor 2 – Supervisor Recognition and 4.27
Appreciation
Role Performance Factor 1 – Communicative and Intermediary 5.14
Role
Factor 2 – Sales and Interactionary Role 5.79
Factor 3 – Social and Ambassador Role 5.54
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Table 26 Results of Principal Component Analysis on Emotional Labour (N = 303)
Factor Mean SD Factor Factor Eigen Variance Reliability

Loading Mean value % Coefficient
Factor 1 4.13 4.208 29.71 .865
1. I show feelings that are different from the inside feelings 4.34 1.274 .849
2. I put on a mask to display the required emotions at work 4.40 1.472 .848.
3. I put on an act in order to deal with customers in an appropriate way 4.24 1.486 .820
4. I fake a good mood when interacting with customers 4.09 1.434 .788
5. I cover my true feelings when dealing with customers 4.23 1.378 .703
6. I change actual feelings to match those express to customers 4.71 1.114 .632
7. My interactions with customers are robotic 2.86 1.347 .478
Factor 2 5.19 2.597 14.86 .616
8. I think of pleasant images to create a positive feeling 5.31 1.105 .791
9. I concentrate on my behaviour when display emotions that I do not feel 5.38 .931 .590
10. I start to feel happy if I pretend to be happy 4.74 1.295 .579
11. My smile is not sincere 4.94 1.354 .534
12. I try to experience the positive emotions that I must show 5.58 .868 .480
Factor 3 5.40 1.140 12.19 .381
13. Feeling positive emotions is part of my job 5.83 .793 .749
14. I change my emotions to meet company's requirements 4.96 1.097 .654
217
Table 27 Results of Principal Component Analysis on Perceived Organisational Support (N = 303)

Factor 1 4.35 5.650 31.18 .898
1. Cares about my wellbeing 4.13 1.226 .805
2. Cares about my opinions 4.33 1.205 .798
3. Takes pride in my accomplishments 4.33 1.135 .769
4. Increases my salary when have profit 3.94 1.357 .767
5. Maintains a fair human resources system 4.30 1.261 .747
6. Values my contribution 4.72 1.163 .731
7. Assigns tours to me based on my performance 4.73 1.187 .686
Factor 2 5.29 2.057 17.44 .762
8. Maintains a good reputation in the industry 5.63 .900 .843
9. Helps me when I have problems 5.36 1.054 .776
10. Cares about my general satisfaction at work 5.17 .996 .714
11. Provides training to enhance my performance 5.00 1.189 .536
Factor 3 3.92 1.341 16.00 .817
12. Fails to notice even when I do my best 3.85 1.119 .911
13. Fails to appreciate my extra efforts 3.82 1.221 .839
14. Shows very little concern to me 4.08 1.112 .795
218
Table 28 Results of Principal Component Analysis on Perceived Supervisor Support (N = 303)

Factor 1 5.35 7.987 41.10 .930
1. Helps me solve problems 5.62 .909 .770
2. Helps me when I have a special request 5.41 .938 .769
3. Provides job feedback and advices 5.42 .887 .745
4. Listens to me when handling complaints 5.46 .919 .743
5. Takes pride in my accomplishments 5.02 1.028 .741
6. Helps me strive for better benefits 5.14 1.101 .740
7. Gives praises and encouragement 5.49 .959 .739
8. Maintains a good working relationship 5.56 .870 .739
9. Cares about my general satisfaction at work 5.48 .876 .723
10. Gives reasons for changing my work conditions 5.03 1.000 .709
11. Forgives my mistakes 5.30 .916 .690
12. Values my contribution 5.32 .881 .638
Factor 2 4.27 2.286 23.12 -.018
13. Ignores my complaints 3.15 1.347 .912
14. Fails to appreciate my extra efforts 4.65 1.399 -.899
15. Fails to notice even when I do my best 4.61 1.357 -.898
16. Shows very little concern to me 4.67 1.389 -.859
219
Table 29 Results of Principal Component Analysis on Role Performance (N = 303)

Factor 1 5.14 6.080 22.25 .811
1. Host 5.05 1.223 .724
2. Interpreter / translator 5.25 1.183 .723
3. Organiser 5.25 1.144 .703
4. Negotiator 4.17 1.479 .656
5. Information giver 5.60 .859 .618
6. Intermediary / middleman 5.57 .918 .510
Factor 2 5.79 1.495 19.14 .724
7. Problem solver 5.84 .794 .826
8. Group leader 5.90 .917 .788
9. Salesperson 5.64 .902 .582
Factor 3 5.54 1.171 16.92 .803
10. Actor 5.53 .982 .750
11. Ambassador 5.58 .891 .674
12. Buffer 5.72 .803 .625
13. Cultural mediator 5.39 .939 .550
14. Caretaker 5.74 .950 .533
15. Entertainer 5.30 1.094 .491
220
4.7 Assessment of Hypotheses
Pearson’s product-moment correlation (Pearson’s r) was conducted to examine
the relationships between the independent variables (DA, SA, POS and PSS) and the
dependent variable (RP). Following the Pearson’s correlation analysis, the effect of
each independent variable on predicting role performance (Hypothesis 4) was
investigated using multiple regression analysis. The hypotheses were:
Hypothesis 1a: Deep acting is positively related to role performance.
Hypothesis 1b: Surface acting is negatively related to role performance.
Hypothesis 2: Perceived organisational support is positively related to role
performance.
Hypothesis 3: Perceived supervisor support is positively related to role
performance.
Hypothesis 4: Deep acting, surface acting, perceived organisational support and
perceived supervisor support will together have an influence on
role performance.
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4.7.1 Correlations Analysis
Table 30 presents the findings of the Pearson correlation calculations for the
independent variables and the dependent variable. The r values provide information
on the strength of the relationships, and the sign (positive or negative) indicates the
direction of the relationship. Field (2009) suggested that the r values of ±.1 represent
a small effect, ±.3 is a medium effect and ±.5 is a large effect.
The results in Table 30 show that role performance was significantly
correlated with deep acting, r = .43, surface acting, r = -.14, perceived organisational
support, r = .34 and perceived supervisor support, r = .31 (all ps<.01).
In terms of the size of an effect, deep acting, perceived organisational support
and perceived supervisor support had a medium effect; whereas surface acting had a
small effect on role performance.
Deep acting, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor
support were all positively related to role performance (r values ranged from .31
to .43), while surface acting (r = -.14) was negatively related to role performance.
222
Thus Hypotheses 1a, 1b, 2 and 3 were supported.
Table 30 Pearson Correlation between the Independent Variables and Role

Performance (N = 303)
Variable r p
Deep acting .432** .000
Surface acting -.135** .009
Perceived organisation support .339** .000
Perceived supervisor support .308** .000
Table 31 presents the correlations among the independent variables. The
results indicate that deep acting had a medium correlation with surface acting(r = .23),
perceived organisational support ( r = .39 )and perceived supervisor support ( r = .36 ),
whereas surface acting had little correlation with perceived supervisor support (r
= .12) and had no correlation with perceived organisational support. In contrast,
perceived organisational support had a strong correlation with perceived supervisor
support (r = .44). The finding was consistent with prior research stating that POS and
PSS were related (Kottke & Sharafinski 1988; Rhoades et al. 2001; Yoon & Lim
1999).’
223
Table 31 Pearson Correlation among the Independent Variables
DA SA POS PSS
Deep acting 1
Surface acting .226** 1
Perceived organization support .392** .001 1
Perceived supervisor support .364** .118** .446** 1
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed)
4.7.2 Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA)
In the previous section, the correlations between the independent variables and
the dependent variable were assessed and the results revealed that all independent
variables were correlated with the dependent variable. In this section, multiple
regression analysis is conducted to test Hypothesis 4. MRA was used to measure the
degree and direction of influence of each independent variable for predicting the
dependent variable.
As discussed in Chapter Three, the regression equation included four
independent variables (DA, SA, POS and PSS) as follows:
224
Y = b0 + b1x1 + b2x2 + b3x3 +b4x4
xj = independent variables
The results of MRA were analysed and interpreted according to the following
statistics:
(i) The multiple correlation coefficient (R) represented the collective correlation
of all the independent variables with the dependent variable.
(ii) The R2and adjusted R2showed the proportion of variance in the outcome
(dependent variable) to be explained by a predictor variable (independent
variable), which was tested by the F-statistic.
(iii) Part correlations squared (sri2)value between each predictor variable and the
outcome displayed the unique contribution of a predictor variable to the
outcome, controlling the effects of other predictors.
(iv) Mutlicolinearity statistics such as the VIF (Variance Inflation Factor) and
tolerance values. As discussed in Chapter Three, a VIF value of 10 or above;
225
or a tolerance value below .10 illustrated multicolinearity problems. As such,
the cut-off point of VIF was 10 and the tolerance value was .10 in this study.
(v) An unstandardised coefficient β for each predictor variable to estimate the
contribution of each variable and the direction of its influence on the
prediction. A positive β value signified a direct relationship whereas a negative
β value represented a reverse relationship. The significance of the coefficient β
was tested by the t-statistic.
From the results of the PCA, an MRA was conducted to determine the
predicting effect of the seven factors (deep acting, surface acting, organisational care
and rewards, job training and facilitation, organisational recognition and appreciation,
supervisor concern and care, supervisor recognition and appreciation). Table 32
summarises the findings of the MRA. It was found that the multiple correlation
coefficient (R = .53) was significantly different from zero, F (7, 295) = 16.89, p < .05,
and 26% of the variation in the dependent variable was explained by the set of
independent variables (R2= .286, adjusted R2= .269). In short, the regression model
predicted role performance significantly well and the independent variables accounted
for 26% of the variation in role performance.
226
For part regression coefficients, deep acting (sri2 = .11, t = 6.84, p < .05), surface
acting (sri2 = .05, t = -4.55, p < .05), supervisor concern and care (sri2 = .01, t = 2.42, p
< .05) were found to have significantly and uniquely contributed to the prediction of
role performance, after controlling for the effects of other predictors. The other four
factors such as organisational care and rewards (t = 1.06, p > .05), job training and
facilitation (t = 1.17, p > .05), organisational recognition and appreciation (t = 1.15, p
> .05) and supervisor recognition and appreciation (t = .99, p > .05) were found to
have no significant unique contribution to the prediction.
227
Table 32 Results of Multiple Regression of the Independent Variables Predicting Role Performance
Unstandardised Correlations Collinearity Statistics
Coefficients
Independent Variables Beta Standard t Sig. Zero-order Partial Part Tolerance VIF
Error
(Constant) 2.271 .445 5.104 .000
Deep acting .413 .060 6.846 .000 .432 .370 .337 .756 1.324
Surface acting -.155 .034 -4.555 .000 -.135 -.256 -.224 .862 1.160
Organisationalcare and rewards .044 .041 1.064 .288 .301 .062 .052 .608 1.646
Job training and facilitation .061 .052 1.179 .239 .321 .069 .058 .569 1.759
Organisational recognition and .043 .037 1.158 .248 -.025 .067 .057 .733 1.365
appreciation
Supervisor concern and care .140 .058 2.428 .016 .301 .140 .119 .571 1.753
Supervisor recognition and .057 .058 .992 .322 -.073 .058 .049 .621 1.611
appreciation
R = .535, R2 = .286, Adjusted R2 = .269, F (7, 295) = 16.89, p < .05
228
The VIF values for the seven factors ranged from 1.16 to 1.75. Therefore, they did not
exceed the cut-off value of 10.0. The tolerance values ranged from .56 to .86, and
exceeded the cut-off value .10. Both the VIF values and the tolerance values indicated
that no multicollinearity existed among the variables.
The unstandardised coefficient β of deep acting, surface acting, supervisor
concern and care were .413, -.155 and .140 respectively (ps < .05). These results
indicate deep acting had a moderate positive influence whereas supervisor concern
and care had a weak positive influence on role performance. In contrast, surface
acting had a weak negative influence on role performance.
From the regression analysis results, it can be concluded that Hypothesis 4 is
partially supported. Deep acting and surface acting, as well as supervisor concern and
care, had unique contributions to the prediction of role performance whereas
organisational care and rewards, job training and facilitation, organisational
recognition and appreciation, supervisor recognition and appreciation did not have.
Hence, the equation of prediction produced by this analysis, which describes the
relationship between the variables, is:
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Role performance = 2.271 + .413 x deep acting + -.155 x surface acting + .14 x
supervisor concern and care.
4.7.3 Summary of Hypotheses Testing
Table 33 presents the results of the hypothesized relationships. As a result of
the correlations analysis and multiple regression analysis, it was found that the first
two hypotheses (H1a and H1b) were supported and there is a direct relationship
between the two emotional labour dimensions (deep action and surface acting) and
role performance. Deep acting demonstrated a positive relationship with r = .43 (p
< .01) and surface acting displayed a negative relationship with r = -.14 (p <.01).
Hypothesis 2, which proposed a positive relationship between perceived
organisational support and role performance, was supported, r = .34 (p < .01).
Similarly, Hypothesis 3 also received support, thereby indicating a positive
relationship between perceived supervisor support and role performance with r = .31
(p < .01).
Hypothesis 4 that proposed deep acting, surface acting, perceived
organisational support and perceived supervisor support together have influence on
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role performance was partially supported. The findings suggest that only deep acting
(sri2 = .11, t = 6.84, p < .05), surface acting (sri2 = .05, t = -4.55, p < .05) and
supervisor concern and care (sri2 = .01, t = 2.42, p < .05), significantly contribute to
the variance of role performance. Organisational care and rewards (t = 1.06, p > .05),
job training and facilitation (t = 1.17, p > .05), organisational recognition and
appreciation (t= 1.15, p > .05) and supervisor recognition and appreciation (t = .99, p
> .05) had no significant effect on role performance. Table 33 summarises the results
of the hypothesised relationships.
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Table 33 Results of the Hypothesised Relationships
Hypothesised Relationships Results
H1a: Deep acting is positively related to role Supported
performance
H1b: Surface acting is negatively related to role Supported

performance
H2: Perceived organisational support is positively Supported

related to role performance
H3: Perceived supervisor support is positively related Supported

to role performance
H4: Deep acting, surface acting, perceived Partially

organisational support and perceived supervisor supported
support will together have an influence on role
performance
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4.8 Discussion of Findings
This section will discuss the findings presented in the previous sections. The
key findings will be interpreted with probable causes and explanations.
Recommendations based on these findings will be discussed in Chapter Five.
4.8.1.1 The Gender of Respondents
In this study, male tour guides (52.5%) slightly outnumbered females. The
gender distribution of respondents could be explained by the possibility that many
female tour guides prefer more stable working conditions after having a family.
Therefore they may switch to office work whereas male tour guides remain in the tour
guiding profession.
4.8.1.2 Age Distribution
The results show that 63.7% of respondents were under the age of 35. The
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findings reveal that the tour guiding profession is dominated by young adults aged
between 18 and 34. Tour guiding is an attractive career for young people to broaden
their horizons. The job enables them to travel over the world to understand the
cultures of different countries and meet people from different nations. Nevertheless,
when tour guides have gained these experiences and have a family, they might
consider changing to jobs with more stable working conditions such as tour
development or branch management.
4.8.1.3 Education Level
The education level of respondents was mostly secondary and post-secondary.
The results could be explained by the fact that the incomes of tour guides are not
particularly high compared to other occupations. Despite the pay, tour guiding work
requires long and irregular working hours. Tour guides work on a ‘shift-duty’ basis
and need to work on public holidays. It is less appealing to university graduates who
are more likely to seek a highly paid job with stable working hours. Secondary and
post-secondary graduates, who are less competitive in the job market, are likely to be
more willing to be tour guides.
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4.8.1.4Years of Experience
It was interesting that 37% of the respondents had over 10 years’ experience.
The results indicate that tour guides are loyal to the industry. Even if they switch jobs,
they choose to stay in the tourism industry. This may be because once they have
experienced the energetic and versatile working environment of the tour guide, they
do not want to change to monotonous, less dynamic jobs. Besides, their education
levels are low, and this might make it difficult for them to switch jobs.
4.8.1.5 The Effects of Demographics on Research Findings
With reference to the one-way ANOVA test, the demographic variables, except
for ‘age’, were not associated with significant differences in the means for SA, DA,
POS and PSS. There were significantly different means among different age groups in
surface acting. The results indicate that older tour guides (aged 45 or above) displayed
less SA than younger ones (aged 25 to 44). It is presumed that older tour guides
should have more work experience than younger tour guides. The findings suggest
that older tour guides who have more work experience tended to spend more effort in
managing their emotions in their service interactions with customers. Similar findings
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were reported by Sohn and Lee (2011), who found that the work experience of service
employees in the tourism industry affected the emotional strategies they used.
According to Sohn and Lee (2011), employees with 10 to 15 years’ experience
performed deep acting more frequently than employees with less experience. The
findings have significant implications for the study of emotional labour. Further
research could explore the effect of age on emotional labour strategies in the tourism
industry.
4.8.2 Assessment of Hypotheses
This research aimed to examine the role performances of tour guides in the
tourism industry in Hong Kong. A theoretical framework was developed to show the
relationships between the dependent variable (RP) and the independent variables SA,
DA, POS and PSS. Based on the theoretical framework, hypotheses were formulated
and tested by means of a variety of statistical techniques in both the pilot study and
the main survey.
The results provided evidence to support the hypotheses and thus verified the
propositions that RP is related to SA, DA, POS and PSS. RP was only predicted by
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SA, DA and Supervisor Concern and Care (one factor of PSS) significantly. In the
following sections, the discussion will centre on an assessment of hypotheses and an
evaluation for the results in relation to the research objectives.
4.8.2.1 Deep Acting and Role Performance
Deep acting was found to be positively correlated with role performance (r
=.43, p<.01). This result reveals a medium positive correlation between DA and RP.
The findings are in line with previous research. For example, Hülsheger et al. (2010)
in their longitudinal study of the job performances of trainee teachers, found that
trainee teachers engaging in deep acting were rated more highly in their job
performances. Totterdell and Holman (2003) also reported a positive relationship
between deep acting and self-rated job performance in a bank’s call centre. Hülsheger
et al. (2010) suggested that employees engaged in deep acting were more likely to
fulfil their work roles and deliver higher performances.
In the tourism industry, tour participants’ satisfaction was highly affected by
the services provided by tour guides. If tour participants found the tour guide to be
sincere, friendly and willing to serve, they would trust the tour guide and be more
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cooperative and responsive on the tour, which in turn encouraged the tour guide to
perform his or her roles more effectively (Chu & Murrmann 2006). Thus, it was
important for tour guides to project a positive image among tour members. Deep
acting conveyed a sense of genuine interpersonal sensitivity and care (Ashworth &
Humphrey 1993). It elicits favourable customer responses and a good
employee-customer rapport (Grandey et al. 2005; Hennig-Thurau et al. 2006).
Another probable explanation for the high correlation between DA and RP is
the conservation of emotional resources through deep acting (Hobfoll 1989). The tour
guiding profession is characterised by long interaction times with tour participants
and the need to display a wide range of emotions. Tour guides use up a lot of mental
resources when performing their roles. The replenishment of mental resources is
important to the tour guides’ wellbeing in the long term. However, the expended
resources could be restored through a positive relationship with tour participants, and
this could only be achieved by deep acting. Hence, DA was positively related to RP.
• H1a is supported: Deep acting is positively related to role performance.
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4.8.2.2 Surface Acting and Role Performance
It was found in the current research that surface acting had a small negative
relationship with role performance (r = -.14, p<.01). The result matched the
proposition of this study. Similar findings were reported by Hülsheger and Schewe
(2011) that SA was negatively related to task performance (r = -.12). Their results
were drawn from a meta-analysis of a sample of 95 independent studies on emotional
labour.
Unlike deep acting, surface acting conveyed a sense of inauthentic emotional
display (Grandey 2003; Grandey et al. 2005). The fake expressions could be
interpreted by tour participants as dishonesty and deceit (Van Dijk et al. 2011). Hence,
the tour group did not believe in the tour guide and might respond by being
uncooperative or demonstrating unfriendly body language (Grandey 2003). Without
the support and trust from the group, tour guides could not carry out their roles
effectively. Therefore, as shown in this study, SA was negatively related to RP.
Moreover, Hülsheger and Schewe (2011) suggested that it required more effort
to manage emotions in SA than DA. Tour guides had to monitor their actual and
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desired emotions constantly, and this distracted them from other cognitive tasks that
were crucial to their performances. As a consequence, their performance was
hampered. Previous research showed that call centre employees who engaged in
surface acting made more mistakes during service encounters (Goldberg & Grandey
2007). Unlike employees who practised DA, the depleted resources of those engaged
in SA could not be recovered due to a lack of support from tour members. As a result,
SA not only led to poor performance, but also impaired psychological health
(Hülsheger & Schewe 2011).
• Hypothesis 1b is supported: Surface acting is negatively related to role
performance.
The findings of this research provided empirical support to previous studies
(Constanti & Gibbs 2005; Guerrier & Adib 2003; Sharpe 2005; Wong & Wang 2009;
Van Dijk & Kirk 2007), indicating emotional labour is an important part of tour
guides’ work roles. The results confirm that deep and surface acting are related to the
role performance in different directions.
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4.8.2.3 Perceived Organisational Support and Role Performance
The findings indicate that POS was positively related to role performance (r
= .31, p<.01). The result supports the proposition that the better the organisational
support perceived by tour guides, the better their role performance.
This research shares some similar findings with the work of Chen et al.,
(2009). Chen et al. assessed the extra-role (i.e. duties that are not described in the job
description) performances of employees from an electronic and appliance sales
organisation twice in a three-year interval. In their research, POS was found to be
positively related to changes in extra-role performances. The results support the view
that extra-role performance gradually increases when employees perceive they are
receiving support from their organisation.
The positive relationship of POS and RP that is reported in this study could be
explained by social exchange theory (Blau 1964) and the norm of reciprocity
(Gouldner 1960) discussed in the Literature Review Chapter. These theories suggest
that when one party treats another party well, an obligation for future reciprocity was
generated. Employees were willing to expend extra effort when they perceived that
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the company cared about their wellbeing, for example, by providing good pay and
reasonable benefits and recognising their contributions to the company (Eisenberger
et al. 1986).
In Hong Kong, a large part of tour guides’ income comes from customers’ tips.
Tour guides are likely to have more tips if the tour group size is big and the tour
duration is long. Therefore, tour guides view being assigned a large and long tour
group as an indication of appreciation from the company. Their POS is likely to
increase as a result. POS could also result from training and development provided by
the company. Tour guides have a higher POS when given training opportunities to
enhance their job skills and knowledge. Moreover, immediate assistance from the
travel agency to deal with problems in the journey was considered important
organisational support.
When tour guides perceive the travel agency cares about their wellbeing and
recognises their contribution, they are likely to devote more effort to performing the
required roles or to supporting the company’s goals and values. Hence, high POS led
to high RP.
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• Hypothesis 2 is supported: POS is positively related to role performance
4.8.2.4 Perceived Supervisor Support and Role Performance
The findings revealed that PSS was positively related to role performance (r
=.27, p>.01). The correlation was considered as medium (Field 2009). The result was
in line with the study of Rhoades and Eisenberger (2006), which reported a positive
relationship between PSS and in-role and extra-role performance in retail firms.
Likewise, social exchange theory (Blau 1964) and the norm of reciprocity
(Gouldner 1960) could also be used to explain the positive relationship between PSS
and RP. Supervisors formed close working relationships with tour guides. They
provided performance feedback and coaching to tour guides on a daily basis, and they
offered emotional support whenever necessary. Anderson et al. (2002) found that the
support from managers and supervisors helped tourism workers release the stress
from emotional labour.
When tour guides felt supported, for instance, when supervisors cared about
them and listened to their opinions, appreciated their extra effort or helped them strive
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for better benefit and welfares, they had an obligation to reciprocate. They repaid the
supervisor by devoting extra efforts to fulfilling their role requirements. Based on this
reciprocal effect, high PSS led to high RP. In addition, supervisors were responsible
for clarifying job requirements and providing assistance whenever in need. Thus, tour
guides were able to perform their roles more effectively.
• Hypothesis 3 is supported: PSS is positively related to role performance.
4.8.2.5 Prediction of Tour Guides’ Role Performance
In this research, it was posited that DA, SA, POS and PSS predicted RP. The
results indicate that role performance was significantly predicted by DA, SA and
Supervisor Concern and Care (a factor of PSS) but not by POS as well as Supervisor
Recognition and Appreciation. The coefficient of DA = .41 (P<.05) indicates that a 1
point increase in DA predicted a .41 point increase in RP. Likewise, the coefficient of
Supervisor Concern and Care = .14 (P<.05) indicates that a 1 point increase in
Supervisor Concern and Care predicted a .14 point increase in RP. SA, on the other
hand, worked in an opposite direction. The coefficient of SA = -.16 (P<.05) indicates
that a 1 point increase in SA predicted a .16 point decrease in RP. The results for POS
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and Supervisor Recognition and Appreciation (another factor of PSS) were not
significant as the coefficients ranged between .04 and .06 (p> .05).
• Hypothesis 4 is partially supported: Deep acting, surface acting, perceived
organisational support and perceived supervisor support together have an influence on
role performance.
The findings reveal that DA had a high positive effect on role performance. A
likely explanation of the result is the concept of authenticity of emotional display as
discussed in the previous section. Deep acting was regarded as acting in good faith
(Rafaeli & Sutton 1987). Tour guides who performed deep acting were perceived as
sincere and their emotional expressions were believed by tour participants to be ‘real’.
The sincere service, together with the genuine expressions enhanced customer
satisfaction and trust which in turn enabled tour guides to perform their roles more
effectively (Chu & Murrmann 2006). Hence, tour guides who adopted deep acting
were likely to perform their roles better. Therefore, DA positively predicted RP.
In contrast, surface acting appeared to be fake and insincere. Tour participants
could recognise the faked expressions even though the tour guide pretended to be
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helpful and enthusiastic (Grandey et al. 2005; Callishaw et al. 2008). In addition, it
was difficult for tour guides to gain the support of participants when there was no
trust between them. As a result, inauthentic acting affected tour guides’ performance
(Hülsheger & Schewe 2011) and led to the perception of poor service (Grandey 2003).
Therefore, SA had a negative effect on RP.
As stated, DA, SA, POS and PSS were each significantly correlated (p < 0.01)
with RP. Nevertheless, in the regression analysis, only DA, SA and Supervisor
Concern and Care appeared as significant predictors of RP, while the effects of POS
were at non-significant levels. These results are counter to the prevailing literature
presenting POS and PSS as predictors of performance (Eisenberger et al. 2001;
Rhoades & Eisenberger 2006; Vandenberghe et al. 2007; Pazy&Ganzach 2009; Chen
et al. 2009). According to pervious research, POS alleviates the impact of emotional
dissonance and disengagement (Karatepe 2011), thus leading to better performance.
One of the probable explanations for the outcomes of POS was the fact that
tour guides worked at destinations which were far away from their companies. They
had to solve on-tour problems immediately by themselves without assistance from the
company. Unless the problem was too big, or the situation was beyond their control,
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they would take action first and report the case to the company / supervisor at a later
stage. Therefore, POS was not crucial to their daily performance. The support of
others such as local guides, drivers, and service personnel in restaurants, attractions
and hotels, was more immediate and relevant to their work. In daily counter service
work, supervisors’ concern and care remains an important emotional and
psychological support. In contrast, supervisor recognition and appreciation had no
significant effect on tour guides’ role performance as tour guides did not believe that
the recognition and appreciation from supervisors could provide them with any
tangible rewards.’
Another possible reason for the insignificant results is the interpretation of
POS by tour guides. POS was viewed by tour guides as something related to the
human resources polices which might not have had a direct effect on their work.
However, emotional labour was an important part of their work roles which they
needed to perform whenever they interacted with customers. In consequence,
emotional labour affected their performances immensely. Tour guides regarded PSS
was an important support at work. However, it was more relevant to counter service
work rather than tour guiding.
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The results produced interesting and useful findings. The findings support the
idea that emotional labour is a key dimension in the tour guiding profession (Guerrier
& Adib 2003; Wong & Wang 2009; Sharpe 2005; Van Dijk & Kirk 2007; Sohn & Lee
2011). Further research on tour guides’ POS can use this study as a foundation to
gather more empirical evidence.
4.8.3. Key Roles of Tour Guides
Principal Component Analysis with an orthogonal (varimax) rotation was
performed to determine any underlying dimension within tour guides’ role
performance. The rotated solution from 15 items revealed three factors accounted for
58.31% of the variance.
The first factor (α = .81) represented the roles of ‘host’, ‘interpreter /
translator’, ‘organiser’, ‘negotiator’, ‘information giver’ and ‘intermediary /
middleman’. This factor appeared to measure roles related to a middleman who
helped tour members understand the host environment. This dimension was labelled
as ‘Communicative and Intermediary Role’.
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The second factor (α = .72) represented the role of ‘problem solver’, ‘group
leader’ and ‘salesperson’. The factor seemed to be measuring something which was
related to the tour management and sales. This dimension was labelled as ‘Sales and
Interactionary Role.’
The third factor (α = .80) represented ‘actor’, ‘ambassador’, ‘buffer’, ‘cultural
mediator’, ‘caretaker’ and ‘entertainer’. All items in this factor were related to the
acting role which made customers feel pleasure during the journey or providing
mediation in a new cultural environment. This dimension was labelled as ‘Social and
Ambassador Role’.
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4.8.3.1 Communicative and Intermediary Role
The item with the highest loading on Factor 1 was ‘host’, followed by
‘interpreter / translator’ and ‘organiser’. According to the Oxford Advanced Learner
Dictionary (2005, p. 753), a ‘host’ is ‘someone who organizes an event to which
others are invited and makes all the arrangement for them’. As revealed in this study,
a key role of tour guides was that of host. They had to make sure that everything was
well-arranged so that tour participants would have an enjoyable trip. To this end, tour
guides were responsible for ensuring that all arrangements regarding hotels,
transportation, meals and sightseeing were organised as planned. Heung (2008) stated
that a tour guide’s major responsibility was to organise and monitor the itinerary, and
liaise with service suppliers to deliver the core tour services. Thus, tour guides also
carried out the role of an ‘organiser’ of daily routines.
Other than that, the results showed that tour guides played the important role
of connecting tourists and local people through their roles as interpreters (Cohen
1985); and facilitating the communication and understanding between people of
different cultures through the translator role (Taft 1981). Yu et al. (2002) found that
visitors’ perceptions and understanding of the host culture were dependent on the tour
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guides’ translation and interpretation. Most of the tour guides in Hong Kong were
bilingual (speaking Cantonese and English) or trilingual (speaking Cantonese,
Putonghua and English). The tour guides’ mastery of diverse languages enabled them
to carry out duties in many parts of the world.
Other related items of Factor 1 included ‘negotiator’, ‘information giver’ and
‘intermediary / middleman’. Tourists sought tour guides’ advice on virtually
everything such as where to have local food and where to get the best buy. Therefore,
tour guides need to possess good knowledge of the destination and need to be able to
provide correct and precise information (the information giving role). Moreover, tour
guides acted as intermediaries / middlemen between tour members and the local
community (Holloway 1985). Tour participants found it easier to communicate with
the local people with the help of tour guides, especially when negotiating with
souvenir sellers (the negotiator role).
4.8.3.2 Sales and Interactionary Role
The item with the highest loading on Factor 2 was ‘problem solver’, followed
by ‘group leader’ and ‘salesperson’. Tour guides had to solve problems arising in the
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tour and ensure the safety of tour members (Valkonen 2010). The importance of
problem solving was manifested in the adventure guides’ experiences (Valkonen 2010;
Sharpe 2005) as they had to sort out all kinds of problems in the journey such as
unexpected weather changes or accidents in the wilderness.
Likewise, sightseeing tour guides also face numerous contingencies on tour.
Common problems that may happen in the tour include flight delays, accidents, traffic
jams leading to delays in itineraries and so on. Apart from the ability to solve
problems, the emotional displays of tour guides when handling problems affected tour
participants’ confidence in their own competence. Tour guides have to exercise
control over their emotions, especially at times when fear or anxiety are likely to arise
(Sharpe 2005). Hence, the role of problem solver is deemed to be important.
Findings indicate that the item of group leader contributed significantly to
Factor 2. Undoubtedly, tour guides are the leaders of tour groups. They give
instructions on all tour arrangements and decide the pace of the tour. The item of
salesman had a loading on this factor too, reflecting that respondents regarded selling
as an important part of their job. There was plenty of evidence to support this finding.
For example, due to the low profit margins of package tours, tour guides have to
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promote and sell optional services and activities during the journey so as to earn extra
income for the company. They also need to promote expensive tours or other
travel-related products such as travel insurance, pick-up services or theme park tickets
to customers. Moreover, they were required to encourage tourists to shop at
designated shops in order to earn commissions for the travel agency.
4.8.3.3 Social and Ambassador Role
The item with the highest loading on Factor 3 was ‘actor’, followed by
‘ambassador’ and ‘buffer’. The findings showed that actor was a fairly important
element in role performance. Chu and Murrmann (2006) argued that the tour is a show,
and the tour guides’ (actors’) job was to draw attention and gather support from
tourists (the audience). The results provide evidence to support the notion that acting
is an important role as suggested in previous research (Ashforth & Humphrey 1993;
Hochschild 1983; Rafaeli & Sutton 1987; Wong & Wang 2009; Van Dijk et al. 2011).
The findings of the current research revealed that two levels of acting are involved in
tour guiding: surface acting and deep acting. Both types of acting predicted the level
of role performance. Deep acting had a positive influence while surface acting had a
negative influence on tour guide performance.
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The other two items with high loading on Factor 3 were ‘ambassador’ and
“buffer’. Although ‘ambassador’ and ‘buffer’ have different meanings, they share
some common characteristics in tour guiding: making tourists feel comfortable in the
host country and reducing cultural conflicts between tourists and the host community.
Tour guides not only have to introduce the host culture to visitors (the ambassador
role) but also have to minimise the possibility for visitors to encounter threats (the
buffer role).
To perform the roles of ambassador and buffer successfully, tour guides should
be able to facilitate communication and understanding between people from different
cultural backgrounds, which is the role of cultural mediator (Taft 1981). Cultural
mediation is important in inbound and outbound travel in Hong Kong. For instance,
half of the visitor arrivals in Hong Kong are from mainland China. Despite the fact
that the mainland people and local people are both Chinese, there exist big differences
in terms of mind sets and values. Tour guides are required to mediate the cultural
conflicts and misunderstandings between local people and visitors. When taking tour
groups overseas, tour guides have to explain the customs and taboos of the host
country so as to maintain harmonious relationships with local people.
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Lastly, ‘caretaker’ and ‘entertainer’ were found to have a loading on Factor 3.
The results support the ideas proposed by researchers in previous studies. First, tour
guides have to perform the role of caretaker, just like surrogate parents as pointed out
by Schuchat (1983). They look after the tour participants on a 24-hour basis when the
group is on tour. Furthermore, tour guides were responsible for maintaining a joyful
atmosphere and encouraging social interactions in the group (Cohen 1985) through
the role of entertainer.
4.8.3.4 Summary of Tour Guides’ Roles in Hong Kong
The results of this study reveal that tour guides in Hong Kong perform three
major roles: a communicative and intermediary role, a sales and interactionary role,
and a social and ambassador role. Among the respondents, the communicative and
intermediary role ranks as the most important one. The respondents agreed that they
have to be hosts, interpreters/translators and organisers while on tour. As explained in
Section 4.8.3.1, the duties related to these roles are fundamental to the success of a
tour. The second role is the sales and interactionary role, which involves being a
problem solver, group leader and salesperson. It was interesting that tour guides see
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selling as an important role that they cannot escape from. The findings show that
travel agencies in Hong Kong put a lot of pressure on tour guides to sell travel
products or related services in order to earn commissions to compensate for the low
tour fares. The last significant role is the social and ambassador role which involves
being an actor, ambassador and buffer. Respondents commented that acting is a major
element of their role performance. Tour guides have to possess certain skills in
managing their emotions in order to act professionally. The empirical findings of the
present study provide support for the proposition that emotional labour affects tour
guides’ role performance. The results are consistent with previous studies by Wong
and Wang (2009) and Van Dijk (2011).
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4.9 Chapter Summary
The results of this study were able to answer all research questions and
achieve the specific research objectives as presented in Section 1.2. To summarise,
three major roles of tour guides namely ‘Communicative and Intermediary Role’,
‘Sales and Interactionary Role’ and ‘Social and Ambassador Role’ were identified
through principal components analysis. Concerning the relationships among the
variables investigated, it was found that all independent variables (i.e. DA, SA, POS
and PSS) were correlated with the dependent variable (i.e. RP). Except for SA, which
was negatively related to RP, all other independent variables had a positive
relationship with RP. The findings supported Hypotheses 1, 2 and 3. As for the
prediction of role performance, the findings revealed that only DA, SA and Supervisor
Concern and Care predicted RP significantly. DA and Supervisor Concern and Care
had a positive influence, while SA had a negative effect on RP. Therefore, Hypothesis
4, which proposed that DA, SA, POS and PSS had influence on RP, was partially
supported. This result was unexpected as the effect of POS on RP became
insignificant in the regression analysis. In the next chapter, conclusions and
recommendations on research findings will be made.
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Chapter 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Chapter Introduction
The present research is the first study on tour guides’ role performance. The
research findings provide empirical evidence of the relationships between emotional
labour, POS, PSS and RP, and of a predictive link between emotional labour and role
performance.
In this chapter, the research contributions and implications will be presented.
Based on the research implications, suggestions and recommendations for the tourism
industry and the concerned parties will be made. The limitations of the study and
suggestions for future study will also be discussed.
5.2 Contribution of the Study
The contribution of this study is twofold: the theoretical contributions to
academia and the practical contributions to the industry. In the following sections, the
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contributions of both areas will be elaborated.
5.2.1 Theoretical Contributions
The present research made several contributions to the extant literature. Firstly,
the study adopted a quantitative approach, thus the results can be generalised to the
population under study to explain tour guides’ role performances. Secondly, it was the
first study to examine the effects of DA, SA, POS and PSS on role performance. The
results fill research gaps in the literature. Thirdly, it developed an emotional labour
scale for measuring tour guides’ displays of emotion.
a) Generalisation of Results
By adopting a quantitative approach, the current study empirically tested the
relationships between EL, POS, PSS and RP. Although the results can be generalised
to the role performance of other tour guides, the interpretation on the generalisation of
results should be handled with care as this study employs a convenience sampling
method in data collection, which limits the representation of samples.
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b) Filling Research Gaps in the Current Literature
Prior studies on tour guides have focused on the roles played by tour guides in
different settings, such as coach excursions (Holloway 1981), nature-based tours
(Weiler & Davis 1993; Randall & Rollins 2009), indigenous tours (Howard et al.
2001) and adventure tours (Sharpe 2005). Hardly any research has examined the
relationships between tour guides’ role performance and the variables included in this
study. This study was the first to investigate the effect of DA, SA, POS and PSS on
role performance, and to explore the relationships among the variables.
The results show that tour guides’ role performances were significantly
predicted by DA, SA and Supervisor Concern and Care, but not by Supervisor
Recognition and Appreciation, as well as POS. In addition, DA, POS and PSS had
positive relationships with RP whereas SA had a negative relationship. These findings
provide academia with new insights into the relationships among variables under
examination, together with factors which predict tour guides’ role performances.
Researchers could extend on the current findings by exploring other dimensions or
causal relationships between variables and tour guides’ performances in the future.
Moreover, this study was the first to examine the relationship between emotional
labour and tour guides’ role performances. The findings of this research provide
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empirical evidence to the emotional labour literature regarding tour guides’ display of
emotion.
c) Development of the Tour Guide Emotional Labour Scale
With reference to the enormous emotional labour demands associated with
tour guides’ work (Guerrier & Adib 2003; Rafaeli & Sutton 1987), there is a need for
an emotional labour scale that is tailored to measuring tour guides’ emotional labour.
The scales developed by researchers in previous studies (Brotheridge & Lee 2003;
Chu & Murrmann 2006; Krum& Geddes 2000) are not focused on the needs of
tourism workers. The present study addresses this lack by developing a Tour Guide
Emotional Labour Scale specifically for tour guides.
5.2.2 Practical Contributions
The study made practical contributions to the industry in two ways. The
findings generated from this research can help the industry practitioners understand
which factors significantly affecting tour guides’ role performances. Managers of
travel agencies might make use of the findings to develop human resources policies
and practices for attaining better role performances. The second contribution to the
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industry was the introduction of the Tour Guide Emotional Labour Scale for
measuring tour guides’ emotional display.
a) Deeper understanding of tour guides’ role performance
The research findings showed that emotional labour had a significant effect on
role performance whereas POS did not have a significant effect. The results have
important implications for the travel industry. They indicate that tour guides who can
manage their emotions effectively perform their roles better. Moreover, the support of
organisations was found to not be a significant predictor of role performance. This
information can be valuable for travel agencies in the deployment of resources within
the company. Travel agencies might be wise to allocate resources to enhancing tour
guides’ emotion management, for example by providing emotion training.
b) Tour Guide Emotional Labour Scale
The second contribution to the industry was the introduction of the Tour Guide
Emotional Labour Scale (TGELS). The TGELS provides an objective tool for travel
agency managers to measure the emotional displays of employees. This information
could be used not only for assessing tour guides’ emotional management, but also for
employee selection. For instance, some of the items related to deep acting could be
262
incorporated into the selection criteria. Managers could look for candidates capable of
fulfilling the job’s emotional requirements.
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5.3 Research Implications
5.3.1 Implications for Travel Agencies
The findings of the present study have human resource implications pertinent
to employee selection, training and performance evaluation practices in travel
agencies.
a) Employee Selection
The results of the current research showed that deep acting positively
predicted role performance. This sends an important message to travel agency
managers in employee selection. It means that they should choose candidates who
possess attributes related to deep acting. Kim (2008) suggested that individuals who
are more empathetic or susceptible to emotional contagion are more likely to engage
in deep acting. He found that these types of candidates tended to expend effort to
experience the appropriate emotions, thus increasing guests’ perceptions of service
quality and customer satisfaction. Travel agency managers should consider candidates’
capability to display deep acting when selecting new employees.
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Moreover, applicants’ personalities should be considered as well as it affects
the adoption of relevant emotional labour strategies (i.e. deep acting and surface
acting). The results of previous studies have also provided evidence for this
suggestion. For example, Kim (2008) found that extraversion had a positive influence
on deep acting. His study revealed that extravert individuals are apt to feel the
emotions that they need to display to customers. Diefendorff et al. (2005) arrived at
similar findings and stated that extravert people feel positive emotions more often
than introvert people, and are less likely to fake desired emotions. Hence, it is
suggested that travel agency managers should select candidates with personality traits
that make them more likely to engage in deep acting strategies at work.
b) Emotion Training
Since role performance is influenced by emotional labour, another implication
is that travel agencies would benefit from providing emotional labour training to
equip employees with essential skills for handling customers. Emotion training is
crucial to employees in particular for dealing with difficult customers. Employees
who are well-trained are able to maintain positive emotions and respond authentically
when handling difficult customers (Bechtoldt et al. 2007; Kim 2008).
265
The emotions displayed by tour guides are perceived as being representative of
the organisation. They affect customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customers’
word-of-mouth accounts of their tours (Ashworth & Humphrey 1993; Brotheridge &
Taylor 2006; Grandey et al. 2005; Van Dijk & Kirk 2007). Previous research has
shown that organisations could train employees to change their behaviour so as to
display the required emotions (Hochschild 1983; Kruml & Geddes 2000). As a result,
travel agencies could modify tour guides’ emotional display through training. Sohn
and Lee (2011) suggested that travel companies could provide role-playing exercises
in service training to enable employees to manage their facial expressions, manners
and attitudes in order to meet customers’ expectations.
In view of the benefits of emotion training to travel agencies and tour guides,
travel companies should increase the ability of tour guides to provide the required
emotional display through the provision of emotion training.
c) Performance Evaluation
The implications for performance evaluation were primarily related to tour
guides’ major roles and their work role requirements.
266
Discussed in preceding sections, the work roles of tour guides involve a high
degree of emotional labour. Therefore, their level of emotional performance should be
assessed in order to differentiate between good and poor performers. Proficient
employees should be rewarded while ineffective employees should be supported.
Travel agencies might consider the TGELS that was developed in this study, for
measuring the tour guides’ emotional displays in order to determine the level of
emotional performance as well as the treatment of tour guides.
The research also contributes to the identification of the major roles (i.e.
communicative and intermediary role, sales and interactionary role and social and
ambassador Role) played by tour guides. A tour guide had to possess different skills
such as skills in communication, leadership and organisation in order to carry out their
jobs professionally. This suggests that travel agencies need to take into consideration
the various skill requirements of these roles when establishing performance standards.
5.3.2 Implications for Educational Organisations
For universities and other educational organisations, this study draws their
attention to the need to provide emotion training. If tourism students are not
267
well-trained at school, it will be too late once they are employed as tour guides for
them to find that emotional labour is an essential part of their daily work if they could
not cope with it.
Previous studies have shown that prolonged emotional dissonance and
depression resulting from performing emotional labour can affect one’s mental health
(Hochschild 1983). Employees might quit in order to escape from the stress caused by
emotional labour. Therefore, training at an early stage would benefit future industry
workers by teaching them how to cope with the emotional demands of their work. The
relevant training at school would reduce the chances of having depression and
increase the possibility of longer service in the industry.
5.3.3 Implications for Travel-related Organisations
The results also provided implications for local travel-related organisations
like the Travel Industry Council Hong Kong (TICHK) as it is responsible for the
accreditation and professional training of tour guides in Hong Kong. With reference to
the high level of emotional labour in tour guides’ jobs, TICHK should consider
including emotion management in tour guide training and accreditation.
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5.4 Suggestions and Recommendations
As discussed in Chapter One, tourism plays an important role in the economic
and social life of Hong Kong. It contributes significantly to the local GDP and
employment. Thus, it is vital for tourism stakeholders to take appropriate actions to
enhance the quality of tour guides’ services which in turn will benefit tourism
development. Based on the findings and discussions of this study, the following
suggestions and recommendations are made to concerned parties in an attempt to
achieve a holistic improvement to guiding services in Hong Kong.
5.4.1 Suggestions on Human Resources Management in Travel Agencies
Today, travel agencies in Hong Kong are facing fierce competition from both
inside and outside the industry. Traditional travel agencies have to compete with
online travel agencies since many travellers now buy online. Moreover, the
competition is intensified as many airlines sell tour packages to customers directly
through their websites. One of the strategies travel agencies could adopt to remain
competitive in the market is to provide outstanding service to customers. In this
regard, tour guides play a key role in tourism services. Wong and Wang (2009) found
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that tour guides’ performance directly affected customers’ overall impressions of and
satisfaction with tour services. In the following sections, several recommendations
were made to the industry with the aim of enhancing tour guides’ performances.
a) Setting Display Rules
The present research showed that role performance is positively related to
deep acting and negatively related to surface acting. In order to achieve better
performance, it is recommended that travel agencies set explicit emotional display
rules related to deep acting to guide employees’ emotional display. According to
Ekman (1973), display rules for emotional labour specify the appropriate emotional
expressions and behaviour for particular situations. With display rules in place, tour
guides know the types of emotional behaviour that will be accepted by the company.
Previous research has documented that positive display rules (e.g. greeting
customers with a smiling face) were positively correlated with deep acting while
negative display rules (e.g. hiding negative emotions) were positively correlated with
surface acting (Diefendorff et al. 2005; Kim 2008; Sohn & Lee 2011). Hence, it was
recommended that display rules should adopt a positive tone so as to encourage deep
acting.
270
The display rules might be included in service scripts and practised in
role-play programmes during service training. In addition, photos illustrating the
appropriate facial expressions and postures could be posted in staff areas so as to
remind employees of the emotional display required. The emotional requirements
could also be written into job descriptions or employee handbooks. In the long run,
the expected norms of behaviour should be internalised in the company through
training or service campaigns to make them part of the organisational culture.
b) Providing a Supportive Work Environment
A supportive work environment is important for tour guides to perform their
roles effectively. The job of tour guides is characterised by a high demand for
emotional labour in which authentic emotional displays that show courtesy,
friendliness and warmth in service encounters is expected. Such prolonged efforts in
managing the emotions at work can have detrimental effects on individuals’ physical
and psychological states (Hochschild1983). The results of this study revealed that
Supervisor Concern and Care predicted tour guides’ role performance.Thus, a
working environment with interpersonal warmth and friendliness, combined with
open communication among members, will help to mitigate the negative impacts of
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emotional labour.
Moreover, when employees experience a caring work atmosphere, they are
likely to become more emotionally stable. They will not be irritated by minor
problems in service encounters. Instead, they are likely to be more entertaining,
understanding and forgiving (Liu & Yang 2007). In view of the positive impacts of a
supportive environment, travel agencies should promote a caring culture within the
company by attending to employees’ needs. For example, allowing tour guides to
have a day off after the tour so that they could have a good rest, and respecting their
opinions when the company wants to initiate changes that were relevant to them.
Supervisors and managers should maintain a candid communication with
employees, give emotional support to lessen their stress and show appreciation for
their extra effort and excellent service work. In addition, it was recommended that
human resources departments could organise staff activities such as football matches,
picnics, birthday parties, visits and so on to boost morale and enhance a sense of
belonging among staff.
272
c) Organisational Support
Since the organisation of a tour involves support from various service
suppliers like airlines, hotels and land operators, the success of the tour depends on
the quality of service provided by these suppliers. Travel agencies have to ensure
smooth coordination among service partners and gain their full support in order to
facilitate the work of tour guides. The present study supported this argument. The
findings showed that tour guides wanted their companies to ‘maintain a good
reputation in the industry’ and be able to ‘help me when I have problems’.
Apart from a seamless coordination with service partners, showing concern to
employees is equally important. Concern for employees could be manifested by
adopting human resources policies that are perceived as equitable and caring by
employees. Examples of organisational support, provided by tour guides in this study,
included ‘provides training to enhance my performance’, ‘cares about my general
satisfaction at work’ and ‘values my contribution’. In this regard, it is recommended
that travel agencies take an annual employee survey to review employees’ job
satisfaction and understand staff concerns so that appropriate actions can be taken.
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d) Emotion Training
In the tourism industry, there is a lack of training related to effective emotion
management. It is suggested that travel agencies provide emotion training to help tour
guides cope with the emotional requirements of their work.
First of all, information on service standards and the expected emotional
displays and behaviours in service encounters should be given to newcomers during
orientation programmes. Next, customised emotional labour workshops could be
arranged to enhance tour guides’ abilities in emotion management. For example,
training for proper emotional displays such as facial expression, speech, gestures and
manners would be encouraged (Sohn & Lee 2011). Experienced tour guides who had
profound emotional management experience could be invited to be trainers (Wong &
Wang 2009). In addition, exercise which help tour guides relax like meditation and
yoga classes are recommended.
Moreover, sharing sessions on emotion management should be organised in
branch offices, allowing tour guides to deal with their exhaustion and negative
emotions resulting from performing emotional labour. Through these informal sharing
sessions, inexperienced guides could learn from their seniors the proper emotional
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displays and skills required for handling demanding customers. Immediate
supervisors could play a key role in the sharing sessions as they provide emotional
support and coaching to help tour guides lessen their job stress.
e) Employee Selection
As discussed in Section 5.3.1, personality influences emotional performance.
Therefore, travel agencies should select candidates with personalities to match the
job’s requirements (Wong & Wang 2009). Interviews should be conducted in a
relatively lively setting which resembles the workplace instead of in a conventional
setting (e.g. in an office). For instance, it is recommended that the employment
interview can be taken in a sales branch; potential candidates are required to work
there for one or two days. Front-line managers would observe their on-the-job
emotional displays to decide whether they would be suitable for the job or not.
Though this form of assessment requires more time, it would be worthwhile since the
company could select suitable candidates.
Previous researchers have argued that the extent to which tour guides identify
with their work roles affects their emotional strategies at work (Ashforth &Tomiuk
2000). Employees who believe that serving others is part of their job are more likely
275
to experience authentic positive feelings and to show the emotions required by the
organisation (Ashforth & Humphrey 1993). Therefore, selecting people who
genuinely want to work in the service industry is important. When a tour guide
recognises that making customers happy is part of his or her job, he or she will be
more ready to switch to a positive mind set when facing difficult customers. As such,
he or she will not feel forced to comply with emotional display norms.
Seeing that candidates are often good at faking their strengths and hiding their
weaknesses in interviews, human resources managers of travel agencies might
consider using personality measurement tools to assess candidates’ personalities. The
HEXACO personality factors measurement tool (Lee & Ashton 2004) and the
Big-Five factors of the International Item Pool (IPIP) (Goldberg et al. 2006) are the
scales most commonly used by personality psychologists (Sohn & Lee 2011).
f) Socialisation of New Staff Members
Travel agencies could develop programmes to help new recruits familiarise
themselves with the job requirements, such as which emotions ought to be displayed
and which ought to be hidden. They could convey job requirements in handbooks, via
the intranet, billboards and training classes. Perhaps a more effective socialisation
276
practice is through informal learning from experienced co-workers. Companies could
arrange for young and inexperienced tour guides to work with experienced guides in a
mentor-mentee fashion. The newcomers would quickly pick up work rules such as the
required emotion displays by observing and modelling the behaviour of the
experienced mentors. Mentors could also help mentees overcome difficulties
encountered at work. Such workplace support could be important to the new members
for ensuring that they do not feel alone when facing the unpredictable customer
demands.
g) A Fair Reward System
A fair and equitable reward system is essential for motivating employees to
expend extra effort at work. In Hong Kong, it is a common practice for travel
companies to distribute customer feedback forms to tour participants at the end of the
tour. However, only negative feedback is followed up. There is seldom any
recognition given to tour guides who receive positive feedback from customers. Such
practices can lead to mediocre service as tour guides tend to avoid making mistakes
rather than delivering good service. To overcome this problem and encourage tour
guides to expend extra effort, it is suggested that travel agencies consider employing a
more diverse performance evaluation system. In addition to supervisors’ comments,
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customer feedback on tour guides’ performances should be taken in account and good
performers should be rewarded.
Another key concern about rewards, as revealed from the research findings, is
the assignment of tours. The income of tour guides depends largely on tips which are
a product of group size and tour duration. Tour guides said they wanted their
companies to consider their pervious performance when assigning tours to them. They
believed that if they had performed well, the company should recognise their good
performance by allocating larger and longer tours for their next assignment. Thus, it is
recommended that travel agencies consider tour guides’ performances when assigning
tours.
5.4.2 Suggestions for Academia
Research undertaken by university faculties in relation to travel and tourism
would benefit the industry. Some tourism policies introduced by the government were
in fact based on recommendations from tourism research. The enactment of the policy
of licensing tour guides suggested by Ap and Wong (2001) is one example. Therefore,
researchers should continue to work closely with the industry in travel and tourism
278
research so as to upgrade tourism products and services.
5.4.3 Suggestions for Educational Organisations
Universities and other educational organisations providing tourism
programmes should collaborate more with the tourism industry in course design and
student placements. To ensure a good match of graduate attitudes with job
requirements, the course design should address industry needs and customer
expectations. For instance, besides instruction in knowledge and skills, attitude and
emotion training should be offered to prepare graduates for future careers. Moreover,
travel agencies should offer placement opportunities to tourism students so that they
can apply their knowledge to a real work environment and have a better
understanding of the job requirements of their future careers.
5.4.4 Suggestions for Travel-related Organisations
Last but not the least, it is recommended that TICHK review their tour guiding
courses and ensure that emotion training is included. Customer complaints concerning
tour guide’ attitudes and behaviour could be used as case studies to be shared by
279
participants in class. Tutors could facilitate such discussion and provide trainees with
guidance in handling difficult customers with appropriate emotional displays. Codes
of conduct in relation to emotional labour should be established to give guidelines on
tour guides’ work ethics and service delivery.
5.5 Limitations of the Study
a) Common method bias
This study has its limitations. The first limitation is common method bias
( Diefendorff et al. 2005; Morris & Feldman 1997; Sliter et al. 2010). Since all
variables were measured by a single source (i.e. tour guides), the possibility of
inflated correlations of variables was increased (Collishaw et al. 2008; Pazy &
Ganzach2009). Nonetheless, the problem was neutralised by simultaneous regression
analysis in which the shared variance of the predictors was removed (Diefendorff et al.
2005). Future research should include multiple data sources, for example customers or
supervisors, to minimise such a defect.
b) Self- report methodology
Another limitation was that the self-reporting methodology led to a reliance on
280
tour guides’ self-reports on their role performance. This might have resulted in the
exaggeration of the results for role performance. To address this concern, future
studies should invite customers to assess the role performances of tour guides in order
to obtain more objective data.
c) Convenience sampling method
This study adopts a convenience sampling method in data collection;
consequently, samples may not be representative of all tour guides in the population.
Thus, the findings should be interpreted with caution. However, the current research is
an exploratory study on tour guides’ emotional labour and role performance. Further
studies can build on the present empirical findings to investigate the different facets of
tour guides’ performances.
d) Employment status of respondents
A final limitation concerned the employment status of respondents. Data in
this study was collected from both part-time and full-time tour guides and this might
have led to problems related to differing interpretations of POS and PSS. Since
part-time tour guides do not attach to a specific company, they work as free-lancers
for different travel agencies during peak seasons. Hence, their perceptions of
281
organisational and supervisor support might be different from those of full-time tour
guides. Further studies could examine the propositions of this study in relation to the
two groups of tour guide separately.
5.6 Suggestions for Future Research
There are several suggestions for the direction of future research. The first
recommended area for future research is to test the effects of naturally felt emotions
on role performance. Other researchers have explicitly suggested that workers might
express genuine emotions without acting (Ashforth & Humphrey 1993; Morris &
Feldman 1997). Diefendorff et al. (2005) proposed a three-factor emotional labour
construct: deep acting, surface acting and naturally felt emotions. Their research
showed that employees experience naturally felt emotions at work more frequently
than they experience deep acting and surface acting. Cheung and Tang (2009) found
that workers with high positive affectivity tended to express of genuine emotions.
Kim and Han (2009) reported that the negative impacts of surface and deep acting
were greatly reduced when workers displayed genuine emotions. While there have
been a few studies investigating naturally felt emotions and their relationships with
282
other variables, the use of naturally felt emotions by tour guides remains unexamined.
It was suggested that further studies could investigate the intensity of naturally felt
emotions on tour guides’ performances and their relationships with deep and surface
acting.
Another suggested area for future research is the level of emotional labour
required for working with different types of work colleagues, for example, managers /
supervisors, co-workers and service suppliers. It has been suggested that the type of
strategy to be adopted for targets other than customers, would be different. Grandey,
Kern and Frone (2007) found that employees received more verbal abuse from
customers than from supervisors or co-workers. This implies that more emotional
labour was required when dealing with customers. Wong and Wang (2009) asserted
that tour guides play a dual role on tours. On the one hand, the guide is a service
provider who caters for the needs of tour participants. On the other hand, to suppliers
the tour guide is a representative of the consumer. Sometimes, the tour guide might
need to fake some negative emotions to service suppliers in order to get problems
solved or to ensure a high standard of service quality. Since the demands of emotional
labour for dealing with internal counterparts was rarely reported in this study, it is a
worth area for future research in order to have a complete understanding of tour
283
guides’ emotional labour efforts in the workplace.
Tour guides are likely to encounter different types of customers. Some
customers are friendly and easy-going whereas others might be difficult and
demanding. As a result, the emotional labour strategies to be employed in customer
interactions might be different. Blau et al. (2010) proposed using specific emotional
labour strategies for different kinds of customers. For instance, employees could
adopt ‘active deep acting’ with new customers to encourage return visits, and
‘challenged surface acting’ or ‘positive refocus deep acting’ with difficult customers.
Therefore, it is suggested that future research could investigate the application of
different emotional labour strategies for various types of customers.
In the current study, it was proposed that POS and PSS would predict RP.
However, the findings show that only one dimension of PSS (Supervisor Concern and
Care) predicted role performance. The results were not consistent with previous
studies which indicating that POS was a predictor of employees’ in-role or extra-role
performances. As a result, it is recommended that future research should use other
statistical techniques such as structural equation modelling to investigate relationships
and effects among variables.
284
Lastly, this study was undertaken in Hong Kong with all respondents being
Chinese. Such constraints in geographical representation hinder the generalisation of
findings to other parts of the world. It is suggested that the study be replicated in
various countries with diverse cultural backgrounds in order to be more
representative.
5.7 Chapter summary
This research was the first empirical tourism study to analyse the relationships
between emotional labour, perceived organisational support, perceived supervisor
support and role performance of tour guides. The following research objectives were
duly addressed in the study:
1. Identify the key roles performed by tour guides;
2. Investigate the relationships between tour guides’ role performance and
emotional labour; role performance and POS; role performance and PSS;
3. Examine the effect of emotional labour, POS and PSS in predicting tour guides’
role performance;
285
4. Develop a Tour Guide Emotional Labour Scale (TGELS) to measure tour
guides’ emotional labour presentation; and
5. Discuss the implications of this study for improving tour guides’ performance.
As a result of the principal component analysis, three key roles of tour guides
were identified, which included the ‘Communicative and Intermediary Role’, the
‘Sales and Interactionary Role’ and the ‘Social and Ambassador Role’ (Research
Objective 1). Furthermore, it was found that deep acting, perceived organisation
support and perceived supervisor support had a positive relationship with role
performance, whereas surface acting had a negative relationship with role
performance (Research Objective 2). With regard to the effect of the independent
variables in predicting the dependent variable, the results showed that only emotional
labour (including deep acting and surface acting) and one dimension of perceived
supervisor support (that is supervisor concern and care) significantly contributed to
the prediction of role performance, while perceived organisational support had no
significant contribution to the prediction (Research Objective 3).
In addition, a Tour Guide Emotional Labour Scale has been developed that can
be used as a gauge to measure tour guides’ perception of the emotional labour at work
(Research Objective 4). Finally, the findings resulting from the present study provided
286
implications to the Human Resources Managers of the tourism industry in relation to
employee selection, training and performance evaluation practices. A number of
suggestions and recommendations have been made to travel agencies, educational
organisations and travel-related organisations regarding the enhancement of tour
guides’ skills in emotional management (Research Objective 5).’
Research, specifically in the field of tour guides’ role performance, is still in
its early stages. Despite the significant information this research has provided for
academia and the tourism industry, it inevitably involved some research limitations
that weakened the ability to apply the findings to other contexts. Future research with
an interest in this area should pay attention to these issues. This thesis ended with
suggestions for future research.
287
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302
APPENDIX 1
In-depth Interviews
深層次訪問
Introduction 引言
Thank you for taking part in the in-depth meeting. Your valuable comments will help
the researcher to improve the quality of study which is intended to measure the
relationship of Emotional Labor, Perceived Organisational Support, Perceived
Supervisor Support and Tour Guides’ Role Performance.
多謝閣下參加是次深層次訪問, 你的寶貴意見將協助研究員完善此問卷, 以便探
討導遊的情緒勞務. 員工對機構支持的看法, 員工對上司支持的看法與其工作表
現的關係◦
Theoretical Model 研究的理論設計
With reference to the theoretical model, there are five parts in this questionnaire to
measure the corresponding variable.The first three parts include Emotion Strategies,
303
Perceived Organisational Support and Perceived Supervisor Support. Part four
consists of questions related to the different roles of tour guides. The last part attempts
to collect the demographic data of the interviewees.
根據研究的理論設計，此問卷分為五部份以量度相關的項目。首三部份涵蓋情緒
策略, 員工對機構支持的看法, 及員工對上司支持的看法；第四部份探討導遊的
不同角色;最後部份收集個人資料◦
Definition of Emotional Labor 情緒勞務的定義

The act of displaying the emotions according to display rules through surface acting
or deep acting to fulfil job roles.
根據公司訂立的情緒表現準則，透過表層飾演或深層飾演而展示的情緒行為，以
達致工作角色之要求。
Definition of Perceived Organisational Support 員工對機構支持的看法的定義

The extent to which employees believed that the organisation valued their
contributions and cared about their wellbeing (Eisenberger et al., 1986).
員工所感受或體現到公司對自己的支持與關顧的程度
Definition of Perceived Supervisor Support 員工對上司支持的看法的定義

The degree to which immediate managers or supervisors valued the contributions of
subordinates and cared about their wellbeing (Kottke & Sharafinski, 1988).
員工所感受或體現到上司對自己的支持與關顧的程度
Definition of Tour Guides’ Roles 導遊角色的定義

The duties and obligations that tour guides carry out in the course of work.
導遊於工作期間需執行的職務及責任
Brainstorming questions 集思問題

1. Do you think that emotional labor affects tour guides’ role performance?
你認為情緒勞務會否影響導遊的角色表現？
2. Do you think that perceived organisational support affects tour guides’ role
performance?
你認為員工對機構支持的看法會否影響導遊的角色表現?
304
3. Do you think that perceived supervisor support affect tour guides’ role
performance?
你認為員工對上司支持的看法會否影響導遊的角色表現?
Thank you very much for your participation!非常感謝閣下的參與!
305
Section 1 – Emotion Strategies
第一部份–情緒策略
Definition of Emotion Strategies

情緒策略的定義
The way of performing emotional labor by either surface acting or deep acting
(Diefendorff et al., 2005). Surface acting involved simulating emotions that were not
actually felt through altering outward appearance like facial expressions, gestures or
voice tone to exhibit required emotions. Deep acting involved the change of inner
state of emotions to experience the required ones (Hochschild, 1983).
情緒勞務可透過表層飾演或深層飾演表達◦表層飾演指激發一些並沒有真正感
受的情緒, 透過改變面部表情, 姿勢或聲線以表達所需的情緒◦深層飾演牽涉改
變內在的情緒以便感受所需的情感 o
Brainstorming questions
集思問題
1. What is emotional labor in your understanding?
你認為情緒勞務是什麼?
2. As a tour guide, what is your emotional behaviour when interacting with

customers?
作為一個導遊, 當與客人接觸時,你的情緒表現是怎樣的?
3. Is your emotional behaviour your true feeling?

你的情緒表現是否你真正的個人感受？
4. Do you change your inner emotion to experience the required emotional display?
你有否改變內在情緒以感受應當展示的情緒表現？
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Please indicate your answers by a tick ()
請在適當位置加上()號
極具代表性
Very Representative
具代表性
Representative
部份具代表性
Somewhat Representative
中立的
Neutral
部份不具代表性
Somewhat Unrepresentative
不具代表性
Unrepresentative
極不具代表性
Very Unrepresentative
不肯定
Not Sure
Emotion Strategies
情緒策略
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Surface Acting 表層飾演
When interacting with customers, 與客人接觸時,
13. My smile is often not sincere.
我的笑容很多時候並不真誠
14. I feel as if I have split personality when interacting with

customers because I act not like myself at all.
我感到自己的行為與性格不符, 因為我的表現完全
不像自己
15. I display emotions that I am not actually feeling.

我表現的情緒其實我沒有感受到
16. My interactions with customers are very robotic.

其實是很呆板而機械的
17. I resist expressing my true feelings.

我抗拒表達我的真實感受
18. I put on act in order to deal with customers in an

appropriate way.
我偽裝以便能適當地與客人溝通
19. I fake a good mood when interacting with customers.

我假裝心情愉快
20. I just pretend to have the emotions I need to display for
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my job.
我假裝工作上所需的情緒
21. I put on a “mask” in order to display the emotions I
need for the job.
我戴上面具, 為了展示工作上所需的情緒
22. I show feelings to customers that are different from

what I feel inside
我向客人展示的情感與我內在的感覺不同
23. I fake the emotions I show when dealing with

customers.
我的情緒是假裝的
24. I have to cover my true feelings when dealing with

customers.
我要隱藏我的真實情感
25. Recommended questions

建議問題
Deep Acting 深層飾演

10. When getting ready to work I tell myself that I am going
to have a good day.
當我準備工作的時候, 我告訴自己今天將是美好的
一天
11. I think of pleasant images when I am getting ready for

work.
當我準備工作的時候, 我會思想一些愉快的影像
12. I have to concentrate more on my behaviour when I

display an emotion that I don’t actually feel.
當所表現的情緒並非真實感受, 我要加倍留意自己
的行為
13. I try to actually experience the emotions that I must
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show to customers.
我嘗試感受那些必須向客人展示的情緒
14. I really try to feel the emotions I have to show as part of

my job
我嘗試感受那些必須展示的情緒是我工作的一部份
15. I create certain emotions in myself to present the image

the company desires.
我蘊釀某些內在的情緒以展現公司要求的印象
16. When helping customers, if I pretend I’m happy, I can

actually start to feel it.
當協助客人時, 若我假想自己快樂, 我便能真正感受
到那份快樂
17. I change my actual feelings to match those that I must

express to customers.
我改變自己的真實感受以配合那些必須向客人展示
的情感
18. If I think the company would not approve of my real

feeling about customers, I try to change those feelings.
若公司不贊成我向客人展示真實感受, 我會改變有
關感受

建議問題
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Section 2 – Perceived Organisational Support
第二部份– 員工對機構支持的看法
Definition of Perceived Organisational Support

員工對機構支持的看法的定義
The extent to which employees believed that the organisation valued their
contributions and cared about their wellbeing (Eisenberger et al., 1986).
員工所感受或體現到公司對自己的支持與關顧的程度
1. What is perceived organisational support in your understanding? Please give
examples.
你認為機構支持是什麼?請舉例說明之。
2. What kinds of support do tour guides expect from their company? Please give
examples.
導遊期望公司給予哪些支持?請舉例說明之。
310
極具代表性
Very Representative
具代表性
Representative
部份具代表性
中立的
Neutral
不具代表性
Unrepresentative
極不具代表性
不肯定
Not Sure
Perceived Organisation Support
員工對機構支持的看法
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
13. The organisation values my
contribution to its wellbeing.
公司重視我的貢獻
14. The organisation fails to appreciate

any extra effort from me.
公司並沒有欣賞我額外付出的努力
15. The organisation strongly considers

my goals and values.
公司非常重視我的個人目標及價值
觀
16. Help is available from the

organisation when I have a problem.
當我有困難時, 公司隨時作出協助
17. The organisation really cares about

my wellbeing.
公司真的很關注我的福利
18. The organisation cares about my

general satisfaction at work.
公司關注我在工作上是否稱心滿意
19. The organisation enables me to

perform my job to the best of my
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ability
公司協助我在工作上盡展所長
20. Even if I did the best job possible, the

organisation would fail to notice.
縱使我已克盡己責, 但公司並沒有
察覺
21. The organisation shows very little

concern for me.
公司對我作出很少的關懷
22. The organisation cares about my

opinions.
公司重視我的意見
23. The organisation takes pride in my

accomplishments at work.
公司對我在工作上的成就引以為傲
24. The organisation tries to make my job

as interesting as possible.
公司嘗試令我的工作更具趣味性

建議問題
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Section 3 – Perceived Supervisor Support
第三部份–員工對上司支持的看法
Definition of Perceived Supervisor Support

員工對上司支持的看法的定義
The degree to which immediate managers or supervisors valued the contributions of

subordinates and cared about their wellbeing (Kottke & Sharafinski, 1988).
員工所感受或體現到上司對自己的支持與關顧的程度
集思問題
1. What is perceived supervisor support in your understanding? Please give
examples.
你認為上司支持是什麼?請舉例說明之。
2. What kinds of support do tour guides expect from their supervisors? Please give
examples.
導遊期望上司給他們哪方面的支持?請舉例說明之。
313
極具代表性
Very Representative
具代表性
Representative
部份具代表性
中立的
Neutral
不具代表性
Unrepresentative
極不具代表性
不肯定
Not Sure
員工對上司支持的看法
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
13. The supervisor fails to appreciate
any extra effort from me.
上司並沒有欣賞我額外付出的努
力
14. Help is available from the

supervisor when I have a problem.
當我有困難時, 上司隨時作出協
助
15. The supervisor enables me to

perform my job to the best of my
ability.
上司協助我在工作上盡展所長
16. The supervisor is willing to help me

when I need a special favour.
當我有特別的請求時，上司願意協
助
17. The supervisor cares about my

general satisfaction at work.
上司關注我在工作上是否稱心滿
意
18. The supervisor shows very little

concern for me.
314
上司對我作出很少的關懷
19. The supervisor will listen to my

opinion.
上司會聽取我的意見
20. Even if I did the best job possible,

the supervisor would fail to notice.
縱使我已克盡己責, 但上司並沒
有察覺
21. The supervisor ignores any

complaint from me.
上司不理會我的投訴
22. The supervisor really cares about

my wellbeing.
上司真的很關注我的福利
23. The supervisor will forgive an

honest mistake on my part.
上司會原諒我的無心錯失
24. The supervisor takes pride in my

accomplishment at work.
上司對我在工作上的成就引以為
傲

建議問題
315
Section 4 – Roles of Tour Guides
第四部份–導遊的角色
Definition of Tour Guides’ Roles

導遊角色的定義
The duties and obligations that tour guides carry out in the course of work.
導遊於工作期間需執行的職務及責任
1. What are your roles as a tour guide? Please give examples.
你認為導遊有什麼角色?請舉例說明之。
2. Any priority in tour guides’ roles in terms of importance? Which ones are more
important?
以其重要性而言，導遊的角色有沒有優先次序?那些比較重要？
316
極具代表性
Very Representative
具代表性
Representative
部份具代表性
中立的
Neutral
不具代表性
Unrepresentative
極不具代表性
不肯定
Not Sure
Tour Guides’ Role
導遊的角色
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
21. Actor
演員
22. Ambassador
大使
23. Buffer
緩衝者
24. Caretaker
照顧者
25. Culture broker
文化經紀人
26. Cultural mediator
文化傳遞人
27. Entertainer
表演者
28. Group leader
領隊
29. Host
東道主
30. Information giver
資料提供者
31. Intermediary / Middleman
中介人/中間人
32. Interpreter / Translator
解釋者/翻譯員
33. Instructor
指導員
34. Motivator
317
激勵者
35. Organizer
組織者
36. Problem solver
解決問題者
37. Salesperson
推銷員
38. Shaman
傳道人
39. Shepherd
牧羊人
40. Teacher / Educator
教師/教育家
41. Recommended roles
建議角色
318
Section5 – Personal Details
第六六部份–個人資料
1. Name 姓名 ___________________________________________
2. Company 公司 ___________________________________________
3. Position 職位 ___________________________________________
4. Gender 性別  Male  Female

男女
6. Age 年齡
 20 or below  21-30  31-40
 41-50  51-60  61 or above
7. Education level 教育程度

 Primary
小學
 Secondary
中學
 Post-Secondary (Higher Diploma, Diploma, Certificate)
大專(高級文憑,文憑,證書)
 University or above
大學或以上
 Others, please specify __________________
其他, 請說明
8. Have been serving for this company for _______ year(s).

在這間公司工作年
9. Have been working as a tour guide / tour leader for _______ years(s).
成為導遊/領隊已年
10. You work as a/an(can  more than one):

你的工作(可以多過一個答案):
 inbound guide  outbound tour leader  outbound escort guide
本地導遊外遊領隊外遊領隊兼導遊
En
319
APPENDIX 2
INFORMATION SHEET
IMPORTANT: Please read the Information Sheet before you fill in the questionnaire
Dear Sir / Madam,
I am conducting a research as part of my degree in Doctor in Business Administration at the

Southern Cross University (SCU), Australia. The research aims to study the relationships
among Emotional Labor, Perceived Organisational Support, Perceived Supervisor Support
and the Role Performance of Tour Guides. Your participation is greatly appreciated and your
contribution in the survey can benefit the management of travel agencies to provide better
support to tour guides and facilitate their role performance.
If you agree to participate in the survey, please fill in the attached questionnaire. Enclosed the
completed questionnaire to the appended envelope, seal it and return it to me via the company
coordinator.
Your participation is voluntary and there will be no benefit provided in return. You may
withdraw at any time without any negative consequence on you. To protect your right of
privacy, a code number will be used to identify the respondent and your name will remain
anonymous. Data collected will be used for research purposes solely and will be destroyed
after the whole study has been completed. Hence confidentiality is guaranteed and no risk will
be posted on you. You may contact me via email if you want to obtain feedback of the
research. However, if you are interested in the full thesis, please visit SCU’s website to access
my thesis once it has been completed.
Finally, if you have any inquiry or complaint, please contact me or my Supervisor at the
following telephone number or email. However, for concerns about the ethical conduct of this
320
research or the researchers, please write to the following:
The Ethic Complaints Officer

PO Box 157
Lismore NSW 2480
Email: ethics.lismore@scu.edu.au
Thank you again for your participation and support!
Florence Yim Dr. Catherine Cheung

DBA Candidate Assistant Professor
Southern Cross University School of Hotel & Tourism Management
Lismore NSW 2480 Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Tel: (852) 2595-2595 Tel: (852) 3400-2259
Email: y.yim10@scu.edu.au Email: hmcat@inet.polyu.edu.hk
This research has been approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee at Southern
Cross University. The approval number is ECN- 12- 105
321
,.
Tour Guides’ Role PerformanceSurvey
Introduction
Thank you for taking part in the survey. Your valuable comments will help travel
agencies provide appropriate support to tour guides and facilitate their role
performance.
There are five parts in this questionnaire. The first three parts include Emotion
Strategies, Perceived Organisational Support and Perceived Supervisor Support. Part
four consists of questions related to the different roles of tour guides. The last part
attempts to collect the demographic data of the respondents.
This questionnaire takes about 10 – 15 minutes to complete. All questionnaires are

anonymous and data collected will be used for research purposes only and will be
kept strictly confidential. Please put the completed questionnaire in the appended
envelope, seal it and send it back to the researcher via the company coordinator.
Once again, thank you for your participation and support!
Yours sincerely
Florence Yim
Screening Questions
Please indicate your answer by putting a tick () in the appropriate box
Are you a tour guide / tour leader? (You can choose more than one answer)
 Yes :  Tour leader /  Tour guide
 No (End of survey)
Do you have tour guiding experience?

 Yes
 No (End of survey)
322
Please indicate your level of agreement with each of the following statements by
circling the corresponding number. (1) = “Strongly Disagree” to (7) = “Strongly
Agree”. Please choose ONE ANSWER only for each statement.
323
Section 1 – Emotion Strategies
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Slightly Disagree
Neutral
Slightly Agree
Agree
Strongly Agree
Emotion Strategies
1. I think of pleasant images to create a positive

feeling when I am getting ready for work. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
2. I have to concentrate more on my behaviour

when I have to display an emotion that I do not 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
actually feel.
3. My smile is often not sincere at work.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
4. I try to actually experience the positive
emotions that I must show to customers. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
5. To feel the positive emotions I have to show is

part of my job. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
6. If I think the company would not allow me to

express my real feeling towards customers, I 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
try to change my emotions to fit in.
7. I put on an act in order to deal with customers

in an appropriate way. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8. I put on a “mask” in order to display the

emotions I need for the job. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
9. I show feelings to customers that are different

from what I feel inside 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
10. When helping customers, if I pretend I am

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
happy, I can actually start to feel it.
324
11. I change my actual feelings to match those that
I must express to customers. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
12. My interactions with customers are very
robotic. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
13. I have to cover my true feelings when dealing
with customers. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
14. I fake a good mood when interacting with
customers. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Section 2 – Perceived Organisational Support
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Slightly Disagree
Neutral
Slightly Agree
Agree
Strongly Agree
Perceived Organisational Support
15. The organisation values my contribution to its

wellbeing. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
16. The organisation really cares about my wellbeing.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
17. The organisation maintains a fair human resources
system, e.g. promotion, pay increment. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
18. The organisation bases on my past performance to

assign tours to me appropriately. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
19. If the organisation earns a greater profit; it will

consider increasing my salary. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
20. The organisation cares about my opinions.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
21. The organisation takes pride in my accomplishments
at work. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
325
22. The organisation provides various training courses to
enhance my job performance. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
23. The organisation provides help when I have problems

on tour, e.g. flight delays, accidents. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
24. The organisation maintains a good reputation in the

industry which facilitate my work 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
25. The organisation cares about my general satisfaction

at work. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
26. The organisation fails to appreciate any extra effort

from me. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
27. The organisation would fail to notice even when I do

my best. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
28. The organisation shows very little concern for me.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Section 3 – Perceived Supervisor Support

Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Slightly Disagree
Neutral
Slightly Agree
Agree
Strongly Agree
29. The immediate supervisor values my contribution to

the team. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
30. The immediate supervisor maintains a good working

relationship with me 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
31. The immediate supervisor helps me strive for better

benefits. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
326
32. The immediate supervisor takes pride in my
accomplishment at work. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
33. The immediate supervisor would grant a reasonable

request for a change in my working conditions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
34. The immediate supervisor is willing to help me when

I have a special request. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
35. The immediate supervisor will forgive the mistake on

my part. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
36. The immediate supervisor helps me solve problems

at work. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
37. The immediate supervisor provides performance
feedback and job advices to enable me to perform my 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
job.
38. The immediate supervisor listens to my opinions
when handling customer complaints. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
39. The immediate supervisor praises and encourages me
to do a better job 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
40. The immediate supervisor cares about my general
satisfaction at work. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
41. The immediate supervisor shows very little concern
for me. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
42. The immediate supervisor ignores any complaint
from me. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
43. The immediate supervisor fails to appreciate any
extra effort from me. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
44. Even when I do my best, the immediate supervisor
would fail to notice. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
327
Section 4 – Roles of Tour Guides
Strongly Disagree
Disagree
Slightly Disagree
Neutral
Slightly Agree
Agree
Strongly Agree
Tour Guides’ Roles
During my daily work at the counter and on tour, I have to perform the following roles
45. Actor– to display positive emotions at all times, e.g.

to be enthusiastic, cheerful 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
46. Ambassador of the destination– to provide high

quality travel services 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
47. Buffer – to reduce and mediate conflicts between

service providers and customers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
48. Caretaker– to take care of the tour members

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
49. Cultural mediator – to facilitate communication and

understanding between people of different cultures 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
50. Entertainer – to perform in the tour and create a

joyful atmosphere 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
51. Group leader – to be responsible for everything in

the tour 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
52. Host – to welcome guests to the destination

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
53. Information giver – to provide information to

customers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
54. Intermediary / Middleman – to act as a middleman

between the service providers and customers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
55. Interpreter / Translator – to help the translation of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
328
local language
56. Organiser – to organize the tour

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
57. Problem solver – to help solve customers’ problems

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
58. Salesperson – to sell company’s products and

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
services
59. Negotiator – to negotiate prices for customers
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
329
Section5 – Personal Details
1. Gender  Male  Female
2. Age
 18 - 24  25 - 34  35 - 44
 45 - 54  55 - 64  65 or above
3. Marital status
 Married  Not married  Divorced  Others:
_________
4. Highest education level

 Primary
 Secondary
 Post-Secondary (Higher Diploma, Diploma, Certificate)
 University or above
 Others, please specify __________________
5. How many years have you been working for this company?
 less than 1 year  1-3
 4-6  7-9  10 or above
6. How many years have you been working as a tour guide / tour leader?
 less than 1 year  1-3
 4-6  7-9  10 or above
End of survey
Thank you for your participation！
330
APPENDIX 3
重要資料
重要事項：請在填寫問卷前，細閱以下資料
各位先生/女仕：
本人現正進行一項研究，作為於澳洲南十字大學攻讀工商管理博士之論文。研究目
的在探討 “情緒管理”，“員工對公司支持的看法” 及 “員工對上司支持的看法” 對領隊/
導遊表現的影響。閣下的參與將有助旅行社管理層進一步了解如何提供適當的支援予領
隊/導遊及提升他們的表現，本人特此感謝。
若閣下同意參與是次研究，請填寫問卷，及將填妥的問卷放入信封，封口後交給貴
公司的負責同事，以便送回本人。
參與研究屬自願性質，沒有任何利益回報。閣下可隨時終止作答，不須擔心此舉會
引致負面影響。為確保閣下的私隱權，問卷採用編號方式而不記名，閣下提供的資料受
嚴格保護，所有收集得到的資料只作研究用途，並會於研究結束後銷毀，所以，閣下無
須擔心。此外，若閣下想知道研究結果可透過電郵聯絡本人或待研究完成後，登入澳洲
南十字大學網頁，查看有關資料。
最後，倘若閣下有任何查詢或投訴，請透過以下電話或電郵聯絡本人或本人的導師，
至於涉及研究的道德責任問題，可書面聯絡澳洲南十字大學有關部門。
嚴燕珠張玉艷博士
研究生助理教授
澳洲南十字大學香港理工大學
Lismore NSW 2480 酒店及旅遊管理學院
Tel: (852) 2595-2595 Tel: (852) 3400-2259
Email: fyim@vtc.edu.hk Email: hmcat@inet.polyu.edu.hk
331
最後，謹此多謝閣下的參與及支持！
The Ethic Complaints Officer

PO Box 157
Lismore NSW 2480
Email: ethics.lismore@scu.edu.au
此項研究己得到南十字大學之 Human Research Ethics Committee 批准。

認可編號 : ECN- 12- 105
332
,.
導遊的角色表現調查研究
引言
多謝閣下參與是次調查研究。您的寶貴意見將有助旅行社管理層向導遊提供合適
的支援及提升他們的表現。
此問卷分為五部份。前三部份涵蓋情緒管理策略，員工對公司支持的看法，及員
工對上司支持的看法；第四部份探討導遊的不同角色; 最後部份收集個人資料◦
此問卷需時大約 10 – 15 分鐘。所有問卷均不記名，調查內容將被嚴格保密並僅
作研究用途。請將填妥的問卷放進信封，封口後交請給貴公司的負責同事，以便
交回本人。
僅此再次多謝閣下的參與及支持!
此致
嚴燕珠
篩選題目
在適當的位置用()號來表明
你是否一位領隊 / 導遊? (可選擇多於一個答案)

是: 領隊 / 導遊
不是 (終止調查)
你有沒有帶團經驗？
有
沒有 (終止調查)
請認真考慮，圈出你對下列各句子的認同程度。由(1) = “非常不同意” 到(7) = “非

常同意”。每一個選項請只選一個答案。
333
第一部份–情緒管理策略
非常不同意
不同意
部份不同意
中立的
部份同意
同意
非常同意
情緒管理策略
1. 當我準備工作的時候，我會想起一些愉快的片
段，以培養正面的情緒。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
2. 當所表達的情緒並非真實感受，我會加倍專注
自己的行為表現。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
3. 我在工作上的笑容並非時常都是衷心的。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
4. 當對客人表達正面情緒時，我嘗試投入其中。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
5. 在工作上需要展現的正面的情緒是我工作的一
部份。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
6. 若公司不同意我向客人表達真實感受，我會改
變自己的情緒以配合。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
7. 我的情緒是偽裝的，以便能適當地與客人溝通。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8. 我戴上”面具”，為了表達工作上所需的情緒。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
9. 我向客人表達的情緒與我內在的感受不同。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
10. 當服務客人時，若我假想自己快樂，我便開始
真正感受到那份快樂。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
11. 我改變自己的真實感受以配合那些必須向客人
表達的情緒。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
12. 與客人交流時，我的表現呆板。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
13. 與客人交流時，我要隱藏我的真實感受。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
14. 與客人交流時，我假裝心情愉快。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
334
第二部份– 員工對公司支持的看法
非常不同意
不同意
部份不同意
中立的
部份同意
同意
非常同意
員工對公司支持的看法
15. 公司重視我的貢獻。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
16. 公司很關注我的福利。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
17. 公司有公平的人事制度，例如：升職、加薪。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
18. 公司衡量我過往的表現而作適當的派團安排。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
19. 公司如有較高盈利時，會考慮增加我的薪酬。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
20. 公司重視我的意見。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
21. 公司對我在工作上的成就引以為傲。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
22. 公司提供不同的培訓課程，令我有更好的工作
表現。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
23. 公司協助我解決行程上遇到的困難，例如：航
班延誤、意外事故。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
24. 公司保持良好的聲譽有助於我的工作。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
25. 公司關注我對工作的整體滿意度。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
26. 公司沒有欣賞我額外付出的努力。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
27. 公司未能留意到我工作上已發揮最佳表現。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
28. 公司很少關注我。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
335
第三部份–員工對直屬上司支持的看法
非常不同意
不同意
部份不同意
中立的
部份同意
同意
非常同意
員工對直屬上司支持的看法
29. 直屬上司重視我對團隊的貢獻。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
30. 直屬上司與我保持良好的工作關係。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
31. 直屬上司為我爭取更好的福利。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
32. 直屬上司對我在工作上的成就引以為傲。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
33. 直屬上司如須更改我的工作條款，會向我提出
合理要求。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
34. 直屬上司會酌情處理我的特別請求。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
35. 直屬上司會原諒我的過失。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
36. 直屬上司會協助我解決工作上的困難。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
37. 直屬上司提出工作回饋或建議，令我有更好的
工作表現。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
38. 直屬上司處理顧客投訴時，會聆聽我的意見。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
39. 直屬上司讚賞及鼓勵我，令我有更好的工作表
現。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
40. 直屬上司關注我對工作的整體滿意度。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
41. 直屬上司很少關注我。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
42. 直屬上司不理會我的投訴。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
43. 直屬上司沒有欣賞我額外付出的努力。
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
44. 直屬上司未能留意到我工作上已發揮最佳表
現。 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
336
第四部份–領隊/導遊的角色
非常不同意
不同意
部份不同意
中立的
部份同意
同意
非常同意
領隊/導遊的角色
在日常櫃位及帶團的工作中, 我須要扮演以下的角色
45. 演員–經常展示正面情緒，例如積極、開朗
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
46. 當地大使–提供優質旅遊服務
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
47. 協調者–減低及調解服務供應商與客人的糾紛
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
48. 保姆–照顧團友
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
49. 文化傳遞人–加強不同文化人仕的溝通與瞭解
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
50. 表演者–在團中表演，帶動氣氛
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
51. 領隊–負責旅行團的一切事務
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
52. 東道主–招待臨本地的旅客
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
53. 資料提供者–提供資訊予客人
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
54. 中介人/中間人–作為服務供應商與客人的橋
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
樑，協助提供相關的服務
55. 解說員/翻譯員–解說或/翻譯當地語言
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
56. 組織者–組織及安排行程 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
57. 解決問題者–為客人解決問題
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
58. 推銷員–推銷公司的產品和服務 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
59. 議價人–為客人議價
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
337
第五部份–個人資料
1. 性別 男 女
2.年齡
 18 - 24  25 - 34  35 - 44
 45 - 54  55 - 64  65 或以上
3.婚姻狀况
 已婚  未婚 離婚其他: _________
4.最高教育程度
 小學
中學
 大專(高級文憑,文憑,證書)
 大學或以上
 其他: __________________
5. 你在這間公司服務了多少年?
少於 1 年  1-3 年
 4-6 年  7-9 年  10 年或以上
6. 你成為導遊/領隊已多少年?
少於 1 年  1-3 年
 4-6 年  7-9 年  10 年或以上
問卷結束
非常感謝您的参與！
338

An Empirical Study On The Effects of Emotional Labour Perceived (Theses)

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An Empirical Study On The Effects of Emotional Labour Perceived (Theses)

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Southern Cross University

An empirical study on the effects of emotional

Yim Yin Chu Florence

A thesis submitted to the School of Business and Tourism,

effects of emotional labour, perceived organisational support and perceived supervisor

support on tour guides’ role performance in addition to the identification of tour

relationships among the independent variables (emotional labour, perceived

(role performance), and to investigate the correlation between each independent

variable and the dependent variable.

method whereby self-administered questionnaires were sent to target participants,

correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and principle component analysis

Hypotheses 1, 2 and 3 are supported. With respect to the prediction of role

predict role performance, whereas perceived organisational support (including

organisational care and rewards, job training and facilitation, organisational

recognition and appreciation) and supervisor recognition and appreciation (a factor of

perceived supervisor support) do not significantly predict role performance. Hence,

Hypothesis 4 is partially supported. As a result of the principal component analysis

findings, it is suggested that travel agencies implement appropriate human resources

practices such as establishing emotional display rules, enhancing emotional training,

cultivating a caring and supportive culture in the workplace, reviewing selection

a better role performance. Further, it is recommended that researchers work

organisations involved in tour guide training should revisit their programmes to

include emotional labour training in the curriculum.

gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Catherine Cheung, whose guidance, insightful advice

I encountered while using the SPSS software.

I am grateful to friends in the tourism industry, including Ms Selina Ho and

Associate Professor Michelle Wallace for her administration of the examination

My sincere appreciation goes to my students: Mr Timothy Wong, Mr Ericsson

me in distributing the questionnaires at the airport.

is my daughter Michelle, whose support manifested in her patience while

whose unfailing dedication to academic research inspired me to pursue a doctoral

Table 1 Functions of Tourism-related Bodies in Hong Kong ................................. 10

Figure 1 The Dynamics of Tour Guides’ Roles ......................................................... 40

POS Perceived Organisational Support

PSS Perceived Supervisor Support

1.1 Background of the Study

industrial centre to a service centre by adopting multi-focused economy in which

Undoubtedly, successful tourism development in Hong Kong is a product of

representatives of a destination with a responsibility to promote that destination (Pond

desire to spend at a destination (Dahles 2002).

notorious ‘forced shopping’ which happened in inbound tourism in Hong Kong.

tour guides are required to carry conflicting job roles.

different expectations of tour guides. Travel agencies require a tour guide to be a

irritated by tour guides’ negative attitudes, inappropriate facial expressions or

emotions more effectively.

As suggested by other researchers, jobs in the tourism industry demand a great

In addition to emotional labour, it is believed that perceived organisational

(Cropanzano et al. 1997; Grandey 2000; Ross & Boles 1994).

three, four and five:

 To what extent does organisational support affect tour guides’ role

 What kinds of support should be provided by travel agencies to enable tour

guides to perform their roles effectively?

Based on the rationales stated, a theoretical model was devised to investigate

dependent variable (RP). Furthermore, this research investigates which independent

1.2 An Overview of the Tourism Industry in Hong Kong

1.2.1 Tourist Arrivals and Tourism Expenditure

significantly to economic growth and provides employment opportunities to local

tourism also reached a historical high of HK$296.56 billion in 2012.

Economic Partnership Arrangement, started in 2003 as one of the key measures to

expenditure is not available. However, outbound travel expenditure can be estimated

customers purchase tour products consisting of two of more items in transportation,

flight/hotel packages amount to HK$158.95 billion.

Recognising the great economic benefits brought by tourism, the government