Drawing on self-determination theory, which suggests that individuals’ autonomous and controlled motivations determine their behavior and performance, our research examined the relationship between motivation, emotional labor, and service performance. We predicted that autonomous motivation will be positively associated with service performance through deep acting and that controlled motivation will be negatively associated with service performance through surface acting. To test these hypotheses, we collected three-wave data from 282 hotel employees and 21 general managers over a 15-month period. As predicted, autonomous motivation was positively related to deep acting and negatively related to surface acting 1 year later, whereas controlled motivation was positively related to surface acting 1 year later. Deep acting was positively associated with supervisor-rated service performance 3 months later. Further, the indirect effect of autonomous motivation on service performance through deep acting was significant. The robustness of these findings was established by reanalyzing the data without controlling for potential confounds and conducting a validation study among 70 flight attendants across 5 consecutive days. The findings highlight the importance of service employees’ autonomous motivation in effective emotion regulation and resulting service performance.
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