The Cost of Faking a Smile

PolyU School of Hotel and Tourism Management | June 27, 2023

Perhaps surprisingly, the smiles that greet you upon arrival at a hotel might not be genuine. A positive, welcoming demeanour is part of the job description for housekeeping, front desk, and restaurant workers, whose smiles, moods, and emotions are distinguishing features of the hospitality sector. But when frontline employees have to fake it, what strategies do they use? Eye-opening new work from researchers Dr Deniz Kucukusta and Ms Yoo Jin Lim of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has revealed more about the emotional labour strategies adopted by frontline workers to counter the emot...