Service with a Smile: Emotional Contagion in the Service Encounter

Abstract

This study focuses on the antecedents and consequences of displayed emotion in organizations. I propose that customers “catch” the affect of employees through emotional contagion processes. Results indicate that the display of positive emotion by employees is positively related to customers' positive affect following service encounters and to their evaluations of service quality. In a replication and extension of prior research, transaction busyness and employee emotional expressiveness are shown to predict displays of emotion by employees.