Challenge
Frontline employees, such as call center workers, must regulate their emotions while interacting with customers and completing work tasks. This can deplete both psychological and physical resources, with the potential to lead to both negative individual-level (e.g., emotional exhaustion, burnout, stress) and organizational-level (e.g., service performance, abseenteeism, staff turnover) outcomes.
Approach
In this project, we examine consequences of emotional self-regulation in the face of highly charged emotional interactions, discerning relevant neuromarkers to infer individuals’ affective states. By doing so, we aim to understand how employee emotional labor is linked to individual and organizational resilience. Our research activities examine:
- How the affective valence of communication with a customer (e.g., negative/neutral/positive) influences employee cognitive load, and consequences for wellbeing, stress, and task performance.
- Neuromarkers that objectively describe emotionally induced cognitive load.
Expected Results
- A better understanding of how emotional dynamics in frontline interactions influence cognitive load and task performance, paving the way for improved support strategies and more resilient workplace practices.
- The results will be used to inform digital interventions to mitigate excessive cognitive load and stress through real-time monitoring (e.g. using EEG or EMG sensor data) and adaptive support.
Project Status
Ongoing
Lead Researchers
Rayna Ney & Melanie Baumgartner
