Emotional dissonance and customer service: an exploratory study

In this paper, the broad context for the study of emotional dissonance and its importance to marketing is set out. The relevant literature on emotional dissonance, its antecedents and outcomes are introduced together with the knowledge gap in the literature. The conceptual framework of emotional dissonance is expanded via exploratory research using case studies in order to identify the key issues and the managerial implications. The study’s findings extend the previous theoretical and empirical research on emotional dissonance in the workplace and customer service role internalization in high contact services involving faceto-face interactions between employees and customers. Specifically, the findings highlight the influence of customer service role internalization on emotional dissonance and further suggest examining the impact of emotional dissonance on key job outcome variables namely, customer oriented behaviours and job satisfaction.