Emotional Skills in Service Related Jobs: an Empirical Approach

The purpose of this study is to shed some light on the importance of emotional skills in current service related jobs. The empirical study investigates how these new job requirements are dispersed in the Romanian organizational framework and enable customers to raise their expectations of service deliveries. The research results suggest customers express service expectations in terms of emotional labor and employees are required to perform their activity based on this prospect. Data collection for this study was made with the help of a quantitative instrument – the questionnaire was applied on a sample of 304 Romanian respondents. Results suggest that feelings gain exchange values as analyzed organizations prefer tailored service deliveries where smile, politeness, friendliness or even happiness become the main emotional advantages in order to gain customer loyalty. The paper therefore suggests a challenge of rethinking emotions in the service framework.