Managing Customer Relationships in ITES Organizations: Role of Emotion Management Ability

Expression of organizationally desired emotions during face-to-face or voice-to-voice interactions is a job demand for many employees in the service industry, particularly in call center jobs. Call center work requires constant interaction with customers, and the requirement to regulate emotions at work. Consequently, call center employees frequently engage in emotionally demanding interactions with customers. This paper focuses on understanding the role of employees' emotion management ability i.e., emotional intelligence and emotional labor in maintaining long-term customer relationship through the impact of emotion management ability on employee job performance and customer satisfaction with service quality. Various propositions have been stated to focus on the relationship of emotional labor strategies with employee job performance and customer satisfaction with service quality. Moreover, the moderating effect of emotional intelligence on the relationship of emotional labor with job performance and customer satisfaction with service quality has been discussed. Managerial implications of the study are discussed.