The path from role clarity to job satisfaction: natural acting and the moderating impact of perceived fairness of compensation in services

Extant studies examining emotional labor and job satisfaction have generally been limited by examining only surface and deep acting. This study builds upon extant studies by introducing natural acting strategies and examines the moderating role of compensation. Based on structural equation modeling involving 326 frontline service employees across several service providers and industries in South Korea, this study showed that role clarity was positively related to all three emotional labor strategies, with natural acting being most prevalent. Further, this study showed that natural acting had a negative relationship to emotional exhaustion, and that perceived fairness of compensation positively moderated the relationship between emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction.