The Influence of Select Demographic Characteristics on Surface Acting Behavior of Customer Service Personnel

The study aims at identifying the behaviors of customer service personnel with respect to surface acting across gender, age and experience. The study adopts a single cross-sectional survey in order to gain a broad understanding of the concept of surface acting. The primary data was collected from 187 service personnel working in a central government organization in India through a pre-designed and pretested questionnaire. The questionnaire was adapted from Grandey (2003) and modified to the Indian environment. The dimensions of surface acting were grouped into two factors, namely, ‘emotional masking’ and ‘fake performance’ with the help of factor analysis. The study found that the most exhibited behaviors were emotional masking and fake performance by male and female respondents, respectively. Further, there was no significant difference among the gender, age group and total number of years in relation to emotional masking and fake performance