The Moderator Effect of Communicative Rational Action in the Relationship between Emotional Labor and Job Satisfaction

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine whether emotional labor behavior has an effect on job satisfaction, and if there is an effect, to reveal whether communicative rational action has a moderator effect. This research was carried out in the banking sector. The sample group consisted of administrators of foreign capital bank managers (427) at all levels in Turkey. The collected data were analyzed with the IBM SPSS 21 program. Multiple regression analysis and SPSS PROCESS v3.5 (model1) methods were used in the analysis. According to the analysis, the three sub-dimensions of communicative rational action (practical-rational action, rational communication, and rational action) have a moderator role in the effect of emotional labor and job satisfaction. The other two sub dimensions (value–rational–action and firm family) do not have a moderator role in this effect. In the analysis made according to the total score of communicative rational action, the moderator role of communicative rational action in the effect of emotional labor and job satisfaction was determined. As a result of the research and analysis, it was determined that emotional labor has a positive effect on the phenomenon of job satisfaction.

1. Introduction

It is known that businesses pursue maximum profits. This situation pushes businesses and their managers to a self-interested/utilitarian mindset. Individuals have an understanding that they only communicate for their own benefit when they deem it necessary. However, in parallel with the sociological developments, the need to replace the economic and mechanical mentality of enterprises with a more humane and socio-technical structure in which communication is prominent has arisen [1]. Accordingly, profit is not the only motive guiding the behavior of business managers and owners. Instead, it is aimed to move businesses to a more human dimension with a multiple communication model where the interests of all stakeholders are considered together [2]. With the increasing importance of the service sector, the expectation of obtaining the right emotional reactions from the employees is also increasing. However, employees may not always give the right responses. Sometimes, their emotional reactions and their real feelings may be different. Employees may feel pressure to give the right emotional responses. If the emotional reactions expected by the organization and their real feelings are compatible, positive results arise for the employee and the organization. However, in the case of non-compliance, first of all, the tension, stress, and contradiction that the employees feel are reflected in the individual performance, which will negatively affect the organizational performance. This cycle increases the importance of the concept of emotional labor in one’s working life [3,4]. Job satisfaction is an important and vital parameter for modern organizations and successful human resource management practices. Job satisfaction expresses the attitudes of employees toward various aspects of their jobs and contributes positively to productivity, absenteeism, staff turnover, motivation, quality, and performance [5]. For this reason, the methods and practices that increase the level of job satisfaction in organizations should be researched and policies should be adopted accordingly. Studies have revealed that emotional labor behavior causes various work outcomes [6]. These job results can be positive such as increased self-efficacy, self-esteem, organizational and job commitment, and customer satisfaction [7,8,9,10] as well as burnout [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22], loss of self [23,24,25,26,27], organizational commitment [28], job stress [29,30,31], emotional conflict/disharmony [13,29,32,33], intention to leave [16,17,32,33,34,35,36], and job satisfaction or dissent [15,16,17,22,37,38,39,40,41]. In this study, the role of communicative rational action in the interaction of emotional labor and job satisfaction will be researched. In this respect, both the fact that communicative rational action will be used for the first time in another research and the investigation of the role of another phenomenon in the interaction of emotional labor and job satisfaction increases the importance of this study. When we look at the literature, it is noteworthy that there are not enough publications showing that any variable has a role in the relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction. Some of these studies are presented in [42,43,44,45,46]. Another unique feature of the study is that the sample consisted of the bank administrators. Looking at the literature, it can be seen that studies on emotional labor behavior are generally conducted on non-managerial employees. As is known, administrators are also employees of organizations. They may not always be in direct contact with external customers. However, they are in constant communication with the employees, who are expressed as internal customers. Therefore, administrators also have to exhibit emotional labor. Moreover, they strive to achieve the main purposes of the organization with the pressure of authority and responsibilities. While trying to achieve this, they have to direct their employees, who are the most important resources of the organizations, effectively and correctly. They also act as a bridge between the administrators, company owners and shareholders, and employees. Transforming the determined objectives into concrete actions, making plans, and ensuring that the jobs and duties are fulfilled by assigning appropriate jobs to suitable employees are among the most important responsibilities. In particular, they spend emotional effort in the process of harmonizing the organizational aims with the goals of the employees. In this respect, it is important for administrators to investigate the relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction and the role of communicative rational action in this relationship.

In the research, a sample was created with a stratified sampling method on foreign capital bank managers in Turkey, and survey data were collected with online and face-to-face communication methods. A total of 427 data included in the evaluation were analyzed with SPSS Statistics Version 21.0.0.0, International Business Machines Corporation, New York, USA. According to the results of the analysis, it was determined that communicative rational action and emotional labor have a regulatory role on job satisfaction. It can be said that job satisfaction will be at a high level in a business that adopts communicative rational action. Organizations with such a corporate mentality give importance to the ideas of their employees with the goal of happy employees, help their development, and try to support them by following their private lives. In this respect, it can be said that the negative consequences of emotional labor may be less in organizations with high communicative rationality. It can be stated that job satisfaction can be high in organizations with a high level of communicative rationality. This study aims to address various gaps in the literature and to determine the role of communicative rationality action in the relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction. The results of the research are expected to contribute to the narrative of emotional labor, job satisfaction, and communicative rational action in many sectors, of course including the service sector, and increase the knowledge on the subject. Examining the moderator role of the act of communicative rationality in the relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction will also contribute to the limited research that adopts emotional labor in similar constructs. In addition, this study aimed to provide relative inferences for the service sector, especially for managers.

2. Theoretical Framework

2.1. Emotional Labor

The most important resource of companies has begun to be seen as their human resources in recent years. With the increasing popularity of the service sector, it has become important how the employees behave as well as the activities of the companies. In this context, many studies have been initiated on the emotions that are the basis of the display of behaviors. Especially in recent years, the main element that these studies have focused on is emotional labor. Emotions are produced by the interaction of the individual with society. These interactions, and therefore the emotions associated with them, can be positive or negative. Emotions are variables that vary from person to person and situation to situation. They also depend on personal skills and attitudes [3]. The study of emotional factors plays an important role in both psychology and management. The main driving force of the company is individuals who make rational decisions. Leaders should motivate them to do their best [4,11]. When people are faced with a certain situation, they may often need to adjust their emotions to present an appropriate outlook for their work [47]. Emotional labor theory suggests that for employees, if customers are mostly face-to-face or via voice communication, they tend to manage their emotions and appearances [12]. Employees, who are in one-to-one contact with customers, and administrators, who are in contact with both employees and customers, are requested to adapt their emotional displays to the standards set by the company. The effort and sacrifice spent in this process are expressed as emotional labor [48]. The concept of emotional labor can be defined as a process that manages the feelings and emotions of an individual employee. Therefore, it helps to meet the need to express emotions in the workplace. It is important for employees to protect and express their emotions while working in coordination with colleagues, managers, and customers [3,49]. According to Ashforth and Humphrey [7], emotional labor is expressed as the behavior of showing the appropriate emotion to others. According to Morris and Feldman [13], emotional labor is the effort, planning, and control required to express organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions, while mental labor is the knowledge that individuals put forward to do their job, and physical labor expresses body power [29]. In other words, emotional labor can be defined as the process of managing emotions in accordance with the organizational or professional display expectations that may arise in any profession that provides interpersonal services [11,50,51,52].

Four important approaches to emotional labor stand out in the literature. These approaches are the Hochschild approach [29], the Ashforth and Humphrey approach [7], the Morris and Feldman approach [13], and the Grandey approach [23]. Hochschild’s work emerged as an approach in which customer interactions, where the customer is the audience, the employee is the actor, and the work environment is the scene, are evaluated together. In this approach, managing emotions is a way for employees to achieve organizational goals. If an employee expresses a depressed mood or anger toward a co-worker or customer, this can negatively affect their performance. Hochschild proposes two ways for employees, who are considered as actors, to manage their emotions: (i) Surface acting, in which individuals regulate their emotional expressions, and (ii) deep acting, in which individuals consciously change their emotions to express the desired emotion. Demonstrating surface and deep acting is a laborious task. Organizations trying to control something private such as emotions may not be welcome. This may lead to results related to burnout and job stress in employees [29].

Ashforth and Humphrey define emotional labor as the act of displaying appropriate emotions with a form of impression management for the organization. They stated that emotional labor is an observable behavior rather than the management of emotions. They thought that the internal management of emotions through surface and deep acting was not sufficient and stated that emotional labor does not always require a conscious effort. They also thought that surface and deep acting could cause stress for employees. In addition to Hochschild, Ashforth and Humphrey included genuine emotion. They argued that emotional labor should be positively associated with task effectiveness, provided that the clients perceive the employee’s expressions as sincere. They stated that if employees do not show real expressions, emotional labor can cause individuals to alienate themselves (especially if they act deeply) [13,29].

Grandey’s study states that there is no consensus on emotional labor in previous studies. For this reason, he used a definition of emotional labor that integrated all perspectives and tried to understand the mechanisms of the regulation of emotions. He defined emotional labor as the regulation of emotions and behaviors in accordance with the organization. He tried to present an emotional labor model that included individual differences and organizational differences in the regulation of emotions. He also stated that there were similarities in previous studies. The common theme of the three studies is: “Individuals can regulate their emotional expression at work.” Emotional labor, then, is the process of organizing both emotions and expressions for organizational purposes. Specifically, each perspective discusses surface and deep acting as a way of managing emotions. Surface acting and deep acting fit the working definition of emotional labor as an emotional regulation process and provide a way of functionalizing emotional labor [23].

In the literature, it can be seen that the negative effects and results of emotional labor are mostly mentioned. However, it is possible to state that emotional labor has positive effects and results as well as the negative effects and results on employees [37].

Considering the studies, the following negative effects of emotional labor on employees have been determined: burnout [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22], loss of self [23,24,25,26,27], organizational commitment [28], job stress [29,30,31], emotional conflict/disharmony [13,29,32,33], intention to leave [16,17,32,33,35,36], and job satisfaction or dissent [15,16,17,22,37,38,39,40,41]. These negative results naturally lead to the emergence of negative outputs in the organizational sense.

Surface acting includes the display of emotions that are not actually felt by the careful use of verbal and non-verbal communication tools such as facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice [7,11,53]. The contradiction of the real feelings that individuals feel with the emotional displays expected by the organization can be expressed as surface acting. In this, it is essential to control real emotions and to exhibit behavior that corresponds to the emotional states expected of individuals.

Deep acting occurs when an employee has to make an effort to regulate their emotions [7,29]. Deep acting is the effort of employees to try to feel the emotions they reflect with their behaviors [23,54]. In this, it is essential that individuals try to really feel the emotion they have to display.

According to Ashforth and Humphrey [7], while employees exhibit genuine emotion, they do not have a perception of necessity such as in surface acting, or necessity such as in deep acting. In this context, they exhibit genuine emotion and natural behaviors with the lowest level of emotional labor in genuine emotion. This can be expressed as the fact that individuals feel that emotion without the need to pretend while exhibiting the expected behavior. In this, employees do not need to spend a lot of effort. Therefore, they do not feel any emotional pressure. It can also be thought that it does not have a negative effect on employees when compared to other emotional labor behaviors.

If an employee witnesses their colleague arguing with their manager at a time when they are having fun, pretending to be upset by hiding their pleasant mood indicates surface acting. On the other hand, remembering a similar situation that they had experienced in the past, sharing their friend’s feelings, and displaying sad behaviors can be given as examples of deep acting. Empathy is seen much more when displaying deep acting. An example of genuine emotion is when an employee is truly happy because a colleague has been promoted.

2.2. Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is an expression of how a person feels about their job and various other aspects of their job. In other words, it reflects one’s attitude toward their job. Job satisfaction is generally defined as an emotional response to a job situation. It is an important factor that determines employee performance and affects organizational performance. It is also affected by various factors such as personal and non-personal factors. The ability of employees to understand which factors determine job satisfaction most is a challenging and important task for managers [55,56].

Job satisfaction is in question if employees have positive feelings about their jobs. Job dissatisfaction is mentioned when employees have negative feelings about their jobs. Job satisfaction is a concept related to many issues within the organization. If organizations want to achieve positive results related to work, they have to deal with the job satisfaction levels of their employees. An employee with high job satisfaction has positive feelings about their job and organization. As a result, their performance and efficiency increase. This contributes to organizational performance and productivity. In addition, an employee with high job satisfaction increases the organizational commitment. As job satisfaction increases, intention to quit, absenteeism, and employee turnover rates decrease. In addition, high job satisfaction helps employees exhibit organizational citizenship behavior. In this way, employees adopt the organization and their jobs and see it as their own and make an effort [57].

Job satisfaction also refers to the emotional behavior of employees toward their jobs. Organizations strive to increase employee engagement and job satisfaction. For organizations, all employees are valuable, but especially those who have worked in the organization for a long time become much more valuable. Job satisfaction is one of the most important factors for organizational success. Every organization strives to create a workforce that is satisfied with running the organization’s business because in this case, employees try to expand their efforts for their performance in their jobs. In general, the individual performances of the employees in the organization also affect the performance of the organization [58]. Job satisfaction can be affected by many factors, and it can also affect the many job attitudes of employees. For this reason, the relations between the variables have been frequently examined in the literature. It is thought that this is affected by many organizational factors such as leadership style, organizational justice, and organizational culture, along with the demographic variables. In addition, it is stated that the main factors affecting job satisfaction are career opportunities, job impact, teamwork, and job difficulty [59]. Knowing the level of job satisfaction in the organization is important for both the employees and organizations. In terms of employees, if employees feel high satisfaction, it can be a reflection of good behavior. From an organizational perspective, organizational performance will be high in organizations with employees with high job satisfaction, and the satisfaction of employees will make it easier to retain employees, which will increase the productivity and quality [60].

Job satisfaction has a multidimensional structure. The dimensions of job satisfaction are intrinsic satisfaction and extrinsic satisfaction. Different dimensions can have different effects on job satisfaction. Factors such as working conditions and supervision are external job satisfaction elements. Challenge, the need for achievement, and hereditary factors are intrinsic job satisfaction components. Internal job satisfaction elements are more effective than external job satisfaction elements [61].

In the “Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale” [62], it can be seen that job satisfaction is examined in terms of sub-dimensions. These sub-dimensions are called internal satisfaction and external satisfaction.

Job satisfaction or dissatisfaction is affected by different factors. Employee satisfaction with their jobs mostly depends on the content of their job. The satisfaction experienced by the employees during the fulfillment of their duties is defined as internal satisfaction. Intrinsic satisfaction is when a particular person feels satisfied with their success in doing a job well. Obviously, this is the satisfaction that comes from actual work such as a sense of accomplishment, a sense of responsibility, and self-esteem. The satisfaction experienced by the employees as a result of fulfilling their duties is defined as external satisfaction. Extrinsic satisfaction means feeling satisfied due to the effect of the influence of an external factor such as a reward received. This award can be in the form of a salary or recognition, or it can be in the form of the recognition of success [63,64].

Job satisfaction is an element that increases its importance day by day. Some studies have findings that strengthen these data. There are important data that entrepreneurs have higher job satisfaction, balance satisfaction, and life satisfaction with respect to wage workers [65]. One of the main examples justifying the rising importance of job satisfaction is the current pandemic process. It has been observed that job satisfaction among employees during the COVID-19 epidemic was perceived as lower than job satisfaction among employees in the pre-COVID-19 period [66]. Isolation and concerns about COVID-19 appear to be associated with decreased job satisfaction as well as satisfaction with remote work in particular [67]. Therefore, it is emphasized that job satisfaction is an important protective variable as it is associated with both individual well-being and corporate belonging [68].

The current studies on job satisfaction develop data that can be considered as up-to-date in terms of the subject. Considering the spatial dimension of job satisfaction, remarkable results emerge. It appears that working from home during the COVID-19 quarantine has helped companies expand their business operations, but rapid and unplanned expansion has negatively impacted employee well-being, work–life balance, and job satisfaction [69]. When the studies on the direct effects of job satisfaction are examined, it can be said that the importance of risk awareness, leadership, and resource factors increases [70] because the sense of job satisfaction reveals that organizational commitment and human resources managers should focus more on job satisfaction for more effective organizational commitment. For this reason, idealized job satisfaction parameters should include employees’ balancing their work and family life and benefiting from appropriate working conditions [71]. Therefore, organizational culture, a leadership style that employees can adopt, and the practices of human resources managers have become very important for job satisfaction. Therefore, new challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic are important for understanding job satisfaction and improving it in line with the new needs [72].

2.3. Communicative Rational Action

The communicative rational action theory was put forward by the famous philosopher Habermas, who claimed that the problems posed by modernity could be solved with this theory. According to Habermas, individuals should act communicative rationally while performing their economic activities or professions. He proposed this theory based on Weber’s practical-rational action phenomenon. Communicative rational action can be explained as follows: Managers, capitalists, bureaucrats, and employers act in a profit-oriented manner in their economic activities. It is a natural condition of business life for them to try to maximize their profits. While Weber defined it as purpose-rational action, Habermas defined it as strategic action, using a more organizational expression. Strategic action cannot heal the damage caused by the rationalization process in the field of values.

Communicative rational action consists of five sub-dimensions. These are rational action, practical-rational action, value-rational action, rational communication, and the firm family.

(i).

To briefly explain, rationalism is based on the principle of individuals acting rationally. An individual uses the mechanism of intelligence in daily practices, relations with other people, business, and family life, short- and long-term plans, and similar conditions. Therefore, the individuals’ mental activities, action motivations and contents, comparing and focusing on target activities are at a developed level. The rationalism process designs the individual’s life from beginning to end. This may be indicated as cost minimization and profit maximization [73].

(ii).

Value-rationality may be mentioned if an individual acts in principle or with values. In this phase, the individual acts vis-a-vis a principle or a value rather than the benefits. Value-rationality includes the binding of instruments. These are motivation sources such as beliefs, social responsibility, glory, and loyalty. This type of action takes place in the individual’s mind as a direct aim. Ensuring the ideal benefits is not important. A value should be generally accepted and principled to be rational [74].

(iii).

Practical-rational action comes into being by combining the action conditions of purposive-rational action and value-rational action. Practical-rational action requires expressing a rational goal or goals to meet needs. It includes searching and comparing the most appropriate and effective tools, methods, and applications. Additionally, it requires being ready for the realization or failure of the expectations and generating strategies for unexpected conditions. Individuals who carry out practical-rational actions try to realize the benefits, success, and profit. At the same time, they consider the respondents’ rights and increase common welfare. Individuals protect and internalize the environment such as their own homes and try not to cause harm. They also try to increase the sources of the next generations [75].

(iv).

Rational communication has some conditions and features. When individuals communicate with each other in business life, first of all, they should not seek only profit. Individuals or actors (individual, firm, institution, government) must first communicate with each other for the purpose of agreement [76]. The parties communicating for the purpose of agreement should know each other. It should be accepted that the other person takes part in this process as a subject. Belief that a compromise can be reached must be entered into. Though the outcome is not certain. It should come together with the intention of being constructive. Common norms that meet the expectations of each actor should be determined. These norms should be known, understood, and accepted by all segments. The discussion should start on an equal footing. Language should be used freely and effectively. Intentions should be presented clearly and precisely. Understandable expressions should be used, be honest, and show a reliable stance. During the completion of the action, inappropriate behaviors such as violence, lies, deception, cheating, and domination should not be resorted to. It should be understood that opposing views are true and valid, and new discussions should be approached with tolerance [77].

(v).

Communication between the units of a firm family is generally strategic nowadays so all units are self-possessed. Big problems exist in terms of trust. Acting together is weak. Channels for interdependence and co-operation are mostly closed. All units only consider their own benefits, so they develop various methods to ensure their benefits. However, gaining profit for all units is difficult in this type of relationship [78]. Thus, Habermas indicates that strategic action and communicative rational action must be carried out collaterally. All actors gain when relations in the firm family and with other firms are organized in this way. It is not reasonable to remove strategic action from the firm relations. Firms must develop definite strategies and maintain continuity to reach their goals [79].

2.4. Relationship between the Variables and Literature Review

According to studies, one of the concepts that is thought to be most related to emotional labor is job satisfaction. In the literature, different results can be seen in studies researching the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction. It can be said that there is no consensus on this issue as yet. As can be seen below, some studies have shown that the use of emotional labor does not affect job satisfaction. In some studies, it was seen that it had a negative effect. In some, it was possible to encounter results that showed a positive effect. It can be said that there are differences, especially in terms of the sub-dimensions of emotional labor.

According to the systematic literature research conducted by Lee and Madera [80], emotional intelligence and personality are the most common precursors in the literature of emotional labor behavior. The most researched results of emotional labor behavior are job satisfaction and burnout.

Hochschild [29] stated that if individuals have to control their emotions, their job satisfaction levels will be negatively affected. He also stated that selling the emotions of the employees for a commercial purpose will reduce their job satisfaction. The study of Grandey [23] also supports this idea. According to the results, it was revealed that surface acting and deep acting negatively affect job satisfaction. In addition, Pugliesi [30] found in his study that emotional labor behavior reduced job satisfaction. When the studies on the subject were examined, it was seen that although different findings have been reached, it is generally seen that surface acting reduces job satisfaction, and in-depth acting and genuine emotion increase job satisfaction.

Employees and managers suppressing their feelings and displaying the desired emotions and behaviors by the organization can negatively affect job satisfaction. In studies conducted on the subject, it has been seen that surface acting and deep acting often affect the job satisfaction levels of employees (although it cannot be stated positively or negatively) [13,23,29].

Exhibiting deep acting from emotional labor behaviors can create positive effects in terms of emotional performance and customer satisfaction. However, displaying surface acting has negative effects in terms of burnout and job dissatisfaction [81]. There was a positive effect between genuine emotion and deep acting and job satisfaction in the study by Millard, and there was a negative effect between surface acting and job satisfaction [82].

Looking at the literature, it can be said that emotional labor affects job satisfaction and there is a significant effect between them [22,58,83], which is consistent with previous studies. Looking at the studies related to job satisfaction and the sub-dimensions of emotional labor, the following results stand out, for example, in some studies, a significant and positive effect emerged between genuine emotion and job satisfaction [37,84,85]. In some studies, a positive effect between deep acting and job satisfaction was revealed [83,86,87,88,89,90,91,92]. There have also been studies that found that surface acting was negatively related to job satisfaction [56,86,87,88,89,90,93,94,95,96]. These results are also consistent with the theoretical model of Grandey [23] as well as the findings of Brotheridge and Lee [97]. In addition, no study has been found in the literature that indicates the opposite of these results, that is, concluding that genuine emotion negatively affects job satisfaction, or that surface acting positively affects job satisfaction.

According to the results of the research, employees who show surface acting to appear in accordance with the organizational rules may have had to suppress their true feelings. This situation may lead to a decrease in the level of job satisfaction. In contrast, employees who show deep acting, as they can maintain consistency between the organization’s rules and their true feelings, may have an increase in their job satisfaction level. For this reason, it can be predicted that employees who exhibit deep acting will experience less emotional exhaustion compared to employees who exhibit surface acting.

In addition, some studies have not found a significant effect between surface acting satisfaction [91,98]. No significant effect was found between deep acting and job satisfaction [98,99]. Deep behavior does not consume many psychological resources when it comes to lower levels of dissonance between felt and expressed emotions [100]. In addition, according to [101], emotional labor affects tourism workers in the following ways: work environment and low wages, and bad customer behavior can reduce the demand and expectations. Communication difficulties, on the other hand, can reduce job satisfaction levels as a result of the effort required to cope with inadequate communication. Many researchers cite the negative impact on employees of creating false emotions in the name of customer service. Emotional labor is also generally thought to have negative effects on employee well-being and job satisfaction. Additionally, many researchers have argued how negative it is for employees to create false emotions in the name of customer service. Emotional labor is generally thought to have negative effects on employee well-being and job satisfaction [22].

Organizations can prevent this situation by offering financial rewards for their employees’ emotional labor behaviors and providing a supportive structure instead of tightly controlling their employees. Performance-related rewards will increase the motivation of employees for unnatural behavior, and in particular, may reverse the typically negative effect of surface acting with job satisfaction and negative mood [81].

Based on the above discussions, we put forward the following research hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1.

Emotional labor positively affects job satisfaction.

2.5. The Role of Communicative Rational Action in the Effect of Emotional Labor on Job Satisfaction

There has been no study on emotional labor and communicative rational action in the literature. Likewise, there has been no study investigating the effect of job satisfaction on communicative rational action. Furthermore, while there have been many studies examining the relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction, there are rather few studies examining the role of any variable in the relationship between these two phenomena. There is no study in which communicative rational action has a mediating or moderator role.

To talk about the relationship between these three phenomena, the following can be said: The negative effects of emotional labor can be partially reduced through emotional regulation and mood improvement. Similarly, when communicative rational action is adopted, the negative consequences of emotional labor are less visible. Furthermore, communicative rational action can have an enhancing effect on the positive results of emotional labor. One of the reasons for choosing communicative rational action in the emotional labor—job satisfaction relationship is that the organizational outputs are positively valued in favor of the employee and the firm. In the communicative rational action scale development study, it was observed that managers who adopted a communicative rational action approached the organization more positively, both toward other employees and individuals associated with the company. One of the main reasons for this is that the person does not act only for profit/benefit while taking communicative rational action. Acting this way, one sees the other person as a subject/purpose. They try to increase both their own benefit and the benefit of the other person and does not see the other as a tool such as in strategic action or purposive-rational action. In fact, the values of the rational communication phenomenon, which Habermas put forward in his theory of communicative rationality, point to human and social values. Although such an approach is against the capitalist mentality, it is in line with the requirements of the social firm understanding, which has become increasingly widespread and almost mandatory today [102]. On the other hand, there is a study that does not accept this argument [1]. Researchers argue that communicative rationality will not be successful against all institutions in softening the strategic goals of firms, but it is just about the relation between companies and nongovernmental organizations.

For all these, it can be said that job satisfaction will be at a high level in a company that adopts communicative rational action. Organizations with such a corporate mentality give importance to the ideas of their employees with the goal of happy employees, helping their development, and trying to support them by following their private lives. In this respect, it can be argued that the negative consequences of emotional labor may be less in organizations with a high level of communicative rationality. It can be stated that job satisfaction can be at a high level in organizations with a high communicative rationality level.

Based on the above discussions, we put forward the following research hypotheses:

Hypothesis 2.

Communicative rational action plays a moderator role in the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction.

3. Materials and Methods

The main population of the research consists of bank managers in Turkey. Since it is not possible to reach the whole of the main population, the scope of the research was determined as the managers of foreign-capital banks. In addition, the sample formed by the stratified sampling method was used from many cities, mainly from the three big cities of Turkey (Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir). For this purpose, first of all, the number of bank managers in each province was determined and the share of these numbers in the population was calculated. In order to protect these shares in the sample, the number of managers who should be sampled from each province was calculated. The selection of the number of bank managers determined for each province was determined by deriving random numbers on the computer. Data were obtained by online and face-to-face contact methods between 2 August 2021 and 31 August 2021. While collecting the data, it was determined that 62% of bank managers worked online and 38% worked online due to the COVID-19 pandemic and curfews. This situation, caused by the pandemic. may have had an impact on the results. The questionnaire consists of demographic information such as gender, age and education, emotional labor scale, communicative rational action scale. and job satisfaction scale. All of the questions in the questionnaire form are close-ended. Gender, age, and educational status variables are of the categorical type. Emotional labor scale (19 questions), communicative rational action scale (21 questions), and job satisfaction scale (20 questions) are 5-point Likert scale questions. The link of the online questionnaire was sent to the remote bank managers via email. The questionnaire was applied to the bank managers who were close to them through face-to-face interviews. A total of 438 managers participated in the research, and only 427 of these questionnaires were evaluated due to missing information.

As shown in

Table 1. The demographic findings.

Region of the Participants
Participants from three major cities (İstanbul, İzmir, Ankara)				Participants from other cities
268 (67.34%)				130 (32.66%)
Gender
Female				Male
127 (31.91%)				271 (68.09%)
Among participants from three major cities (İstanbul, İzmir, Ankara)				Among participants from other cities
Female		Male		Female		Male
94 (35.07%)		174 (64.93%)		33 (25.38%)		97 (74.62%)
Age Groups
25–40 Age Group				41+ Age Group
263 (61.45%)				135 (33.92%)
25–40 Age Group				41+ Age Group
Among participants from three major cities		Among participants from other cities		Among participants from three major cities		Among participants from other cities
173 (65.78%)		90 (34.22%)		95 (57.58%)		40 (42.42%)
25–40 Age Group				41+ Age Group
Female		Male		Female		Male
84 (31.94%)		179 (68.06%)		43 (31.85%)		92 (68.15%)
25–40 Age Group				41+ Age Group
Among participants from three major cities		Among participants from other cities		Among participants from three major cities		Among participants from other cities
Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male
62 (35.84%)	111 (64.16%)	22 (24.44%)	68 (75.56%)	32 (33.68%)	63 (66.32%)	11 (27.50%)	29 (72.50%)

, a total of 67.34% of the bank managers who responded to the survey participated from the three big cities of Turkey (İzmir, İstanbul, and Ankara). A total of 31.91% of the participants were female and 32.66% were male, 61.45% of the participants were between the ages of 25 and 40, and 38.55% of them were in the age group of 41 and over. A total of 67.74% of female managers and 66.05% of male managers were between the ages of 25–40, and 33.86% of female managers and 45.02% of male managers were in the age range of 41 and over.

IBM SPSS 21 software was used in the analysis of the data. First of all, the frequency distributions related to the demographic variables were determined. According to the tests based on the skewness and kurtosis coefficients and the difference between the quartiles, it was determined that the data were in accordance with the normal distribution. For this reason, parametric statistical methods were used. Correlations between the data were examined and then a moderator effect analysis was performed through multiple regression analysis with the SPSS PROCESS v3.5 (Model 1) plugin.

Written by Andrew F. Hayes, PROCESS is an OLS-based observed data and logistic regression path analysis modeling tool. It is widely used through the social, business, and health sciences for estimating the direct and indirect effects in single and multiple mediator models (parallel and serial), two- and three-way interactions in moderation models along with simple slopes and regions of significance for probing interactions, and conditional indirect effects in moderated mediation models with a single or multiple mediators or moderators [103,104,105,106]. The PROCESS macro is a useful, free, and easy method. In addition, the moderator provides the necessary data to draw the graphs where the effect can be observed. For this reason, the PROCESS v3.5 macro was used in the analysis.

The model shown in Figure 1 was tested in line with the developed hypotheses.

Validity and Reliability Analysis

The Emotional Labor Scale is a 19-item scale taken from Öz’s study [107]. In her study, she adapted the emotional labor scale, which was developed by benefiting from the study of [108], into Turkish, and conducted a validity and reliability study and confirmed it. The short form of the 20-item Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale developed by Weiss et al. [62] was used as the Job Satisfaction Scale. This scale was adapted to Turkish by Baycan [109] and confirmed by validity and reliability analyses. The Communicative Rational Action Scale is a 21-item scale developed by Çamlı et al. [2]. In this study, the validity and reliability analysis of the scale were also performed. Cronbach α values calculated for the emotional labor scale and its sub-dimensions were as follows: 0.904 for the whole scale; genuine emotion 0.789; deep acting was 0.857, and surface acting was 0.780, which was evaluated as quite reliable. Cronbach α values of the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale and its sub-dimensions were as follows: 0.847 for the whole scale; intrinsic satisfaction was 0.789; extrinsic satisfaction was 0.832, and was evaluated as reliable. Cronbach α values of the communicative rational action scale and its sub-dimensions were as follows: 0.878 for the whole scale; rational action was 0.805; practical rational action was 0.744, rational communication was 0.788, value rational action was 0.742, and firm family was 0.688. This was accepted as reliable.

The factor structure was confirmed by making confirmatory factor analysis for all scales with AMOS 22.0.0 (Build 1384), Amos Development Corporation, Medville, PA, USA. The fit index values were calculated as a result of the confirmatory factor analysis for the emotional labor scale. These were χ2/df = 1.374; RMR = 0.021; GFI = 0.971; AGFI = 0.957; NFI = 0.957; NNFI = 0.985; CFI = 0.988; RMSEA = 0.030. All index values showed good fit. According to these values, it can be said that the factor structure of the emotional labor scale was confirmed.

The fit index values were calculated as a result of the confirmatory factor analysis for the job satisfaction scale. These were χ2/df = 2.217; RMR = 0.016; GFI = 0.955; AGFI = 0.911; NFI = 0.919; NNFI = 0.916; CFI = 0.952; RMSEA = 0.053. While the RMR, GFI, and AGFI indices showed good fit, χ2/df, the NFI, CFI, and RMSEA values showed acceptable fit. According to these values, it can be said that the factor structure of the job satisfaction scale was confirmed.

The fit index values were calculated as a result of the confirmatory factor analysis for the communicative rational action scale. These were χ2/df = 3.405; RMR = 0.038; GFI = 0.966; AGFI = 0.852; NFI = 0.984; NNFI = 0.952; CFI = 0.986; RMSEA = 0.055. The RMR, GFI, NFI, and CFI indices showed good fit, while the AGFI, NNFI, and RMSEA values showed acceptable fit. According to these values, it can be said that the factor structure of the job satisfaction scale was confirmed.

4. Results

4.1. Basic Statistics

The basic statistics of the emotional labor, job satisfaction, and communicative rational action levels of the participants are shown in

Table 2. The basic statistics of the emotional labor, job satisfaction, and communicative rational action variables.

	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Std. Deviation	Skewness	Kurtosis	Cut Off Points
							Low	Medium	High
Emotional Labor	60	94	78.4239	8.7576	−0.09	−1.537	0–74	75–83	84–95
Job Satisfaction	74	95	85.829	5.80685	0.252	−1.375	0–81	82–88	89–95
Rational Action	8	15	13.4801	1.78187	−0.949	0.063	0–11	12–14	15
Practical-Rational Action	17	25	23.0117	2.23551	−0.908	−0.215	0–22	23	24–25
Value-Rational Action	11	20	18.3817	1.49552	−1.162	1.697	0–10	11–18	19–20
Rational Communication	19	30	27.0445	3.21168	−0.738	−0.899	0–22	23–26	27–30
Firm family	10	15	13.9087	1.35958	−1.151	0.468	0–11	12–14	15

.

When Table 2 is examined, it can be seen that managers in foreign-owned bank institutions expend moderate emotional labor, show moderate communicative rational actions, and have moderate job satisfaction. Finally, it was seen that the level of rational communication was at a high level, and the other dimensions of communicative rational action were at a medium level. The skewness and kurtosis coefficients fit the normal distribution.

4.2. Correlation Analysis

The Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to determine the direction and severity of the effects between emotional labor, job satisfaction, and communicative rational action variables. The correlations between variables are shown in

Table 3. The correlation coefficients between variables.

	EL	JS	RA	PRA	VRA	RC	FF	CRA
EL	1.000	0.596 **	0.011	−0.127 **	0.099 *	−0.224 **	−0.123 *	−0.130 **
JS	0.596 **	1.000	0.132 **	0.007	0.108 *	0.046	−0.077	0.059
RA	0.011	0.132 **	1.000	0.471 **	0.490 **	0.566 **	0.415 **	0.772 **
PRA	−0.127 **	0.007	0.471 **	1.000	0.395 **	0.619 **	0.518 **	0.825 **
VRA	0.099 *	0.108 *	0.490 **	0.395 **	1.000	0.228 **	0.347 **	0.578 **
RC	−0.224 **	0.046	0.566 **	0.619 **	0.228 **	1.000	0.416 **	0.845 **
FF	−0.123 *	−0.077	0.415 **	0.518 **	0.347 **	0.416 **	1.000	0.664 **

** Correlation was significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * Correlation was significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). EL: Emotional labor; JS: Job satisfaction; RA: Rational action; PRA: Practical-rational ction; VRA: Value-rational action; RC: Rational communication; FF: Firm family.

.

Table 3 shows a significant and positive correlation of 0.01 (0.596) between emotional labor and job satisfaction. This indicates that the job satisfaction of bank managers increases with the increase in the level of emotional labor expended.

Between rational action and job satisfaction (0.132) at the 0.01 level, significant positive correlation was observed. A significant positive correlation was observed at the 0.05 level between the value-rational action and job satisfaction (0.108). Negligible positive and negative correlations were observed between practical-rational action, rational communication, firm family, and job satisfaction.

Between practical-rational action (−0.127), rational communication, and emotional labor (−0.224) at the 0.01 level, significant negative correlation was observed. A significant positive correlation was observed at the 0.05 level between the value-rational action and emotional labor (0.099). A significant negative correlation was observed at the 0.05 level between firm family and emotional labor (−0.123). Negligible negative correlations were observed between rational action and emotional labor.

4.3. Moderator Impact Analysis

Multiple linear regression analysis was performed with SPSS PROCESS V3.5 (model 1) to determine the moderator effect of the sub-dimensions of communicative rational action on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction. The results of the regression analysis are shown in

Table 4. The moderator effect of communicative rational action on the effect of emotional labor exhibited by bank managers on job satisfaction.

Variable\Model	Model 0	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5
Step 1: Control variables
Constant	50.429 **	76.608 **	62.959 **	62.863 **	84.456 **	41.115 **
Gender	−6.754 **	−6.240 **	−6.447 **	−6.547 **	−6.066 **	−6.615 **
Age	0.353	0.183	0.076	0.116	−0.024	0.128
Education	0.016	−0.016	0.089	0.049	0.048	0.031
Step 2: Main Effects
Emotional labor	0.527 **	0.347 **	0.528 **	0.545 **	0.220 *	0.895 **
Rational action	0.057	−6.240 **	−0.021	0.008	−0.023	0.019
Practical-rational action	−0.032	−0.088	−3.378 **	−0.077	−0.048	−0.088
Value-rational action	−0.002	−0.037	−0.013	−2.244	−0.058	0.060
Rational communication	0.130	0.070	0.157	0.134	−8.806 **	0.138
Firm family	−0.088	−0.248	−0.169	−0.150	−0.202	4.722
Step 3: Two-way Interactions
Emotional labor X Rational action		0.126 **
Emotional labor X Practical-rational action			0.059 *
Emotional labor X Value-rational action				0.044
Emotional labor X Rational communication					0.172 **
Emotional labor X Firm family						−0.087
R2	0.630	0.653	0.647	0.643	0.664	0.645
F	73.386	78.452	76.073	75.125	82.375	75.416
P	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
N	427	427	427	427	427	427

*: Regression coefficient is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **: Regression coefficient is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

.

Table 4 shows that the regression model (F = 73.386; p = 0.000) and emotional labor (β = 0.527; p = 0.000) in model 0 being significant. In this case, hypothesis 1 was accepted.

Data showed that the regression model (F = 78.452; p = 0.000), rational action variable (β = −6.240; p = 0.0028), and emotional labor X rational action interaction (β = 0.126; p = 0.001) in model 1 being significant indicates that rational action has a moderator effect on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction.

The scoring approach was used to determine how the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction differs depending on rational action. In

Table 5. The conditional effects of the focus estimator at different levels of rational action.

RE	Effect	SE	t	p	LLCI	ULCI
Low	0.4489	0.0843	5.3249	0.0000	0.2832	0.6147
Medium	0.6132	0.0412	14.8878	0.0000	0.5323	0.6942
High	0.7192	0.0367	19.6068	0.0000	0.6471	0.7913

, the conditional effect values of the focus estimator at different levels of rational action are given.

Table 5 shows that as the level of rational action increased, the moderator effect on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction increased. The graph created based on these effect values is presented in Figure 2.

The lines drawn for different levels of rational action in Figure 2 show the moderator effect of this variable on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction. While the slope of the line is low at low levels of rational action, it appears to have a steeper slope at medium levels and even steeper at higher levels. The slope change in these lines shows that the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction increases as the level of rational action increases. As a result of these determinations, it can be said that rational action has a moderator effect on the effect of emotional labor and job satisfaction.

Table 5 shows the interaction of the regression model (F = 76.073; p = 0.000), practical-rational action variable (β = −3.378; p = 0.0325) and emotional labor X practical-rational action 94 (β = 0.0589; p = 0.033) in model 2 indicates that practical-rational action has a moderator effect on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction.

The point determination approach was used to determine how the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction differs depending on practical-rational action. The conditional effect values of the focus estimator at different levels of rational action are given in

Table 6. The conditional effects of the focus estimator at different levels of practical-rational action.

RE	Effect	SE	t	p	LLCI	ULCI
Low	0.5954	0.0447	13.3076	0.0000	0.5074	0.6833
Medium	0.5582	0.1017	5.4895	0.0000	0.3583	0.7580
High	0.7079	0.0342	20.7044	0.0000	0.6407	0.7751

.

Table 6 shows that as the level of practical rational action increased, the moderator effect on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction increased. The graph created based on these effect values is presented in Figure 3.

The lines drawn for different levels of practical-rational action in Figure 3 show the moderator effect of this variable on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction. At low levels of rational action, the slope of the line was low. At intermediate levels of rational action, the slope of the line was steeper. At higher levels of rational action, the slope of the line was even steeper.

The slope change in these lines shows that the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction increased as the level of rational action increased. As a result of these determinations, it can be said that rational action has a moderator effect on the effect of emotional labor on the effect of job satisfaction.

Table 6 shows that in model 3, the interaction of the regression model (F = 75.125; p = 0.000), value-rational action variable (β = −2.244; p = 0.431), and emotional labor X value rational action (β = 0.044; p = 0.3849) indicates that value-rational action has no moderator effect on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction.

Table 6 shows that in model 4, the regression model (F = 82.375; p = 0.000), rational communication variable (β = −8.806; p = 0.000), and emotional labor X rational communication effect (β = 0.172; p = 0.000) were significant. This shows that rational communication has a moderator effect on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction.

The point determination approach was used to determine how the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction differed depending on rational communication. The conditional effect values of the focus estimator at different levels of rational communication are given in

Table 7. The conditional effects of the focal estimator at different levels of rational communication.

RE	Effect	SE	t	p	LLCI	ULCI
Low	0.2736	0.0687	3.9852	0.0000	0.1386	0.4085
Medium	0.6326	0 0547	11.5759	0.0000	0.5252	0.7401
High	0.7006	0.0310	22.5844	0.0000	0.6396	0.7616

.

Table 7 shows that as the level of practical rational action increases, the moderator effect on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction increases. The graph created based on these effect values is presented in Figure 4.

The lines drawn for different levels of rational communication in Figure 4 show the moderator effect of this variable on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction. It is seen that while the slope of the line was low at low levels of rational communication, it was higher at medium levels and steeper at higher levels. The slope change in these lines showed that the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction increased as the level of rational communication increased. As a result of these determinations, it can be said that rational communication has a moderator effect on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction.

Table 7 shows that the regression model (F = 75.416; p = 0.000), firm family variable (β = 4.722; p = 0.145), and emotional labor X firm family effect (β = −0.087; p = 0.123) in model 5 were not significant. The fact that there was no effect of firm family on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction showed that there was no moderator effect.

In the analyses made according to the scale score, it was determined that communicative rational action had a moderator effect on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction. Three of the sub-dimensions (rational communication, practical rational action, and rational action) have been found to have moderator effects. On the other hand, it was understood that the other two sub-dimensions (value rational action and firm family) did not have moderator effects. Therefore, hypothesis 2 was partially accepted. In this case, it can be accepted that communicative rational action has a moderator effect on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction.

5. Discussion

This article shows that the communicative rational action has a moderator effect and a moderating role on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction. In the literature, there are only conceptual or theoretical studies on communicative rational action, which is one of the new concepts in the literature. There are hardly any studies that include this variable and question the cause–effect relationship. As a result of the research, it was observed that the emotional labor of bank managers had a positive effect on their job satisfaction. Furthermore, it has been observed that this positive effect increased as the level of communicative rational action increases. The moderator effect of communicative rational action on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction provides new information to the literature. What is interesting in this study is that a finding contrary to the literature was obtained. This is because surface behavior positively affects job satisfaction. Consistent with the literature, it has been observed that sincere and deep behavior positively affect job satisfaction in accordance with the literature. In communicative rational action, as the level of rational action, practical-rational action, and rational communication dimensions increase in communicative rational action, the positive effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction also increases.

According to the findings, it can be understood that individuals with a high level of communicative rational action expend more emotional labor. Parallel to this, it can be said that these managers can experience a high level of job satisfaction. On the other hand, it can be understood that managers with a low level of communicative rational action spend less emotional labor. It can be said that these people have a low level of job satisfaction levels. Businesses want to have employees with high job satisfaction in order to increase the motivation of their employees and thus their performance. From this point of view, businesses should encourage their employees to take communicative rational action. In order to eliminate the negative effects of emotional labor on job satisfaction, communicative rational action can be encouraged. At this point, companies can take steps (partially) to provide training to their employees or managers by experts in their fields. The reason why companies can make partial orientation is that the communicative rational action phenomenon has a much deeper socio-philosophical nature structure. Although the goals of such purposes are not among the main purposes of the goals of the companies, a corporate mentality mindset that contributes positively to the long-term business goals can be created with in-company training. Thanks to this structure, which is also supported by the organizational culture of the organization, efforts related to communicative rational action can turn into institutional knowledge.

In this article, a positive and significant relationship was observed between emotional labor and labor job satisfaction. This detected relationship is consistent with the literature [22,58,83]. This result also agrees with the theoretical models of Grandey and Brotheridge and Lee [108]. Relationships between emotional labor and sub-dimensions of job satisfaction were not included in this study. In this study, it was investigated whether the variable of communicative rational behavior, which is a new concept, has a moderator role in the relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction. There is no statistical study on the fact that communicative rational behavior is a new concept and its relationship with other organizational behaviors. For this reason, it is thought that the role of this variable in the emotional labor–job satisfaction relationship is important.

Lee and Madera [80] presented a detailed literature review and conceptual model on emotional labor in their article published in 2019. In this model, emotional intelligence, emotional regulation, mindfulness, personality, affect, work–family conflict, exhaustion, natural culture, organizational support, job characteristics, display rules, customer orientation culture, customer misbehavior, empowerment, recruitment, selection, and training are the antecedents of emotional labor. In this model, well-being, employee creativity, job satisfaction, turnover intention, organizational commitment, perceived work–life balance, employee role performance, customer satisfaction, customer orientation, service recovery performance, and service sabotage are shown as outputs of emotional labor. The model also shows the moderator effect of leader–member exchange, climate of authenticity, job position, and employee gender on the relations between emotional labor and outputs, while the mediator effect of stress, burnout, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished personal accomplishment.

Ha et al. [50] examined the relationships between emotional labor and multiple organizational behavior variables in their meta-analysis article on Nurses in General Hospital Settings in the Republic of Korea, published in 2021. In this study, the authors found a negative relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction, social support, organizational engagement, coworker support, resilience, and work environment. The authors also reported a positive relationship between emotional labor and burnout, turnover intention, and job stress. The negative relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction reported in this study differed from our results. This difference may be due to the working conditions of nurses and bank managers. The fact that nurses were not in a managerial position may have also been effective in this result.

In the article by Chen et al. [94] published in 2012, they reported that they observed a significant negative relationship between surface action and job satisfaction, and a significant positive relationship between deep action and job satisfaction. Wu et al. [87], in their article published in 2018, reported a similar result in their article published in 2012. Mehmood et al. [89], in their article published in 2018, similarly reported that they observed a significant negative relationship between surface action and job satisfaction, and a significant positive relationship between deep action and job satisfaction. Yang and Chen [22] presented a comprehensive literature review of emotional labor and its dimensions in their article published in 2021. The authors also examined the relationships between emotional labor dimensions and job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion using the meta-analysis method. In the study, it was reported that there was a significant negative relationship between surface action and job satisfaction, and an insignificant negative relationship between deep action and job satisfaction. The significant positive correlation between both the emotional labor dimensions and job satisfaction in our study differed from this study. Lee et al. [110], in their article published in 2022, examined the relationships between the emotional labor, emotions, and job satisfaction of nurses in Korea and reported that while a positive relationship was observed between deep action and job satisfaction, there was no significant relationship between surface action and job satisfaction. In our study, different from that study, a significant positive relationship was observed between surface action, genuine emotion, and job satisfaction.

There has been no study examining the effect of communicative rational action on the relationship between job satisfaction and emotional labor. On the other hand, there are studies that talk about the increasing effect of communicative rational action on job satisfaction [79,111,112]. Accordingly, it can be said that it can indirectly play a positive role in the relationship between these two, although not directly. In a more general sense, the following can be stated regarding communicative rational action: In a firm that accepts communicative rational action, important procedures organized by senior administrators such as stress management, crisis management, conflict management, time management, marketing management, production management, and human resources management are realized in the most effective way. Problems that occur during the production process are solved immediately. Employee satisfaction is provided at a high level and the loyalty of workers becomes stronger. The institutional culture is reflected in the staff’s thinking system. Different production methods, marketing strategies, finance systems, and solution offers are developed. A benefit–cost analysis is realized. Social responsibility projects are applied easily due to interdependence and cooperation. The motivation of workers is increased by rewards. Eventually, firm family members benefit as a whole [79,111,112].

Since the survey method was used in this study, it was assumed that the participants gave sincere and correct answers to the questions. The most important factors limiting the research were the cost of the data collection process, the time it took, and the difficulties in finding qualified interviewers. Therefore, the number of participants to be reached by stratified sampling is limited. In addition, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while the research was being conducted, an online survey was applied to 62% of the data, and face-to-face surveys were only possible with 38% of the data. Due to the psychological problems brought about by this period, the emotional labor levels and job satisfaction of the employees may have differed from that before the pandemic. In their article published in 2022, Castro et al. [113] found that emotional labor was ignored and emotional control rules were violated in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. In other sectors, the new burdens of working remotely or psychological pressures such as fear of illness in face-to-face working environments may have reduced emotional labor levels. In their article in 2021, Rožman et al. [66] showed that the job satisfaction of employees decreased during the COVID-19 process. No unexpected results were observed in the study.

The aim of this article was to determine whether communicative rational action has a moderator role in the relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction. For this purpose, our first hypothesis was determined as “there is a positive relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction” and this hypothesis was accepted as a result of the analysis. Our second hypothesis was tested as “communicative rational action has a moderator role in the relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction” and this hypothesis was partially accepted. While it was observed that communicative rational action, practical-rational action, and rational communication dimensions had a moderator role in the relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction, value-rational action and firm family dimensions did not have a moderator role in this relationship. Therefore, the second hypothesis was partially accepted. In this study, the moderator role of communicative rational action, which is a variable that has not been examined in the literature on emotional labor and job satisfaction, was examined. For this reason, it is thought that it will contribute to the literature. In this study, the relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction was not discussed within the framework of its sub-dimensions. In future studies, the moderator effect of the sub-dimensions of communicative rational action on the relations between these sub-dimensions can be investigated. The role of communicative rational action in the relationships between emotional labor and other organizational outcomes can also be examined.

6. Conclusions

While emotional labor and job satisfaction have mostly been examined in terms of employees in the literature, this study was carried out on bank managers. Emotional labor is often required by bank managers in their interactions with both their employees and customers. In this respect, this study can bring a new direction to both emotional labor and job satisfaction literature.

In this study, we tried to reveal whether emotional labor behavior had an effect on job satisfaction, and if it had an effect, whether communicative rational action had a moderator effect. Multiple regression analysis was applied with SPSS PROCESS v3.5 (model 1) to test the hypotheses established for these purposes. In the analyses made, it was observed that the emotional labor levels of foreign capital bank managers had a positive effect on their job satisfaction. In this effect, communicative rational action levels usually have a moderator effect. It has been determined that the three sub-dimensions of communicative rational action (rational communication, practical-rational action, and rational action) have a moderator role in the effect of emotional labor–job satisfaction. It can be said that the other two dimensions (value rational action and firm family) do not play a moderator role in this effect. The communicative rational action scale questions are given in

Table A1. Communicative Rational Action Scale.

Factors	Statement No.	Communicative Rational Action Scale Statements	Totally Disagree	Disagree	No Decision	Agree	Totally Agree
Rationality	1.	I realize that all my decisions are in accordance with a strategy.
	2.	I try to determine my decisions and actions considering the principle of maximum profit.
	3.	I use intelligence in all of my decisions and actions.
Value-Rational Action	4.	I always prefer making the ethically correct choice.
	5.	I try to be fair in all of my decisions and actions.
	6.	I give priority to competence in employment, promotion, and rotation.
	7.	I try to be a model for my employees.
Practical-Rational Action	8.	I reward successful and devoted employees.
	9.	I take our firm’s social responsibility policy and principles into consideration in all activities.
	10.	I ensure all employees’ rights are not being infringed upon.
	11.	I do not carry out any unethical actions even though I am sure it will lead to high profits.
	12.	I consider not only the firm’s benefit but also society’s benefit when considering the policies and activities.
Rational Communication	13.	All employees can communicate with anyone in working hours.
	14.	I consult while deciding.
	15.	I listen to employees to make them feel important.
	16.	Employees can easily communicate with me in and out of working hours.
	17.	I talk with sad and depressed employees.
	18.	I realize the employees’ and partner’s beneficial opinions and suggestions.
Firm Family	19.	I consider employee satisfaction prior to customer satisfaction.
	20.	I consider employees as humans first.
	21.	I consider not only the firm’s benefits but also thee employees’ and partner’s benefits.

below.

It can be seen in the emotional labor literature that when employees are asked to show emotional labor in the workplace, if they show deep or sincere behavior instead of superficial behavior, their job satisfaction will increase. Employees will be more satisfied with their jobs if they show a high level of rational action, practical-rational action, and rational communication while displaying deep or sincere behavior. For this reason, it should be ensured that employees learn deep and sincere behavior, learn rational action, practical-rational action, and rational communication, and develop their abilities in this direction. Thus, higher success can be achieved by using employees whose morale, motivation, and performance increase with high job satisfaction in the business world.

Researchers may be advised to test more complex models by adding other variables that have a moderator effect on the effect of emotional labor on job satisfaction. In fact, the moderator effect of more than one variable can be observed. The moderator and/or mediating effect of variables such as organizational justice, perceived leadership style, and trust in the manager on emotional labor–job satisfaction can be examined. For example, Saputra argued that a communicative rational mindset can have a positive impact on leadership during the pandemic [114]. In addition, researchers can make a more detailed analysis by considering the sub-dimensions of emotional labor and job satisfaction. Studies can be conducted on managers of different sectors (public or private). Comparative analyses can be made and more comprehensive interpretations can be made with the data obtained from the public and private sectors.

There may have been an increase or decrease in the emotional labor levels they spent due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychology of the employees. Similarly, there may have been a decrease in employee job satisfaction due to restrictions in the working environment or new rules due to the pandemic. In their future work, researchers may examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic primarily based on emotional labor and other organizational behavior variables.