Emotional Labour and Deviant Workplace Behaviour among Health Workers

Abstract This paper investigates the influence of emotional labour on deviant workplace behaviour (DWB) among health workers in teaching hospitals. The data used have been collected from health workers in two government-owned teaching hospitals through a survey research design and have been analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The paper finds that superficial acting and deep acting are positively related to deviant workplace behaviour among health workers in teaching hospitals, and honest acting has negative but significant contributions to deviant workplace behaviour. The paper concludes that in order for teaching hospitals to achieve person–job fit, health workers in training should be exposed to the reality that they would be required to master their emotions to succeed in their practice. It is therefore recommended that the management of teaching hospitals as well as government organizations should ensure that rules and policies are enforced to curb certain deviant behaviours, which could otherwise easily become norms if taken for granted.