BEING SOMEONE ELSE: AN ASSESSMENT OF EMOTIONAL LABOUR AND EMPLOYEE JOB SATISFACTION AT THE BANKING SECTOR

As a result of recent hyper competition in the banking sector of Africa particularly in Ghana, it is required of employees to put their emotional labour into the work. In effect, employees are obliged to be someone else through manipulation of their emotions. However, studies have not been able to establish whether this manipulation of employees’ emotions to conform to these organisational requirements brings about job satisfaction or not, especially in the banking sector of Ghana. The paper, therefore, examined the effect of emotional labour on job satisfaction of bank employees. In using questionnaire, data were collected from 140 bank employees. Structural Equation Modelling through SmartPLS was used to analyse the data. Analyses revealed that indeed employees at the banking sector of Ghana exhibit emotional labour but as to whether it gives them job satisfaction or not depends on the type of emotional labour they are exhibiting. Recommendations were, therefore, made on which of the dimensions of emotional labour that management or supervisors at the banking sector should pay more attention on to bring about satisfied workforce.