Central European Business Review X:X | DOI: 10.18267/j.cebr.415

From Taking Charge to Taking It to Heart: Proactive Personality and Emotional Labor at Work

Yongjun Choi1, Haeseen Park2
1 Hongik University, College of Business Administration
2 Bowling Green State University, Department of Management


This study examines the relationship between proactive personality and emotional labor strategies (i.e., deep acting and surface acting), with particular attention to the mediating role of psychological ownership and the moderating effect of role overload within the mediating relationships. Cross-sectional data were collected from 330 full-time service employees in South Korea. Hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analyses supplemented by the PROCESS macro for mediation and moderated mediation analyses. Results showed that proactive personality was positively related to psychological ownership, and psychological ownership was positively associated with deep acting. No significant relationship emerged between psychological ownership and employees’ use of surface acting. The mediation analysis supported the role of psychological ownership as a partial mediator linking proactive personality to deep acting. Contrary to expectations, the moderated mediation analyses results showed that role overload strengthened rather than weakened the indirect effects via psychological ownership, indicating that under certain high-demand conditions, psychological ownership may become a more potent motivational resource for proactive employees.


Implications for Central European audience: This study advances emotional labor research by identifying proactive personality as a key antecedent and psychological ownership as a motivational mechanism. It challenges traditional resource-depletion models by suggesting that, under high role overload, psychological ownership may serve as a motivational resource for proactive employees in ways different from conventional expectations. Practically, organizations can benefit by selecting proactive individuals and fostering psychological ownership through autonomy and support. When paired with enabling resources, job demands like role overload may function as motivational challenges. Aligning personality traits, psychological resources, and work design can enhance authentic emotional labor.


 

Keywords: emotional labor; proactive personality; psychological ownership; role overload

Received: July 31, 2025; Revised: March 6, 2026; Accepted: March 19, 2026; Prepublished online: June 28, 2026 

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