Beyond surface acting: a mixed-methods investigation of an ACT-based intervention for promoting psychological flexibility and regulatory shift in hotel frontline emotional labor (opens in new tab)

BackgroundFrontline hotel employees in Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) routinely suppress authentic emotions to meet organizational display rules—a process known as surface acting—associated with burnout, emotional exhaustion, and diminished well-being. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), adapted within a collectivist, Buddhist-informed cultural framework, offers a theoretically grounded pathway for facilitating regulatory shift from surface to deep acting through enhanced psy...