Supervisor-subordinate relationships, internal employability, and emotional labor: an exploratory comparative analysis of two supermarket branches in China.

INTRODUCTION: This study investigates the relationships among supervisor-subordinate relationship (SSR), internal employability and emotional labor strategies of front-line supermarket employees in China. Drawing on attachment theory and sociometer theory, it examines the indirect role of internal employability and compares the patterns of association across two branch samples. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using convenience sampling among 287 front-line supermarket employees in China. Participants comprised 121 front-line employees from one branch of a local privately owned supermarket chain in Shenzhen (Branch A) and 166 front-line employees from one branch of a Western multinational supermarket chain in Beijing (Branch B). Confirmatory factor analyses and measurement-invariance tests were conducted in Mplus. Total, direct and indirect associations were estimated separately for each sample using PROCESS Model 4 with 5,000 bootstrap resamples. Monte Carlo analyses with 20,000 replications were conducted to assess the robustness of the indirect association estimates. An exploratory PROCESS Model 59 analysis was also conducted to examine differences in the estimated associations by sample membership. RESULTS: In both samples, SSR was positively associated with internal employability (β = 0.21 to 0.52, p < 0.05) and deep acting (β = 0.21 to 0.42, p < 0.05) and negatively associated with surface acting (β = -0.43 to -0.36, p < 0.001). In the Branch B sample, the indirect associations between SSR and both surface acting and deep acting through internal employability were supported. In the Branch A sample, the indirect association with surface acting was not supported, whereas the result for deep acting was supported. The conditional indirect associations for both outcomes were larger in the Branch B sample, although the contextual basis of these differences remains unclear. DISCUSSION: SSR and internal employability are related but distinct resources in front-line retail work. The indirect association linking SSR to deep acting through internal employability was more consistently supported than the corresponding indirect association involving surface acting. Although the observed patterns varied between the two samples, the present design does not establish that these differences were caused by organizational or institutional conditions. Future research should examine potential contextual influences using longitudinal, multi-source, and multi-site designs.