This paper descri bes the development and validation of the Emotional Labou r Scale
(ELS) as tested on samples of 296 and 238 respondents. The ELS is a 1 5-item selfreport
question nai re that measu res six facets of emotional display i n the workplace, i
ncludi ng the freq uency, intensity and variety of emotional display, the d u ration of i
nteraction, and surface and deep acting. Esti mates of i nternal consist- ency for the
subscales ranged from .74 to .91 . Confirmatory factor analysis results provided support
for the existence of six u nidi mensional subscales. Evidence was also provided for
convergent and discri mi nant validity.