ABSTRACT
Emotional labor represents the work related to employees’ emotional efforts in the workplace. Employees’ emotional efforts that are in harmony with business ethics can be defined as emotional labor. In this study, the significant effect of emotional labor on work engagement was attempted to determine for service sector employees in private enterprises. For this purpose, a questionnaire form was applied from internet to service sector employees in private enterprises in Ankara. Accurate data was collected from 153 service-sector employees working in private enterprises. The relational pattern model was used in this quantitative research. Research findings indicate that natural feelings predict vigor and dedication, deep acting predicts absorption, and surface acting predicts vigor significantly. In addition, from socio-demographic variables income was found as a significant variable to predict vigor, dedication, and absorption. Gender was also found as a significant variable to predict vigor and dedication.