Introduction
Thailand's service industry faces significant challenges in employee emotional well-being management, particularly among frontline workers who must navigate complex emotional demands while maintaining service quality. Traditional training approaches focus on surface-level behavioral modifications without addressing underlying psychological processes essential for authentic emotional engagement.
Purpose
This study developed and evaluated an innovative psychological intervention integrating Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with compassion based approaches to enhance emotional labor, psychological flexibility, and self-compassion among frontline service employees in Thailand's Eastern Economic Corridor.
Method
A two-phase mixed-methods study was conducted. Phase 1 involved in-depth interviews with 24 frontline service professionals to understand contextual needs. Phase 2 employed a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design with 60 participants randomly assigned to intervention or control groups. The 8-session psychological program integrated ACT's six core processes with compassion training. Assessments included the Thai Emotional Labor Scale, Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II, Self-Compassion Scale, and an Emotional Go/No-go cognitive task.
Results
The intervention demonstrated significant efficacy with large effect sizes. Participants showed increased deep acting (Cohen's d = 1.58), self-compassion (Cohen's d = 1.51), and psychological flexibility (Cohen's d = -1.43), while surface acting decreased (Cohen's d = -1.32). The cognitive task revealed neurological improvements in emotional regulation with enhanced accuracy (87.23% to 93.67%) and reduced errors (27.55% to 18.77%).
Conclusions
This research demonstrates that authentic emotional transformation is achievable through scientifically grounded psychological interventions. The integration of Eastern compassion concepts with Western ACT principles creates a culturally resonant model that produces measurable neurological changes, offering sustainable solutions for employee well-being and service quality enhancement.