Over the past forty years, since Arlie Hochschild’s publication of 『The managed heart』 in 1983, a substantial body of literature on emotional labor has emerged. This topic has become indispensable in management studies, shedding light on the lived experiences of employees within the workplace. However, scholars approach emotional labor from diverse perspectives, leading to varying conceptualizations and operationalizations. Additionally, the methods for measuring emotional labor exhibit considerable diversity. The central objective of this study is to construct a multilevel process model by integrating various theoretical lenses on emotional labor. Subsequently, the study delves into empirical papers published in prominent journals since the 2000s, using this multilevel process model as a framework. By doing so, the research explores which facets of the emotional labor process have received intensive scrutiny, identifies existing gaps or challenges, and suggests directions for future research.