The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of sport center employees'' rapport, emotional labor, and job burnout on customer orientation. To this end, a survey was conducted with 429 employees in sport centers located in Busan and Ulsan Metropolitan Cities and Gyeongnam Province in Korea. The survey results were processed using SPSS/AMOS 21.0 program to perform exploratory factor analysis, t-test, ANOVA test, Duncan test, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and path analysis. The the results and implications are as follows.

1) In comparison of rapport, emotional labor, job burnout, and customer orientation by background variable, in terms of rapport, the level was relatively higher for male employees than for female employees, for employees in their 30s or older than for employees in their 20s, for full-time employees than for contract employees, and for employees with three years of experience or more than for employees with six months of experience or less. The extent of emotional labor was more intensive for employees in their 30s or older than for employees in their 20s, for contract employees than for full-time employees, and for employees with three years of experience or more than for employees with six months of experience or less. The degree of job burnout was greater for female employees than for male employees, for employees in their 30s or older than for employees in their 20s, for high-school graduates than for college graduates, for full-time employees than for contract employees, and for employees with three years of experience or more than for employees with six months of experience or less. As for customer orientation, the inclination was stronger for male employees than for female employees and for full-time employees than for contract employees.

2) The results of Pearson correlation analysis show that the positive correlation was highest between members'' levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, followed by the correlation between pleasant relationships and personal connections, and then in descending order by the correlations between emotional dissonance and emotional exhaustion, emotional dissonance and depersonalization, pleasant relationships and customer orientation, personal connections and customer orientation, frequency of emotional displays and emotional dissonance, and frequency of emotional displays and emotional exhaustion. On the other hand, the negative correlation was highest between the levels of a lack of a sense of accomplishment and customer orientation, then between pleasant relationships and a lack of a sense of accomplishment, and lastly between members’depersonalization and customer orientation.

3) The results of the multiple regression analysis reveal that as for rapport, the existence of a pleasant relationship was shown to have a negative impact on emotional dissonance, emotional exhaustion, members’depersonalization, and the lack of a sense of accomplishment, while it had a positive impact on customer orientation. Personal connections proved to have a positive impact on emotional dissonance, frequency of emotional displays, emotional exhaustion, members’depersonalization, and customer orientation, while they had a negative impact on the lack of a sense of accomplishment. Regarding emotional labor, frequency of emotional displays had a positive impact on emotional exhaustion and customer orientation, but had a negative impact on the lack of a sense of accomplishment. Emotional dissonance had a positive impact on emotional exhaustion and on members’depersonalization, while it had a negative impact on customer orientation. As for job burnout, emotional exhaustion had a positive impact on customer orientation, while members’ depersonalization and the lack of a sense of accomplishment had a negative impact on customer orientation.

4) After conducting a path analysis for all of the factors of rapport, emotional labor, job burnout, and customer orientation, the study found that causal relationships existed among rapport, emotional labor, job burnout, and customer orientation.

5) Research findings provide the following implications. First of all, the study results showed that rapport had a positive influence on sport center employees’emotional labor, job burnout, and customer orientation. To maximize this benefit, continued efforts should be made to improve working environments so that sport center employees take pride in their work, treat customers in a pleasant manner, and strengthen their personal connections with them. Next, solutions should be sought to prevent in advance job burnout from emotional labor. Job burnout from emotional labor is highly likely to result from unfair treatment or from unequal relationships with customers or supervisors. Emotional labor incurs significantly negative impacts on job performance, which might deter the achievement of performance targets. Thus, management in sport centers should establish a system to improve their working environments. More specifically, it is urgent to enhance organizational environment by giving employees greater autonomy, more discretion at work, and positive feedback so that they become more immersed in their jobs. Third, greater efforts are needed toward human-resource management to assess the individual capacities of employees and reflect them in job allocations and rotations, rather than overburdening employees with excessive expectations or difficult tasks. More effective management of human resources would greatly reduce sport center employees’emotional labor and job burnout, while strengthening their customer orientation.