The linkage between emotional labor and leadership is a new trend of emotional labor research, and a large amount of related research publications have accumulated. Accordingly, the first purpose of the paper tends to systematically review the existent literature on emotional labor in supervisor-subordinate interaction. Following the review, the second purpose of the paper tries to address a controversial issue, ”Can the construct of emotional labor be applied to supervisor-subordinate interaction?”, and to clarify this issue, so as to define the construct of emotional in emotional labor in supervisor-subordinate interaction as well as compare it with other similar constructs. Finally, the third purpose of the paper identifies several future research directions, including the refinement of measurement and research design, the elaboration of empirical research, the integration between supervisors' and subordinates' emotional labor, supervisors' shared emotional labor, and emotional labor between supervisor and subordinate in Chinese organization.