Emotional labor

About: Emotional labor is a(n) research topic. Over the lifetime, 3948 publication(s) have been published within this topic receiving 112110 citation(s). The topic is also known as: emotional labour.

Emotional Labor in Service Roles: The Influence of Identity

Abstract: Emotional labor is the display of expected emotions by service agents during service encounters. It is performed through surface acting, deep acting, or the expression of genuine emotion. Emotional labor may facilitate task effectiveness and self-expression, but it also may prime customer expectations that cannot be met and may trigger emotive dissonance and self-alienation. However, following social identity theory, we argue that some effects of emotional labor are moderated by one's social and personal identities and that emotional labor stimulates pressures for the person to identify with the service role. Research implications for the micro, meso, and macro levels of organizations are discussed.

Emotion regulation in the workplace: a new way to conceptualize emotional labor.

Abstract: The topic of emotions in the workplace is beginning to garner closer attention by researchers and theorists. The study of emotional labor addresses the stress of managing emotions when the work role demands that certain expressions be shown to customers. However, there has been no overarching framework to guide this work, and the previous studies have often disagreed on the definition and operationalization of emotional labor. The purposes of this article are as follows: to review and compare previous perspectives of emotional labor, to provide a definition of emotional labor that integrates these perspectives, to discuss emotion regulation as a guiding theory for understanding the mechanisms of emotional labor, and to present a model of emotional labor that includes individual differences (such as emotional intelligence) and organizational factors (such as supervisor support).

The Dimensions, Antecedents, and Consequences of Emotional Labor

Abstract: This article conceptualizes the emotional labor construct in terms of four dimensions: frequency of appropriate emotional display, attentiveness to required display rules, variety of emotions to be displayed, and emotional dissonance generated by having to express organizationally desired emotions not genuinely felt. Through this framework, the article then presents a series of propositions about the organizational-, job-, and individual-level characteristics that are antecedents of each of these four dimensions. Frequency of emotional display, attentiveness to display rules, variety of emotions to be displayed, and emotional dissonance are hypothesized to lead to greater emotional exhaustion, but only emotional dissonance is hypothesized to lead to lower job satisfaction. Implications for future theory development and empirical research on emotional labor are discussed as well.

The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling

Abstract: In private life, we try to induce or suppress love, envy, and anger through deep acting or "emotion work," just as we manage our outer expressions of feeling through surface acting In trying to bridge a gap between what we feel and what we "ought" to feel, we take guidance from "feeling rules" about what is owing to others in a given situation Based on our private mutual understandings of feeling rules, we make a "gift exchange" of acts of emotion management We bow to each other not simply from the waist, but from the heart But what occurs when emotion work, feeling rules, and the gift of exchange are introduced into the public world of work?In search of the answer, Arlie Hochschild closely examines two groups of public-contact workers: flight attendants and bill collectors The flight attendant's job is to deliver a service and create further demand for it, to enhance the status of the customer and be "nicer than natural" The bill collector's job is to collect on the service, and if necessary, to deflate the status of the customer by being "nastier than natural" Between these extremes, roughly one-third of American men and one-half of American women hold jobs that call for substantial emotional labor In many of these jobs, they are trained to accept feeling rules and techniques of emotion management that serve the company's commercial purpose Just as we have seldom recognized or understood emotional labor, we have not appreciated it cost to those who do it for a livingLike a physical laborer who becomes estranged from what he or she makes, an emotional laborer, such as a flight attendant, can become estranged not only from her own expressions of feeling (her smile is not "her" smile), but also from what she actually feels (her managed friendliness) This estrangement, though a valuable defense against stress, is also an important occupational hazard, because it is through our feelings that we are connected with those around us On the basis of this book, Hochschild was featured in "Key Sociological Thinkers", edited by Rob Stones This book was also the winner of the Charles Cooley Award in 1983, awarded by the American Sociological Association and received an honorable mention for the C Wright Mills Award

Emotional labor and burnout: Comparing two perspectives of "people work"

Abstract: Although it has often been presumed that jobs involving “people work” (e.g., nurses, service workers) are emotionally taxing (Maslach & Jackson, 1982), seldom is the emotional component of these jobs explicitly studied. The current study compared two perspectives of emotional labor as predictors of burnout beyond the effects of negative affectivity: job-focused emotional labor (work demands regarding emotion expression) and employee-focused emotional labor (regulation of feelings and emotional expression). Significant differences existed in the emotional demands reported by five occupational groupings. The use of surface-level emotional labor, or faking, predicted depersonalization beyond the work demands. Perceiving the demand to display positive emotions and using deep-level regulation were associated with a heightened sense of personal accomplishment, suggesting positive benefits to this aspect of work. These findings suggest new antecedents of employee burnout and clarify the emotional labor literature by comparing different conceptualizations of this concept.