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Emotional labor

About: Emotional labor is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3948 publications have been published within this topic receiving 112110 citations. The topic is also known as: emotional labour.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors defined emotion work as "emotional regulation required to display organizationally desired emotions by the employees" and found equivocal effects on psychological well-being.
Abstract: Emotion work (emotional labour) is defined as emotional regulation required to display organizationally desired emotions by the employees. It has received increased attention because it is relevant in the service industry where social interactions with customers, clients, or patients are a significant part of the job. Empirical studies found equivocal effects on psychological well-being which indicates that emotion work is a multidimensional construct with dimensions having positive and negative health effects. In the present studies, the following aspects of emotion work were differentiated: emotional regulation requirements: (1) the requirement to display positive emotions; (2) the requirement to display negative emotions, (3) the requirement to be sensitive to clients' emotions; (4) emotional dissonance: the expression of emotions that are not felt. Analyses were based on a representative sample (N = 184) of service workers and another sample of service workers (N = 1158) consisting of call centre agen...

424 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The circumplex framework is offered as a potentially useful taxonomy for researchers interested in better understanding and promoting a happy and productive workforce as discussed by the authors, however, despite years of research, support for the happy-productive worker thesis remains equivocal.
Abstract: For decades, organizational scientists and practitioners alike have been fascinated by the happyproductive worker thesis. According to this hypothesis, happy employees exhibit higher levels of job-related performance behaviors than do unhappy employees. However, despite years of research, support for the happy-productive worker thesis remains equivocal. These ambiguous findings result from the variety of ways in which happiness has been operationalized. Researchers have operationalized happiness as job satisfaction, as the presence of positive affect, as the absence of negative affect, as the lack of emotional exhaustion, and as psychological well-being. Some of these measures exhibit appreciable associations with job performance, others do not. The circumplex framework is offered as a potentially useful taxonomy for researchers interested in better understanding and promoting a happy and productive workforce.

423 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is found that verbal abuse from outsiders occurs more frequently than insider verbal abuse, particularly for those with higher emotional labor requirements, and predicts emotional exhaustion over and above insider verbal Abuse, regardless ofotional labor requirements.
Abstract: Research on aggression from organizational outsiders (customers, clients or patients) has ignored insider-instigated aggression, and has been limited to employees in emotional labor jobs (e.g., social work and customer services). The authors argue that customer-employee interactions have distinct characteristics from organizational insider interactions, and provide two studies to compare the frequency and strain of verbal abuse from customers, supervisors and coworkers. Furthermore, they assess whether customer verbal abuse is only a critical issue for employees in jobs requiring emotional labor, measured with both O*NET job codes and self-reported display rules. With a national random sample of U.S. employees (n = 2446) and a convenience sample of U.S. employees who have customer contact (n = 121), the authors find that verbal abuse from outsiders (1) occurs more frequently than insider verbal abuse, particularly for those with higher emotional labor requirements, and (2) predicts emotional exhaustion over and above insider verbal abuse, regardless of emotional labor requirements. The authors conclude that better integration of customer aggression and insider aggression research is needed. Language: en

423 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors tested a conceptual model explaining the differential effects of deep and surface acting on job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion via their asymmetrical influences on mood, and whether extraverts fare better when engaging in emotional labor.
Abstract: In response to 2 areas for development in the emotional labor literature—(a) the contemporaneous associations between emotional labor and affective reactions, and (b) whether emotional labor might be more personally costly for some employees than others—this study tested a conceptual model explaining the differential effects of deep and surface acting on job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion via their asymmetrical influences on mood, and whether extraverts fare better when engaging in emotional labor. As expected, surface acting was positively associated with negative mood, and this explained some of the association of surface acting with increased emotional exhaustion and decreased job satisfaction. Contrary to hypotheses, deep acting was unrelated to job satisfaction and was associated with lower positive affect. Extraversion moderated several emotional labor relationships such that, in general, surface and deep acting had more positive (or less negative) effects for extraverts (compared to introverts). Overall, the results support the importance of considering the roles of mood and disposition in the impact of emotional labor.

423 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the role of recruitment, selection and training in shaping call centre labour is explored and the contested and contradictory tendencies associated with how a particular company identifies and then uses social competencies.
Abstract: Call centres are growing rapidly and are receiving attention from politicians, policy makers and academics. While most of the latter focus on work relations, notably patterns of control and surveillance, this paper explores the role of recruitment, selection and training in the shaping call centre labour. The paper uses data from a case study of a call centre (Telebank) to argue that the increased significance of social competencies within interactive service work gives these procedures greater salience and that they are used by management to address the indeterminacy of labour, in part, outside the labour process. Primary data from management and customer service representatives is used to examine and contrast their respective perceptions of recruitment, selection and training. The paper shows the contested and contradictory tendencies associated with how a particular company identifies and then uses social competencies. Tensions in the labour process between the mobilization of employee attributes and the deliberate moulding and standardization of such competencies is merely part of wider and unresolved tensions concerning the contested nature of emotional labour and the demands of quantity and quality in the management of call centre work.

421 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023124
2022302
2021246
2020303
2019326
2018285