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.

Clinical empathy as emotional labor in the patient-physician relationship.

Abstract: Empathy should characterize all health care professions. Despite advancement in medical technology, the healing relationship between physicians and patients remains essential to quality care. We propose that physicians consider empathy as emotional labor (ie, management of experienced and displayed emotions to present a certain image). Since the publication of Hochschild's The Managed Heart in 1983, researchers in management and organization behavior have been studying emotional labor by service workers, such as flight attendants and bill collectors. In this article, we focus on physicians as professionals who are expected to be empathic caregivers. They engage in such emotional labor through deep acting (ie, generating empathy-consistent emotional and cognitive reactions before and during empathic interactions with the patient, similar to the method-acting tradition used by some stage and screen actors), surface acting (ie, forging empathic behaviors toward the patient, absent of consistent emotional and cognitive reactions), or both. Although deep acting is preferred, physicians may rely on surface acting when immediate emotional and cognitive understanding of patients is impossible. Overall, we contend that physicians are more effective healers--and enjoy more professional satisfaction--when they engage in the process of empathy. We urge physicians first to recognize that their work has an element of emotional labor and, second, to consciously practice deep and surface acting to empathize with their patients. Medical students and residents can benefit from long-term regular training that includes conscious efforts to develop their empathic abilities. This will be valuable for both physicians and patients facing the increasingly fragmented and technological world of modern medicine.

Are All Smiles Created Equal? How Emotional Contagion and Emotional Labor Affect Service Relationships:

Abstract: In this study, the authors examine the effects of two facets of employee emotions on customers' assessments of service encounters. Drawing on emotional contagion and emotional labor theories, they investigate the influence of the extent of service employees' display of positive emotions and the authenticity of their emotional labor display on customers' emotional states and, subsequently, on customers' assessments of the service interaction and their relationship with the service provider. To test the study hypotheses, 223 consumers participated in a simulated service encounter in which actors played the roles of service employees. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, the employees varied both the extent of their smiling behavior and their emotional labor display by engaging in surface or deep acting. The results show that the authenticity of employees' emotional labor display directly affects customers' emotional states. However, contrary to expectations, the extent of employee smiling does not influenc...

Emotional labour: skill and work in the social regulation of feelings

Abstract: I define emotional labour as the labour involved in dealing with other peoples' feelings, a core component of which is the regulation of emotions. The aims of the paper are firstly to suggest that ...

Managing emotions in the workplace.

Abstract: Over the past ten years, increasing attention has been given to how workers express emotions in a variety of work settings (Ashforth and Humphrey, 1995; Rafaeli and Sutton, 1987, 1989; Sutton, 1991; Wharton and Erickson, 1993). An underresearched, yet critical, aspect of the literature on emotions in organizational life concerns employers' attempts to control and direct how employees display emotions to customers. Emotional labor, generally defined as the act of expressing organizationally-desired emotions during service transactions (Ashforth and Humphrey, 1993; Hochschild, 1983), is the central focus of this study. This article seeks to extend previous theoretical and empirical research on emotional labor in four ways. First, a more rigorous conceptualization of emotional labor is presented. By drawing on previous emotional labor studies, psychological and anthropological research on emotions, and impression management studies, a three-component conceptualization of emotional labor will be advanced. The framework presented here suggests that emotional labor can best be described in terms of frequency of emotional labor, duration of emotional labor, and emotional dissonance experienced as a result of having to express emotions one may not actually feel. The second objective is to identify the organizational and job characteristics which might predict emotional labor. Previous researchers (Adelmann, 1989; Ashforth and Humphrey, 1993; Hochschild, 1983; Wharton, 1993) have suggested, but rarely tested, variables which may help to predict which work roles will require regulation of emotional expression and what conditions might influence employees' willingness and ability to express sanctioned emotions. The third objective is to explore the consequences of performing emotional labor on employees' well-being. Previous research has implicitly or explicitly concluded that emotional labor has negative and dysfunctional consequences for workers (Adelmann, 1989; Erickson, 1991; Hochschild, 1983). This study suggests the possibility that under certain conditions, performing emotional labor actually leads to favorable attitudinal and role behavior outcomes. Finally, the article examines the implications of this research for more effective management of emotions during service transactions. The rapid and significant increase in the number of jobs which require regulated displays of emotion, as well as the potential impact of emotional displays on service quality and customer satisfaction, certainly makes this issue one worthy of additional attention. THEORY Conceptualization of Emotional Labor According to Hochschild (1983), jobs involving regulated displays of emotion possess three characteristics: (1) they entail voice or facial contact with the public; (2) they require the worker to produce an emotional state or reaction in the customer; and (3) they provide the employer an opportunity to control the emotional activities of the employee. Displaying organizationally-sanctioned emotions to customers or clients has been argued to be a form of "labor" since it requires effort, planning, anticipation, and adjustment to situational factors in order to publicly display emotions that employees may not necessarily privately feel (James, 1989). Frequency of Interaction. A categorization of jobs requiring emotional labor provided by Hochschild (1983) established the foundation from which virtually every existing empirical study of emotional labor has since proceeded. The premise here is that external stakeholders (customers or clients) are more likely to comply with organizational goals when the affective bonds of liking, trust, and respect have been established through appropriate employee behavior. Thus, the more a work role requires contact with other people, the greater the organization's need to rely upon regulated displays of emotion to ensure compliance with organizational goals. …