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International Conference on Technology and Business Management March 18-20, 2013 3. Emotional labour Emotions matter in the workplace, because like it or not they are part of every workplace and they affect the way we think and act. A leader may try to ignore, suppress or sidestep emotions in the work – especially the hard nosed aspects where reason and objectivity are vital. Yet they will still be there because they are part of what makes people tick. All too often, when managers deal with people’s concerns they tackle the surface problems and symptoms yet fail to identify, acknowledge and deal with the underlying emotional needs. Emotions of a leader are contagious, having a demonstrated impact on the mood of those around them. Emotional suppression involves trying to mask how you truly feel. Many service-orientated staff are encouraged to put on a ‘happy face’ at work. Similarly many leaders try to put on a brave or neutral face, even when faced with adversity. Unfortunately emotional suppression does not work and it can also have undesirable consequences such as burnout, job turnover and other issues. Arlie Hochschild created the term 'emotional labor' in 1983 to describe the things that service workers do that goes beyond physical or mental duties. Showing a genuine concern for customers' needs, smiling, and making positive eye contact are all critical to a customer's perception of service quality. These types of activities, when they're essential to worker performance, are emotional labor. The term "emotional labor" was first defined by the sociologist Arlie Hochschild. In a seminar work, The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, Hochschild defines emotional labor as “the management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display”, which is sold for a wage and therefore has exchange value. Emotional labor occurs when workers are paid, in part, to manage and control their emotions. According to Hochschild, jobs involving emotional labor are defined as those that: a. Require face-to-face or voice-to-voice contact with the public; b. Require the worker to produce an emotional state in another person; c. Allow the employees to exercise a degree of control over their emotional activities. 3.1 Forms of Emotional Labour Hochschild proposes that emotions may be controlled or self induced or suppressed as part of the labour process, hence she identified two forms of emotional labour: ‘surface acting’ and ‘deep acting’.In surface acting, we feel in one way but do not show the true underlying feeling whereas in deep acting we actually try to change our current feeling to match the desired feeling. 3.2 Emotional regulation through surface and deep acting The regulation of emotional expressions and feelings as part of the paid work role has been coined as emotional labour (EL) (Hochschild, 1983). EL is necessitated when expected workplace emotions cannot be naturally felt or displayed, and is routinely performed using surface acting (SA) and deep acting (DA) (Hochschild, 1983). SA involves the management of observable expressions. SA can include faking emotions not actually felt, along with suppressing and hiding felt emotion that would be inappropriate to display. For example, a customer service representative may hide feelings of anger from a rude or demanding customer and instead paste on a smile to ensure a smooth workplace interaction. Hochschild commented that "in surface acting, we deceive others about what we really feel but we do not deceive ourselves" (p.33). Deep Acting, on the other hand, is the intra psychic process of attempting to experience or alter feelings so that expected emotional displays may naturally follow. Deep Acting may be performed by actively exhorting feeling, wherein an individual cognitively attempts to evoke or suppress an emotion. For example, flight attendants were trained to cognitively reappraise disorderly adult passengers as children so as not to become infuriated with their seemingly infantile behaviour (Hochschild, 1983). 4. Importance of Emotional Labour in Service jobs “Customer courtesy begins and ends with you… Under no circumstances should a customer ever wonder if you are having a bad day. Your troubles should be masked with a smile. Tension can be seen and received negatively resulting in an unhappy dining experience, or what is called frustrated food… Once an unhappy customer walks out the door, they are gone forever!”. A paradox in the service encounter, neatly summarised by Hochschild (1983:192) says, ‘‘The more the heart is managed, the more we value the unmanaged heart’’. Most of the research into emotional labour has been concerned with employees working at the organizationcustomer interface the service industry. Highly service-oriented employees do emotional labour is clearly evident from studies of flight attendants (Hochschild, 1983), police officers (Stenross and Kleinman, 1989) and medical students (Smith and Kleinman, 1989). A review of the literature (e.g. Bowen and Schneider, 1988; Bowen et al., 1990; Brown et al., 1991) suggests that the concept of emotional labour has particular relevance to service encounters because: 165
International Conference on Technology and Business Management March 18-20, 2013 Front-line service personnel are situated at the organization-customer interface and therefore represent the organization to its customer; Service transactions often involve face-to-face interactions between service agents and customer; There is uncertainty created by customer participation in the service encounter, such encounters often have a dynamic and emergent quality; and The services rendered during an encounter are relatively intangible, making it difficult for customers to evaluate service quality (ashforth and humphrey, 1993). The concept of ‘emotional labour’ is an important contribution to an understanding of everyday organizational life. It has been proved that workplace emotions have impact on behaviour and decision making on the job. Similarly, the role of emotion in group dynamics has long been recognized. Indeed, as Wharton and Erickson (1993) point out “employers’ efforts to shape workers’ emotions and emotional displays have become an important focus of organization research” (p. 457). This shaping or control can be formalized as a written set of rules (as in McDonald’s or Disneyland), less formalized as in protocol or expectations or even loosely bound up with the culture of the organization. 5. Emotional labour and Organisations The commonly held view is that emotion has no place in organizational contexts, but it has been proved that emotional management is an important aspect of organizational life. Competencies in emotional and crosscultural management are crucial for organizations to understand how to serve and to retain a customer base that is much more diverse and demanding than in years past. Organisations are notorious for their attempts at controlling emotions, especially the display and expression of emotions. In many service oriented jobs, employees are explicitly taught to suppress their feelings and to put on a happy face to create a value in the mind of the customer. Understanding the customer’s frustration, anger or anxiety and showing caring in the face during bad customer behaviour requires particular effort when the service provider might not feel like being nice. This effort is emotional labour. Emotional labour is where emotions are actually used as part of our work, and staff are required to often demonstrate or express emotional states which may differ from how they are actually feeling. Examples of roles where emotional labour is used are healthcare (medicine, nursing, midwifery), customer services, call centres, retail, indeed many service industries and many roles which are too numerous to mention here. Emotional labour is not only a feature at the organization-customer interface, but increasingly is becoming characteristic of ordinary interactions within the organization Emotional labor can be particularly challenging when it becomes a need to hide your real emotions, and continue to 'smile and nod your head,' even when receiving negative or critical feedback. Earlier emotional labour was seen in service-oriented professions and is particularly noticeable in call centers, retail stores, and the hospitality industry. but service excellence is now a key driver of success in most organizations, so elements of emotional labor are present in almost all workplaces. It's important to understand the impact of emotional labor, and how it affects workers Companies often place a great deal of strategic importance on service orientation, not only to external customers but to colleagues and internal clients as well. While emotional labor is applicable to many areas of business, the consequences are probably greatest in traditional service roles. However, in an increasingly service-oriented marketplace, it's important to understand how emotional labor affects workers, and what organizations can do to support and manage any issues. Organisations and occupational bodies have formulated ‘display rules, which serve as the standard for the appropriate expression of workplace emotions. Display rules vary, depending the difference in the occupational categories. For example, retail workers must appear cheerful and friendly during customer interactions to enhance service quality and encourage repeat business, while detectives and police officers often express anger to gain compliance and even obtain confessions from criminals. Others, such as judges, are expected to display emotional neutrality so as not to influence the outcome of a trial, whereas medical practitioners are required to remain neutral to ensure professional objectivity. However, conforming to display rules, regardless of circumstances or discrepant internal feelings, is easier said than done. Expectations and protocol often dictate the type, range and intensity of emotions that are to be displayed at work and employees are expected to conform to these display rules even if they conflict with inner feeling. In such cases the individual has to work at suppressing genuine emotions or expressing fake emotions; such work is termed “emotional labour” and can have both functional and dysfunctional effects on the individual and organization In past, emotional labor demands and display rules were viewed as a characteristics of particular occupations, such as restaurant workers, cashiers, hospital workers, bill collectors, counselors, secretaries, and nurses. 166
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