(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
that the organization desires, “there will still be some degree of effort (or “labor”) required in
expressing emotions.” (3) Emotions, as Grandey has stated, can become a “marketplace
commodity.” (4) And, finally, “there are standards or rules that dictate how and when emotion
should be expressed” (p. 988). In the opinion of Morris and Feldman (1996), “the key dimension
of emotional labor that is negatively associated with job satisfaction is emotional dissonance” (p.
1003), which indicates that employees’ job satisfaction may be at stake if conflicting ideas of
honesty, for example, are part of their job expectations.
According to Ashforth and Humphrey (1993), Hochschild’s idea of emotional labor was that
“service agents are expected to experience and express certain feelings during service
interactions, but that attempting to conform to these expectations causes certain pernicious
psychological effects among the agents” (p. 89). Ashforth and Humphrey’s (1993) definition of
emotional labor differs somewhat from Hochschild’s in that they “define the act of displaying the
appropriate emotion (i.e., conforming with the display rule) as emotional labor” (p. 90). Their
definition of emotional labor focuses on the observable behaviors, or the act of the emotion, not
necessarily the feeling of the emotion, itself.
Although variations do exist on Hochschild’s (1983) definition, a common element of emotional
labor is the connection between employee feelings and organizational expectations. Regardless
of the industry, some degree of emotion on the part of employees is evident and necessary in
every aspect of organizational life. As Family Business Consultant Marta Vago asserts, “You
can’t divorce emotion from the workplace because you can’t divorce emotions from people. The
challenge is not to get rid of emotions, but to understand them and manage them in oneself and
others” (Vago, qtd. in Nelton, 1996, p. 25).
Additionally, emotional labor is often linked to the customer service function in organizations.
“The quality of the interpersonal interaction…between the customers and the contact employee
often influences customer satisfaction” (Laroche, et al., 2004, p. 61). And Mastracci (2007)
states, “…if you are a customer service representative, the 50 th person asking the same question
must be answered as thoroughly as you served the first person. Otherwise you are not doing your
job” (Emotional Labor, para. 1).
Seitel (2007) believes that well-informed employees at all levels can be “goodwill ambassadors”
for the organization. In his opinion, the use of effective public relations techniques can
distinguish an organization and its products from its competition (2007). However, this requires
the organization to maintain market share by retaining its current customers, expand its market
share by attracting new customers, diversify its markets with new product lines or services,
expedite customer complaints, and utilize consumer education programs to reduce costs—all of
which can be enhanced through effective OPR.
In this context, OPR is especially applicable to higher education as colleges and universities deal
with retention and recruitment challenges, contemplate the development or deletion of academic
programs based on industry needs and market trends, address student issues and complaints, and
make use of new technology to improve efficiency and increase educational opportunities
through such concepts as distance learning. Each of these situations can create emotional labor
because each has the potential to affect how employees in the institution do their jobs.
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