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C18HM - Tutorial 7: Emotional Labour: Task: Preparation

1) Emotional work refers to managing emotions privately to maintain relationships, while emotional labour refers to managing emotions at work to meet job requirements. 2) Emotional labour is increasingly relevant as employers expect employees to express specific emotions to connect with customers and gain a competitive advantage. 3) Organizational feeling rules are shared norms that influence how employees display emotions at work, which can lead to unequal exchanges or alienation from true feelings.

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43 views

C18HM - Tutorial 7: Emotional Labour: Task: Preparation

1) Emotional work refers to managing emotions privately to maintain relationships, while emotional labour refers to managing emotions at work to meet job requirements. 2) Emotional labour is increasingly relevant as employers expect employees to express specific emotions to connect with customers and gain a competitive advantage. 3) Organizational feeling rules are shared norms that influence how employees display emotions at work, which can lead to unequal exchanges or alienation from true feelings.

Uploaded by

ChiTien Hoo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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C18HM – Tutorial 7: Emotional Labour

Preparation:
 Bolton, S. and Boyd, C. Task:
(2003). Trolley Dolly or
1) What is the difference between Emotional work and
Skilled Emotion
Manager? Moving on
Emotional labour?
from Hochschild’s 2) Why EL is understood to be increasingly relevant for
Managed Heart. Work, contemporary employment?
Employment and 3) What are organisational feeling rules?
Society, 17, 2, 289-308. 4) How do they impact on actors?
Please use this link to 5) What is meant by alienation?
access the article: 6) What is meant under surface/deep acting and where
https:// is the difference?
discovery.hw.ac.uk/
permalink/f/1po7pmp/ Whilst discussing these and other themes, students are asked to
TN_cdi_crossref_primary evaluate Bolton/Boyd’s and Hochschild’s conceptualisations
_10_1177_09500170030 through their own work experience or case studies they have read
17002004 in the past.

 Hochschild, A. (1998). 1. Emotion work refers to the process of managing and


Between the toe and the presenting emotions in the private sphere of
heel. Jobs and Emotional
individuals’ own feelings among the family and
Labor. In: The Managed
friends to maintain a relationship. Emotional labour is
Heart, Chapter 7
the process of managing feelings and expressions to
Please use this link to
access the chapter: fulfil a job's emotional requirements, in which
https:// workers are expected to regulate their emotions
contentstore.cla.co.uk/ during interactions with customers, colleagues, and
secure/link?id=26ff6d4e- managers. This implies that emotion work is useful
e3da-e911-80cd- and occurs when people choose to regulate their
005056af4099 
emotions for their own non-compensated benefit.
Reading prior to the
tutorial is essential. 1
Make sure you come
prepared.
For example, in their interactions with family and friends. However, emotional
labour has exchange value as it is traded and performed for a wage.

Emotion work: Managing emotions to maintain personal goals and relationships (e.g., with
friends, family, acquaintances). This includes gift-giving, event planning. No explicit
emotional expectations, training, or financial reward, but implicit social norms.

Person displaying their emotions in their private life (private sphere)

Emotional labour: Managing emotions during interactions (e.g., organizational outsiders) to


achieve professional goals and conform to work role requirements. Expectations are
explicitly stated in handbooks, training, financial gains.

Person displaying their emotions in the organisation (for public display / sphere) for
commercialisation. Because it is a job requirement and is demanded by the employer to
commercialise the feelings.

2. Emotions play an important part in how employees’ function during the workday.
Emotional labour and emotional dissonance reflect how challenging it can be for
employees to maintain a helpful, caring attitude. Emotional dissonance occurs when
employees are not able to control their emotions, which have become an obstacle to
job performance.
Expect employees to connect with the customers.
By using emotions labour to gain competitive advantage, companies want to ensure
pleasure and happy experience. Employer branding, image, or reputation as they
want to be known as the company to be able to provide such experience.
3. Feeling rules are socially shared norms that influence how people attempt to feel
emotions in specific social situations. Mandatory for the employers to show the
specific emotions in specific situations (“customers is the king”) you still have to play
by the commercialisation of your feelings. Unequal exchange (if customer is angry,
the worker should smile. Which is an unequal exchange of emotions). Giving
emphasis on occupational feelings (during funeral event at work you are not allowed
to be happy but most express occupational feelings by being sad also). Some
employees still do to equalise the value by getting a satisfied pay.

4. Emotional labour within an organisation may cause an adverse effect to the


employees as it could be challenging if required over long periods of time in which it
may lead to employee’s burnout. Close control of workers’ emotions may lead to
fear, mistrust, and defiance. Moreover, workers may experience difficulties if there is
a discrepancy between real feelings and the external display of emotions. They may
also experience emotional exhaustion, dissatisfaction, alienation, poor psychological
health which leads to the risk of depression of the employees.

2
Poor emotional health / burden of employees (e.g., depression, stress, exhaustion).
Deskilling of employees (boring for them) leading them to be demotivated. It is hard to
reward an emotional labour worker as well as difficult to train as emotions are hard to
define.

5. Employees experience alienation when they feel disconnected from themselves and
others. Employers can play an active role in eliminating workplace alienation as
employees tends to feel alienated at work often, implying that employers must work
to prevent this from happening.

Employee’s emotions are just representing the organisation, leading them to feel detached
from themselves. As they must be committed to the organisation. Social engineering are the
trueness of emotions (fake) “if u want be to do I would but Im actually not happy about it”.
Emotional numbness (its actually not the true them)

6. Surface acting refers to when workers modify their expressions on the surface and
suppresses fake emotions to comply with emotion rules. Deep acting is when
workers tries to follow or experience the emotion rules and produce the desired
feelings when interacting with others.

Surface acting – You fake, or pretend to have, an emotion by using unnatural and artificial
body language and verbal communication. Smiling and using a soft tone of voice help you
show emotion that you don't feel, or hide emotion that you do feel. Feelings is not align
with your true self (comply because the organisation tell them to do so, fake emotions)

Deep acting – You control your internal emotions, directing them to believe that you
actually are happy, and enjoying the interaction with the other person. Rather than feel like
you're pretending, you convince yourself you're not experiencing a negative reaction. True
emotions, people think that it’s their role of obligation but no longer a forced job. Whatever
they display in public sphere is align (they alter their emotions themselves).

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