Cross-Cultural Emotional Labor: A Study of NGO Workers in Haiti

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although demand for emotional labor (EL) is at its highest in times of disasters, there is a lack of studies on EL by disaster response and recovery workers in intercultural contexts. Using in-depth interviews and secondary data collected in Haiti, this article focuses on the link between culture and EL. We find that an understanding of the cultural context and the cultural competencies used to effectively navigate that context are central to each step of effective emotional labor performance. These findings help disaster response organizations better understand the value of cultural competence and how it effects the performance of EL.