Form Of Emotional Labour Research Articles

Reducing burnout and enhancing job satisfaction: Critical role of hotel employees’ emotional intelligence and emotional labor

Despite its strong theoretical relevance with emotional labor, employees’ ability to understand and regulate emotions (i.e., emotional intelligence, EI) has seldom been studied, especially how it affects hotel employees responding to the firm's display rules (i.e., emotional labor) and experiencing burnout and job satisfaction. Thus, this study investigated direct and indirect effects of employees’ EI on two different forms of emotional labor (i.e., emotional effort: EE; emotional dissonance: ED): burnout and job satisfaction. Data were collected from 309 customer-contact hotel employees and managers in the United States. Results of structural equation modeling showed that EI had a direct, positive effect on EE and personal accomplishment and a direct, negative effect on ED and depersonalization. EI was also found to indirectly affect job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion through the mediating roles of personal accomplishment and ED, respectively. Additionally, ED was found to directly affect depersonalization and indirectly affect job satisfaction through emotional exhaustion while EE directly affects personal accomplishment and indirectly affects job satisfaction through personal accomplishment. Finally, personal accomplishment was found to mediate the depersonalization–job satisfaction relationship. Managerial implications for human resource practices are provided.

Social identity dynamics and emotional labour: The multiple roles of the tuina masseuse in the Shenzhen spa

Drawing from Hochschild’s concept of ‘emotional labour’, this article explores the roles performed by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) masseuses in a large spa complex in a Chinese metropolis. Through an ethnographic study it was found that such roles were constantly shifting according to the dynamics of the service encounter and such shifts exhibited different forms of emotional labour that can actually accumulate exchange value in the form of psychological and economic benefits. Moreover, the masseuses had a very strong social identity as massage ‘experts’ that appeared to buttress the negative outcomes often associated with emotional labour. The findings suggest that emotional labour is not a stable and static process as previously thought and that future research needs to take more into account the agency of the worker.

Operating theatre nurses: Emotional labour and the hostess role

Emotional labour has been established as a significant factor in nursing work, although no studies have been done looking at emotional labour specifically in an operating theatre nursing context. Theatre staff (17 nurses and three Operating Department Practitioners (technicians) were observed in practice over a period of nine months by one of the authors. Each of the staff was subsequently interviewed. The transcriptions of the observation fieldwork notes and the semistructured interviews were analysed for themes and content. The (predominantly female) nurses perceived that one of their responsibilities was 'looking after the surgeons'. We have described this as the 'hostess' role. This role consisted of two major areas of activity: 'keeping the surgeons happy' and 'not upsetting the surgeons'. Examples are given of how this was accomplished through talk and actions. The (predominantly male) operating department practitioners did not see this as part of their work. This 'hostess' role is a kind of emotional labour, but performed with coworkers rather than patients. Like other forms of emotional labour, it is strongly gendered. The emotional labour performed by the theatre nurses was necessary to maintain what has been called elsewhere the 'sentimental order'.

Emotional Labor, Burnout, and Inauthenticity: Does Gender Matter?

A number of researchers have examined the conditions under which individuals perform emotional labor and the effects of such labor on psychological well-being. Much of this research has been limited to the experiences of service-sector workers in highly gender-segregated jobs. Prior survey research also tended to focus on dimensions of interactive work rather than on the actual management of feeling that is the foundation of the emotional labor process. Addressing each of these issues, we examine the experience and management of positive, negative, and agitated emotions Building on prior theory and research, we argue that the management of agitation is the form of emotional labor most likely to be associated with increased feelings of burnout and inauthenticity, and that this negative effect on well-being should be more common among women. We find that managing feelings of agitation increases burnout and inauthenticity and that inauthenticity is most pronounced among those experiencing the highest levels of agitation. These effects do not differ by gender, however.

The Consequences of Emotional Labor: Effects on Work Stress, Job Satisfaction, and Well-Being

Although early research suggested that the performance of emotional labor had deleterious effects on workers, recent empirical investigations have been equivocal. The performance of emotional labor appears to have diverse consequences for workers—both negative and positive. Variation in the consequences of emotional labor may be due to the different forms of emotion management involved. There is also evidence that the effects of emotional labor are specified by other work conditions. The effects of two forms of emotional labor on work stress, job satisfaction, and psychological distress—self-focused and other-focused emotion management—are explored using data from a survey of workers in a large organization. Results indicate that both forms of emotional labor have uniformly negative effects on workers, net of work complexity, control, and demands. Emotional labor increases perceptions of job stress, decreases satisfaction, and increases distress. Self-focused emotion management has the most pervasive and detrimental impacts. There is little evidence of interaction effects of work conditions and emotional labor.