Labor Strategies Research Articles

The division of labor strategies among parents in areas prone to climate challenges in Bangladesh: an exploratory study

ABSTRACT This study investigates how parents’ division of labor strategies are impacted by climate change in Bangladesh. Qualitative methodologies were employed in the present study to gather and analyze data. Sunamganj, Satkhira and Natore are three climate-vulnerable districts where in-depth interviews were conducted with married men and women with only child. Thematic analysis was also employed, utilizing qualitative data provided by the interviews. The findings demonstrate that division of labor tactics, however, differ according on the kind and severity of risks and difficulties a region encounters as well as how vulnerable it is to climate change. Furthermore, when the effects of climatic shocks worsen and women are primarily faced with the difficulties of performing household tasks, which makes them more agitated and nervous, they also anticipate their spouse to be more cooperative. However, mothers in areas vulnerable to cyclones and droughts prioritize their children's education since it can be a means of mitigating the harm caused by climate change, as it can guarantee their children's future stability and means of subsistence. The findings indicate that couples’ gender-based labor distribution strategies may need to be adjusted since climate change affects how men and women choose to take on parenting obligations.

Emotional Intelligence and Burnout among Adolescent Basketball Players: The Mediating Effect of Emotional Labor.

Burnout, characterized by emotional and physical exhaustion, poses a significant challenge to adolescent athletes, particularly in high-intensity sports like basketball. Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to manage emotions, which is negatively associated with burnout. Emotional labor, including strategies of surface acting (SA), deep acting (DA), and genuine expression (GE), plays a potentially key role in emotion management between EI and burnout for athletes. This study aims to investigate the relationship between EI and burnout, as well as the mediating role of emotional labor strategies among adolescent basketball players. Our cross-sectional study, conducted in youth sports schools in four different places in China, involved 260 basketball players. Results indicate a negative association between EI and burnout, with SA and GE emerging as significant mediators. SA was positively linked to burnout, while GE showed a negative association. These findings suggest that enhancing EI and managing emotional labor strategies are crucial for mitigating burnout and improving the well-being and performance of young athletes.

Customer’s social cognition in service recovery satisfaction with human vs robot agent

Purpose Service failures evoke negative customer emotions, which human agents respond to through emotional labor. In turn, customers empathize with the human agent, providing a satisfying service recovery experience. However, robot agents could replace human agents and replicate emotional labor strategies. This study addresses whether customers empathize with apologetic robot agents and how it would affect the service recovery experience. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on emotional labor, social cognition and justice theory, two online scenario-based experiments (N1 = 411; N2 = 253) were designed in which customers watched a video simulating an interaction with a human or a robot agent during a service recovery procedure. Findings Study 1 shows that robot agents handle emotionally driven service recovery interactions and prompt desirable postrecovery behaviors (e.g. brand loyalty). Study 2 identifies customers’ empathy and compassion as mediators, explaining the effect of normative empathic display on customers' perceptions of interactional justice and behavioral intentions. Practical implications Robot agents are reliable substitutes for human agents in handling service recovery procedures. Customers can empathize with robot agents, leading to satisfying service experiences. Originality/value This study demonstrates customers’ capacity to empathize with robot agents during a service recovery procedure. It is also the first application in service research of the EmpaToM experimental procedure from social neuroscience to explore the social cognition dynamic between customers and service agents at the service encounter.

‘Make it look a little like a festival’: Film exhibition and festival organizing at Films Femmes Méditerranée during the COVID-19 pandemic

This article attends to the strategies of survival, affective labour, and practices of care – for women’s film work and publics – within women’s film festivals during the COVID-19 pandemic through the case study of Films Femmes Méditeranée, a women’s film festival based in Marseille, France. The festival was founded in 2007 to give visibility to the work of female filmmakers from the Mediterranean through a curated program of films, showcased in art-house theatres, with free screenings for young audiences, students, the unemployed, and people living on social benefits. Drawing on interviews conducted with workers at Films Femmes Méditeranée, I first provide an overview of the history and the mandate of Films Femmes Méditeranée in relation to the legacy of early women’s film festivals by bringing to light the work of care carried on in the context of Marseille. I will then analyse Films Femmes Méditeranée’s practices of curation and care through digital media during the pandemic. Through a consideration of the labour of film programming and festival organizing vis-à-vis social distancing measures and an examination of curatorial choices, I interrogate how Films Femmes Méditeranée has adapted to the pandemic crisis through digital media to maintain its commitment to fostering transnational approaches to women’s film culture and to provide a space for encounters between female filmmakers and audiences.

Emotional labour strategies, emotional job demands, and burnout among academic staff in Jordanian universities

ABSTRACT This study examined the relationships between emotional labour strategies and its antecedents and consequences among academic staff in Jordanian universities. A total of 547 university teachers from three public Jordanian Universities responded to a questionnaire survey. The results showed that university teachers who experienced higher levels of negative emotion regulation, engaged in detached engagement, exhibited impulse control, anticipated emotions less, and displayed less emotional countenance were more likely to experience difficulties with emotion regulation. Those who engaged more in surface acting and faced greater challenges in regulating their emotions were more likely to experience burnout. Additionally, difficulties in emotion regulation still served as a potential mediator in the link between surface acting and emotional job demands, and between personal accomplishment and emotional job demands. Emotional job demands exhibited a positive relationship with surface acting. The challenges posed by emotional job demands might not directly lead to difficulties in emotion regulation.

Exploring the Relationships Among Display Rules, Emotional Job Demands, Emotional Labour and Kindergarten Teachers' Occupational Well‐Being

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the intricate relationships among display rules, emotional job demands (EJD), emotional labour and the occupational well‐being (OWB) of kindergarten teachers in China. Utilising the job demands–resources (JD‐R) model, this study specifically assesses the influence of EJD and displays rules on two dimensions of teachers' OWB (job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion), while exploring the mediating role of emotional labour strategies. Data were collected from a sample of 1220 Chinese kindergarten teachers. By employing structural equation modelling and mediation analysis, the findings reveal that positive display rules can enhance job satisfaction and alleviate emotional exhaustion. Conversely, negative display rules are linked to heightened emotional exhaustion and diminished job satisfaction. The analysis further discerns that two emotional labour strategies significantly mediate these associations. Surface acting exacerbates adverse outcomes, whereas the natural expression of emotions acts as a salient buffer, augmenting job satisfaction and reducing emotional exhaustion. In addition, EJD can positively predict job satisfaction through deep acting. These insights underscore the necessity of cultivating educational environments that advocate for natural emotional expression and reinforce positive display rules, thereby enhancing teachers' OWB. This research offers valuable implications for educational policymakers and practitioners, emphasising the need to address the emotional aspects of teaching in early childhood education.

Simulating reality: Stage actors’ emotional labour strategies and experienced outcomes

Simulating reality: Stage actors’ emotional labour strategies and experienced outcomes

Labour strategies in the German automotive industry: limits and potentials of conversion from a Gramscian perspective

ABSTRACT The automotive industry’s transition toward electric vehicles is a key challenge for organised labour in the sector. In this context, shifting production towards socially and ecologically useful products through democratic decision-making, democratic conversion, can be a proactive just transition strategy for workers and contribute to the ecological reorganisation of production. This paper investigates the limits and potentials for this endeavour in the context of the German automotive industry by conducting a multi-level analysis of (1) the sectoral union IG Metall’s (IGM) strategies and its interrelation with (2) works council strategies at a major supplier utilising a Gramscian theoretical framework. I identify the main limitations and potentials for both realms, which interact with (3) the dominant understanding of the transition and (4) internal conditions for labour organising. I show that democratic conversion is a challenging proposal questioning key tenets of German industrial relations yet can provide innovative solutions addressing labour’s contemporary challenges.

The Labour Left from Benn to Momentum: continuity and change in strategy and tactics

AbstractPrevious works have correctly highlighted the strategic and tactical convergences between the Bennite New Left and the Corbyn insurgency. However, such scholarship has underestimated the impact of the differences in the composition between the two intra-party movements. Critically, while the Benn project developed as an attempt to update Labour strategy in times of social upheaval, Momentum and the Corbyn movement emerged as a hybrid alliance between New Left veterans and the extra-parliamentary anti-austerity and libertarian left. This impacted the Left’s conceptualisation of socialist strategy and led to disagreements over tactics. This paper will explain how, despite these differences, the 2010s Left ended up reproducing the core tenets of New Left’s strategy and tactics. This outcome is explained as a consequence of a convergent conceptualisation of social change and the persistence of intra-party conflicts.

The Mediating Role of Surface and Deep Acting on the Nexus between Emotional Intelligence and Work-Related Burnout

Work-related burnout (WBO) is prevalent in the global economy, culminating in profit loss, productivity declination, and employee absenteeism. The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the preceding threats in human resource management within the manufacturing industry. The ongoing discussions on WBO highlight the significance and value of this issue. Additionally, empirical proof regarding the association among emotional intelligence (EQ), emotional labour strategies, and WBO, particularly within the human resource division of the manufacturing industry, is scarce. Thus, the current study aims to identify the relationships and models with emotional contagion theory as a foundation using the PLS-SEM technique. The responses from 311 questionnaires were collected among HR managers in selected ISO 9001 Malaysian manufacturing companies using an online survey. The study found a negative relationship between EQ and emotional labour-deep acting (ELSA) and a positive relationship with emotional labour-surface acting (ELSA). Besides, ELSA is also negatively correlated with WBO, while ELDA has a positive relationship with WBO. The study also proved that emotional labour strategies (deep-acting and surface-acting) operated as an intermediary factor in the connection between EQ and WBO. Past research on WBO has been inconclusive, and there has yet to be a comprehensive exploration of the direct or indirect connections between EQ, ELSA, ELDA, and WBO. Furthermore, previous studies often overlooked the viewpoint of HR managers in WBO investigations. The results of this research contribute to the literature concerning this issue, particularly in the post-COVID-19 context, and help policy developers of human resource management bring in the elements of psychological factors while forming human resource policies and practices.

Explaining the negative effects of workplace incivility on family lives: a moderated mediation model of surface acting and resource-providing variables.

The effects of workplace incivility have been understudied in educational settings. To expand incivility research to educational professions, the present research investigates whether, how, and when workplace incivility deriving from different sources (coworkers, supervisors, and outsiders) is related to work-to-family interference (WFI) of preschool teachers. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, the present study proposes that workplace incivility and subsequent maladaptive emotion labor strategies (i.e., surface acting) jointly create a resource-depletion mechanism contributing to elevated WFI and two resource-providing variables (supervisor work-family support and psychological detachment after hours) function as potential mitigating factors to break the resource-depletion mechanism. This study used a female-dominated sample (i.e., preschool teachers) found that workplace incivility from insiders (supervisors and coworkers respectively) and external stakeholders (child's family members) all positively linked to WFI, and surface acting mediated these relationships. Moreover, moderated mediation analyses indicated that psychological detachment buffered the mediated effect of surface acting on WFI, whereas supervisor work-family support did not. Findings deepen the understanding of why and when workplace incivility influences employees' family lives, as well as point to future intervention strategies.

A meta-analytical investigation on the relationship between emotional labour and teacher efficacy in the Chinese context

ABSTRACT There has been no consensus in previous studies on the relationship between teacher emotional labour strategies and teacher efficacy. Considering the context-dependent nature of emotional labour, we synthesised past findings on this relationship through a meta-analysis in the Chinese context. Based on 17 studies with 8,547 Chinese teachers, emotional labour strategies (i.e. surface acting, deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotions) varied by their effects on teacher efficacy. Deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotions were significantly positively associated with efficacy whereas surface acting showed no significant relationships. Moderator analyses indicated that teaching levels significantly moderated the teacher efficacy-emotional labour strategy relationship.

Leader's Conveyed Emotional Labor and Leadership Evaluations

Abstract: We examined whether leader gender moderated the relationship between leader's conveyed emotional labor (EL) strategies and followers’ leadership evaluations [effectiveness, trust, leader–member exchange (LMX)]. Participants read a fictitious interview of a CEO (male/female) reflecting on their strategy (surface acting/deep acting/genuine displays) to express emotions. The results suggest that conveyed EL influenced evaluations of female, but not male, leaders for the three measures. Notably, females received better trust evaluations for genuine displays (vs. surface and deep acting), whereas males received similar evaluations across EL strategies. Although less clear for effectiveness and LMX ratings, the results suggest leader EL might influence evaluations of female (vs. male) leaders more strongly. This study sheds light on the role of gender stereotypes in evaluations of leaders performing EL.

The Mediating Path of Emotional Labor Strategies on the Relationship between COVID-19 Risk Perception and Depression among Hotel Workers: Moderated Mediating Effect of Optimism

The Mediating Path of Emotional Labor Strategies on the Relationship between COVID-19 Risk Perception and Depression among Hotel Workers: Moderated Mediating Effect of Optimism

“Don't cry or show your anger in public places”: Exploring the emotional labor experiences of novice Chinese language teachers in Cameroon

This study explores the emotional rules and corresponding emotional labor strategies of novice Chinese language teachers in Cameroonian secondary schools. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with six novice Chinese language teachers, the findings reveal that novice teachers comply with three types of emotional rules, including professional, sociocultural, and personal rules. Surface acting, deep acting, and the expression of naturally felt emotions strategies were employed by novice teachers to meet these emotional rules. It is suggested that regular emotional training and psychological care for novice teachers should be provided to facilitate the well-being improvement of Chinese language teachers in Cameroon.

Kindergarten Teachers’ Emotional Labor and Occupational Well-Being: How Do Different Interpersonal Relationships Matter?

ABSTRACT Teaching is an emotionally demanding profession, and teachers’ ability to manage their emotions appears to be linked to their occupational well-being. Kindergarten teachers experience intense and frequent emotional interactions in their daily work; however, studies on kindergarten teachers’ emotional labor are still rare. Because social relationships are essential for understanding emotional labor, the current study explored how three types of social relationships influenced teachers’ emotional labor strategies and their occupational well-being. Research Findings: Through an investigation of 1,342 kindergarten teachers in China, the results showed that teacher-child relationship, trust in colleagues and trust in parents had different impacts on teachers’ emotional labor and dimensions of occupational well-being (job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion). Surface acting and the natural expression of felt emotions had opposite influences on teachers’ occupational well-being, and they both played mediating roles between social relationships and occupational well-being factors. Practice or Policy: The study highlighted the importance of teachers’ different interpersonal relationships, surface acting and the expression of naturally felt emotion in kindergarten contexts.

Naturally felt emotions, work engagement: the moderating role of perceived organizational support

The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether or not emotional labor strategy (i.e., naturally felt emotions) significantly predicts work engagement (i.e., vigor, dedication, absorption) among academicians in a higher education setting. It also evaluates the role of perceived organizational support (POS) as the moderating variable between naturally felt emotions (NFE) and work engagement. This study employs a survey questionnaire, and data collected from private universities in Central Java, Indonesia. To analyze the data and test the proposed model, the partial least squares structural equation modelling approach was employed. The findings demonstrate that: i) NFE are significantly and positively related to all work engagement dimensions; and ii) POS is proven insignificant to moderate the relationship between NFE and work engagement dimensions. The results of this study complement the literature by addressing associations between NFE and work-related outcomes (i.e., work engagement), especially in the Indonesian academic context. In addition, this study also confirms the insignificant role of POS which is based on norms of mutuality between the organization and employee. Finally, the study offers recommendations and conclusions to achieve long-term objectives for higher education institutions.

Cross Sectional Survey of Antenatal Educators’ Views About Current Antenatal Education Provision

ObjectivesAntenatal education (ANE) is part of National Health Service (NHS) care and is recommended by The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to increase birth preparedness and help pregnant women/birthing people develop coping strategies for labour and birth. We aimed to understand antenatal educator views about how current ANE supports preparedness for childbirth, including coping strategy development with the aim of identifying targets for improvement.MethodsA United Kingdom wide, cross-sectional online survey was conducted between October 2019 and May 2020. Antenatal educators including NHS midwives and private providers were purposively sampled. Counts and percentages were calculated for closed responses and thematic analysis used for open text responses.ResultsNinety-nine participants responded, 62% of these did not believe that ANE prepared women for labour and birth. They identified practical barriers to accessing ANE, particularly for marginalised groups, including financial and language barriers. Educators believe class content is medically focused, and teaching is of variable quality with some midwives being ill-prepared to deliver antenatal education. 55% of antenatal educators believe the opportunity to develop coping strategies varies between location and educators and only those women who can pay for non-NHS classes are able to access all the coping strategies that can support them with labour and birth.Conclusions for PracticeAntenatal educators believe current NHS ANE does not adequately prepare women for labour and birth, leading to disparities in birth preparedness for those who cannot access non-NHS classes. To reduce this healthcare inequality, NHS classes need to be standardised, with training for midwives in delivering ANE enhanced.

Are Emotional Labor Strategies Good or Bad for Work Engagement Among Chinese Preschool Teachers? The Mediating Role of Teacher Efficacy and Grit

ABSTRACT Teacher work engagement is critical for work performance and child development, yet there is a limited understanding of how it is shaped from the perspective of teachers’ emotion. Based on the job demand-resource model, this study tested the relationship between emotional labor strategies, teacher efficacy, grit, and work engagement. Research Findings: Through structural equation modeling, self-reports of 647 Chinese preschool teachers revealed that (1) expression of naturally felt emotions showed both a direct and an indirect (via teacher efficacy and grit) positive relationship with work engagement; (2) deep acting was associated with work engagement via promoted teacher efficacy; (3) surface acting was associated with work engagement via weakened teacher efficacy. Neither deep acting nor surface acting was linked to engagement via teacher grit. Practice or Policy: The findings call for attention to teacher emotion which is particularly important for preschool teachers in Chinese society. Guidance is needed for teachers to aptly use felt emotions to achieve classroom goals and translate the regulating process into positive beliefs about themselves.

Minority service providers serving majority group customers: The relations between power attribution, empathy and emotional labor

This study examines the service relationships between minority service providers and their majority-group customers, focusing on power attribution, empathy, and emotional labor strategies. An online survey tapped the perceptions of service providers belonging to two different ethnic and national minorities (N = 511; of the sample, 301 respondents were FSU immigrants (59%), and 210 were members of the Arab minority (41%). Age ranged from 18 to 65 (Mage = 37); the total sample included 63% females. All service providers were from the “Service Shop” sector).Minority service providers' responses were affected significantly by the power they attributed to majority-group customers, activating higher emotional efforts to please customers. Testing moderated mediation model revealed that the mediation effect of minority service providers' empathy on the relationship between power attributed to majority-group customers and minority-group service providers’ emotional labor found to be significantly stronger for national minority service employees (in compare to ethnic minorities).The study emphasizes the importance of service relationships in a diverse environment and their practical implications. Additional theoretical contribution is related to the distinction between two types of minorities: national and ethnic minorities (service provider origin) in order to explore their attribution of power towards majority group customers, which effect the mechanism of empathy and in turn minorities provider's emotional mechanism (emotional labor).