Emotional Labor

Question 1

What is the historical context behind emotional labor?

Answer 1

-Organizations have traditionally been viewed as rational environments, where emotions would get in the way of sound judgement (rationality——–emotionality)

Question 2

What is Rationality?

Answer 2

Intentional, reasoned, goal oreinted …“just business”

Question 3

What is emotionality?

Answer 3

Irrational, nonsensical…making decisions based on gut feeling or relationships

Question 4

What is a service based economy?

Answer 4

Nature of the work in United States has changed

75 percent of jobs are service based jobs

Question 5

What is customer satisfaction?

Answer 5

The company’s ability to fulfill the business, emotional, and psychological needs of its customers (It brings them back)

Question 6

What is quality of Service?

Answer 6

Interaction between employees and clients

Question 7

What are proper emotions/what do they lead to?

Answer 7

Increased success and profits for an organization

Question 8

Theorist for Emotional Labor?

Answer 8

Hochschild (The managed heart)

Question 9

What is emotional labor?

Answer 9

Management of one’s emotions in order to elicit a desired reaction or response in another individual. ( Your job is to get that to that emotional state for the customer regardless of how you feel…which is why it is called labor…not always happy.funeral director)..

It involves self, other and organization

Question 10

Elements of emotional labor?

Answer 10

Self, Other, Organization

Question 11

What role does self play?

Answer 11

Must have appropriate responses..what to say, look, wear. Have appropriate emotions vs. felt emotion

Question 12

What are the levels of acting for self?

Answer 12

Surface acting- Public display of emotions (Body language, slap on a smile)
Deep acting: Emotional memories are drawn upon to produce the desired emotion or emotional state (not just expressions, but feelings)

Question 13

How does the Other play in?

Answer 13

(Without other or organizaiton it doesnt matter)

-Customer/client/patient/student with whom the employee is interacting

Question 14

How does the Organization play in?

Answer 14

The company the employee works for.

Question 15

What are the four dimensions of emotional labor?

Answer 15

(Morris and Feldman)
Frequency of appropriate emotional display
Attentiveness to required display rules
Variety of emotions required to be displayed
Emotional Dissonance

Question 16

What is frequency of emotional display?

Answer 16

The more you have to do this, the more particular set of emotions, the more labor is involved

Question 17

Attentiveness to required display rules?

Answer 17

How strictly are you held to the standards?

Question 18

Variety of emotions that need to be displayed?

Answer 18

Possible every customer is different, more variety, more labor

Question 19

Emotional dissonance?

Answer 19

Gap betweenrequire emotions and genuinely felt emotions