Emotional labor threatens decent work: A proposal to eradicate emotional display rules

Abstract

Emotional labor-the management of emotional displays as part of one's work role-has emerged as a growth area of study within organizational behavior and customer service research. In this article, we call attention to the human costs of "service with a smile" requirements with little benefits. We first review the evidence showing that requiring positive emotions from employees induces dissonance and depleted resources, which hinders task performance and threatens well-being. We articulate how formalized emotion display requirements limit self-determination by threatening the autonomy, competence, and belongingness needs of employees. Further, via an organizational justice lens, we argue that emotional labor is an unfair labor practice because employees in such circumstances are (1) undervalued by the organization (constituting distributive injustice); (2) disrespected by customers (constituting interactional injustice); and (3) selfundermined by organizational policies (constituting procedural injustice). We then argue for bringing light to the dark side of emotional labor with a "modest proposal": Organizations and customers should abandon formalized emotion display expectations and replace such efforts with more humanistic practices that support and value employees, engendering positive climates and an authentically positive workforce.

The Future of Frontline Research

“…"Emotional Labor" rules commanding displays of positive emotions are disrespectful to employees and to customers (Grandey et al 2015). Most importantly, service research needs to develop tools for effective identification and reaction to customer needs and emotions (cf.…”

Associando a atuação superficial dos gestores ao seu burnout e engagement: O papel moderador das crenças de bem-estar eudaimonicas

“…Recent meta-analyses have shown that, depending on the strategy workers use to regulate their emotions during the service, deep or surface, the consequences for service performance and health will be different (Hülsheger & Schewe, 2011;Mesmer-Magnus, DeChurch, & Wax, 2012;Wang, Seibert, & Boles, 2011). Using a deep acting strategy leads to better performance and does not harm workers' wellbeing, but using a surface acting strategy often has negative consequences for workers' personal wellbeing (Grandey, Rupp, & Brice, 2015;Hülsheger, Lang, & Maier, 2011). However, personal differences such as beliefs and skills may buffer or intensify these relationships (Gracia & Ashkanasy, 2014).…”

Introduction

“…Further to this, any prediction or advice in relation to the exact outcomes of worker emancipation from emotional repression would seem to be diametrically opposed to the frequently invoked notion within critical theory of workers having the potential and need for creative, spontaneous and autonomous action (Alvesson and Willmott, 1992;Grandey et al, 2015). Instead, I advocate the position that the effects of emotion research more generally, and its effects in the context of this book, often do not immediately manifest themselves.…”

“…In addition to the cabbage example stated earlier, it has been known for some time that employees' displays of 'friendly demeanours' are related to job descriptions and consequent rewards (i.e., wages). However, it is well documented that engaging in emotional labour (Hochschild, 1983), which requires workers to regulate their emotions according to the display rules imposed by organizations, can have detrimental consequences for them, such as the experience of burn-out and exhaustion (Grandey et al, 2015;Hülsheger and Schewe, 2011). However, a more recent and more ominous development is that failure to display such friendly demeanours entails that the entire shift in a fast-food restaurant might lose out on its bonus (as opposed to a single worker being reprimanded by management for failing to be 'happy' at work).…”

“…However, on the surface, one might insist that the ability to regulate emotion adaptively presents a mere psychological buffer Dirk Lindebaum -9781786436337 Downloaded from Elgar Online at 07/05/2020 11:21:19AM via free access to protect workers from undue emotional strain and expectations at work. After all, to simply regulate emotions differently so as to limit the impact of the emotional event on the worker will not necessarily change that which imposes these emotional strains and expectations -e.g., service jobs requiring the display of a happy face (see Grandey et al, 2015;Hülsheger and Schewe, 2011). In fact, one might go further to argue that it might even be ethically imperative to foster that kind of better emotion regulation ability among affected workers.…”