Learning emotion rules in service organizations

Abstract

This article discusses the way in which emotion rules are learned by service workers through an ethnographic study of employees in a chain of public houses. It reviews the findings of recent research based on studies of large firms in the service sector in order to discuss similarities and differences in the ways in which emotion rules are learned, internalized, controlled, and monitored in large firms and small units. It concludes that in contrast to large firms, small units are characterized by little formal training and few explicit rules for emotion management and display. Implicit rules for performing emotional labour are learned through informal socialization with colleagues, managers, and customers. The importance of competing informal social control mechanisms is highlighted, showing how service workers are expected to be skilled emotion managers negotiating the expectations of different stakeholders.

“I don’t have any emotions”: An ethnography of emotional labour and feeling rules in the emergency department

“…Despite the wealth of rich data generated, there is an awareness, as in all ethnographic work, that findings cannot be directly extrapolated to make assumptions about other settings (Seymour & Sandiford, 2005). Instead, as recommended by Wolcott (2001, p. 123):…”

The Mystery Customer: Continuing Absences in the Sociology of Service Work

“…I always felt that 'I' was still there: I genuinely liked people who tipped me; I genuinely wanted to help; I genuinely had fun. (p. 698) Further, for enduring locale-based service work where research points to the importance of ongoing relationships between workers and customers, we need look no further than the traditional British pub (Seymour and Sandiford, 2005).…”

Número complet

“…El crecimiento de estas actividades obliga a las empresas a gestionar las reacciones afectivas y sus manifestaciones (Wharton, 2009). Posteriormente, el concepto ha recibido múltiples matices (Bolton y Boyd, 2003;Guerrier y Adib, 2003;Seymour y Sandiford, 2005;Theodosius, 2006) y, a partir de dicho estudio seminal, se abren varias líneas de investigación, algunas de las cuales entroncan con otras problemáticas de la sociología de las organizaciones o del trabajo (Wharton, 2009).…”

“…Sin embargo, también ha sido señalada la importancia de otras variables, como el tamaño de la empresa, las fórmulas de aprendizaje de las competencias emocionales (Seymour y Sandiford, 2005) o los mecanismos de interacción desarrollados en el puesto (Theodosius, 2006).…”