Emotional Labor

998 Words2 Pages

Introduction
The following paragraphs will describe a fragment, explain the fragment, link it to relevant data and finally provide a conclusion. The fragment chosen for this assignment is “A number of theorists have echoed the negative effects of emotion labor. For instance, researchers have argued that maintaining a culturally prescribed happy face can lead to emotional numbness and that suppression of feelings negatively affects organizational relationships.” derived from an article by Tracy (2000), this short excerpt introduces us to the drawbacks of emotional labor, which will be further elaborated in this paper. Emotional labor can be described as “the management of feelings to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display” (Mumby, …show more content…

According to the mentioned article, emotion labor can be very demanding and therefore have various negative effects, such as emotional numbness, but also burnouts and depersonalization. According to Hochschild, by engaging in emotion labor, one’s ‘real self’ is being pushed further inside, which makes it harder to access on the long term (Tracy, 2000). This clash between the real self and required feelings is called ‘emotional dissonance’. People exposed to emotional dissonance have two strategies to choose from, says Hochschild (1983). The first being ‘surface acting’ (SA), which means that one modifies his/her physical emotional display to align with display rules, so faking and hiding emotions, which often leads to burnout and depression. The second strategy is ‘deep acting’ (DA), this is a way in which one modifies his/her internal feelings to be consistent with display rules, by focusing on the positive aspects of the situation, for example. Deep acting may be harder, but eventually leads to less emotional dissonance and its negative effects …show more content…

For example, when emotional labor ends up in satisfied customers and high tips, a waitress, in this case, may experience feelings such as pride of one’s skills, but also a sense of control over influencing the customer in a way that ends in a positive interaction (Pugliesi, 1999; Rafaeli & Sutton, 1987). When emotion labor, either surface acting or deep acting has a positive outcome, this decreases negative feelings that could result in a burnout for example (Hochschild, 1983). Deep acting, or modifying one’s internal feelings, ultimately leads to someone feeling better, which is a positive consequence in itself, also this genuine good feeling reflects on the customers, resulting in customer satisfaction and rewards such as a tip (Rafaeli & Sutton, 1987). Apart from the personal positive effects, emotional labor also has positive consequences for the company as a whole. When all employees in an organization, abide by the ‘display rules’, this will most likely have a positive effect on the customer’s experience. When customers have a positive experience in a place, such as a restaurant, one is likely to give a good review, which might lead to recruiting more guests, and more guest means more money coming into the organization (Rafaeli & Sutton, 1987). Even though there are some positive consequences, the negative outweigh the positive on the long term, as various research has shown that

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