Instructions
Before you begin, read through this entire procedure. Then, follow the steps below to complete
the project. Please do a good job.
- Create your own working definition of emotional labor. Your definition should include
likely effects of emotional labor, such as fatigue, workplace stress, anxiety, and
alienation. Use your definition to guide your field research and clarify your thinking prior
to beginning work on your term paper. - Use the following sources to conduct background research. Note: You must use ALL of
these sources for your project.
a. The textbook, Organizational Behavior, page 82 (See below-page 82 content)
b. Online sources
• Context Magazine, “Feeling around the World,” Arlie Hochschild, page 80
• Wikipedia: Defining Emotional Labor
• Emotional Labor, Burnout, and Inauthenticity: Does Gender Matter?
c. At least one source of your own from the Internet, a library source, or
elsewhere. - Prepare a survey for interviewing people in various work settings. If unable to conduct
interviews with real people, they can be fictitious. On the survey, leave room for notes
you take during or immediately following your interview with any subject. Although you
may add questions of your own, include the following questions on your survey:
d. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your satisfaction with your job?
e. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your satisfaction with your present
workplace environment?
f. Are you expected to present yourself in certain ways to customers (patients,
passengers, clients, and so on)?
g. If so, how are you expected to present yourself? To help the interviewee answer
this question, you may ask one or more of the following questions:
• Are you expected to follow a sales script?
• Are you expected to “up-sell” special offers?
• Are you instructed to always be polite?
• Are you expected to encourage and support patients?
• Are you supposed to smile when you would prefer to scream or frown?
h. Do you feel stress when you feel one way and have to pretend you feel another
way? Can you give me examples?
i. When you feel some kind of work stress, can you tell me how you feel about it?
(If interviewees need help answering this question, you may ask, “Does stress
make you feel tired? Frustrated? Amused? Irritable? Sad?”) - Follow these guidelines for conducting your research:
j. Interview people in at least three different work settings. Your subjects might
include fast-food workers, bus or taxi drivers, firefighters, law enforcement
officers, sanitation workers, bank tellers, airline flight attendants, public school
teachers, paramedics, and social workers—to offer some examples.
k. Interview at least two people from each work setting.
l. To find individuals to interview, begin making contacts through people you
know.
m. During the interview, complete the surveys yourself. Don’t ask the subjects to fill
out the forms.
n. Before beginning an interview, tell each subject that his or her responses will be
anonymous. Indeed, it’s advisable to create fictitious names for particular work
venues, for the subjects themselves, and for any persons mentioned by the
subjects. Also, inform each subject that your written report is for a course and
that it won’t be published anywhere.
o. Allow your respondents to speak freely. Don’t allow your survey form to keep
you from taking notes on unexpected comments, observations, and information
provided by the subjects. In other words, keep an open mind.
p. Don’t record an interview on any electronic device, such as a tape recorder, cell
phone, or camcorder, without the express permission of the subject. If you do
record any interview, destroy or delete any such information upon completion of
your research project. - Prepare a minimum five-page term paper based on your research. Draft your paper on
the basis of your background reading and your field research. Edit and revise your draft
prior to submitting it to your instructor.
Paper Specifications - Prepare your paper for electronic submission in a word-processing program. (doc.)
- Prepare a title page with the following information:
q. Title: Emotional Labor in the Workplace
r. Your name
s. Your student number
t. Course title: Organizational Behavior
u. Project number
v. Current date - Double-space your paper, with left and right margins of 1 to 1.25 inches, flush left and
ragged right. - Provide adequate source citations.
- Include a header on each page except the title page. In the header, include your name,
student number, and the page number. - Do not plagiarize. The direct usage of materials from any source without proper and
accurate credit is plagiarism. Be sure to properly attribute direct quotes and
paraphrases. If you plagiarize in any way or to any degree, your term paper will receive a
failing grade. - Use the following outline as a suggested guide for the structure of your paper:
w. Introduction. Summarize your paper. Briefly describe what the paper is about
and how you went about writing it.
x. Emotional Labor: Psychological Stress in the Workplace. Describe emotional
labor, including various perspectives on its nature and its psychological costs.
The material for this section should come mainly from your background
research.
y. Interviews. Explain what you learned from your interviews. Include anecdotal
material to engage the reader and, to a limited extent, offer your interpretations
and impressions.
z. Summary and conclusion. Discuss your overall impressions, your view on the
causes of emotional labor, and perhaps, how it might be managed or reduced.
TEXTBOOK:
Organizational Behavior, Pg 82.
Emotional Labor Study
Emotional labor emerged from studies in service jobs; think of the first responder at the scene
of an accident or the nurse caring for patients in a hospital. However, emotional labor is
relevant to almost any job because employees expect their manager to be courteous and not
hostile to others. Emotional labor is generally defined as the act of expressing organizationally
desired emotions during service transactions.28 The challenge arises when employees have to
project one emotion while feeling another, something that is called emotional dissonance, and
which can take a heavy toll on the individual.29
Emotional labor: the act of expressing organizationally desired emotions during service
transactions
Emotional dissonance: projecting one emotion while feeling another
Individuals not only try to interpret the emotions of other people, but also their own emotions.
Our feelings are indicators of our implicit or unconscious judgments of the significance of
events. Our own emotions give us information about our reactions to situations that we might
not otherwise be aware of, and they reveal to us our needs, concerns, and motives. Our
emotions tell us when things feel incomplete, and they imply the need for action. Sometimes
unknown to an individual, the action implied is one that will have a chance of returning the
individual from a crisis state to a neutral or normal state.
Feelings: indicators of our implicit or unconscious judgments of the significance of events
Emotions: provide information about our reactions to situations and reveal our needs,
concerns, and motives
Lazarus and Lazarus offer five categories of emotions.30 The first is what they call the “nasty”
emotions, which include anger, envy, and jealousy. Who among us can say they have never
experienced any one of the nasty emotions in our own work lives? The second is what is
referred to as the existential emotions, including anxiety, guilt, and shame. The research on job
stress and coping mechanisms (discussed in Chapter 6) demonstrates the saliency of these
work-related emotions. The third category is emotions provoked by unfavorable life conditions,
including relief, hope, sadness, and depression. The fourth category is emotions provoked by
favorable life conditions, including happiness, pride, and love. Lastly, there are the empathetic
emotions, including gratitude and compassion. You may want to explore all of these categories
as you work on your timeline in this chapter.
ONLINE SOURCES:
http://contexts.org/articles/spring-2008/feeling-around-the-world/
Context Magazine, Arlie Hochschild, Pg 80.
Emotional labor – Wikipedia
Wikipedia: Defining Emotional Labor
(PDF) Emotional Labor, Burnout, and Inauthenticity: Does Gender Matter?
Emotional Labor, Burnout and Inauthenticity: Does Gender Matter?
