ABSTRACT
Resumen El trabajo emocional es un proceso multidimensional que adquiere relevancia debido a su creciente prevalencia y las serias consecuencias que tiene para trabajadores y organizaciones. La presente investigación busca describir las experiencias de trabajo emocional en trabajadores pertenecientes a centros de negocios que asesoran a emprendimientos y microempresas chilenas, cómo estas afectan su trabajo y las estrategias adoptadas para gestionarlo. Para esto, se organizaron cuatro grupos focales en cuatro centros de negocios con financiamiento público. Los análisis revelaron que el trabajo de los asesores/as requiere demandas de apoyo y contención emocional que están por fuera de su rol y competencias profesionales, lo cual tiene consecuencias negativas para su trabajo y su salud mental. Estas exigencias les hicieron desplegar una serie de estrategias individuales y grupales para disminuir los efectos negativos del trabajo emocional. Dentro de las estrategias individuales se observaron: establecer límites con los clientes, regular expectativas sobre las asesorías, desarrollar un endurecimiento emocional, practicar el autocuidado a través de la autoexploración emocional y, en algunos casos, buscar ayuda profesional de psicólogos/as. Como estrategia grupal, se observó el apoyo y la contención de los miembros de los equipos, los cuales, a su vez, facilitaban la derivación de clientes con situaciones complejas a asesores/as con más experiencia. Estos resultados muestran el carácter invisibilizado del trabajo emocional en la asesoría de negocios a emprendimientos y microempresas, como también la importancia de reconocerlo y gestionarlo como parte de los riesgos laborales para prevenir sus efectos en trabajadores y en las organizaciones.
Abstract Emotional labor is a multidimensional concept that includes the interactions between emotional requirements of the jobs, how emotions are expressed and the regulation strategies that it entails. In the last decades it has increased its importance due to its rising prevalence and its severe consequences for employee's health and organizational performance. Within this context, the present study seeks to address the different components of emotional labor and its effects on business consulting advisors for Chilean entrepreneurs and microenterprises, working in public-funded small business development centers. In doing so, four focus groups were carried out in four small business development centers located in Santiago of Chile. Analyses revealed that mentoring entrepreneurs and micro-enterprises is more complex than it appears, showing that advisors must provide support and comfort to their clients to succeed in their job goals. These demands go beyond their work role and exceed their competencies, which negatively impacts job performance and mental health of business advisors. In order to cope with the job demands, business advisors display several individual and collective strategies. As part of the individual strategies, the following was found: establishing boundaries with clients, regulating clients' expectations of the mentoring sessions, developing "emotional hardening", practicing self-care throughout emotional self-exploration, and in some cases, looking for psychological counseling. Interestingly, the term "emotional hardening" matches the definition of the superficial strategy formulated by Alicia Grandey, in which employees simulate or perform the emotion required by a job without changing their inner selves. Vast evidence has demonstrated that the use of this strategy is associated with serious health consequences for employees, therefore, this finding may be considered as a warning sign for the small business development centers. As a collective strategy, business advisors rely on their work teams. Specifically, advisors look for support and comfort from their co-workers and when confronted with complex clients the team referrers them to more experienced advisors. In addition, analyses showed other aspects that hinder the work of business advisors, such as the high amount and diversity of job tasks that are asked from business advisors, combined with several deadlines coming from government institutions and the centers. Furthermore, woman business advisors expressed they face more obstacles at work compared to their male co-workers, most of these obstacles are related to a gender-based discrimination coming from some clients, who doubt their expertise and competences as female advisors, and prefer to deal with male advisors. Overall, results aligned with the literature on emotional labor, showing that emotional labor is characterized by being a secondary and veiled issue in mentoring entrepreneurs and micro-enterprises. Furthermore, using the strategies revealed that emotional labor involves visible processes but also intrapsychic processes that led to a decrease in employees' resources and energy. Considering the effects of emotion labor in the context of business advisory, our results may help to strengthen the main Chilean strategy, and a well-known international program, to promote the development of entrepreneurs and microenterprises. This is even more relevant in the context of the social and employment crisis that Chile and most of the countries undergo, where entrepreneurship (formal and informal) has emerged as the main alternative to cope with unemployment. In conclusion, despite the long tradition of research on emotional labor and its serious consequences, it remains an invisible and secondary process within organizations. This research highlights the importance of identifying and managing emotions as a nuclear part of the job of business consulting advisors for Chilean entrepreneurs and microenterprises.
ABSTRACT
Objective:To explore the relationship among emotional intelligence,emotional labor and job satisfaction.Methods:Totally 257 bus drivers [158 males and 99 females,aged 17 to 50 years,mean age (32 ± 7)years] in Jinan were surveyed with the Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS),the Emotional Labor Scale (ELS) and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ).Bootstrap was used to test the mediating effect.Results:The scores of EIS and ELS were both positively correlated with the MSQ scores (r =0.28,0.23,Ps ＜0.01) in the bus drivers.The surface acting (SA) scores were negatively correlated with the MSQ scores (r =-0.18,P ＜ 0.01),and the deep acting (DA) score were positively correlated with the MSQ scores (r =0.40,P ＜ 0.01).Mediating effect test showed that the indirect effect of surface acting was 0.07 (95％ CI:0.01-0.16),and the indirect effect of deep acting was 0.10 (95％ CI:0.03-0.21).Correspondingly,the direct effect of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction respectively was 0.35 (95％ CI:0.20-0.58) and 0.33 (95％ CI:0.12-0.53).Conclusion:These findings support that the bus drivers with higher emotional intelligence may be more satisfied with their job.Emotional intelligence is found to indirectly influence job satisfaction through surface acting and deep acting,and it may affect the bus drivers more effectively choose and use emotion regulation strategies.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of individual emotional characteristics (empathetic concern and emotional contagion) on emotional labor (frequency of emotional display, intensity and variety of emotional display, surface acting, and deep acting) of school dietitians. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey of 309 school dietitians and then analyzed statistically by SPSS 18.0 package program. The results of this study were as follows: empathetic concern (3.93) occurred more often than emotional contagion (3.22) in school dietitians. The older (p < 0.001) and more experienced (p < 0.01) they were, the higher empathetic concern they had. It showed that married dieticians (p < 0.001), nutrition teachers (p < 0.01), and dieticians who were working in elementary schools (p < 0.01) had a higher rate of empathetic concern than single dieticians, non-nutrition teachers, and dieticians who were working in middle and high schools, respectively. Their level of emotional labor was the highest in deep acting (3.32), followed by surface acting (3.28), frequency (3.12), intensity and variety (3.09). According to multiple regression analysis, emotional contagion proved to be strongly significant and positively related to frequency of emotional display (beta = 0.257, p < 0.001). Both empathetic concern (beta = 0.117, p < 0.05) and emotional contagion (beta = 0.162, p < 0.01) were positively related to intensity and variety of emotional display, and empathetic concern (beta = 0.173, p < 0.01) had also an effect on deep acting. These results suggested that the emotional labor of school dietitians should be managed on the organizational viewpoint, not a personal matter.
Subject(s)
Humans , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Objective To explore the relationship between the emotional labor and personality of the health care workers. Methods 168 health care workers in 6 hospitals of Shandong province were surveyed to complete the Emotional Labor Scale and the revised NEO personality inventory(NEO-PI-R). Results The first strategy of emotional labor that workers usually used was natural acting (5.17±1.15),the next one was deep act-ing (4.74±0.78) and the last was surface acting(3.88±1.21). The correlation analysis showed that the extro-version had a negative correlation (r=-0.20, P < 0.05) with the surface acting and a positive correlation (r=0. 31, P<0.01) with the deep acting. The agreeableness had a positive correlation (r=0.22, P < 0.05) with the nat-ural acting. The conscientiousness had a positive correlation (r=0.25, P<0.05) with the deep acting. The extro-version had significant negative influence on surface acting and significant positive influence on deep acting. The a-greeableness had positive significant effect on natural acting and the conscientiousness had positive significant effect on deep acting. Conclusion Personality influenced the emotional labor and gender,age,work tenure and ed-ucational had significant effect on emotional labor.