ABSTRACT
IMPACTThis article explores the consequences of emotional labour on UK NHS ambulance staff and their response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It highlights the challenges faced by ambulance crews while dealing with their emotional labour within the context of organizational settings. Research findings also explain the importance of emergency responders' psychosocial wellbeing. The article has clear relevance as to how frontline staff manage their emotional labour in other emergency service settings, such as the police and fire and rescue services.Alternate :Managing emotions are essential aspect of many jobs, and frontline healthcare workers have to manage and control their emotions while caring for critically ill patients and working in an emotionally-charged dynamic environment;this was particularly the case during Covid-19. Ambulance workers are an important group in this respect but they are currently under-researched. Evidence behind this article comes from data collected from an NHS ambulance trust in England. One of the key contributions of this article is to highlight how frontline ambulance professionals manage their emotional labour while working within the stipulations of organizational constraints.
ABSTRACT
IMPACTThis article's conceptual model provides a holistic lens for exploring the work environment of emotional labour (EL). Research has demonstrated high levels of burnout and mental health issues among EL workers. The negative outcomes associated with EL work are even more pronounced in the present Covid-19 landscape. By understanding EL workers' cognitive processes, organizations stand a better chance of promoting work engagement, well-being, and effective organizational functioning. Practically, organizations may have to provide training and support to line managers to enable them to evolve within the same mindset as EL workers. Senior managers also have to exhibit visible support to workplace initiatives to allow for consistent implementation of job resources.
ABSTRACT
IMPACTThis article will be of value to public officials and managers who are grappling with the ethical questions arising from public sector work and service delivery. This is especially relevant in the context of Covid-19 where new forms of emotional labour are emerging. Procurement officers and politicians are encouraged to consider the possibilities of unethical behaviour and the consequences.
ABSTRACT
In this paper, I draw together myriad theoretical and philosophical sources to think through the intensification of emotion amid and emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. I begin with three narratives from my own teaching and learning, which ground the subsequent conversation. I then characterize the current movement in educational theorizing known as the affective turn. The affective turn, I suggest, attunes educational inquiry to small, yet vital, moments of classroom interaction often taken for granted in public education. Toward considering those vital moments in more nuance, I discuss psychoanalyst Wilfred R. Bion's notion of the alpha function - a nonconscious digestion of emotion we perform for others when they are overwhelmed. When coupled with Nel Noddings' evocation of the ethics of care in education, the alpha function offers an understanding of the hidden emotional labour in teaching. This hidden dimension of the teacher's task, the portion of the job that deals in regulating our own emotions and in helping students make sense of theirs, I suggest, is becoming more difficult amid the affective situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. I conclude the paper by gesturing toward a threefold response to be taken up more fully elsewhere: humility before the task of teaching, a reverence for the work of feeling, and a willingness to organize toward a more caring school system.
ABSTRACT
Given the generally stressful job demands of the hospitality industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding the work passion and emotions of hotel employees is particularly important. Based on the conservation of resources theory and the job demands-resources model, this study develops a multiple mediation model to investigate how frontline hotel employees with different types of work passion choose emotional labor strategies under the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of different choices on their service quality. A two-stage survey using data from 206 frontline employees of five-star hotels in China explored how work passion influences emotional labor and thereby affects emotional expression as well as service quality. The results showed emotional labor partially mediates the relationship between work passion and emotional expression, which in turn mediates the relationship between emotional labor and service quality during the COVID-19 pandemic. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.
ABSTRACT
In this article, we seek to illuminate the public sector relevance of the weighty subject of death, and to identify the stakes in avoiding the subject. Our purpose is to unlearn silence about Public Administration's (PA's) potential role in understanding, communicating, and addressing the avoidable and unavoidable in human death and suffering. At this time, death seems to be all around, and at the same time, nowhere. Contending that the academic field of PA understates the degree to which death features in actual PA practice, this article establishes death's relative absence in the journals of the field before examining obstacles to its presence. We identify and critically examine potential barriers to death's inclusion in PA, suggesting ways forward and intimating that COVID-born openness to recognition and discussion of death is not likely to last without conscious efforts. In illuminating objections and stakes we propose that PA theory and praxis and the public sector itself would benefit by confronting death avoidance, anxiety, and dread with greater and more intentional reflection, deliberation, and literacy on these subjects. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Administrative Theory & Praxis (Taylor & Francis Ltd) is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
ABSTRACT
PurposeThe aim of this paper is to explore the evolving nature of the work of cabin crew in a Scandinavian carrier in three eras, drawing on theories of gender and emotional labour.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on ethnographic data from fieldwork, interviews and documents.FindingsFrom being a feminized and temporary occupation for young, upper- and middle-class women in the 1970s, the occupation became a full-time job and with greater diversity of cabin crew. Today there are signs of the job becoming a precarious and temporary one of demanding and devalorized work in a polarized and class-divided labour market. Changing circumstances impact on the emotional labour requirement and terms and conditions at work.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation is that the research design was not initially longitudinal in the sense that the author does not have exactly the same kind of data from each era. The author has, however, been involved in this field for two decades, used multiple methods and interacted with different stakeholders and drew on a unique data material.Practical implicationsThe development in aviation is contributing to new discriminatory practices, driving employee conditions downwards and changing the job demands. This development will have practical consequences for the lives and families of cabin crew.Social implicationsThe analysis illustrates how work ‘constructs' workers and contributes in creating jobs that are not sustainable for the employees. Intensification of work, insecurity and tougher working conditions also challenge key features in the Nordic model such as proper pay, decent work and a life-long employment. Much indicates that the profession is again becoming a temporary one of demanding work with poor working conditions in a polarized and class-divided labour market.Originality/valueThe research contributes to the literature on emotional labour, gender and the evolving nature of the work of cabin crew. The unique data material, the longitudinal aspect of the research and the focus on a single network carrier are good in charting changes over time.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: This study aims to test the relationship between emotional labor and service quality of the frontline employees of Chinese restaurants during the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19). This study further investigated the mediating role of work fatigue (WF) and the moderating role of supervisor–subordinate Guanxi (SSG). Design/methodology/approach: The authors used a time-lag approach to gather data from a sample of 365 frontline staff members working in Chinese restaurants. All hypotheses were tested using SPSS and AMOS. Findings: First, restaurant frontline employees' deep acting was associated with higher service quality, whereas surface acting leads to lower service quality. Second, WF mediated the relationship between emotional labor and service quality. Third, SSG moderated the impact of emotional labor on WF during COVID-19. Research limitations/implications: All variables measured in this study were self-reported by restaurant frontline employees, which may increase the risk of common-method bias. However, this study enriches the literature on emotional labor, WF and SSG during COVID-19. Practical implications: COVID-19 has severely affected the hotel, restaurant and catering sector and especially the psychological state and the work performance of frontline employees. Restaurant managers should implement some measures to improve employees' service quality during COVID-19. Originality/value: The present findings show that restaurant frontline employees adopted various emotional labor strategies when they were faced with higher than usual job demands and the risk of infection during COVID-19. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
Within luxury hotels targeting multinational segments, frontline service staff are essential to creating unique, personalized experiences for high-value, discerning clientele. Performing emotional labor and utilizing cultural intelligence are key to ensuring exceptional cross-cultural service encounters, but which also create additional pressures for frontline staff. This study aims to assess the impacts of a comprehensive range of emotional labor and cultural intelligence (CQ) on employees' job satisfaction. Cognitive CQ, motivational CQ, emotive dissonance, and expression of naturally felt emotions were shown to influence job satisfaction. Moreover, the study engaged senior executives from luxury hotels to further discuss the survey results. This approach helped the researchers and practitioners to (re)contextualize the study's key findings, which were used to reflect on managers' understanding of cultural intelligence, emotional labor and job satisfaction. The discussions highlighted how these issues were incorporated in luxury hotels' human resource practices in general and especially during the COVID-19 crisis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
This piece is an invitation. Our work consists of poetry by three moms, writing in the middle of a global pandemic about the realities of "momming" in these times. Why poems? We want the article to be short and digestible while also expressing the complexity and individuality of our lived experiences. Also, through poetry, we can invite you to bring your own story as you make meaning. In the poems, we struggle with ideas including discipline, "being enough," and the fact that things are fucked up. We are also left with the nagging question, "What leisure can we have on a regular day, much less in the midst of a pandemic?" (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Restaurant staff are subjected to emotional labor due to the requirement of appearing welcoming and friendly to the people they are serving while experiencing high levels of stress. Emotional labor creates a dissonance between the person's outward presentation and their internal emotional experience. This study examined the impact of emotional labor on the lived experience of restaurant staff. This study's sample consisted of four female participants and four male participants, aged 27 to 40, who identified as restaurant staff in high-end restaurants in downtown Chicago. The interviews were administered using a semistructured format, which allowed participants the opportunity to elaborate using their own experiences. All interviews were conducted virtually via a secure video conferencing platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The interview data were qualitatively analyzed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) for an in-depth look at how people make sense of their personal lived experience. The results indicated that all eight participants experience challenges with emotional labor, including high expectations from guests, feelings of dehumanization, and implications to the high level of stress in their job. The aim of this study was to contribute to existing research in this area, to increase awareness of the high emotional demands of working in a restaurant, and to understand the lived experience of restaurant staff who undergo emotional labor. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
This study investigated the effects of workplace ostracism on emotional labor and burnout among current nursing staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the relationship between the surface acting and deep acting of emotional labor as the mediators of workplace ostracism and burnout. The sample for this study consisted of 250 nursing staff recruited from Taiwanese medical institutions, and the questionnaire was divided into two stages. The first stage included questions about ostracism and personal data, and then two months later the same respondents completed part two of the questionnaire regarding emotional labor and burnout, which solved the problem of common-method variance (CMV). The results of this study indicate that ostracism had a positive and significant effect on burnout and surface acting, but its negative effect on deep acting was not supported. While surface acting showed partial mediation between ostracism and burnout, deep acting did not have a significant mediating effect between ostracism and burnout. These results can provide a reference for practice and researchers.
Subject(s)
Burnout, Professional , COVID-19 , Nursing Staff, Hospital , Humans , Ostracism , Pandemics , Workplace/psychology , Burnout, Professional/psychology , Surveys and Questionnaires , Nursing Staff, Hospital/psychologyABSTRACT
Synthesizing the conservation of resource theory, proximal withdrawal state theory, and job demands-resources theory, the present study examined the relationships between two dimensions of emotional labor (i.e., surface and deep acting) and turnover intention, as well as the moderating role of perceived organizational support in these relationships, such as the context of Korean firefighters. Using survey data drawn from fire organizations in Gyeonggi-do, the largest province of South Korea, we found that both surface and deep acting are positively related to firefighter turnover intentions. Further analysis indicates that the perceived organizational support of firefighters, vital for public health and safety, attenuates the positive relationship between surface acting and turnover intention but has no significant moderating effect on the relationship between deep acting and turnover intention. Our results suggest that perceived organizational support acts through essential psychological resources to recover the loss of emotional resources and contributes to the retention of firefighter personnel who primarily perform challenging and stressful work, including firefighting and offering emergency medical services. Thus, this study examines a crucial tool to ensure firefighters' public mental health.
Subject(s)
Firefighters , Occupational Stress , Humans , Intention , Firefighters/psychology , Personnel Turnover , Emotions , Surveys and Questionnaires , Job SatisfactionABSTRACT
The emotional dimensions of a coach's activity have been few analyzed in sport psychology. However, an elite coach usually experiences intense emotions requiring real emotional labor, which can influence the daily activity. The notion of emotional labor, stemming from sociology, is increasingly used in a psychological setting to understand the impact of emotions on the coach's activity. Based on a collaboration of three consecutive seasons during the Covid-19 pandemic with an elite handball coach, this article formulates recommendations for revaluing the place of emotional labor in the practice of sport psychology. © 2023 Association for Applied Sport Psychology.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has implications for health professionals. AIM: The aim of this study was to explain the relationship between emotional labor levels and moral distress in health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique. RESEARCH DESIGN: A descriptive and cross-sectional study was adopted. PARTICIPANTS AND RESEARCH CONTEXT: Data were collected between 7 February and 7 March 2021. 302 health professionals who were not on leave (annual leave, sick leave, prenatal and postnatal leave, etc.) at the time of the research and who volunteered to participate in the research were included. Research data were collected using a "Personal Information Form," the "Emotional Labor Scale" and the "Moral Distress Thermometer." ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: The Ethics Committee approved the study (dated 07.01.2021 and numbered 2021/1-3). The participants were informed of the study aim and written consent was obtained before completing the survey. FINDINGS: In the present study, the mediator role of emotional labor in the effect of providing service to a patient with COVID-19 and having had COVID-19 on moral distress was examined in health professionals and it was found that there was a correlation between providing service to a patient with COVID-19 and moral distress regardless of whether or not emotional labor had a role in this relationship. CONCLUSION: In this study, the relationship between the level of emotional labor and moral distress in health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic was evaluated with a structural equation model.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: In the context of the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, research on personal-job fit and physical and mental health was inadequate. We aimed to explore the relationship between personal-job fit and physical and mental health among medical staff during the two years after COVID-19 pandemic and verify emotional labor and burnout as mediators. METHODS: A total of 2868 medical staff from two general hospitals, were included from July 3 to July 27, 2022, in Wuhan, China. SPSS was used for statistical description, and AMOS was used for structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the mediating effect of emotional labor and burnout. RESULTS: In the SEM, the total effect of personal-job fit on physical and mental health was significant (ß = 0.855, 95 % CI: 0.748-0.972). The mediating effect of surface acting between personal-job fit and physical and mental health was significant (ß = 0.078, 95 % CI: 0.053-0.110). The mediating effect of burnout was significant (ß = 0.220, 95 % CI: 0.175-0.274), but the mediating effect of deep acting was not significant (ß = 0.006, 95 % CI: -0.013-0.025). The chain mediating effect of surface acting or deep acting and burnout between personal-job fit and physical and mental health was significant (ß = 0.082, 95 % CI: 0.059-0.108; ß = 0.049, 95 % CI: 0.038-0.063). LIMITATIONS: Owing to the cross-sectional study, causal relationship, and direction of effects among variables could not be determined. CONCLUSIONS: Personal-job fit has significant direct and indirect effects on physical and mental health. Monitoring and intervening in personal-job fit, emotional labor, and burnout might be effective ways to promoting physical and mental health among medical staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Subject(s)
Burnout, Professional , COVID-19 , Humans , Mental Health , Pandemics , Cross-Sectional Studies , Surveys and Questionnaires , Burnout, Professional/psychology , Burnout, Psychological , Medical Staff , Job SatisfactionABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic both necessitate and obstruct emotional regulation and coping mechanisms. Despite growing interest in the connection between stress and spirituality, multilevel studies addressing day-level variance to understand how spiritual experiences and emotional regulation are linked with stress during this unique situation are scarce. This study aims to analyze how daily spiritual experiences (DSE) and daily emotional labor (EL) connect with the daily stress levels of employees during the pandemic. DESIGN AND METHOD: Data collected from 132 employees for five consecutive workdays (660 d-level, 132 person-level responses) were analyzed via Hierarchical Linear Modeling. RESULTS: Multilevel analysis provided evidence for the negative association between DSE and daily stress. The "faking emotions" and "hiding emotions" dimensions of daily EL were positively and significantly related to daily stress, while the "deep acting" dimension demonstrated no significant relationship. There was no evidence for the moderator role of DSE in the relationship between daily EL and stress. CONCLUSION: The form of daily EL is crucial to understanding how it associates with daily stress. Although its buffering role on the adverse effects of EL is not significant, DSE directly relates to lower stress levels.
ABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 global health crisis, institutions, policymakers, and academics alike have called for practicing resilience to overcome its ongoing disruptions. This paper contributes a comparative study of the job search experiences of working-class and upper-middle-class job seekers, particularly in relation to their resilience practices during the pandemic. Drawing from in-depth interviews with 12 working-class and 11 upper-middle-class job seekers in the U.S., we unpack challenges resulting from both the pandemic and unemployment and job seekers' novel practices of navigating these challenges in their everyday disrupted life. Job seekers' ongoing negotiation with their resources, situations, and surroundings gives practical meanings to building everyday resilience, which we theorize as an ongoing process of becoming resilient. While job seekers across classes experienced similar challenges, working-class job seekers took on additional emotional labor in their everyday resilience due to their limited experience in the digital job search space, competition with higher-degree holding job seekers applying for the same jobs, limited social support networks, and at times, isolation. By foregrounding the uneven distribution of emotional labor in realizing the promise of resilience along class lines, this work cautions against the romanticization of resilience and calls for a more critical and nuanced understanding of resilience in CSCW. © 2022 Owner/Author.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Rarely is emotional labor explicitly discussed as a required aspect of crisis response work. While the gender inequities in withdrawal from the workforce emerging from the pandemic are well documented, we know little about the emotional toll of managing the ongoing disruption of the pandemic for women with different degrees of membership in organizations. Design: This research uses a dynamic mixed-methods approach in studying emotional labor among women during times of disruption. Specifically, we explore with surveys, daily diary entries, and semistructured interviews the emotional experiences of women working at a California-based nonprofit organization during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. With our data, we are able to compare the emotional expectations and experiences of full-time (FT) and part-time (PT) employees. Findings: Results show differences in emotional experiences and labor by group membership, with FT employees reporting higher rates of surface acting: FT employees suppressed (28%) and inauthentically expressed (12%) emotions more often than PT employees (23% and 5%, respectively). Qualitative evidence suggests socialization is occurring more formally for FT employees and informally for PT employees, influencing perceived emotional expectations and subsequent emotional labor. Research Implications: The contributions to this volume focus on an under- studied topic in nonprofit management: Emotional experiences in times of disruption. Novel evidence on differing emotional experiences, particularly surface acting, as a function of group membership may motivate other research to disentangle issues of change management during crises. Practical Implications: These differing rates of surface acting have meaningful implications for burnout and retention of employees in a sector that is heavily reliant on voluntary and PT engagement. Thus, this work serves to provide organizational leadership and management insight on mechanisms shaping employee outcomes. Social Implications: The findings here have important implications for employee well-being and are crucial to the way individuals across society manage the stress of working during times of crisis. Originality/Value: PT work is subject to different emotional norms than FT work. These novel findings provide value to organizational leaders who oversee a workforce with varying degrees of group membership. © 2023 by Emerald Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
ABSTRACT
The emotional dimensions of a coach's activity have been few analyzed in sport psychology. However, an elite coach usually experiences intense emotions requiring real emotional labor, which can influence the daily activity. The notion of emotional labor, stemming from sociology, is increasingly used in a psychological setting to understand the impact of emotions on the coach's activity. Based on a collaboration of three consecutive seasons during the Covid-19 pandemic with an elite handball coach, this article formulates recommendations for revaluing the place of emotional labor in the practice of sport psychology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)